Curtis Mead didn’t make it all the way through his Boston Red Sox debut on Monday, but the team is hopeful his injury isn’t serious.
The second baseman was plunked on the left wrist by a fastball from Athletics right-hander Jack Perkins in the fourth inning of Boston’s 4-2 victory at West Sacramento, Calif.
X-rays were negative, and the Red Sox termed Mead day-to-day with a bruised wrist.
“Squeezing my hand feels OK,” Mead said. “Just a little bit of pain rotating. We already got an X-ray and everything looked OK, so I’m hopeful that I’ll feel better (Tuesday) morning and it won’t be a problem.”
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said, “It looks like we dodged a bullet, maybe.”
Mead struck out in his lone at-bat before getting injured.
“Just super disappointed,” Mead said of leaving his club debut. “I wanted to come here and help the team and wanted to play. So yeah, it’s frustrating. But it was a pretty fun game. At least we were able to win my first game. That was the cool part of it.”
On Sunday, the Red Sox acquired Mead from the Washington Nationals in exchange for left-hander Connelly Early.
Mead was enjoying the best of his four major league seasons before the swap. In 87 games for Washington this year, he hit .254 with 17 homers, 17 doubles and 48 RBIs — all career highs.
The 25-year-old Australian played for the Tampa Bay Rays (2023-25) and the Chicago White Sox (2025) before the Nationals traded for him just before the start of the 2026 season.
In 240 career games, Mead owns a .244 batting average, a .321 on-base percentage, a .388 slugging percentage, 22 homers and 79 RBIs.
