Nathan Eovaldi. (Kathryn Riley /Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Red Sox postseason hero Nathan Eovaldi hasn't pitched since late April, and he's since undergone minor elbow surgery—but he's planning to come off the injured list soon, and Boston's planning to use the starter out of the bullpen.
"You know, I told [Red Sox manager Alex Cora] I wanna come back and help out as soon as possible," Eovaldi said. "I mean, if I were to come back into the starting rotation, it'd take at least another month to build up that way. Any way I can help out, I want to be able to do so."
That said, Eovaldi's definitely hoping to return to the rotation.
"It's still not out of the question that I would come back and start this year," he said. "We're still trying to do that. Right now, I feel like I'll be more beneficial out of the bullpen."
The righty's only made four starts, and admitted it's been a challenging season.
"Yeah, it's been real frustrating, having to have the surgery and working your way back from that, and then having the bicep tendinitis, and then just having to kind of wait until it all goes away and rebuild again," he said. "Now I feel really good, and hopefully it won't be too long."
The Red Sox bullpen could use Eovaldi—that group has allowed 26 runs spanning 17 2/3 innings the last four games.
WBZ NewsRadio's Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) reports