Roman Anthony suffers another setback in his rehab from sprained hand ligament

CLEVELAND — Roman Anthony remains stuck in an injured list purgatory.

He suffered another setback Thursday, experiencing enough discomfort when hitting a baseball off of a tee — for the first time — that the Red Sox decided to shut him down from all swinging activity for “the next handful of days,” interim manager Chad Tracy said Friday.

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It was the latest twist in an unpredictable injury saga approaching the one-month mark. The Sox don’t know when Anthony will be back.

“It’s not Roman’s fault; none of that is anybody’s fault,” Tracy said before Friday’s 4-3 loss at the Guardians. “It’s just, he got hurt and it’s a nagging injury on a hand when he’s trying to hit, so we have to be patient with that. And it’s going to take a little longer.”

Anthony suffered a sprained ligament under his right ring finger, impacting his hand and wrist, on May 4 in Detroit. After he returned to Boston and was examined by doctors, the Red Sox hoped he would avoid the IL. That didn’t happen, and attempts to progress through the standard steps of building back up as a hitter have been halted by pain.

In recent days, Anthony had experienced a tolerable amount of discomfort taking dry swings, with no ball. When he advanced to hitting off a tee, it felt worse.

“The fact of the matter still remains: He’s got something in there, and if there’s discomfort, we just have to wait,” Tracy said. “Did we want it to go quicker? Yeah, but we can’t control the healing. If he’s got discomfort, we gotta wait.

“So is it gonna go longer than we originally had hoped and thought? Yeah, but that’s just how it goes.”

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Anthony did not join the Sox on their one-series road trip to Ohio.

Anthony clarified in an interview with WEEI on Thursday that his sprain is a partial tear of the ligament. Team president Sam Kennedy said on WEEI last week that “there’s no evidence of a tear.” The Red Sox referred to it as a sprain when he went on the IL.

“I know stuff came out yesterday about tear versus sprain versus strain and all these different things,” Tracy said. “I don’t know what else to say other than a sprain is a tear.”

Carlos Narváez’s right middle finger remains bruised and swollen, but he said he can play just fine when it is taped up.

He injured the finger on a slide May 15 in Atlanta. Specifically, the problem is inflammation in the top knuckle, he said.

“It’s either rest [on the IL] or play through it,” Narváez said. “It won’t get worse.”

Last year, Narváez played through left knee pain that wound up being a torn meniscus. He toughed it out until having surgery — but only after the season ended. He doesn’t anticipate another surgical situation.

“I don’t think this is going to be the same,” he said.

Garrett Whitlock (left knee inflammation) also didn’t join the Sox in Cleveland. He is eligible to return June 9, but it’s too soon to know if that will happen. “I hope that it goes quickly and it’s the minimum (stay on the IL),” Tracy said. “But we have to see how he responds to the [pain-killer] shot over the next few days, and then hopefully he’s back up throwing quickly. But again, another situation, we have to see how he responds.” … Nick Sogard has a “nagging” right side issue, Tracy said, thus his absence from the lineup. It bothers him in particular when hitting lefthanded. “It just felt like maybe it’s prudent to not push that,” Tracy said. “And [Caleb Durbin] had a nice day swinging the bat [the day prior], so it’s like, let’s just give that a day and let Durbin get out there and play.” … Mickey Gasper started behind the plate for a third time in four games, and went 2 for 4 with a run scored … Tracy sharing part of the speech he gave to the Sox in honor of Willson Contreras reaching 10 years of service time in the major leagues this week: “I’ve been around long enough to know how hard it is to get one day in the big leagues, let alone stick around for 10 years. And a lot of the sentiment from a lot of guys is you watch how hard he plays the game, the fashion that he plays in — to be able to stick around and do that is pretty cool.”

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