Boston Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman has missed the team’s last nine games with a strained right quad, and it’s been challenging.

Bregman, who broke out on a red-hot start to begin the season, and the Red Sox, in need of all the production they can get, have struggled to weather the storm. When Bregman last took the field — on May 23 against the Baltimore Orioles — Boston stood second in the division, but the lineup’s ongoing swoon at the plate has dropped the club to fourth place at 8 1/2 games back of the first-place New York Yankees. It’s been hard for Bregman to sit back and watch the slump unfold from the dugout, but manager Alex Cora revealed that the 10-year veteran isn’t hanging his head.

“Getting treatment, feeling better,” Cora said before Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Angels, per MassLive’s Christopher Smith. “Good to see him around. Obviously helping everybody. But in good spirits. So it was a good week for him.”

The Red Sox signed Bregman to a three-year, $120 million contract in the offseason, and the two-time World Series champion has been every bit as advertised. Bregman slashed .299/.385/.553 with 11 home runs and 35 RBIs across 51 games before suffering the quad injury — similar to the one that sidelined Bregman for over two months during his 2021 season with the Houston Astros. Bregman has been a lead-by-example figure in the clubhouse, an invested teammate and avid supporter of the youth movement that’s embraced rookies Kristian Campbell, Carlos Narváez and Marcelo Mayer.

Without Bregman, it’s been brutal. Boston has gone 3-6, plummeting in the American League East and the offense has been a strikeout machine, tallying 90 throughout the stretch. The Red Sox have hit .217 without Bregman’s assistance, the defense has been equally as hard to watch and the need for a turnaround is amplified by each passing day.