Red Sox’ shortstop situation goes beyond failed Kiké Hernández experiment – The Boston Globe

Yet after 14 errors, 12 on throws, the Red Sox were forced to move on from Hernández on a day-to-day basis. His comments on playing shortstop have turned from reflective and confident to aloof and curt.

“I’m throwing the ball in the [toilet],” Hernández said recently. “I’m not making good throws and the ball’s not getting caught.”

The Red Sox’ situation at the position, though, isn’t quite about Hernández. The idea of having him be an everyday shortstop, a position he took on with little experience as a starter, was always a tall order for Hernández, whose true experience falls into the category of a utility player.

More so, the situation is about how the Red Sox’ reliance on Hernández at shortstop, a failed experiment, has led to even more instability at the position.

Yu Chang has been removed from two rehab assignments as he continues to recover from hamate bone surgery. He has missed 54 games while on the injured list. On Friday, Pablo Reyes, who was playing for the lowly Athletics’ Triple A affiliate before the Red Sox acquired him for cash considerations last month, went on the IL because of an abdominal strain.

It’s still just June and the Red Sox have already rolled out seven shortstops, including rookie David Hamilton, who made his second straight start on Saturday against the White Sox.

Besides Hernández, who has played 436 innings at the position, only Chang and Reyes have played 90-plus innings at the position. Last year, Christian Arroyo had the second-most innings played at short (76) behind Xander Bogaerts.

The absence of structure and dependability has made it a daily grind for the coaching staff as it tries to fill such a gaping hole at such a premier position.

“That’s part of our challenge as a front office,” said chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom on Saturday. “We have to try to construct a roster that fits together, a roster that works, and then have layers of depth behind it so that whatever happens, even if you don’t have all of your original 26 available, whatever happens, that you feel that giving your manager and your staff, good options to go win a ballgame.”

Mondesi in restart mode

The Red Sox shut down Mondesi (knee) from all baseball activity a couple of weeks ago. Bloom said Mondesi has restarted his ramp-up with the hope that he could — though there’s still no timeline — get into game action at some point this year.

Mondesi, acquired from the Royals via trade in the offseason as a filler following Story’s elbow injury, hasn’t been able to get beyond the threshold required to play competitively.

“Structurally, he’s fine,” said Bloom. “We knew from the start there was some ground we were going to have to make up in terms of strengthening. We just haven’t been able to get him past the discomfort or soreness, feeling in it. And so it’s been a little bit of a start, stop. We’ve tried different things that just haven’t gotten there yet. Hopefully we will be able to solve it.”

Mondesi will be a free agent at the end of the season.

All about defense for Story

Story has said he could return as early as July as a designated hitter and by August at shortstop. Given the roster construction and how crowded the Red Sox are at the DH position, August sounds more likely.

“Shortstop is the end goal [for Story],” said Bloom. “We don’t want to do anything that slows down our progress towards that. I think it’s a really good thing that he feels he’s going to be able to contribute sooner than that. I think that says a lot about him, who he is and how he’s feeling. But there’s obviously a lot of different things that come with that.”

The offense will take care of itself. Defense, specifically throwing, remains the priority.

“It’s obviously [more focus] on the defense and all the different throws he’s going to have to make,” said Bloom. “Just the overall workload.”

Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @byJulianMack.