Red Sox manager Terry Francona announced Friday that Dustin Pedroia received a good medical report on the broken bone in his left foot and has been fitted for a boot to allow weight-bearing activity.

“The scan showed on Pedey a lot of healing, which is really good news,” Francona said. “He’s allowed to begin weight-bearing [activity]. He has to keep the boot on for approximately a week-to-two weeks, probably two weeks.”

Pedroia broke a bone in his left foot with a foul ball on June 25 in San Francisco and has been out since. The news is not as good for Jason Varitek. He was catching in a game at Fenway against Tampa Bay on June 30 when he took a foul ball from Carl Crawford off his right foot. It broke a similar bone and sent him to the DL.

“Tek is a little bit behind,” Francona added. “There’s not as much healing with Tek, which I think they expected. He’s probably a couple of weeks behind Pedey.”

[Click here to listen to Francona give an update on Pedroia and Varitek.]

Meanwhile, Francona said that while Adrian Beltre will start tonight, they will play it safe and pinch-run for him late if needed. Bill Hall started Thursday’s series opener in place of Beltre at third and had a home run while making two outstanding defensive plays at third and getting charged with a tough error on a sharp grounder by Josh Hamilton.

“He’s certainly not 100 percent, Francona said. “We’re hoping we get production out of his bat. He hasn’t felt perfect for a while.”

Francona said if he doesn’t like what he sees from Beltre in batting practice, he’ll take him out of tonight’s lineup.

Switch-hitting catcher Victor Martinez has begun to swing a bat lightly from the left side but it’s the right side and catching with his injured left thumb that remains the problems after a scan on Thursday.

“The left side, that’s the one thing he can kind of handle,” Francona said. “He’s swinging the bat pretty good, actually. Right-handed, still can’t do it and he can’t catch yet. Once he can get that glove on and he can catch, they can rig up a lot of contraptions to take away some of the pressure but he’s just not there yet.”

Jed Lowrie appears to be gaining strength after missing the first half of the season with mono. He played six games for Single-A Lowell, collecting six hits in 14 ABs for manager Bruce Crabbe before playing Thursday for Pawtucket and going 1-for-4 with an RBI double.

“He’s doing really well,” Francona said. “We got a report from Bruce Crabbe that was about as upbeat as we’ve seen in a long time. It said the last four or five days, the light has kind of come on with Jed. He feels like he’s turned that corner. We’re starting to see that player that we’ve all talked about. He’s not dragging, he doesn’t feel fatigued. He feels pretty good about himself.”

As for Jacoby Ellsbury, he continues to work out in Fort Myers, trying to increase baseball activity while rehabbing his injured side.

“He was actually working out with Tom Goodwin and he actually requested if he could do a little bit more,” Francona said. “There are some parameters set up for him for his day schedule and he wanted to do a little bit more, which we were completely okay with. It’s “as tolerated”, that’s his program. If he can tolerate more, ‘Go.’”

Francona said the Red Sox will activate reliever Manny Delcarmen on Saturday. Jeremy Hermida will play outfield tonight and DH Saturday for Double-A Portland.

The Red Sox made a roster move to protect their bullpen after getting only two-plus innings from Tim Wakefield on Thursday night. They selected Fernando Cabrera from Triple-A Pawtucket and optioned Robert Manuel back to the PawSox.

Catcher George Kottaras has been released by the Red Sox. (AP)

With Jason Varitek set to return to the Red Sox as a backup catcher and Victor Martinez returning for the 2010 season, the Red Sox’ catching situation seemed set for the 2010 season. As a result, it comes as little surprise that the Red Sox put catcher George Kottaras on relief waivers, according to a team source. UPDATE: According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Brewers were awarded a waiver claim on Kottaras on Wednesday.

Kottaras hit .237 with a .308 OBP, .387 slugging mark, a homer and 10 RBIs in 2009. The 26-year-old — who was acquired from the Padres in exchange for David Wells in 2006 — served primarily as Tim Wakefield‘s personal catcher over the first half of the 2009 season, working well enough with the pitcher that Wakefield was named to the All-Star team for the first time in his career.

Kottaras was out of minor-league options, and so rather than trying to pass him through outright waivers, the Sox put him on unconditional release waivers. As of today, he will be a free agent, free to negotiate with all clubs. (NOTE: Kottaras did not achieve free agency due to the Brewers’ waiver claim.)

Fernando Cabrera, who was placed on outright waivers by the Sox earlier this month, also elected free agency. The right-hander allowed five runs and struck out eight in 5.1 innings for the Sox after forging a 1.71 ERA for Triple-A Pawtucket.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — In case you missed it last night, Team USA mounted a three-run rally in the ninth inning against Puerto Rico to stay alive in the World Baseball Classic. At the heart of that rally were two members of the Red Sox. Yes, one was Kevin Youkilis, whose bases-loaded walk drew Team USA within a run. But the other you might now know so well. His name is Fernando Cabrera, the closer for Puerto Rico who has been in Red Sox camp as a non-roster invitee.

Cabrera, who allowed David Wright’s game-winning hit following Youkilis’ walk, was in the Baltimore organization last season, having pitched in 22 games. Not only does Cabrera’s performance keep USA alive, but it also allows reliever Javy Lopez (who had been with Puerto Rico) to get back in his regular routine in Fort Myers.

Some quick observations from Tuesday’s Red Sox win over the Twins:

Before the game Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan was talking about Jacoby Ellsbury’s goal of better recognizing fastball location. While most hitters have to improve their recognition of breaking balls, it has been fastballs which have been forcing Ellsbury to be caught in between on occasion, thanks in part to the center fielder not getting his hands ready in time.

Well, the hard work paid off, as Ellsbury not only rocketed a double on a fastball, but also turned around a heater for one of the Red Sox’ four home runs.

Two other hitters Magadan touched on were newly-sent down Lars Anderson and Josh Reddick. Anderson’s challenge this spring was getting back to the swing that made him so successful last season, taking the ball the other way into the left-center field gap instead of being to quick and yanking what would turn out to be grounders to second. It is, as Magadan explained, somewhat of a natural progression for a young player, especially one the likes of Anderson who came in with so much fan-fare. Anderson went 4 for 22 without any extra-base hits.

What impressed Magadan about Reddick was his ability to square up so many pitches, comparing him to Dustin Pedroia in that respect (while also amazingly comparing the youngster to Pedroia in the confidence category, as well). A large part of that success had to do with Reddick’s hand-eye coordination, which is also a key factor in Pedroia’s success. The most notable portion of Reddick’s offensive game that needs improvement is command of the strike zone, which yielded just one walk this spring to continue a trend that has plagued the outfielder throughout the minors. Magadan said they worked on this with Reddick in small increments, not wanting to get into the youngster’s head too much, especially with him riding a spring in which he went 11 for 22. 

Josh Beckett continued his progress, throwing 60 pitches (and then another 20 more in the bullpen following his outing), over four innings. While some would view Beckett’s three-run second inning as a negative, pitching coach John Farrell didn’t view it quite that way. 

“I thought he made a very good adjustment in the last two innings with his curvevball,” said Farrell. “It was good to get tested a little bit. His last outing he was very effecient. He was able to pitch a long inning in which he wasn’t struggling but was challenged from an endurance standpoint with 31 pitches. And then to come back and have two clean innings after that was a positive sign. He’s been very much in command all spring.”