So much for the joy of winning their home opener 12-2 over the Rays, because the Red Sox have lost one of their best players for a chunk of the season. Jacoby Ellsbury left Friday's game holding his arm with an apparent shoulder injury, and now CBSSports.com's Jon Heyman has learned Ellsbury has a right shoulder subluxation and will miss one to two months. A subluxation is a temporary and partial dislocation of the shoulder that causes serious pain and instability.
Needless to say, that's a pretty crushing blow.
Ellsbury, 28, finished second in AL MVP voting last season after he hit .321/.376/.552 with 32 homers, 105 RBI, 119 runs, 45 doubles and 39 steals. He won a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove while also making his first All-Star team.
Obviously losing a player of this caliber would hurt any ballclub, but it's a killer blow to the Red Sox due a lack of outfield depth. Carl Crawford is still recovering from offseason wrist surgery and is now dealing with a sore elbow. Minor leaguer Ryan Kalish is on the 60-day disabled list, as he had shoulder surger in November. That leaves Darnell McDonald (CF), Cody Ross (LF) and Ryan Sweeney (RF) as the starting outfield and likely Che-Hsuan Lin headed to the majors as the fourth outfielder.
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