FILE - This is a 2018 file photo showing Craig Kimbrel of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. Kimbrel is away from Boston’s spring training camp while his infant daughter has surgery. Kimbrel's wife Ashley gave birth to the couple's first child, Lydia Joy, in November. Lydia Joy was born with a heart ailment and had a first medical procedure when she was a few days old. Surgery is scheduled at Boston's Children's Hospital. "I love baseball, but I also love my family," the Red Sox closer said Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
FILE - This is a 2018 file photo showing Craig Kimbrel of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. Kimbrel is away from Boston’s spring training camp while his infant daughter has surgery. Kimbrel's wife Ashley gave birth to the couple's first child, Lydia Joy, in November. Lydia Joy was born with a heart ailment and had a first medical procedure when she was a few days old. Surgery is scheduled at Boston's Children's Hospital. "I love baseball, but I also love my family," the Red Sox closer said Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) Credit: John Minchillo

Fort Myers, Fla. — Craig Kimbrel is away from Boston’s spring training camp while his infant daughter has surgery.

Kimbrel’s wife Ashley gave birth to the couple’s first child, Lydia Joy, in November. Lydia Joy was born with a heart ailment and had a first medical procedure when she was a few days old. Surgery is scheduled at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.

“I love baseball, but I also love my family,” the Red Sox closer said Tuesday. “I’m here to work. I’m here to focus and try to get better. When I leave the ballpark, my heart and my mind are definitely at home.”

“The doctors have been amazing, very encouraging,” he added. “There’s a plan for everything. You want to be there and do everything you can, but you have to step back and trust the doctors and doing what we can.”

Kimbrel is making $13 million this year and can become a free agent after the season. He turns 30 on May 28 and had 35 saves in 39 chances last year and led major league relievers with 16.43 strikeouts-per-nine innings.

Under new manager Alex Cora, Kimbrel could be used earlier in games in important situations.

“I think I’ll be used in positions I need to be used in, closing a lot of games and getting us out of some tough spots when I need to,” Kimbrel said.

Cora maintains usage won’t change much.

“People think it’s a big adjustment,” he said. “But if you start looking at the numbers, you don’t lose too many saves if it’s the way you want to use him. We’re not talking about the lower third of the lineup. We’re talking the middle of the lineup, eighth inning, certain situations — what I feel is game on the line.”

Sox Want Yawkey Way Name Gone

Boston — The Boston Red Sox are asking the city of Boston to change Yawkey Way back to its original name, Jersey Street.

The name has been under fire for years for its connection to what the team’s principal owner has said is the franchise’s complicated racial past under former owner Tom Yawkey.

The Red Sox filed the petition Wednesday with the City of Boston Public improvement Commission.

Yawkey Way is the street where Fenway Park resides.

Yawkey owned the Red Sox from 1933 to 1976 and presided over the last franchise in Major League Baseball to field a black player. That was in 1959, more than a decade after Jackie Robinson played for the Dodgers.

The team said Wednesday in a statement that “restoring the Jersey Street name is intended to reinforce that Fenway Park is inclusive and welcoming to all.”

Philanthropic group Yawkey Foundations calls the move disappointing, saying “Yawkey treated every player the same, regardless of their race.” The group urges the commission to reject the proposal.

Yawkey died in 1976. The street was named for him in 1977. The city renamed a stretch of the road David Ortiz Drive last summer in honor of the retired Red Sox designated hitter.