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Red Sox make roster moves, place Justin Slaten on IL; ‘No one’s more upset ... than me’
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- Red Sox make roster moves, place Justin Slaten on IL; ‘No one’s more upset ... than me’
BOSTON — The Red Sox placed right-handed reliever Justin Slaten on the 15-day injured list Wednesday with a right oblique strain.
Boston recalled left-handed reliever Tyler Samaniego to take Slaten’s spot on the roster. This marks Samaniego’s first call-up to the majors.
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Slaten, who has thrown 3 ⅓ scoreless innings this season, said he felt tightness while at home after pitching April 4, his second outing in two days. The tightness persisted when he woke up the next morning.
He said he initially attributed it to pitching back-to-back days in the cold weather. But he knew something was wrong when he felt a cramp in his side while working out in the weight room Tuesday.
“So we just decided to kind of take it easy, just press the reset button and just get feeling right early in the season,” Slaten said.
Slaten spent time on the IL in each of his two major league seasons (2024 and 2025), including missing 76 games last year with a right shoulder injury.
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“It sucks,” Slaten said. “I want to be healthy. I want to help contribute.”
“It sucks. I mean this is the third year that I’ve had to miss time. I can promise you like no one’s more upset or feels worse about it than me. Part of our job is to be healthy for 162.”
While the Red Sox don’t think the injury is serious, they feel it’s too early in the season to let Slaten try to push through it.
“Obviously don’t want it to develop into something major,” Slaten said. “And don’t want to speak too soon because I said last year we didn’t think it was anything major and ended up being like 90 days. So I don’t want to jinx it. We’re pretty confident that just taking the time right now is like the smart thing.”
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The team has not scheduled imaging for Slaten.
“The crappy part about it is there’s not like a lot that I can do to see the progress in the day,” he said. “It’s just I have to wake up and be like, ‘OK, it’s feeling better today’ or ‘it’s not feeling better today.’”
Boston acquired the 27-year-old Samaniego and starting pitcher Johan Oviedo from the Pirates on Dec. 4. In return, the Red Sox sent power-hitting outfield prospect Jhostynxon Garcia to Pittsburgh .
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