Eduardo Nunez got hurt… again

When Eduardo Nunez came to bat for the Red Sox in the first inning of game one of the ALDS after only playing one game since September 9th, it was honestly a bit of a shock.

The dude hit really well at the start of his Red Sox tenure and then BOOM! He was just out of the lineup for awhile. After Sept. 9, he was gone. Of course, he made that appearance on Sept. 25, but then he didn’t play in any games for the rest of the regular season. And then for some reason, the Red Sox decided he was healthy enough to DH in the first game of the ALDS. That didn’t go so well.

Nunez did not look good at all running the bases on his groundout. In fact, he really couldn’t run at all–and then he fell down and had to be carried off the field. The consensus is that he aggravated his old knee injury, so he might be out for the entire postseason.

That certainly isn’t good for the Red Sox lineup because Nunez truly has been one of the best hitters in baseball for much of this season. And no, that’s not just the homer thing to say…

From May onward, he was a .328 hitter with 12 home runs (.858 OPS) in 90 games. When he came to Boston, obviously he was a major asset to the lineup. It also helped the team that he has some infield versatility since you know the Red Sox love versatility (which is why Brock Holt is on the postseason roster).

So if Nunez is off this postseason roster, then the Red Sox have to replace him with a position player of some sort. Bob Costas said Chris Young is an option, but they really don’t need another outfielder. Maybe uh.. Sam Travis? Travis went 1-for-9 pinch-hitting this season, but he did collect 16 hits in 48 at-bats off lefties in the big leagues this season (.381 batting average, .958 OPS). That could work, I guess.