Red Sox: Duvall’s Injury a Crippling Blow

“Touch ’em All” Duvall. 

That was the best nickname I’d heard thus far for Adam Duvall, the hottest hitter in Major League Baseball through the first nine games of the 2023 season. It’s a little retro as far as nicknames go, but I co-signed it and prepared to build it into my lexicon for the rest of the year. I was even weighing the pros and cons of ceasing to refer to him as Adam Duvall on the Monday morning Rivalry podcast altogether and calling him “Touch ’em All” Duvall every single time his name came up. John and Barnes would have hated it for as long as this blazing hot streak lasted. If Duvall managed to parlay this start into a career year, it would have driven them crazy.

Oh, what could have been. 

April 9th should have been a celebratory time for Red Sox fans. It was Easter Sunday. Kutter Crawford had managed to pitch five solid innings in a cookie cutter victory. Triston Casas had begun to climb out of his early hole at the plate by ripping a double and a homer. The dejection and embarrassment of being swept at home earlier in the week by the Pittsburgh Pirates had been somewhat vindicated by sweeping the lowly Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Things were looking up on the way to a huge series against the undefeated Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, the most miserable place on Earth. 

And then Duvall slid in pursuit of a blooper off the bat of Spencer Torkelson. The Red Sox were up 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth, a comfortable lead against a horrible team with Kenley Jansen on the mound to close it out. The lead felt secure, but not secure enough for a centerfielder to dog it on a catchable ball. Duvall surely thought nothing as he lifted off the ground and reached forward as he’s surely done hundreds of times in his life. 

Who would have guessed that this slide would be the most regrettable moment of this young Red Sox season? Knowing what I know now, I’d have gladly sacrificed the out (it was a hit anyway, as Duvall didn’t make the catch), the win, and even the series in exchange to keep Adam Duvall healthy for the next couple months. 

Duvall has literally been the best offensive player in the entire league this season. With a slash line of .455/.514/1.030/1.544, he has 15 hits in 33 at bats, 14 RBI, five doubles, and leads the league with four home runs, 14 RBI, 34 total bases, and an OPS+ of 304 (the slugging and OPS figures I just gave are also tops in the league). He electrified Fenway Park with a walk-off home run off righty killer Felix Bautista that gave the Red Sox their first win of the season. He propelled them to victory with a game-winning three-run home run on Thursday afternoon in Detroit. He was even showing some patience at the plate, striking out only five times in nine games while walking three times despite a career K/BB ratio of 4.20. He also provided the steady defensive hand the Red Sox desperately needed in center field while Kiké Hernandez fills in at shortstop for the injured Trevor Story. 

In short, Duvall had been absolutely everything Red Sox fans could have hoped for upon learning that Chaim Bloom had signed him to a one-year, $7 million deal back in February. In fact, he’d been so much more than that. I’d even taken a victory lap on last week’s Rivalry show for my prediction that Duvall would win over Red Sox fans this year, a prediction that was coming to fruition before our eyes. As much as I hate to call attention to myself when I am proven right, I mustered up the gumption to do so in the name of the truth. 

And then he slid for that ball. 

Duvall essentially jumped directly onto his left wrist, the same wrist that he broke last July to prematurely end his 2022 campaign. The wrist turned over so gruesomely that we saw in real time, before the 17 replays that proceeded the injury, that this was not just one of the benign bumps and bruises ballplayers suffer over the course of an MLB season. Awful news was clearly ahead. 

As much as we hoped and prayed that X-rays would reveal nothing more than a sprained wrist, we all knew deep down that it was broken. Perhaps a wrist with a tendon sheath that hadn’t been surgically repaired a mere nine months ago could have survived such a pratfall. Duvall’s left wrist, however, had already been damaged goods.

That’s the reason that Bloom was able to obtain him for such cheap money in the offseason despite the 38 home runs and NL-leading 113 RBI he accumulated in 2021. That’s the reason he was even available so late in the offseason after Trevor Story received internal UCL brace surgery, prompting the Red Sox to seek a righthanded power threat to replace his production. Duvall offered great value and a cheap price tag. 

And a compromised wrist. 

Story’s own free agency had been mired with rumors of a shoddy right elbow before Bloom picked him up in 2022. Less than a year later, one month after we learned that Story would be replacing the beloved Xander Bogaerts at shortstop, we found out just how much merit those rumors had. Now Duvall, whose free agent market was similarly diminished due, in part, to a recent injury that was said to be fully healed, has suffered the same fate. 

Chaim Bloom let a local hero walk in free agency and replaced him with a cost-effective injury risk who got injured before playing a single game at his “new” position. Bloom sought to replace the production of that injured player by signing another cheap player with an injury history; a player who then reinjured the same body part nine games into the season. 

We at Bloominati HQ are rattled, to say the least. We rejoiced at Duvall’s early production, yet now find the flag under attack once more. I don’t believe that last year’s injury is the reason that Duvall’s wrist rolled over when he slid for that ball, but would a stronger wrist without a recent surgical repair have come away from the impact with nothing more than a mild sprain?

It’s not like Duvall reinjured his wrist taking a swing or high-fiving a teammate. This was a brutal fall. But you can’t argue with the unadulterated facts. He hurt his wrist last year, signed a cheap deal with the Red Sox, and has now hurt his wrist again. This is the narrative the Gloomers have excitedly spun and unfurled on the Bloomers since the moment the injury occurred. And when taken on its most basic terms, that narrative is correct. 

However, it’s important to not overreact. Has this injury interrupted what would have been a career year for the 34-year-old Duvall? Probably not. He’s always been a very streaky hitter with extreme highs followed by woeful lows. His career slash line is .233/.292/.472/.764. The fact that he went on a torrid stretch for the first week-and-a-half of the season likely means that a prolonged slump was right around the corner to balance out his statistics, production, and the goodwill he had earned from a fanbase that is constantly on the lookout for stuff to complain about. 

On the other hand, his 162-game averages extrapolate to 32 home runs, 95 RBI, and 27 doubles. Duvall was more than capable of assuming the role of righthanded power threat to keep the Red Sox lineup balanced while providing solid defense throughout Trevor Story’s recovery, which is reportedly going quite well. I can’t help but wonder what the possibilities could be for a guy who has always lacked consistency if he can come out guns blazing in April. I wrote last week about the wondrous things that can happen for a player and offense that start out hot. As I said earlier, Duvall wasn’t just smoking doubles and long balls. He was working counts. He was disciplined. He was not behaving in any way like the hacker and jacker that I’d come to expect. Could he have turned the corner this season, his tenth in the league, and become a more well-rounded hitter? The type of hitter that could feast on Fenway Park’s left field wall and help Rafael Devers lead Chaim Bloom’s Red Sox to glory? 

The What-Ifs will kill you if you dwell on them too much, so let’s try to pivot to the very dim silver lining of this injury. 

After Monday night’s 1-0 loss to the now 10-0 Rays (could Duvall have scored that big hit the Red Sox lacked all night? Dammit, I said no What-Ifs!), Alex Cora reported that Duvall’s left wrist was only fractured, rather than completely broken. Therefore, he won’t need surgery and will not miss the rest of the season. No timetable has been given for his return, but most estimates range between eight and twelve weeks. Red Sox fans can expect to see Duvall again by the All-Star break, which is right around the same time that Story should be ready to return if his recovery continues to progress well.

Now back to the bleakness of it all. With Duvall on the shelf, Bobby freaking Dalbec has been called up from Worcester to fill his roster spot. He likely won’t see much playing time, as Raimel Tapia and Yu Chang are ahead of him on the depth chart and Rafael Devers and Triston Casas are the starters at the only two positions he’s played with any regularity in the big leagues.

However, the absence of Duvall leaves the Red Sox with a serious lack of righthanded bats. Opponents will be deploying a barrage of lefthanded relievers at the Red Sox for the time being, and the team is scheduled to face basically nothing but lefty starting pitchers for the next week, including the elite Shane McClanahan Tuesday night. Dalbec already pinch hit for Casas against Colin Poche on Monday (and amazingly singled), so there’s plenty of reason to dread that Dalbec will actually see some high-leverage at bats late in games for the foreseeable future. 

Garrett Whitlock returns to the active roster Tuesday to start against McClanahan. Brayan Bello and James Paxton have begun rehab assignments. The Red Sox were a stone’s throw away from being at full strength for the first time in recent memory. And now they’ve called up Bobby Dalbec, the bane of my existence, to replace the guy that had surprisingly become the centerpiece of the offense early on. 

It’s funny how much can change in the course of nine games. Those jaded Red Sox fans that yearn for the shortsighted cash-and-crash days of Dave Dombrowski scoffed at the addition of Adam Duvall as one of Chaim Bloom’s patented meaningless dumpster dive moves. Now, those same reprobates are cancelling the season over the loss of the almighty Duvall, the one hope that the Red Sox apparently had for any success this season. Rather than giving Bloom any kudos for making a good acquisition for good value, they cite an apparent lack of righthanded depth as a critical failure of team construction. 

Even the staunchest Bloom supporters must admit the poor optics. This team suffered a rash of injuries in 2022 that derailed their season. Trevor Story and Adam Duvall, two hand-picked discount sluggers acquired amid a hue of injury concerns, will both be on the IL for the next two months plus. As soon as the final pieces for Bloom’s 2023 puzzle were set to fall into place, a crucial corner piece got sucked up by the vacuum cleaner. 

But I challenge those that don’t believe in Bloom’s not-so-secret plan to use your imagination for a minute. Picture a scenario where this lefty-heavy lineup sans Duvall manages to stay afloat in the first half. Imagine that Masataka Yoshida, Rafael Devers, and Alex Verdugo finally get some help from Triston Casas, Kiké Hernandez, and Justin Turner and continue to score runs at an impressive rate. Imagine that Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, Garrett Whitlock, Brayan Bello, Nick Pivetta, and a sprinkle of James Paxton form like Voltron to make for a decent rotation. Imagine that the revamped bullpen continues to perform admirably and closes out enough wins to keep the Red Sox in contention through the first half of the season. 

Now, if all that comes to pass, imagine the starting lineup that this team is capable of fielding in the second half of 2023.

Alex Verdugo RF
Rafael Devers 3B
Adam Duvall CF 
Masataka Yoshida LF
Trevor Story SS
Triston Casas 1B
Justin Turner DH
Reese McGuire C
Kiké Hernandez 2B

Imagine that.