Hernandez activated, looks to make impact
The Red Sox got an electric and versatile arm back on their pitching staff on Thursday when lefty Darwinzon Hernandez was reinstated from the injured list.
Hernandez tested positive for COVID-19 before reporting to Summer Camp and had been working out at the club's alternate training site in Pawtucket, R.I., for the past several weeks.
Given the patchwork the Red Sox have been forced to do with their pitching staff on a near daily basis, Hernandez has the chance to make a significant impact no matter how manager Ron Roenicke decides to use him.
For now, Roenicke is keeping his options open.
"If he's back to what we saw last year, it will be huge," said Roenicke. "He'll either get in a couple of innings tonight or tomorrow depending on how it goes. It could be two the next time, it could be three. As we go on, we'll see what we feel like. We'll see if [chief baseball officer] Chaim [Bloom] and the crew and us down here, we'll see if we feel like that we want to try to start him, or if we like him so much in the bullpen that we just keep him there to make really a difference in having length with a guy you really like in that role."
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The 23-year-old Hernandez is just glad to be back with his teammates after the scare with COVID-19 set him back.
"I feel great," Hernandez said. "Obviously, it's great to be back with the club. In terms of physically, I feel 100 percent, and my arm, I feel like I'm on point. I feel like I'm ready to contribute."
Though Hernandez wasn't asymptomatic like fellow lefty reliever Josh Taylor, who returned a few days ago, he feels fortunate that his bout with COVID-19 wasn't severe.
"From the first day, when I informed the team I wasn't feeling too well, that day I had, like, chills," Hernandez said. "But then the following day, after I got my test back with the results that I had gotten it, I actually didn't feel anything. So it wasn't as bad."
With Hernandez available for the rest of this season, the possibilities of how he could be used range from setup man to long relief to opener to traditional starter.
"It's possible that he could end up in a lot of different spots," Roenicke said. "If we go four or five innings with a starter and we're tied or we have a lead and he's pitching really well, there's nothing wrong with him coming in and throwing two, three innings there, hopefully still giving your offense a chance to get some more runs. Those are really meaningful innings."
Hernandez came through the Minor Leagues as a starter, but the Red Sox transitioned him to the role of reliever for the second half last season.
The early returns were encouraging, as Hernandez averaged 16.91 strikeouts per nine innings, the highest mark among pitchers with at least 30 innings. He appeared in 29 games (one start), posting a 4.45 ERA with 57 strikeouts.
Hernandez held lefties to a .089 batting average (4-for-45), striking out 31 of 55 lefties faced (56.4 percent). In the eighth inning and later, he allowed no runs in 8 2/3 innings, including 6 2/3 hitless innings in the eighth and ninth innings.