BALTIMORE—A day after Adley Rutschman took a foul ball on the mask, forcing him to leave the game, Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino said the team’s catcher’s condition continues to be monitored.
Rutschman was hit by a foul ball off Boston’s Rafael Devers’ bat in the third inning of Sunday’s game at Fenway Park. He left in the fifth inning.
“He’s going through the process right now. No update at the moment,” Mansolino said on Monday.
After watching the tape of the incident, Mansolino acknowledged he had second thoughts.
“If I could do it over again, I would have went out there myself,” Mansolino said. “But it didn’t look like much initially. We still feel like it might not be much. There’s no assumptions that it’s anything more than a foul tip at the moment. It’s hard to tell sometimes.”
Mansolino defended the Orioles’ reaction to the play.
“They’re on top of it,” he said. “Every medical staff in baseball, and especially ours, they’re on top of it. They’re aware of what those are and what it is.
“We happen to have [bench coach Robinson] Chirinos, who had a history of it himself as a catcher in the big leagues. [Head athletic trainer Scott Barringer] was all over it. We’re aware. We sit there. We look at it. We use our professional judgment, and we go from there.”
Triple-A Norfolk catcher Chadwick Tromp is with the Orioles on the medical taxi squad in case Rutschman goes on the 7-day concussion injured list.
Besides Maverick Handley, the Orioles can use Cooper Hummel, who was signed on Sunday. Hummel has caught 18 games in the major leagues, but he’s mainly an outfielder.
“That’s part of the conversation right now,” Mansolino said. “That’s part of him being there, as an emergency catcher, a third catcher.”
Notes: Outfielder Colton Cowser, who’s on the 60-day injured list with a fractured left thumb and infielder Jordan Westburg, who’s on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring injury, are both heading to Triple-A Norfolk to begin a rehab assignment. … Catcher Gary Sánchez, who’s out with a right wrist injury, was scheduled to hit on the field on Monday. … Outfielder Ramón Laureano, who’s on the injured list with a sprained left ankle, hit in the batting cage.
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