Red Sox Insiders Provide Latest Update On Wilyer Abreu

The Boston Red Sox have been without the services of a key piece throughout Spring Training so far but things seem to be trending in the right direction.

Wilyer Abreu burst onto the scene as a rookie last year and won a Gold Glove Award for his stellar defensive play mainly in right field. The young outfielder was in trade rumors throughout the offseason, but clearly the front office thinks highly of him and didn't send him away in a deal. Abreu is going to be a big player for Boston this season but unfortunately was dealing with a gastrointestinal illness.

He's luckily doing better now, though. He's been cleared for some baseball activity and the Boston Globe's Alex Speier shared that he took part in non-game activities and is nearing live batting practice.

"Wilyer Abreu was able to take part in non-game activities and could soon take live batting practice against Red Sox pitchers," Speier said.

This doesn't mean that Abreu is going to hop into the batter's box in a Spring Training game tomorrow, but this is a great update. A gastrointestinal illness isn't as easy to speculate recovery time about as a sprained ankle or something like that. But, it sounds like Abreu is making progress in his recovery and he even recently made it sound like he thinks he'll be ready for Opening Day.

The Athletic's Jen McCaffrey followed up with another report and said that it doesn't seem likely that Abreu will be ready for Opening Day, though.

"Sounding more and more that Abreu won’t be ready for the start of the season," McCaffrey said. "Cora noted he’s pretty behind and still only tracking pitches on Trajeckt not yet swinging."