Notes: E-Rod, Hernandez closer to return

BOSTON -- The Red Sox provided some significant news on the health front on Friday. Ace lefty Eduardo Rodriguez and electric lefty reliever Darwinzon Hernandez both made it to Boston, according to manager Ron Roenicke.

Neither player had been at Summer Camp due to testing positive for COVID-19. The next step will be getting them to Fenway Park for workouts.

“They still have to go through some things before we see them on the field, but it's certainly nice to get them back in town, and hopefully we'll get them out there in short time,” Roenicke said.

Hernandez, Rodriguez and lefty reliever Josh Taylor were all placed on the injured list this week due to the illness. Once cleared, they can return at any time, but it's unlikely any of them will start the season on the active roster.

All three pitchers are key to the staff for 2020.

• Projecting the Red Sox's Opening Day roster

Rodriguez is of utmost importance to a rotation that is lacking at this point, at least on paper. Nathan Eovaldi is all but certain to take Rodriguez's place on Opening Day.

“As far as the sense that I have [of Rodriguez's timing], I really don't,” Roenicke said. “And I know talking to [pitching coach] Dave Bush, we need to see him throw. So when we get him out there on the field, we'll have him throw a bullpen.

“Dave will feel a lot better about what he sees and where he's at. The information Eddie has given us is that he has been throwing quite a bit.

“I know sometimes as players they think they can come back faster than what they really can, but Eddie has been throwing and we'll get a read on it, see where he's at. As far as building him up, it depends on what we see and where the effort level is and how quickly that makes our decision easier to move forward with.”

Bloom on rotation
With Chris Sale out for the season and no time table yet for Rodriguez's return, the Red Sox currently have a rotation of Eovaldi, Martín Pérez and Ryan Weber. Brian Johnson could claim the fourth spot, and the fifth spot will certainly begin the season as an opener.

“It's definitely more unsettled than I think you would want in a vacuum,” Bloom said. “I give a lot of credit to the players themselves and certainly credit to our coaching staff, our training staff, our strength staff.”

There are many pitchers in camp vying for more prominent roles, be it as an opener or in a bulk-inning role after the opener.

“These guys in a very short period of time have been able to get some innings under their belt,” Bloom said. “We came into this camp with a goal of getting a number of these guys stretched out so that we would have options, not just to be able to evaluate them, but so we'd have options available starting with our first game, and I think we've put ourselves in that situation. Now we have to make those decisions on how we can most productively roll these guys out in order to win games.”

How can the Red Sox win with so little certainty from the rotation?

“I think you look at someone like Nate, he's shown that when he's at his best, he can hang with any of those guys,” Bloom said. “For us to have a good season from a run-prevention standpoint, I think some of these guys are going to have to step up. They're going to have the opportunity to do so. They all have different ingredients that they bring to the table that give us reasons to be optimistic. Obviously, time will tell.”

Most of all, the Red Sox need to reach their considerable potential offensively to have a chance.

“Looking at the club from a big-picture standpoint, you look at this position-player group, it's a really good group. There's a lot of good options for Ron on a daily basis,” Bloom said. “I got to see as an opponent exactly what kind of wrecking crew that offense could be. If we do a good job of keeping them in the game, they should be able to do some damage.”

Fans can get likeness on Monster
Though fans won't be permitted to enter Fenway Park for the time being, they will have a chance to have their likeness sitting atop the Green Monster through the “Monster Home Run Challenge,” the club announced Friday.

It will be a part of a Red Sox Foundation fundraiser that places cutouts of fans in the Monster Seats for a chance to win prizes if their silhouette is hit by a Red Sox home run ball.

Fans can visit redsox.com/monsterchallenge to join.

As part of the program, participants automatically receive a personalized scoreboard message on the right-field videoboard and 2020 Red Sox promotional items. Those whose cutouts are hit by a Red Sox home run will also receive the autographed ball, two Green Monster tickets for the 2021 season, a custom Red Sox home jersey with their name, and a video replay of the home run.

The 20-inch by 30-inch Coroplast cutouts will be rearranged on the Green Monster and moved prior to each homestand. Fans will receive their cutout at the conclusion of the program. A $500 donation is required to support the Red Sox Foundation.

Those who wish to see their likeness on Opening Day, July 24, and through Aug. 19 must submit their photos by 5 p.m. ET Saturday, July 18, by visiting redsox.com/monsterchallenge. Fans can also sign up now for the second half of the season, which will run from Aug. 28-Sept. 24.

Workman roughed up again
Closer Brandon Workman has yet to have a clean inning in Summer Camp. On Friday night, he was tagged for four runs, including a three-run homer into the bullpen in right-center by Michael Chavis.

“His stuff is fine. I talked to [pitching coach Dave Bush] about it,” said Roenicke. “He’s just missing location. It’s coming out nice. Locations aren’t very good, and our hitters are not missing anything. But the velocity is there. He threw some nice curveballs.

“He got two strikeouts on that ball in the dirt, and that’s where he needs to be. We’ll just keep plugging along, and hopefully he will find that command in the next couple of outings and he will be back to the guy he is.”

It was the type of classic good-news, bad-news scenario that takes place during intrasquad games. As much as the Red Sox wanted Workman to have a solid outing, they also wanted to see Chavis get his bat going. He had been ice cold.

“That’s the hard part. I was really happy that Chavis got on track, but I wish it was against somebody different than Workman,” said Roenicke. “But Chavis has been struggling, and he’s working hard with [hitting coach] Tim [Hyers] and [assistant hitting coach] Pete Fatse and he’s going to be a guy we expect a lot from.

“Last year, he came up and did a great job offensively. He really swung the bat well. His playing time will be dictated really on how he swings the bat. We’ll probably platoon that first-base situation, and we’ll see what we’re going to do at second.”