Injured Boston Red Sox setup man ‘a lot closer than people realize’

BOSTON — Injured Red Sox setup man Justin Slaten (shoulder) threw a bullpen session off the mound at Fenway Park on Tuesday.

“I think we’re a lot closer to getting back into action than people realize right immediately,” Slaten said after he finished.

The 27-year-old righty threw his fastball and cutter but no breaking balls. He initially threw off the mound this past Saturday for the first time, but he considers today “the first official bullpen.”

“Super excited about the way that I bounced back after the other day (Saturday),” he said. “It was just kind of like mound session and felt really good today.”

Slaten likely will throw one or two more bullpens.

“Just continue building the volume, mixing in breaking balls next time and then hitters after that,” Slaten said.

He hasn’t pitched in a game since May 28. He posted a 3.47 ERA, four holds, three saves and a .171 batting average against in 24 outings before landing on the IL June 1 with what was described as “right shoulder inflammation.”

Slaten later learned what was causing soreness in his shoulder. His transverse process/bone was pressing and pinching against nerves and blood vessels.

“It’s called a transverse process,” Slaten explained. “It’s like a little bony thing that comes out of your cervical spine. For me, I was just born with one that was abnormally large and misshaped.”

The doctors found “that bone was in a very high traffic area of nerves and blood vessels.”

“Essentially that bone in my neck was kind of pushing on nerves, pushing on blood vessels, causing a lot of like shoulder soreness, specifically in the trap, (scapula) in front of the shoulder area because there wasn’t a lot of blood flow going through,” Slaten said.

Slaten experienced a lot of pain as a result of it.

“There were nights I was waking up three or four times a night, and my entire arm was numb,” Slaten said. “And it felt like for 10 to 14 days that I was having a muscle spasm in my shoulder area. So that’s kind of why we initially called it shoulder soreness.”

He said he then underwent more imaging to make sure he hadn’t fractured his collarbone.

“Super weird offer but glad that we got it figured out and glad that we got it to calm down,” Slaten said. “And I’m feeling good immediately.”

Rest and correcting posture helped it calm down. He said a future procedure to fix it permanently “is not something” he and the doctor discussed.

“Just getting my shoulder to sit back in its natural spot,” he said. “Once we kind of started doing some postural corrective stuff probably about like a week after that, I started seeing a real significant difference in how I was feeling and how I felt like I was recovering on a day to day basis.”