BOSTON — Red Sox left-hander David Price will return to the rotation for Monday’s series opener in Toronto.
Manager Alex Cora confirmed the plan Saturday.
Price (1-2, 3.75 ERA) has been sidelined with left elbow tendinitis since his last start on May 3.
The 33-year-old lefty threw a pair of bullpens this week, and Cora said he was ready to start.
YANKEES: Didi Gregorius is projected to return to the team next month, a faster recovery from Tommy John surgery than expected.
Gregorius is scheduled to play shortstop on Monday at extended spring training in Tampa, Florida, his first game action since surgery on Oct. 17 to replace a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
Manager Aaron Boone does not expect Gregorius will need the equivalent of a full spring training, which is about six weeks.
“I think it will be shorter,” Boone said Saturday. “He’s been doing so much already as far as getting live ABs (at-bats), doing all this work. So he’s a little further down the road than he would be at the start of spring training.”
Gregorius hit .268 with a career-high 27 homers and 86 RBI last season. He injured the elbow while making a throw from left field after a ball bounced off Fenway Park’s Green Monster during Game 2 of the AL Division Series last Oct. 6. When the Yankees revealed the injury six days later, General Manager Brian Cashman specified only “sometime next summer” for Gregorius’ return.
RANGERS: Reliever Shawn Kelley was ready to start pitching again while waiting for the results of a biopsy on two lumps that were surgically removed from his throat.
Kelley said Saturday that doctors took out a couple of “decent-sized” lumps on Thursday after an initial biopsy before the surgery was inconclusive.
“I still don’t know the results of what’s in my throat, but it’s out and I’m going to get back to pitching for now,” he said. “We’ll find out when we find out, but for now I just want to get back to playing, and physically I feel good, I feel healthy.”
The 35-year-old right-hander expected to get the results from the latest biopsy early next week.
Kelley, who doesn’t use any kind of tobacco, said he noticed the issue early this season. He had the lumps checked this month after they got bigger and bothersome while trying to sleep.
Kelley said he threw a bullpen Wednesday before going in for the surgery, and planned to throw another one Saturday. He is 3-0 with two saves and a 1.29 ERA in 14 appearances and last pitched May 4.
BRAVES: The team released Jonny Venters, the left-hander whose comeback from his third Tommy John surgery helped him win the NL Comeback Player of the Year Award last year.
The 34-year-old Venters had a 17.36 ERA after giving up nine earned runs in 42/3 innings covering nine appearances.
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