More good news for the steadily climbing Red Sox: Center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury should be able to begin a minor-league rehab assignment on Friday. Michael Vega of The Boston Globe reports that Ellsbury will soon join fellow rehabbing outfielder Carl Crawford in Fort Myers, Fla., of the Gulf Coast League.
Ellsbury hasn't played since April 13, when he injured his shoulder while sliding into second base in an eventual win over the Rays. At the time of his injury, he was batting .192/.300/.269; however, those numbers were across a sample of just 30 plate appearances. In 2011, Ellsbury led the majors in total bases and extra-base hits and finished second in the AL MVP voting.
As Vega notes, Ellsbury is slated to DH for Fort Myers on Friday, which means Crawford will play the field for the first time since beginning his rehab assignment. The Red Sox presently have four outfielders on the disabled list: Ellsbury, Crawford, Scott Podsednik and Ryan Sweeney.
For more baseball news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnBaseball on Twitter, subscribe to the RSS feed and "like" us on Facebook.
