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Red Sox put Eovaldi on 10-day IL with elbow injury, could need surgery

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The Boston Red Sox have placed right-hander Nathan Eovaldi on the 10-day injured list with a loose body in his right elbow, the team announced Saturday.

The move is retroactive to April 18th and the team has called up left-hander Bobby Poyner from Triple-A Pawtucket to fill Eovaldi's spot on the 25-man roster.

Eovaldi's loose body is in a bad place and he could not stretch his arm out, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe. Eovaldi will see a doctor in New York on Monday to determine if surgery is needed, Abraham added.

The 29-year-old had arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow at the end of last March and returned to the majors two months later. If the pitcher chooses to have surgery again he could be out for a similar length of time, Abraham speculates.

"It's very similar to what I had last year. We'll know more on Monday, but possibly, (I'll) have the surgery like I had last year," Eovaldi said, according to MLB.com's Dawn Klemish. "It's a short amount of time on the IL.

"I went right into the surgery (last year), and it worked out really well for me. It's one of those things where we're at in the year, too. It's so early in the season, we have a lot of time left, we don't want anything to get worse toward the end of the season."

Eovaldi has had elbow problems in the past and has undergone multiple Tommy John surgeries. He missed the entire 2017 campaign as a result of one of those procedures.

Despite the loss of a key member of their starting rotation, the Red Sox are confident in their pitching depth at the big-league level, reports the Boston Herald's Jason Mastrodonato, who adds the team is unlikely to summon top prospect Darwinzon Hernandez from Double-A.

Boston signed Eovaldi to a four-year, $64-million contract during the offseason. He has a 6.00 ERA in 21 innings (four starts) with the Red Sox so far in 2019.

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