Three months ago, it looked like the Red Sox had done an admirable job rebuilding their pitching staff, giving depth to a crew that wore out and had been exposed over the length of the 2024 season. The team acquired an ace in Garrett Crochet, and added a top-of-the-rotation option with Walker Buehler, while getting back Lucas Giolito and beefing up on depth pieces.
Now, though, injuries have stomped on two of their top four projected hurlers, with Tanner Houck out and now, mysteriously, Kutter Crawford suffering a wrist injury from what manager Alex Cora would only call an “accident,” acknowledging that it occurred “off field.”
What, exactly, happened to Crawford is unknown. Cora said Crawford was not at fault and would only say, “It’s not disappointing. It’s just an accident. It just sucks that it happened this way. I’m not going to get into details, but it wasn’t irresponsible.”
Red Sox Had High Hopes for Kutter Crawford
News that Crawford was suffered a setback only trickled out this weekend. Crawford never got off the ground here in 2025, suffering a knee injury in spring training. As he has been working his way back from that, though, Cora revealed Crawford also has a wrist injury that has shut down his rehab again, and put his season in jeopardy.
Crawford had an impressive stretch to start the season last year, and while he did not maintain that pace, he showed himself to be a solid rotation option by tying for the league lead with 33 starts last season.
He put up a 0.66 ERA in his first five starts before he twisted his knee late in April. Crawford 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. Still there was hope he’d be the team’s No. 3 or 4 starter this season.
But with Houck out, Buehler struggling badly and the Red Sox’s depth starters–primarily Richard Fitts and Hunter Dobbins–alternating injuries of their own, the pitching depth has gotten to its breaking point.
“It sucks because we were talking about how deep we were in spring training and the options that we had in the starting rotation,” Cora said before the Red Sox lost 5-2 to the Angels. “And now it’s getting thinner and thinner.”
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