BOSTON -- Red Sox manager John Farrell projected confidence Sunday that David Price will be able to rehab his left elbow strain successfully, without the need for surgery.
There’s still uncertainty until Price gets off a mound. But Farrell said no Plan B has been discussed. If that’s indeed the case, it at least suggests Plan A, conservative treatment, is expected to work well.
"I'm unaware of a point that's going to say we're going to have to go to another direction," Farrell said. "There wasn't this, at the outset of the diagnosis, there wasn't this Plan A/Plan B. It was, this is the recommendation: Put a ball back in your hand after a prescribed number of days down.
"He's out to 105-110 feet right now throwing. But I think we're all pretty clear, too, that once he gets back on the mound and gets closer to game intensity, that's going to be the real test of where he is in terms of a routine date."
Farrell said 120 feet would typically be the minimum distance Price would have to reach from flat ground before throwing off the mound.
"But you're also probably being aggressive out to 150," Farrell said. "That’s going to have some dependency on what's been a normal throwing program for an individual pitcher. Certain starters get out to 200-plus. Carson Smith will get out to 90 feet. That's what his routine has been. With David, it's going to be in that 120-150 range before we'd consider getting on the mound."