Nathan Eovaldi will start on Opening Day for the Boston Red Sox. Elise Amendola/Associated Press
Nathan Eovaldi will be the Red Sox’ Opening Day starter against the Orioles on Friday.
Manager Ron Roenicke announced the decision Saturday.
Eduardo Rodriguez, who was supposed to start the original Opening Day game in March, has been fighting the coronavirus and was just Saturday cleared to take the field with his teammates.
“I don’t know where he folds in but it’s not going to be for the first week, I wouldn’t think,” he said. “We’ll see where he is and be fair to everybody and make sure we’re doing this the right way.”
Though Roenicke ruled out Rodriguez’s availability for the start of the season, he said the lefty could return as soon as he’s ready to throw a couple of innings and would not need to be fully stretched out before he’s used in a regular-season game.
“When he’s ready and starts throwing some bullpens, when (pitching coach Dave Bush) thinks he’s ready, we’ll start simulated games and live BPs for him,” Roenicke said. “Then once we see where he’s at, it doesn’t mean he has to get his pitch count to 85 or anything. If he’s feeling good and we think we can do this in-season, maybe his four innings are better than somebody else’s and we can fold him in. There’s a lot to think about but how he does in this next week probably tells us an awful lot.”
Lefty Josh Taylor, who also recovered from the coronavirus, was cleared to throw at Fenway Park as well.
“He’ll be different because we just need an inning from him at the start,” Roenicke said. “As we go along we’d like to get him an inning or two but at the beginning even one inning is fine, it’s just a matter of how quick he can bounce back. Once he gets to every other day, from there we feel like a back to back outing won’t be far along.
“I’m a little more concerned about him because he was stuck in a hotel room and not throwing at all, other than throwing into a pillow or mattress or whatever he’s doing, so we really have to keep our eyes on him and make sure he’s ready when we activate him.”
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