Red Sox shut down Adalberto Mondesí

Red Sox

The Red Sox gave bad news on one of their offseason trade acquisitions.

One Red Sox player’s season could come to an end before it ever started.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters on Tuesday that Adalberto Mondesí has been shut down from all baseball activities. This announcement came not too long after reports surfaced that Mondesí was making progress in his rehab, but the Red Sox chose to take this necessary precaution due to “lingering soreness.”

“It has been on and off,” Cora said, per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. “He started, again, his baseball activities. He didn’t feel so well so we had to shut it down,” Cora said.

Mondesí has struggled to recover from a torn ACL he suffered in April 2022, long before the Red Sox traded for him. They acquired him with the hope that he would be ready to play by Opening Day 2023, but they ended up placing him on the 60-day injury list to start the season.

He has spent his 2023 in Fort Myers rehabbing his knee, but setbacks have forced the Red Sox to shut him down in June.

These setbacks have been frustrating for both Mondesí and the Red Sox.

“We’ve done everything possible to get him right,” Cora said. “He has done everything possible to get it right. It’s just a matter of jumping that last hurdle and we haven’t been able to do that.”

The Red Sox have not yet ruled out the possibility of Mondesí’s return this season, given how much they’ve put into preparing for that day to come. But time is not on their side, and Cora knows that.

“We’re running out of time,” Cora said. “But it’s not lack of effort. From his end and our end, I’ll tell you, we’ve done everything. We’ll see what happens.”

Mondesí has always had talent and sky-high potential. The shortstop’s dazzling speed made him the Kansas City Royals’ top prospect from 2015-16. But his major weakness was his durability, as various injuries have allowed him only 358 games since he made his major league debut in 2015.

It’s not yet clear if Mondesí will join the ever-growing list of Red Sox players’ names that have been scratched off the injury list. But after the Red Sox have shut him down with little time left to play, those odds appear less and less likely.