Red Sox hold off on activating Ranger Suarez due to illness; welcome draft picks to Fenway

The Red Sox held off on activating Ranger Suarez from the injured list Wednesday because he still was dealing with an illness, interim manager Chad Tracy said.

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They rolled with a bullpen game instead in the second game of their doubleheader, a 5-1 loss to the Orioles. Eduardo Rivera, a rookie lefthander, drew the start, and Brayan Bello threw 5⅓ innings in relief.

All week Suarez seemingly has been on the brink of returning from a strained left groin, suffered July 5. But the Red Sox have pushed back his return, initially slated for Tuesday, because of soreness, as well as feeling under the weather.

Tracy said he didn’t know when Suarez will pitch.

“Doing a little bit better, but not good enough for us to put him out there yet,” Tracy said. “More the illness [than the soreness]. The combination of that and — coming off that — if he’s weak, we don’t want him out there.

“Hopefully, very soon after we’ll be able to have him. And we’ll just keep checking in on him [Thursday] with the off day and see how he’s feeling.”

The Red Sox hosted five members of their 2026 draft class for the usual post-signings tour and photo ops at Fenway Park: shortstop Jake Schaffner (first round, North Carolina); outfielder Owen Hull (competitive balance round B, UNC); shortstop Jace Mataczynski (third round, Wisconsin high school); outfielder Martin Shelar (ninth round, Georgia high school); and righthander Kaleb LaFavor (10th round, Iowa high school).

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Principal owner John Henry (who also owns the Globe) waited on the field between games to welcome the players and their families during the landmark occasion for the new professionals, who are itching to one day play in Boston.

“Back in probably 16U, I did a little showcase thing over at JetBlue [Park, the Sox’ spring training facility], same dimensions and everything, and I was launching balls,” Shelar said. “So I can’t even imagine two years older and a little bit more time to develop, man, I’ll be hitting some balls pretty far here.”

For Mataczynski and LaFavor, roommates recently in Fort Myers, Fla., joining the Red Sox represents a reunion. They met when they were about 10 years old, when they started playing for a Minnesota-based travel team.

“It was nice to have someone you know right away,” LaFavor said.

Hull, who is from Virginia, has familial New England ties.

“My grandma’s from Portland, Maine, she lives on Scarborough Beach now, and it means so much,” Hull said. “She’s so close to the Sea Dogs, the Double-A team, so I hope I can work my way up there and get to see what happens.”

Connelly Early (left elbow inflammation) played catch Tuesday from 120 feet, usually the longest threshold before moving on to more advanced throwing. Tracy said Early could get on the mound this weekend . . . The Sox called up lefthander Alec Gamboa to serve as the 27th man for the back half of the doubleheader. He tossed a scoreless inning and stayed on the roster when the Sox sent down Rivera instead . . . The team announced that ownership, players, the Red Sox Foundation, corporate partners, and thousands of fans raised more than $300,000 to support Venezuelan earthquake relief efforts. In honor of that, they had a pregame check presentation ceremony that included Willson Contreras, Wilyer Abreu, and Andruw Monasterio . . . At Fenway Wednesday: Byung-Hyun Kim, of the 2003-04 Red Sox. He caught a ceremonial first pitch from South Korean actress Ha Ji-won . . . Richard Johnson, the recently retired curator of The Sports Museum, threw out a first pitch before the night game to the Orioles’ Pete Alonso, a family friend via Alonso’s wife, Haley, a Quincy native.

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