“Honestly, for me, it’s just excitement. I miss playing,” Rutschman said before the Red Sox’ series opener against the Blue Jays. “I want to be out there, and to be able to go out and play baseball is such a blessing. And I think you realize that when you’re on the IL and you’re not able to play it. For me, it’s just excitement. This team’s rolling. This locker room, the guys are really tight, as you can tell. So I’m just excited to be a part of it.”
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In recent days, Rutschman has been dabbling with the Sox’ pitchers and participating in pregame meetings, an attempt to start the acclimation process before he actually joins the roster.
The best way to learn, though, is by doing. Getting behind the plate in games for his new pitching staff will teach Rutschman a lot.
“[Over the past week] just trying to learn as much as I can about the guys, about the pitching staff, making sure that when it is my time, when I’m ready to go, I’m doing the best I can for those guys,” he said. “So then just getting the body right.”
To that end, his two-game rehabilitation assignment with Triple-A Worcester over the weekend seemed to check plenty of boxes.
“Just seeing live pitching for the most part, catching guys, making sure the wrist is feeling good and holding up with that workload,” he said. “Just making sure you’re good on all aspects.”
Because Rutschman caught only five innings in only one game, there may be something of an adjustment period when he joins the big league club.
“He hasn’t been down long, so don’t feel like his legs are completely out of shape,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “I wouldn’t expect that you’d see him back there like three days in a row, right out of the chute. … That’s probably a little much.”
The Red Sox’ current catcher duo is long-timer Connor Wong and newcomer Jake Rogers. Tracy said “it would be a challenge” to carry three catchers.
Rogers, who came over in the same trade with the Orioles, could be the odd man out. Wong, who is particularly valuable because he knows the Sox’ staff, would see a reduction in playing time.
“Wonger’s pretty focused on exactly what he needs to do, how to prepare himself the days he’s catching,” Tracy said. “I haven’t directly talked to him about it. I will, but I think in this case, when you’re dealing with Adley Rutschman and what he brings, that pretty much everybody on the team’s looking at that as an add for us and for our team.”
For the first time since July 22, Andruw Monasterio was out of the starting lineup. “He’s played a ton and felt like as we continue to work through [a busy stretch of games], this would be a good day,” Tracy said. Nick Sogard played shortstop in his place … Masataka Yoshida returned to the lineup after missing two games due to illness. He went 0 for 2 with two walks. “We’re at least hypothetically getting to the point where now we have a full bench, which has not been the case for a couple of days,” Tracy said … Wilyer Abreu was named American League player of the week, the same honor Ceddanne Rafaela won last week (and that Abreu received one week in July). He batted .438 (7 for 16) with three homers and nine RBIs in five games.
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.