Notes: Cordero 'working hard'; Sale update

BOSTON -- The slumping Franchy Cordero could get three days to reset himself. This is because the Red Sox faced a lefty starter (Nick Margevicius) on Sunday, have a scheduled off-day on Monday and then will face another lefty on Tuesday in David Peterson when they open a two-game series against the Mets at Citi Field.

But manager Alex Cora has no plans to shy away from Cordero in his role of starting against right-handed pitchers.

This, even though the left-handed hitter entered Sunday with just one hit in his last 22 at-bats and 15 strikeouts over that span.

“You’re not going to give up on a player on April 25,” Cora said. “If not, we made the wrong choice with our roster. So we’ll keep pushing. We’ll keep encouraging him. Showing him video and keep working with him.”

Cora hopes the Red Sox can get some time on Monday so Cordero can get in some extra work in the cage.

“Keep working hard. That’s the most important thing. He’s in between right now,” Cora said. “He’s late on fastballs and out in front on offspeed pitches, and that’s not a good place to be. It’s very uncomfortable because you know you’re behind, you know you can’t catch up to the fastball, but at the same time, they’re going to bounce a breaking ball, and on the changeup, you don’t feel like you can stay back. Yesterday morning, he came in, did some work. Same thing today. Just keep working on his craft. All you can do is keep working.”

With Cordero getting just 53 at-bats last year due to injuries and a shortened season, perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s still searching for his swing. Cordero only has 329 career at-bats.

“It’s very hard. We can talk about Franchy, but I can talk about a lot of guys who are in the Minor Leagues right now. They didn’t play last year,” Cora said. “Maybe they were hurt two years ago and didn’t play winter ball.”

Due to the delayed Minor League season, Cora thinks it would make little sense to option Cordero to the alternate training site.

“Right now, people might say, ‘Let’s send him down to get competitive at-bats.’ Where? Where are the competitive at-bats?” Cora said. “I mean, if I can get that answer, well, we might make a decision like that, but there are no competitive at-bats in the Minor Leagues right now. There are no competitive at-bats in Spring Training or in Triple-A right now in Worcester. We’re going to stick with the player, trust the player.”

Richards working on delivery

Tuesday will be a big game for the Red Sox to see if lanky righty Garrett Richards (0-2, 6.48 ERA) can get himself on track. Mechanical adjustments are ongoing.

“He’s trying to take command of his delivery a little bit, just to find some more consistency,” pitching coach Dave Bush said. “The other day, he just felt off a little bit. His timing wasn’t quite right. He always throws across his body. He always has. He has big stuff.

“The command comes and goes. When he gets his command dialed in, he’s really consistent with his left lift, and I think it syncs up and times up much better, so that’s been the focus of our work in the bullpen between starts, just clean up delivery, be more consistent, making sure he can stay on line and have a little better posture and then just let the ball go and trust it’s going to be in the strike zone.”

With a pitcher who has the build of Richards, there are a lot of moving parts.

“He’s long and lanky and throws across his body a little bit and that’s why he cuts the ball, naturally,” Bush said. “That’s why his fastball is really good when he throws strikes; he has a lot of velo and natural cut to it. It also helps him shape his slider and breaking ball. So, blessing and a curse. When he’s on, it’s really good. But he fights his delivery quite a bit so that’s been the biggest focus recently.”

Setting Sale to Florida

Red Sox ace Chris Sale will head to Florida on Monday to continue his progression back from Tommy John surgery, but the club still doesn’t have a timetable on when he will get on the mound for the first time, let alone return to the active roster.

“He's been feeling great. I just finished throwing with him right before I came in to talk to you guys,” Bush said. “He’s making a lot of progress.

The last month or so that he's been here with us has been very, very good for him. Mentally and physically he feels like he's in a really good spot.

“I think a mound progression is going to happen sometime soon. He's been adding long toss and adding intensity pretty regularly up here. He's made a lot of progress in the last five or six weeks. I'm excited for him. He feels really good about it. I think he sees the horizon for the first time in a while and he's excited and ready to go, and wants to get back here as soon as he can."

Progress for Brasier

Any update on setup man Ryan Brasier, who hasn’t pitched this season due to a left calf strain?

“He still has a little ways to go. He's in Florida. He's throwing," Bush said. "I don't believe he's thrown in any game situations yet, but he is throwing and working back physically. He has been starting a limited running program and he has been throwing quite a bit, so I'm hoping he gets back on the mound soon and then finishes his buildup. I don't have a finish date for him yet, but he's on the right path.”

Vaccine update

Cora still isn’t sure when or if the Red Sox will get to an 85 percent vaccination rate. Sunday was the third day this week that vaccines were available to players at the ballpark.

“There’s another group that will get vaccinated today here at Fenway. We’ll have a better idea in the upcoming days [on the 85 percent], but we’re getting closer I guess,” Cora said.

Clubs were informed just before Opening Day that MLB and the MLBPA have agreed to relax certain health and safety protocols contained in the 2021 Operations Manual for fully vaccinated Tier 1 Individuals and for clubs where 85% of their Tier 1 Individuals are fully vaccinated. As part of that memo, players and staff were again strongly encouraged to receive one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines when eligible.

“I just talk to the players,” Cora said. “If they have questions, I give them answers. We provide them with different people that can guide them to make a decision. A few days ago, we had a Spanish-speaking doctor talk to our Latino players. That was really good. They had their questions answered. Some of them decided to get vaccinated today.”

Verdugo a late scratch

Outfielder Alex Verdugo was originally in the lineup on Sunday, but he was scratched roughly an hour before game time. Verdugo experienced cramping in his legs during Saturday’s loss and it showed when he was running the bases. Rafael Devers moved up to the No. 2 spot. Enrique Hernández started in center field instead of second base. Christian Arroyo, who was not in the original lineup, started at second base.