Gordon Beckham is staying out of the way
/This is what's called a setback
An oblique strain is bad enough, an oblique strain suffered while rehabbing an already strained oblique is an unfortunate step toward the endless game of touch-and-go that oblique injuries can often turn into. Beckham might have been a week away already, now that's his minimum. Rushing back early has already proven inadvisable.
One of many new hopes. // Credit: Ami Prindiville
In the mean time, Marcus Semien continues to get his feet wet at the major league level, which is meaningful since he spent his first series largely looking overwhelmed by the moment. Yet over the past few otherwise miserable days in Kansas City, Semien's superior approach is shining through and will likely continue to.
He's only drawn two walks in 25 plate appearances, but had one taken away from him by Will Little's attitudes toward the check-swing as a concept. Better yet, Semien is seeing 4.6 pitches per plate appearance going into Sunday. Combined with Adam Eaton--who has seen one less pitch in the same number of appearances--Semien has provided the type of start to the batting order the Sox have coveted for a while; a patient and dutiful one that wears down pitchers for the middle of the order.
Jeff Keppinger's injury always offer the potential to walk down the cynical path where everyone became quietly satisfied with his absence once they stopped considering the pain involved. But it's becoming easy to forget about the trade potential Beckham offered now the Sox already get to bask in the developmental opportunity moving him would have provided.
Early returns on the Sox pitching staff aren't suggesting they'd be able to support the offense even if it achieved a great leap forward this season. As such, anything that isn't about carving out a brave new future can fall by the wayside. Strange as it seems for someone considered the new foundation not too long ago, that means Beckham.
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