Former Colorado Rockies Gold Glove infielder Brendan Rodgers has had a rough string of injury luck, and his recent stint with the Boston Red Sox was a bit of a low point.
After undergoing shoulder surgery earlier this month to repair a torn labrum and a chipped bone, Rodgers was released from his minor-league contract with the Red Sox on Tuesday, a transaction that first appeared on the official log on Wednesday. The injury occurred on Feb. 25, when Rodgers' shoulder popped out on a dive after a ground ball.
It's too early to know with any certainty whether Rodgers still has a chance to return from the injury by the end of the season, and he doesn't have to do so for any particular team. However, insider Chris Cotillo of MassLive hinted that if Rodgers did return this year, there was a decent chance he might come back to the Boston organization.
"Rodgers may get a re-negotiated new deal as he rehabs, (for what it's worth)," Cotillo wrote on X.
A 2022 Gold Glove second baseman who was once the third overall pick in the 2015 draft, Rodgers still has interesting tools if he can stay healthy. He lost most of the 2023 season to a very similar shoulder injury sustained in spring training, then more than half of last year due to an oblique strain and a disastrous collision running the bases on a minor-league rehab assignment.
A career .261 hitter with 47 home runs in 495 major league games, Rodgers will hope to prove that the second half of his professional baseball journey brings significantly better health and consistency.