Curtis Mead underwent imaging on Monday for his four-week follow-up after fracturing his wrist in his second plate appearance with the Boston Red Sox.
According to MassLive's Christopher Smith, Chad Tracy said Mead was taken out of the cast and put in a splint, but still has some work to do before he is cleared for baseball activities. The Red Sox acquired him to play second base in the middle of a career year.
"But I know that’s just step one and there’s still a good bit of time here after this comes off and what he’s got to do just to get it strong enough to even begin baseball activities,” Tracy said. “So hope but we’ve still got to temper that hope and just see if everything goes well with the next steps.”
The Red Sox would love to have Mead back, but they cannot bank their season on that fact. Nick Sogard and Anthony Seigler have filled in nicely at second base, and with Trevor Story coming back soon, Andruw Monasterio could take over as the regular second baseman.
Tracy noted that Mead can start some mobility exercises, but at this point it looks like he is probably another few weeks away from taking swings and getting close to a rehab assignment. The Red Sox would ideally want him back before the start of the postseason, but there's a chance he's not ready until the postseason actually starts.
At that point, the team has to ask whether it's worth throwing him in a game when he has not played in so long. In October, the impact of every at-bat is magnified, and it would be a risk putting Mead into a game when he has not played in a big-league game since July.