AL WILD CARD SERIES: RED SOX VS YANKEES

September 30, 2026

Chad Tracy

Yankee Stadium

Boston Red Sox

Pregame Press Conference

Q. What can you tell us about Roman's hand?

CHAD TRACY: He's sore. We actually sent him back to Boston last evening to get there so he could be early in the morning and reimage the hand, which showed additional damage to some muscles in his wrist that weren't there before. So he's sore and obviously not in the lineup.

Q. Fair to say he's out for the foreseeable future?

CHAD TRACY: Yeah, I think at least at the moment, we're trying to replace him. We have paperwork in on that. But it's enough there that we're not going to have him.

Q. Who would be the candidates to come up to replace him?

CHAD TRACY: We're still talking through it. Like, obviously we have people here. So we'll see if we get to that point and then we'll decide.

Q. Just how big a loss is that not having him?

CHAD TRACY: Yeah, you guys know, he's a really good player. So certainly not something we wanted to happen, and having him in there is important.

But again, can't reiterate enough, we've dealt with things like this all year. And the show goes on. You've got to play tonight and go out there and win a ball game.

Q. When you say there's additional damage to the wrist muscles, is it the finger or the wrist? And will surgery be needed?

CHAD TRACY: I don't know the answer to that yet. I just know that the imaging shows more than what was originally there. So as far as what treatment plans are in the future, haven't gotten there. Just midday today I first found out, yeah, there's more there that we're not going to have him. We'll figure it out as we move along.

Q. Is that part of the same injury, the original? Is this all related?

CHAD TRACY: Not necessarily. We go to reimage it because we felt like this was something that, with a couple check swings, it got worse. And they found just additional stuff to other areas of the wrist.

Q. Is this something he had been playing through for a period of time? Did he just notice it last night? What's kind of the extent of your knowledge of when the injury occurred?

CHAD TRACY: You guys know he's coming off of having a hand injury. So there's been periods of time since he's come back where he'll get a zinger, you know, and feel something. And then it dissipates and we're good to go. That's not been an uncommon occurrence since he's come back. But yesterday, as you went through those two at-bats, it got worse.

Q. How much have you guys talked about ways you can generate offense given the last couple of weeks?

CHAD TRACY: Obviously no secret, run scoring in September was a little bit of a struggle. Obviously you've got to score runs to win games. I don't want to -- I'd rather not dig too deeply into yesterday. I think there is a case when you watched the opposing pitcher, when you watched Cam throw and the arsenal that he was featuring last night, you probably tribute that more to a really, really good pitching performance, the increase in the breaking ball usage and how effective that pitch was in and out of the zone. He pitched really, really well.

So I think, in this case, in a situation where we have to go out there and win a ball game, it's more like that game needs to be flushed, and you gotta move on and refocus on what needs to be done today.

Q. What are you hoping you can get from Jahmai leading off today?

CHAD TRACY: Well, he's done great against lefties all year. So with the different banged-up people, with the injuries we've had, we've always hit them up there at the top. Obviously Roman's not in there now, so I feel like getting him up there at the top and give him as many looks against the left-handed pitcher as we can makes a lot of sense.

Q. The team obviously dug out from a pretty deep hole earlier in the year.

CHAD TRACY: Yeah.

Q. How much does that help you tonight? Or is it completely different because you had a much longer runway to turn things around and this is kind of living day to day and a greater sense of urgency?

CHAD TRACY: No, I think you definitely lean on the fact that the team has faced plenty of adversity this year. This is just the next in a line of things that we faced since the summer hit.

I think the guys lean on that, too, knowing we've dealt with plenty of stuff before. Just staring at a spot where, hey, we've got to win two games in a row. We've dealt with more than that before.

Obviously, it's a big stage and there is no tomorrow. But they have dealt with plenty before that that equip them for that.

Q. At what point did you guys actually send Roman back last night?

CHAD TRACY: Late last night, yeah.

Q. Like after everything was done, after the game. How did he take the news? What can you tell us about how his mood was?

CHAD TRACY: He's upset. Mentally going through it, he wants to be out there. He wants to be out there with the guys. He's still working his way back right now as far as coming back from Boston. He should be here in a little bit. So I haven't seen him, but I did text with him a bit.

It's grinding on him, for sure. He's upset. He wants to be out there with the guys. And obviously everything he's gone through this year, dealing with these different things, it's tough for him.

So there's no question from anybody on our side of things, like, we love the kid, love the player. Fantastic player. He's just dealt with hardships this year, and this is the next in line of that. But he wants to be out there with the guys, and he would if he could.

Q. Last night, in a tough clubhouse, Payton Tolle and Trevor Story in particular talked about believing in "us." You obviously believe in this team. But at a time like this, with your backs against the wall, how do you express that belief to them? Is it unsaid? Do you speak to them?

CHAD TRACY: It's unsaid. You speak to them. I think there was something I shot last night, like, just we gotta go out and win two in a row. Done that plenty of times this year.

So, as I said before, everything the group has been through this year and different messages that were sent, there's a body of work and a body of adversity that you fight your way through where this just becomes, for them, like no big deal.

That doesn't mean the outcome's going to go in our favor, but it means they're not going to back down from it. They understand what the task is. So at this point, I'd say it's fairly unsaid that this group has gone through enough lumps together that they're just going to go out and attack the game the way they know how.

Q. That late night at night after the game, how do you get him there?

CHAD TRACY: He drove. We had a car take him there.

Q. So he got there at 3:00 4:00 in the morning?

CHAD TRACY: It's not a horribly long drive so he got back there, did it, got him there first thing in the morning, and then now he's making his way back.

Q. He drove back late last night. Why couldn't he get an MRI here in in New York (indiscernible) great hospitals are?

CHAD TRACY: Well, I think it was in the middle of the night and knowing that we could get him back there and potentially be able to get it order and get him in at 8:00 in the morning, get him in as soon as possible, it was probably easier for us. So that was the decision that was made.