FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2013 It had been 602 days since Patrick Sandoval faced hitters.<\/p>\n
The left-hander ended that streak of frustration Friday when he took the mound at JetBlue Park and threw his first live batting practice since Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been forever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Red Sox signed the southpaw, now 29, to a backloaded two-year, $18.25 million contract fourteen months ago with the expectation that he would miss at least a significant portion of the first year. Sandoval thought he\u2019d be able to contribute in the second half of \u201825, and got \u201cpretty close\u201d to being ready to face live hitters before arm fatigue shut him down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was the right move,\u201d Sandoval said, though he admitted, \u201cThis rehab process has humbled me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
He began ramping up again in November and reported to the Red Sox spring training complex a month ago. By then he had already thrown several bullpens.<\/p>\n
The pitching staff is different this preseason, deeper and more experienced than last year. Lefties Garrett Crochet and Ranger Suarez and righties Sonny Gray and Brayan Bello are expected to fill four-fifths of the starting rotation. Sandoval is competing with several pitchers for the final spot, and he\u2019s fully aware that he could end up in the bullpen instead.<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t say I have any set role here, and I\u2019m happy to compete for a job, that\u2019s what we\u2019re here for,\u201d Sandoval said. \u201cEspecially with the guys we brought in and the room we have. It\u2019s the best staff in the league, and I\u2019m honored to be part of it and honored to compete for a spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a Red Sox, so I\u2019ll do whatever they want me to do,\u201d he continued, though he added that relief work \u201cwould definitely be an adjustment.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now Sandoval is relishing Friday\u2019s milestone and curious about how he will feel the next day.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll offseason I had to answer questions from friends and family, \u2018Are you going to be healthy? Are you going to be back?\u2019\u201d Sandoval said. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I won\u2019t know until I face a batter, and then I won\u2019t know \u2018til the next day. \u2026 I\u2019d be so happy to wake up sore, honestly. It would be nice to feel that again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandoval was grateful, too, to the teammates who came to watch him take this step forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly didn\u2019t expect that many guys to be there to watch that,\u201d Sandoval said, \u201cand the reception I got afterwards, it was cool. It was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something of an annual spring training tradition for Alex Cora to point out an under-the-radar player or two who\u2019s impressing or intriguing him. Asked to do so Friday, the Red Sox manager began to say it was too early in camp. The first full-squad workout isn\u2019t until Monday, after all.<\/p>\n
But then he changed his mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Sandoval did today, that\u2019s impressive. That\u2019s good to see,\u201d Cora said. \u201cFor him to be in that spot, that caught my attention.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2013 It had been 602 days since Patrick Sandoval faced hitters. The left-hander ended that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2375],"tags":[858,5,141,48,2542,4,14123,89,2543,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-573715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-alex-cora","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-red-sox","12":"tag-bostonredsox","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-patrick-sandoval","15":"tag-red-sox","16":"tag-redsox","17":"tag-spring-training"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116074064621832294","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}