{"id":796922,"date":"2026-07-13T05:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T05:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796922\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T05:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T05:39:09","slug":"al-east-notes-early-scherzrer-fraley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/796922\/","title":{"rendered":"AL East Notes: Early, Scherzrer, Fraley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/earlyco01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Connelly Early<\/a> has been on Boston\u2019s 15-day injured list since July 1 due to inflammation in his throwing elbow, and Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters (including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/redsox\/2026\/07\/red-sox-get-good-news-on-rookie-leftys-elbow-plus-other-injury-updates.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">MassLive.com\u2019s Chris Cotillo<\/a>) on Friday that a follow-up appointment with Dr. Keith Meister revealed no structural elbow damage.\u00a0 In another update yesterday, Cotillo wrote that there isn\u2019t yet a timetable for Early to resume throwing, as he is still waiting for the discomfort to subside.<\/p>\n<p>While Early went on the IL before Boston\u2019s ongoing nine-game winning streak, the rookie left-hander\u2019s solid work has been a big reason why the bottom didn\u2019t completely fall out on the Red Sox before the team got back in the playoff hunt.\u00a0 Early has a 3.44 ERA, 23.8% strikeout rate, and 8.7% walk rate over 91 2\/3 innings this season, as he has teamed with fellow rookies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/tollepa01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Payton Tolle<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=benneja01,bennet007jak&amp;search=Jake+Bennett&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jake Bennett<\/a> to carry a Boston rotation hampered by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/crochga01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Garrett Crochet<\/a>\u2018s injury absence and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bellobr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brayan Bello<\/a>\u2018s struggles.\u00a0 The Sox have kept rolling even with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/suarera01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ranger Suarez<\/a> now also on the 15-day IL, so assuming that Suarez and Early can get back relatively soon, it certainly seems possible that the Red Sox can continue their resurgence.<\/p>\n<p>More from around the AL East\u2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/scherma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Max Scherzer<\/a> looks to be nearing another return from the Blue Jays\u2018 15-day injured list, as <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ArdenZwelling\/status\/2075727581291368578?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sportsnet\u2019s Arden Zwelling<\/a> was among those to report that Scherzer is slated to throw a rehab start with the Jays\u2019 FCL team on Tuesday.\u00a0 This outing comes on the heels of two other minor league rehab starts that saw Scherzer allow six earned runs over seven total innings, but if all goes well on Tuesday, the Blue Jays seem set to activate Scherzer once the second half begins.\u00a0 The future Hall-of-Famer has a 10.23 ERA over 22 innings in six big league starts this season, while twice spending time on the IL.\u00a0 Scherzer returned from his first IL stint to make one start on June 10 before back spasms sidelined him again.\u00a0 It is anyone\u2019s guess at this point what Scherzer may be able to contribute or if he can even stay healthy for any length of time, so the Jays figure to have swingman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/milessp01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Spencer Miles<\/a> lined up as a secondary option whenever Scherzer is able to get back on the mound.<br \/>\nRays manager Kevin Cash told reporters (including <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TBTimes_Rays\/status\/2076337052971397468?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times<\/a>) that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/fraleja01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-07-12_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jake Fraley<\/a> is again dealing with some problems related to his recent hernia surgery, and Fraley\u2019s minor league rehab assignment has been halted so he can visit a specialist.\u00a0 Fraley underwent the procedure in mid-May and was expected to miss 6-8 weeks, and he played in five games during his rehab assignment before this setback.\u00a0 Though Fraley was hitting only .232\/.300\/.390 in 90 plate appearances before going on the IL, his continued absence only makes the Rays more likely to pursue outfield help at the trade deadline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connelly Early has been on Boston\u2019s 15-day injured list since July 1 due to inflammation in his throwing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,91434,58088,16086,591,85],"class_list":["post-796922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-connelly-early","tag-jake-fraley","tag-max-scherzer","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}