NEW YORK - Not only is Hanley Ramirez not going to play another inning for the Red Sox this season -- he's not going to be with them for the final road trip, either.
While the Red Sox traveled to New York Sunday for a four-game series with the Yankees -- and will move on to Cleveland for a season-ending set against the Indians starting Friday -- Ramirez flew home to south Florida.
"Hanley is starting his rehab progression in Fort Lauderdale with his personal trainer and his physical therapist that he's going to have for the entire off-season,'' offered interim manager Torey Lovullo. "So we just thought it was a good thing to get it started as soon as possible. He starts (on Tuesday).
"He's not with us right now.''
Ramirez, of course, has been sidelined since the last week of August with inflammation in the right shoulder. When the Red Sox placed him on the disabled list earlier this month, it was with the understanding that he wouldn't be activated until he was able to play in the field.
His transition to the outfield was an outright disaster, but under the direction of new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, the Sox were working Ramirez out at first base with an eye toward having him play the position in 2016.
Ramirez began taking ground balls at first in the final week of August and continued until last week.
Boston Red Sox
Last Thursday, however, the Sox revealed that the inflammation in Ramirez's right shoulder had not improved enough for him to continue work at first and announced he would no longer work there.
Still, it was unexpected for Ramirez to leave the team for the final week.
When it was pointed out to Lovullo that other injured players done for the season remain with the team -- Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa, Clay Buchholz, among others -- Lovullo said Ramirez's case was somewhat different.
"With Taz and Koji, their best starters are here with us right now,'' explained Lovullo. "Our medical staff has requested they stay on because they can keep their hands on them and have them...We want our guys we feel comfortable with watching those two guys. Buchholz was still going to throw some bullpens and we wanted to have a hands-on view of that as well. And we wanted to get immediate feedback.
"When guys take off and leave, depending what their scenariosand situation is, you lose them. We wanted these three guys because of their connection to the two trainers here. In Buchholz's case, we wanted to watch him very closely and get some feedback because we want him here.''
Lovullo, responding to the line of questioning about Ramirez then added: "I'm sensing you guys feel like he's kind of forgotten about and we're shooing him out the door. That's not the case at all.
"I think he wanted to start his therapy as soon as possible and we wanted to get him kicked off with his physical therapist in Fort Lauderdale. That being said (director of sports medicine services) Dan Dyrek will fly down there and make sure it's a good situation before he comes back home.''