PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- Saturday figures to be a day for the Red Sox in determining the makeup of their Opening Day roster.
As part of the new CBA, there's now a standard "opt-out'' day in the contracts of non-roster invitees (NRIs) who are in major league camps on minor league deals. For the Sox, that would include such players as Travis Shaw, Hansel Robles, Derek Holland, Rob Refsnyder and a few others in contention for the last few available spots on the 28-man major league roster for the start of the season.
If such players aren't in line to make the roster, many will use the opt-out language to try to hook on elsewhere. Conversely, the Sox could have access to some other NRIs who opt-out elsewhere and become free agents. For those they intend to keep, that message will have to be communicated to the players' agents.
For now, it would seem that Shaw and Robles could make the club, with Refsnyder in contention for a utility role, competing against the likes of Jonathan Arauz. Holland could be in contention for a bullpen that features wide-open competition.
Any of the NRIs will also necessitate being placed on the 40-man roster, too. The Sox are currently at 40, so additional moves will have to be made to create space. One such solution to clearing a spot could be to place Chris Sale on the 60-day IL.
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In his final Grapefruit League outing of the spring, Rich Hill was hammered for nine runs on 11 hits in 3.2 innings in a lopsided 9-3 loss to Tampa Bay.
"Sometimes you get the question, 'What was going right today?' mused Hill. "Today, it was more like, 'What was going wrong?' I think it was everything. I threw the ball like (crap), so it sucks to go out there and not perform. I don't care if it's spring training or not -- you want to go out there and have the ball come out of your hand the way you want. I didn't really have that feel of the ball coming out today. There were some good pitches at times, and you take what you can out of it. But you also learn a lot more going forward.
"There were a lot of balls that were left over the middle of the plate. Being able to execute a little bit lower in the zone (would have helped). But there were too many balls that were center-cut, and I've got to do a little better job executing.''
Hill will throw a simulated game on the back field Wednesday, in anticipation of his first regular season appearance, which is set for the final game of the Detroit series.
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The Red Sox got the result of an MRI on Chris Sale (stress fracture of the right rib cage).
"The MRI showed that there's some healing,'' said Alex Cora. "Now it's just a matter of seeing how he feels and we'll go from there. There's some improvement and obviously we feel good about it. But we have to see how he reacts to treatment.''
Cora said the first step for physical activity will be to start playing catch.
"But we don't know when that's going to be,'' cautioned Cora. "We're pleased with what we saw, but at the same time, it's about how he's feeling and how he reacts to the whole thing -- hopefully, sooner rather than later.''
Earlier in the day, before the results of the MRI became known, Cora stressed that Sale would be starting from scratch in his throwing program. Sale hasn't thrown since the final week of February, when the injury occurred and will need a considerable period to build back his arm strength.
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Cora is encouraged by what he's seen from lefty James Paxton, coming off Tommy John surgery.
Paxton was set to throw a quick bullpen Friday, and progress to a more rigorous throwing program.
"I hate to compare situations,'' said Cora, "but compared to where Chris (Sale) was (a year ago) and where James is, he's a little bit ahead of him. He made some adjustments (over the winter) and you can tell. His mechanics are a little different, too, to ease the stress of the shoulder and the elbow. But the way the ball is coming out of his hand (is impressive).
"You can tell with these guys when rehab is going well. He's very upbeat. He's been great in the clubhouse and in the training room. Whenever he gets here, we do feel like he's going to contribute.''
The Sox have yet to determine whether Paxton will be with the team at the start of the season or remain in Fort Myers to take part in extended spring training.