A number of updates on the MASH unit that is the Red Sox, who now have 13 players on the disabled list:

– Ryan Sweeney was placed on the seven-day disabled list while dealing with concussion symptoms. He will be eligible to come off of it as soon as Sunday, but will first have to pass a test administered by Major League Baseball to determine if he is asymptomatic.

– Darnell McDonald said that he is progressing well in his return from an oblique strain. He took soft toss today, and he will take batting practice on the field on Wednesday. McDonald went on the disabled list retroactive to May 12. He will be eligible to return as soon as Sunday.

– Ryan Kalish is making significant strides in his return from offseason shoulder surgery. After playing in just 24 minor league games last year — a season largely wiped out by a torn labrum and then a bulging disc in the neck that he incurred during the rehab process — Kalish is now playing games in extended spring training in Fort Myers. Barring a setback, it is possible that he could be sent out to play for a minor league affiliate around the middle of next month.

– Aaron Cook was originally scheduled to throw 50 pitches in a rehab start on Tuesday, but that was pushed back after the stitches were removed from his gash, as the wound is continuing to heal. He will be re-examined when the team returns to Boston from its current eight-game roadtrip to determine a timetable for his resumption of baseball activities.

“The way that it’s cut, it’s cut in a semi-circle, and the top corner is not healing right,” said Cook. “They said stitches or no stitches, it’s just going to take a little bit of time, so I’m taking a few days off — no running, no lifting, anything like that — and when we get back to Boston, we’ll look at it again with our team doctors. … I feel healthy and strong. It’s just a matter of not doing anything stupid.”

– Jason Repko had his knee examined in Boston after tweaking it while working his way back from a separated shoulder in Fort Myers. The knee checked out fine, and Repko will resume playing in Fort Myers.

– Cherington said that pitcher Mark Prior, who was signed earlier this month, is pitching on a schedule in extended spring training in Fort Myers. The team is keeping him there in order to maintain longer-than-usual intervals between outings, something that the team will continue for some time while letting the right-hander work his way back from offseason groin surgery. There are no immediate plans to send him to a minor league affiliate.

Marlon Byrd (center) has been the focus of a resurgent Red Sox offense. (AP)

This has been one weird season for Marlon Byrd.

The man who signed for $15 million over three years with the Cubs before the 2010 season was released by Chicago after going collecting just three hits in his first 43 at-bats this season.

The Cubs picked up the remaining $6 million on his contract and the Red Sox, desperately needing a major league outfielder with the injury to Jacoby Ellsbury, picked him up for the pro-rated major league minimum of $435,000.

Low risk, but so far high reward. The batter who was hitting .070 with the Cubs is batting .333 (10-for-30) with the Red Sox to raise his average to .178. He’s been one of the biggest beneficiaries of hitting in a lineup that produced more runs than any in baseball through the first month.

“Boys can play. Went through a rut. Had a great road trip. Came back and started off with a bang,” Byrd said. “Hitting is contagious. It’s as simple as that. I scuffled for a while over there in Chicago but coming over here, watching these guys, picking their brains, talking to [Kevin Youkilis] and little things he does has helped me. Sometimes, you need to re-learn, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan has had a huge impact on Byrd, sitting down with the talented slugger, who made the 2010 NL All-Star team with the Cubs before falling on hard times in the last 18 months.

“See the ball, hit the ball but at the same time, maybe spreading out just a little bit, making sure I get my hands back in my separation, tucking my front knee in so when I do separate, I’m not going back on my backside,” Byrd said in breaking down the mechanics of his swing. “My timing, starting it when pitcher breaks his hands so it’s not one thing. It sounds difficult but for me, it’s easy to put that all together and simply it.”

Byrd was known for his unusual leg tap and kick to trigger his swing. That’s great when it works but a huge problem when it doesn’t. What did Mags suggest?

“Mags is huge,” Byrd said after Monday’s 11-6 Red Sox win, in which he went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored. “Mags just said, ‘Forget about everything you’re doing, go back to 2009, 2010, and let’s start over and go from there.’ Forget the tap step, forget the leg kick, get [front foot] down early and go to work. We just went back to the old work.”

The red-hot David Ortiz has also help Byrd by simply hitting in the same lineup.

“It’s unbelievable,” Byrd beamed. “It takes the pressure off a lot of guys when David does his thing. You don’t have to scrounge for runs. You’re not trying to get a bunt down or really try to hit a home run to get an inning going. He gets it going for us. He’s a fire-starter and that’s what he’s doing.”

Byrd had to overcome something else Monday – stepping into the same batter’s box in which he was beaned by now-teammate Alfredo Aceves 12 months ago. For the first time since taking a pitch below the left eye, Byrd had the chance to hit at Fenway, and showed no ill effects.

“You don’t ever want that to happen but it’s part of the game,” Byrd said. “Some guys get hit, some guys don’t. It happened to me. Hopefully, it doesn’t ever happen again.”

Byrd says he couldn’t be happier to have found a new home at Fenway.

“Wonderful, wonderful. I always loved playing here. Usually, I get booed. The only cheers were when I got hit last year and I stood up and actually walked off the field. Other than that, it’s great. I love it. I got to hear “Sweet Caroline” again in a Red Sox uniform and it didn’t feel weird singing it.”

Darnell McDonald has been the Red Sox' top hitter this spring. (AP)

SARASOTA, Fla. — Spring training numbers mean nothing. That doesn’t mean that spring performances can’t be impressive. And to date this spring, no one in Red Sox camp has been more impressive than outfielder Darnell McDonald.

McDonald went 3-for-3 in the Red Sox’ 6-5 loss to the Orioles, and he ripped a pair of hits to left and lined a single to right against Brad Bergesen. The performance was par for the course for McDonald during this Grapefruit League season, in which he now has 11 hits in 22 at-bats, including two homers and five doubles.

“He’s a hitting machine. Just a flat-out hitting machine. What’s he hitting, .700?” wondered Sox manager Bobby Valentine. “Is it five? Well, I’ve never seen anybody hit that high. That’s why it seems like seven, I guess. He’s swinging, and the ball’s finding holes and jumping off his bat or hitting off of walls. He’s swinging really well.”

For the Red Sox last year, McDonald was chiefly an outfield platoon option who got at-bats against left-handed pitching. This spring, he’s been doing plenty of damage against right-handers as well, having gone 10-for-19 against them.

Valentine suggested that McDonald has shown not only that he deserves a place on the Red Sox roster again, but also that he is making a case for an expanded role.

“He hasn’t hit much against left-handed pitching down here and he’s hitting .500. I think he knows there’s a potential Opening Day… There’s some spots, some room,” said Valentine. “He wasn’t happy with last year. He’s proven that he belongs on this team. I like everything I see.”

OTHER NOTES Read the rest of this entry »

Aaron Cook will make his first appearance of spring training on Sunday. (AP)

FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Red Sox are starting their third turn of the rotation. Opening Day is now fewer than four weeks away. And so, it would seem, it would be difficult for someone other than the five candidates who have made two or three appearances this spring to assert himself as a starting candidate.

But that is precisely what Aaron Cook will try to do on Sunday. Cook has been healthy this spring, but the Sox elected to have him follow a conservative schedule this spring in deference to the fact that he’s dealt with shoulder issues in each of the last two seasons.

On the day that likely Opening Day starter Jon Lester makes his third start of the spring, in which he will stretch out to four innings, Cook will make his maiden appearance in Sarasota against the Orioles, pitching one to two innings.

It remains to be seen whether he has time to assert himself as a candidate for the Sox rotation by the time the team needs a fifth starter on April 11. Sox decision-makers are ruling him neither out nor in.

“You know, he’s in that running for the four or five starting guys. He’s one of the guys in there,” said Sox pitching coach Bob McClure. “[The calendar] may be an issue at some point. I don’t want to rush him. I want him healthy and so does he. He doesn’t want to go backwards either. We’ll just have to see on that. But I’m not going to rush him through it because he’s got a career still ahead of him.” Read the rest of this entry »

FORT MYERS, Fla. — In relative terms, spring training remains in its infancy. Pitchers and hitters alike are still looking to work their ways into playing shape and so it’s difficult to place too much credence into what is seen in games.

Nonetheless, even this early stage of the spring offers some pieces of the puzzle, even if they don’t reveal the broader picture. Such was the case in the Red Sox’ 7-4 loss to the Pirates at JetBlue Park.

A few takeaways:

– Vicente Padilla, in the mix for the job of the Red Sox’ fifth starter, had a poor outing, allowing four runs on five hits (three doubles), all of which came in his second inning of work. While Padilla featured a fastball in the low-90s and changed speeds on his curveballs, his stuff was simply flat. He did throw 22 of his 29 pitches for strikes, but he didn’t miss many bats; he neither struck out nor walked any hitters.

“He wasn’t executing two-strike pitches,” said manager Bobby Valentine. “I think first time that [Kelly Shoppach] was catching him and I think there was a little quandary where to go when he got ahead of a couple of those hitters. I don’t know that, for my money, his armspeed was what it was last time, the last couple of times. It was pretty good. His location was decent. He was executing early. He just didn’t execute late.”

– David Ortiz offered a promising sign in his second at-bat. He turned on an 88 mph fastball from left-hander Tony Watson and lined it into the visitor’s bullpen. Given how central his success against left-handers was to his huge 2011 season (indeed, it was the best season he’s ever had against southpaws), the fact that he went deep against a southpaw at this early stage of the spring has to be taken as a good sign.

In 2011, Ortiz hit .329 with a .423 OBP, .566 slugging mark and .989 OPS along with eight homers against lefties, and .298 with a .386 OBP, .548 slugging mark, .934 OPS and 21 homers against right-handers.

– Clay Buchholz said that he was pleased with how he felt over the course of his 51-pitch, three-inning effort on Friday night. He focused on working his changeup into the mix, and threw some good ones, including an at-bat in which he doubled up on the pitch to punch out Brandon Boggs. He did leave some fastballs over the plate in allowing two runs on three hits, but overall, Buchholz was pleased with the opportunity to continue to build his pitch count.

– More important signs for the Sox against lefties: Darnell McDonald threatened to end modern telecommunications as we know it with his satellite-menacing blast into geosynchronous orbit of a fastball by Pirates lefty Doug Slaten. McDonald’s roster value derives in no small part from his ability to do damage against southpaws, something that he was unable to do in the first half of last year but then did with underappreciated effectiveness in the second half.

McDonald hit .260 with a .333 OBP, .471 slugging mark and .804 OPS against lefties last year. Five of his six homers were against southpaws.

McDonald also doubled in the ninth inning against a right-hander.

“I said, ‘You’re going to get two at-bats not one. Make the best of them.’ Geez, he sure did,” said Valentine. “Those were two loud sounds. It shouldn’t go unnoticed. He’s a guy that, at times, is going to come off the bench. He’s a guy who’s fighting for a job. Thus far in this spring, he’s made the best of his opportunities to play good baseball.”

– It’s early and almost all statistics at this point are irrelevant. That said, Cody Ross has hit the ground running. He is now 4-for-9 in Grapefruit League games, while his primary competition for right field, Ryan Sweeney, is 0-for-8. Ross also stole one base but was cut down on another attempted steal.

– It is easy to forget at times that there are spots to be won in the Red Sox bullpen. Michael Bowden evidently has not forgotten. The right-hander has looked sharp out of the chute, retiring all eight batters he’s faced (and all 14 if one includes the six-up, six-down, three-strikeout race through the Northeastern lineup).

– Former Red Sox infielder Yamaico Navarro had three electrifying swings and misses in punching out against reliever Will Inman. Navarro’s strikeout came with the abandon of one who believed that the only acceptable outcomes against his former team were either a home run or a strained oblique.

Navarro, now 24, was traded by the Sox to the Royals last July in the deal that netted the Sox Mike Aviles. Kansas City subsequently flipped Navarro to Pittsburgh.

The Red Sox need to create a roster spot for outfielder Cody Ross. (AP)

As first pointed out by Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal (via twitter), the Red Sox face a bit of a roster crunch at the moment. The team’s 40-man roster is currently fully occupied, meaning that in order to finalize the recent one-year, $3 million deal with outfielder Cody Ross, the Sox will have to create space for the 31-year-old.

According to a team source, the Sox are in the process of “exploring everything” with regards to freeing that spot, though at the moment, there’s no sense that the team will contemplate anything “significant” with regards to its roster. While there are still some available starting pitchers on the market, the most straightforward way in which the Sox might clear space on the 40-man would be either a deal involving one of the team’s many out-of-options pitchers (Matt Albers, Scott Atchison, Michael Bowden, Felix Doubront, Andrew Miller or Franklin Morales), since the Sox will be in a position where — barring a significant string of injuries — they will not be able to carry all of them on the major league roster. Indeed, it was with an eye towards that fact that the Sox spent time early in the offseason gauging trade interest in that group of pitchers, knowing that at some point, one or more would have to be removed from the roster.

The team could also consider a trade of one of its six outfielders who is currently on the 40-man roster. If they did so, Darnell McDonald (who is out-of-options) and Che-Hsuan Lin (who was added to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft, but who (after hitting .235 with a .325 OBP, .293 slugging mark and .618 OPS in 85 Triple-A games as a 22-year-old last year) represents more of a depth option than a player whose skills (excellent defense, speed, a good command of the strike zone but limited offensive skills and no discernible power to this point in his career) create a clear big league role with the Sox.

And, if the team cannot deal one of those players for a minor league prospect (someone not on the 40-man roster) to clear a spot, it could always designate a player for assignment and hope to sneak him through waivers to the minors.

The 40-man roster bottleneck will ease somewhat late in spring training, when the Sox can put John Lackey and Daisuke Matsuzaka on the 60-day disabled list. But, until then, the Sox will need to create an opening for Ross in order to make his deal official.

The Red Sox have agreed to a one-year deal with outfielder Cody Ross. (AP)

According to multiple major league sources, the Red Sox are finalizing a one-year deal with free agent outfielder Cody Ross. Ross will receive a $3 million base salary, with possible “high-level” performance bonuses also in the mix. News of the agreement was first reported by Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports (via twitter).

Ross, 31, is a career .261 hitter with a .323 OBP, .456 slugging mark and .779 OPS, along with 100 homers, in parts of eight seasons with the Tigers, Dodgers, Reds, Marlins and Giants. He owns a robust career line of .282 with a .349 OBP, .563 slugging mark and .912 OPS against lefties (with the caveat that he hit just .234/.336/.362/.698 against southpaws in 2011, and went from one strikeout per 5.8 plate appearances against lefties through 2010 to one per every 4.8 plate appearances in 2011).

The Sox said from the beginning of the offseason that they would like to add a right-handed hitting outfielder. Ross, who has played primarily center field while also spending extended time in both left and right in his career, would seemingly fit that bill.

Ross joins an outfield mix that now includes Carl Crawford in left (when he returns from wrist surgery), Jacoby Ellsbury in center and the left-handed Ryan Sweeney, right-handed Darnell McDonald and right-handed Ross. Sweeney, McDonald and Ross are all capable of playing all three outfield positions. The addition of Ross suggests that the Sox will be in position to use Mike Aviles primarily — if not exclusively — at shortstop.

The Sox had been interested in Ross throughout the offseason, but the team felt that it needed to clear some payroll in order to add him (or a player like him). The deal sending Marco Scutaro to the Rockies gave the Sox new financial flexbility to explore such deals, as it removed $7.67 million from the team’s payroll (as calculated for luxury tax purposes).