Red Sox place Chavis on IL with shoulder injury
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CLEVELAND -- Who would have thought that Michael Chavis making his best catch of the season would turn into a bittersweet moment for the rookie infielder?
The tumbling grab in short center field came with Chavis playing second base to rob Hunter Dozier of a hit in a 6-2 loss to the Royals on Aug. 6.
Six days later, lingering soreness from the grab forced Chavis to the 10-day injured list. The official injury is a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder.
After a day off on Wednesday, Chavis started all four games against the Angels at Fenway over the weekend. But when manager Alex Cora saw Chavis failing to finish his swing properly on Sunday, it was clear a move had to be made.
“It sucks,” said Chavis. “At least the way it happened, at least I made the catch. If I missed the catch it would be worse. This is never something that you're happy or excited about. The whole reason it's been delayed for a few days is I wanted to play through it and be out there and help the team. But it was kind of in a position where it wasn't benefiting me, wasn't really benefiting the team, so it was probably the smarter thing to do.”
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To replace Chavis on the roster, the Red Sox recalled infielder Marco Hernández from Triple-A Pawtucket. The club also optioned righty reliever Ryan Weber to Pawtucket while recalling righty reliever Travis Lakins.
With Chavis out of the mix, Mitch Moreland and Sam Travis will hold down first base. Brock Holt, Hernandez and Chris Owings will get playing time at second.
It has been a tough August so far for Chavis, with the right-handed hitter slashing .156/.206/.250 with one homer and two RBIs. It’s possible the time off will give him a chance to re-set.
“Yeah, definitely,” Chavis said. “It's kind of the funny thing. When you get away from something, it gives you a chance to maybe clear your mind to reset a little bit. I'm a positive person, so trying to find the positive through all of this, that's one of the things I'm looking forward to.”
Though the timetable for his return will be symptom-based, the Red Sox are hoping Chavis won’t need longer than the 10 days.
“We’ll see,” said Cora. “He’s not going to swing, he’s not going to do anything for probably five or six days. That’s something we have to do and we’ll have a better idea, probably, after he rests the five or six days and [we’ll] go from there.”
In his first Major League season, Chavis has a line of .254/.322/.444 with 18 homers and 58 RBIs in 95 games.