Red Sox place Kevin Plawecki on COVID IL

The Red Sox are placing catcher Kevin Plawecki on the COVID-19-related injured list after he tested positive Monday morning, tweets Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. Plawecki and a pair of Red Sox staff members had positive tests Monday morning. The two staffers are not on the coaching staff, tweets Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe.

Catcher Connor Wong is already headed to Fenway Park from nearby Triple-A Worcester in a corresponding move. Plawecki’s placement on the COVID list will temporarily open a 40-man roster spot, though Wong is already on the 40-man, so for the time being Boston’s 40-man roster will be at 39 players.

Major League Baseball’s 2022 health and safety protocols, which were jointly agreed upon by the league and the players association, stipulate a 10-day absence for players who test positive, but it’s not a strict 10-day requirement. Plawecki will be able to return to the team sooner if he has a pair of negative PCR tests, goes more than 24 hours without a fever and is approved both by a Red Sox medical official and a panel of one MLB-appointed and one MLBPA-appointed third-party medical expert (the “joint committee”). Plawecki is vaccinated, tweets ESPN’s Joon Lee.

The 31-year-old Plawecki has appeared in four games for the Sox thus far, collecting a hit, a walk and a sacrifice fly in 12 plate appearances. He’s in his third season with Boston and enjoyed a career-best run at the plate in 2020-21 with the Sox, hitting a combined .305/.364/.414 in 262 plate appearances. Wong, 25, went 4-for-13 with a double and a triple in last year’s MLB debut with the Red Sox. One of three players the Sox received in the trade that sent Mookie Betts and David Price to the Dodgers, Wong hit .256/.289/.442 in 208 Triple-A plate appearances last season and is out to a 4-for-16 start with the WooSox thus far in 2022.