Brendan

Rodgers

Rodgers returns to Boston on a new minor league pact after undergoing right shoulder surgery earlier this month. The 29-year-old infielder will spend at least a couple months rehabbing before he’s ready to return to game action. The odds of him contributing for the Red Sox later this season are extremely low.

Rodgers has been cut loose after undergoing right shoulder surgery earlier this month, extinguishing his chances of making Boston’s season-opening roster. The 29-year-old second baseman is facing an extended absence but could wind up finding another opportunity somewhere else on a minor league deal.

Nothing official from a timeline standpoint but Rodgers is facing an extended absence. The 29-year-old has undergone multiple shoulder surgeries in his career and the odds of him returning as a big-league regular in the future are starting to fade.

It sounds like it might be another lost season for the 29-year-old Rodgers. “Most likely he’s going to end up in surgery,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “What type of surgery? I don’t know. We’ll wait and see what he has to say but that’s probably what’s going to happen.”

“It doesn’t look great,” Cora added ominously. It sounds like surgery is a potential outcome for Rodgers, who is evaluating his options after undergoing both an MRI and CT scan earlier this week. The 29-year-old suffered the shoulder injury earlier this week and is likely facing an extended absence, even if he avoids going under the knife. He’s undergone labrum surgery on both shoulders previously in his career. He was in Red Sox camp as a non-roster invitee battling for a bench role.

“We don’t know what’s going on, so we’ll have more in the upcoming days,” manager Alex Cora said. Rodgers had looked to be a candidate to open the year on the big league roster if Romy Gonzalez’s shoulder injury proved too difficult to overcome. If the injury is serious, it will likely push Andruw Monasterio into a better chance to make the team in a bench role.

Rodgers is dealing with shoulder pain after he landed awkwardly after trying to make a diving catch and had to be removed from the game. That’s particularly troublesome considering Rodgers has had major surgery on both shoulders in the past. With Romy Gonzalez (shoulder) unlikely to make the Opening Day roster, Rodgers was battling for a bench spot. Any long-term injury could severely hamper those chances.

Anthony will get a few exhibition games under his belt with the Red Sox before joining Team USA for next month’s World Baseball Classic. The 21-year-old on-base machine’s perch atop Boston’s formidable lineup, which features offseason acquisition Willson Contreras in the heart of the order, makes it easy to project him as an impact fantasy contributor in the runs scored department. His ability to generate consistent hard contact, as evidenced by a 94.5 mph average exit velocity — the highest single-season mark by a hitter under the age of 22 in the Statcast era — portend immediate success at the highest level as a power-hitting table-setter. He’ll be an early-round pick in all fantasy drafts this spring. Here’s the full lineup: Anthony (RF), Ceddanne Rafaela (CF), Wilyer Abreu (DH), Contreras (1B), Masataka Yoshida (LF), Connor Wong (C), Andruw Monasterio (3B), Isiah Kiner-Falefa (SS) and Brendan Rodgers (2B).

Worth a flier. The Astros had Rodgers try swinging harder last year, and it did lead to improved exit velocity but also a lot more strikeouts in the 43 games in which he was healthy. Whether things might have gotten better is hard to say, since injuries wiped out the final 3 1/2 months of the season for him. He’s pretty obviously a weaker bet than Romy Gonzalez as a right-handed second base option at this point, but perhaps there’s still some potential to be tapped into after he spent his first nine years as a pro in baseball’s most backwards organization.

Just a disastrous few months for Rodgers, who went on the IL with an oblique strain in mid-June and then suffered a concussion and a broken nose in his first rehab game on July 18. He started another rehab assignment 10 days ago, but it didn’t take, and one imagines he’s likely out for the season at this point. He’ll probably have to settle for a minor league deal as a free agent this winter.