BOSTON -- Boston Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington downplayed the thumb injury that will sideline Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo for the rest of the season in the Arizona Fall League, but given the team's history with similar injuries suffered by Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis in recent years, there are grounds for at least some concern.

Cherington said Thursday night that Castillo, who played in only eight games in Arizona, has been shut down because of a strained adductor muscle in his right thumb. The diagnosis was made by Dr. Donald Sheridan, the Arizona-based hand specialist who diagnosed Pedroia with the same injury in 2012 and last year performed the surgery to repair the torn collateral ligament in his left thumb.

Castillo sustained the injury after getting jammed by pitches several times, Cherington said. That was the same cause of the 2012 injury that sidelined Pedroia in 2012 and two years earlier led to surgery for Youkilis to repair a torn adductor muscle in his right thumb, causing him to miss the last two months of the 2010 season.

Youkilis and Pedroia both tried to play through the injury until it could no longer be ignored.

"It's an injury that will respond well to rest and conservative treatment," Cherington said of Castillo's injury. "So it's not a concern moving forward, but we do want to let it calm down so there are no complications, and he's not compensating in his swing, or anything like that."

Castillo posted a .278/.333/.361/.694 slash line while playing for Surprise in the AFL. He did not hit a home run, drove in a run, and stole a base. He is expected to be Boston's starting center fielder in 2015.

Castillo was originally scheduled to play in Arizona until the start of the Puerto Rico winter league next week, but Cherington said no decision had been made on whether Castillo will play again this winter.