BOSTON — Had Reid Brignac's S crash landing brought such a suggestion from your mouth during the Red Sox home opener, when Jacoby Ellsbury suffered a shoulder subluxation that meant he’d be joining Carl Crawford on the disabled list, you would’ve likely been laughed out of Fenway Park.

But it’s true: When an overloaded infield has forced the Red Sox to play Adrian Gonzalez in right, he’s significantly lowered the collective batting average, on-base percentage and on-base plus slugging totals posted by Boston’s outfield.

And while that says something about how disappointing Gonzalez’s bat has been this season, it may actually say more about the conundrum facing the Red Sox when Boston’s full stable of outfielders are finally healthy.

It’s not an immediate issue. Ellsbury just began taking live batting practice, Crawford isn’t yet cleared to play the field on a rehab assignment, Ryan Sweeney was disabled only a week ago while Scott Podsednik joined him two days later. And once a couple of those players are healthy, the first two corresponding moves are fairly obvious: 24-year-old Ryan Kalish returns to the minors, then the Mendoza-jostling Darnell McDonald is released.

From there, though, the decisions become more difficult.

Assuming Cody Ross and Daniel Nava are both healthy when the four currently sidelined outfielders are healthy again, the first issue is roster space. With what Podsednik (hitting .387), Sweeney (hitting .292) and Nava have done this season (.455 OBP entering the weekend), the Sox would have six major-league caliber outfielders — but carrying that many on the active squad would be impossible, given the way it would limit them elsewhere.

Nava would be the easiest because he can be optioned to Pawtucket. But doing so would leave the Sox with four left-handed hitters and Ross. There may be too much redundancy therein to justify keeping such an imbalance, especially with backup infielder Nick Punto also swinging lefty, so that may give the switch-hitting Nava an advantage over Podsednik.

Regardless of the roster composition, though, there will still remain the issue of playing time — which will certainly be complicated by off-field factors like salary and status if Nava and Podsednik, in particular, can keep things going for another month. After reaching base in eight of his 10 plate appearances during a three-game sweep of the Marlins, and delivering the game-winning hit on Thursday, Nava’s average had climbed to .340 and his OPS to .973. When added to the DL, Podsednik’s .387 average was highest among AL hitters since he joined the club on May 22.

The expectation is that Crawford will be giving back his starting job in left once he’s healthy, and if he lives up to his $21 million salary, there will be no debate. But if Crawford performs like he did last year, or like a player knocking off the rust after missing half a season due to injury, it’ll be daily fodder to see if Bobby Valentine plays the guy in whom his franchise has invested a portion of its future, or a guy whose performance probably gives him a better chance to win in the present.

There is always the possibility that slumps, setbacks or new ailments could make the choices easy. But barring that it appears Sox management will be forced to make some interesting decisions over the next month, the most intriguing of which may be exploring and executing trades that would figure to say a lot about the direction this team projects itself traveling over the rest of this season.

In a once-unforeseeable scenario — considering neither was thought good enough to play in the majors last season, nor on a 40-man roster a couple months ago — the Sox could potentially deal Nava or Podsednik to a team looking for a major-league capable outfielder in exchange for bench or bullpen depth that could help Boston down the stretch.

Or, since he’s on a one-year deal and an NLCS MVP award on his recent resume, the Sox might be able to swing Cody Ross to a contender in trade for future considerations. Unless it brought an unrejectable return, however, that would amount to a concession of this season by Ben Cherington.

It’s somewhat remarkable to think the Sox could actually get something by dealing one of their outfielders, considering it was barely a month ago they bought Podsednik from the Phillies in desperation, and just eight days after Ellsbury’s injury they traded for Marlon Byrd in the midst of his 3-for-43 start with the Cubs.

But give Boston’s patchwork players credit. Entering the weekend, the Sox outfield had a .282 average, a .343 OBP and a .768 OPS — good for second, second and sixth in the AL — despite Gonzalez’s contributions being at least 10 percent lower in every category. So not only has the team survived the loss of a pair of players who’ve been MVP candidates since 2010, you could even say they’ve the outfield has thrived in their absence.

And that, turns out, wouldn’t be crazy at all.

- - - - - - -

The case for Scott Atchison’s inclusion in the All-Star game is based on the 1.17 earned run average he’s posted over the AL-high 38 1/3 innings he’d thrown before Friday. But among his brilliance has been a knack for turning the momentum in a game with quick, efficient, effective frames — which Valentine made note of after he did it on Thursday. Entering with his team down two, Atchison kept it there through the seventh and eighth, setting the stage for Will Middlebrooks, Kalish and Nava to deliver their victorious heroics.

“Atch was perfect,” the manager said. “Got us back into the dugout on a hot night with two quick innings. I think that was as important as anything.”

After those two frames, Atchison had worked 6 2/3 innings of no-run, two-hit ball since his 19 2/3 innings scoreless streak was snapped June 5.

- - - - - - -

STAT OF THE WEEK: Who says the old guys can’t get it done? Buoyed by the big years of David Ortiz and Paul Konerko, American League hitters age 36 or older entered Friday with a higher OPS (.767) than players under 25 (.711), 26-30 (.726) or 31-35 (.737). And on top of that, the first-place Yankees had 98 more starts by players at least 36 years old than any other AL team.

Dave D’Onofrio covers the Red Sox for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. His e-mail address is ddonof13@gmail.com.