A Red Sox ‘mystery:’ When will former Royal Adalberto Mondesi return from injury?

When Boston Red Sox manager Joey Cora met with the media in mid-February, he raved about Adalberto MondesÍ, who had been acquired in a trade with the Royals.

“First things first, he’s making strides. Wait until you see him. I thought he was smaller but he’s, like, Xanderesque,” Cora said, referring to Xander Bogaerts. ”Tall, strong, big legs. He was running yesterday and you could see it, his elite speed. He’s running at 70% and you can see it.

“Dynamic, good defender but we still have to work on the offensive side of it, just to make sure he gets on base at a higher rate.”

Mondesi wasn’t at full strength because he had surgery in May 2022 to repair a torn ACL suffered during a game in Detroit. This wasn’t a surprise to Boston, which knew MondesÍ wouldn’t be ready for the start of this season when it traded pitcher Josh Taylor to the Royals for MondesÍ in January.

The Red Sox put MondesÍ on the 60-day injured list at the end of spring training, but he apparently still is not close to joining the team.

Chris Cotillo, who covers the Red Sox for MassLive.com, was asked on the Fantasy Baseball Beat when MondesÍ might be back in Boston.

“This is the greatest mystery facing the Red Sox these days,” Cotillo said. “This is a guy that they didn’t give up much for ... but a guy they thought had upside even with one year left (before free agency).

“He has not progressed at all. He is not in game action, he’s not facing live pitching, I don’t think in Fort Myers. He’s just at a point where his ACL recovery has not gone as quickly as they thought.”

A Mass Live story had this headline: “Red Sox INF Adalberto Mondesí had knee surgery 13 months ago - where is he?”

That story noted MondesÍ is at Boston’s extended spring training program in Fort Myers, Florida.

“He’s having good days and bad days,” Cora said in the story. “I don’t want to think for him, but it’s probably ‘I don’t feel comfortable doing this,’ and then you have slow down. Structurally, he came (to Boston), they checked him out, there was imaging and all that stuff and everything looked good, so ...”

So Boston waits.

Cora noted MondesÍ had surgery more than a year ago but the Red Sox aren’t sure when he might join the team.

“We (only) got him, what, six months ago,” Cora told MassLive. “Obviously, we know what (the Royals were) doing rehab-wise. There was some imbalance as far as his strength and legs and all of that. It’s more than just the rehab. It’s kind of like catching up with other stuff. I think that’s where the delay is.

“But we were feeling pretty confident when he left spring training that it was going to be a solid process throughout and at one point, he was going to be able to just go. And right now, we’re not in that pattern right now.’’