The good news for the Red Sox is that, unlike recent seasons, this edition of the team has credible depth in the rotation, patched together through a handful of transactions in the past year. The bad news is that they’ve had to dip well into that depth way more than they’d hoped here in the first half of the year.
That’s because two pitchers the team hoped were ready to take “next steps” this season have, instead, gone backward. One is 2024 All-Star Tanner Houck, who got off to a rough start, was put on the injured list and is now just working his way back toward the rotation. The other is Kutter Crawford, who showed himself to be a solid rotation option by tying for the league lead with 33 starts last season.
Where Houck struggled to start the year (0-3, 8.04 in nine starts), Crawford simply never got off the ground, suffering a knee injury in spring training. As he has been working his way back from that, though, more disaster struck: Crawford now has a wrist injury that has shut down his rehab again, and his 2025 season is teetering on the brink.
Kutter Crawford Shut Down
Here’s what manager Alex Cora said on the situation this weekend, via Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic: “The knee and the wrist, kind of like he wasn’t able to generate velocity. So that’s a concern, a concern for him too, if he’s trying to push something. Then his shoulder comes into play. So shut him down. He’ll be in Boston in the upcoming days, and we’ll know more next week.”
Depending on how the tests turn out for Crawford, he could find himself sidelined for the entire season. That’s still up in the air, though.
Crawford was brilliant to start the season last year, posting a 0.66 ERA in his first five starts before he twisted his knee late in April. He was not quite the same after that, and struggled after the All-Star break, when he went 3-9 with a 6.59 ERA in 13 starts.
Red Sox Testing Pitching Depth
But the Red Sox are still fairly well set-up for starting pitchers, with ace Garrett Crochet, veterans Lucas Giolito and Walker Buehler, plus Brayan Bello still healthy. The team did announce that it is moving Hunter Dobbins to the injured list with an elbow strain after a successful run, as he went 4-1 with a 4.21 ERA in 10 starts.
He will be replaced by Richard Fitts, who is coming off the injured list. He was solid in three starts to begin the year, but suffered a pectoral injury and has only thrown twice since. Fitts has made four rehabs starts since and is slated to take Dobbins’ place, at least temporarily.
Houck, for his part, will keep moving toward a return to the rotation, as he is slated to pitch for Triple-A Worcester on Tuesday.
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