A (Disconcertingly Long) Red Sox Injury Update

With two games in the books, spring training is officially underway. After a victory against Northeastern on Friday, the Red Sox dropped a surprisingly eventful game on Sunday. The Sox led the Blue Jays, 5-2, in the fourth inning. The score stayed the same until the ninth, when the Jays exploded for six runs then barely held on for an 8-7 win. The real fireworks happened early, and they made Boston’s offseason moves look very smart. Garrett Crochet looked every bit the ace the Red Sox traded for, striking out the side in the first, while Alex Bregman went 3-for-3 with a single, double, and homer. This is why you go out and get stars:

Obviously, spring training results don’t matter, but it sure is encouraging to watch Alex Bregman pepper a Green Monster, even if it isn’t the Green Monster. However, much more important is the thousand Red Sox players with medical concerns. Those concerns range from Tommy John recovery to lingering knee soreness to waking up with a sore calf. Let's go over them all.

Rafael Devers
Devers is still focused on rehabbing his shoulder. He has started taking grounders and working in the batting cages, but has yet to do any workouts with the rest of the team. Jen McCaffrey posted video of him field grounders on Friday, and he was seen taking infield at third base on Sunday. He’s expected to begin team workouts this week.

Masataka Yoshida
Speaking of shoulders, Yoshida underwent a repair for a torn labrum in his right shoulder in October, and is still recovering. “It’s a long process. It was a big, big surgery,” Alex Cora told reporters. “He’s swinging right now, and he knows that we need him to play defense.” Yoshida took fielding drills with the outfielders in left field at JetBlue Park. “In terms of hitting, I feel 100 percent with my swing,” Yoshida said through an interpreter. “In terms of throwing, I just started throwing outside, so we’ll see how that goes.” When asked if he’d be ready for Opening Day, he said, “That’s the plan. Trying to get more playing time, more at-bats, just doing everything I can to get myself ready.”

Roman Anthony
Anthony sat out Friday’s game after getting hit by a pitch on Thursday, but he’s fine. He played against the Blue Jays on Sunday and went 1-for-3 with a single. 

Jarren Duran
Anthony wasn’t actually slated to start on Sunday, but he replaced Duran, who has a tight left calf. Cora said that Duran should be back this week, so at the moment, it seems safe to assume that the move was precautionary.

Connor Wong
Wong also missed Sunday’s game due to a sore shoulder, but is likely to play today. “He felt it yesterday but it’s nothing serious,” Cora said. “We’ve just gotta play it smart with him and Jarren, too. That’s why they are not playing today.”

Wilyer Abreu
For whatever it’s worth, Julian McWilliams noted that Abreu showed up to camp “notably slimmer.” More importantly, Abreu came into camp with a gastrointestinal virus, and in order to avoid spreading it, he hasn’t been around the team. “The labs came in Friday, said Cora on Saturday. “There’s still something there. He’ll get another lab Monday and we’ll see where we’re at. I don’t want to get into it but there’s something going on. Until we get the clearance from the doctors, we’ll stay away from him." According to Chris Cotillo, the labs have been getting better, but he won’t get into action until they’re back to normal.

Kutter Crawford
Let's move on to the pitchers. On Sunday, Alex Cora told reporters that Crawford is unlikely to be ready for Opening Day. Julian McWilliams reported that he’s likely to start the season on the IL. Crawford has been dealing with pain in his right patellar tendon since his third start of 2024, when he tweaked it while covering first base on a groundball Ryan O’Hearn. You can see the play below:

Crawford pitched through the injury all year, which might explain why his performance and velocity dipped later in the season. He didn’t reveal the injury publicly until he returned to camp and announced that he’d had a setback in the weight room in December. “I did something [to it] this offseason,” he told reporters. I had a couple hiccups within the rehab progression of it all. I’m just a little behind. The strength just isn't there where we want it to be.” On Sunday, Cora told reporters that Crawford had an MRI over the weekend, and it looked the same as an MRI taken earlier in the offseason. He’s still throwing low-intensity bullpens, but this will be a big one to watch. “With Kutter, that’s the one. It looks like is going to be long,” said Alex Cora on Saturday. “Opening Day, right now, is an ‘if.’ Let’s see what happens. He’s just not feeling well. He’s behind and we’ve got to make sure the knee is good so the shoulder doesn’t suffer.”

Garrett Whitlock
As videos and reports of other pitchers flooded our timelines over the past week, we didn’t hear much about Whitlock, because he was resting as part of a scheduled de-load week as he rehabs from his internal brace procedure. He threw a 25-pitch bullpen on Friday and all indications are that he looks good.

Brayan Bello
Bello developed shoulder soreness right before he arrived in camp in Fort Myers, and he took the first week off. He’s graduated to playing catch, and he’s scheduled to throw from a distance of 90 feet today, as well as to undergo a strength test. The timeline here is important. If everything were to go perfectly, Bello would still have time to build up for the start of the season. If he experiences any setbacks, things could get dicey. “I don’t think in a week (he’ll be ready for games). He’s not even throwing bullpens,” Cora said. “Let’s see next week how it goes.”

Lucas Giolito
The team posted video of Giolito throwing yesterday. He’s set to throw his first live batting practice today.

Zach Penrod
Coming into camp, Penrod appeared likely to start the season in Worcester, but at least in the mix for a bullpen role to start the season. However, the lefty experienced the dreaded elbow soreness and underwent an MRI on Wednesday. That domino was likely responsible for the team signing Matt Moore to a minor-league deal as a non-roster invite. The good news is that the MRI indicated Penrod’s unlar collateral ligament is intact. The bad news: “He’s gonna be out for a while,” Cora said. “Nothing structural, elbow inflammation. So we’ll shut him down for now. We’re not talking surgery, but rehab and we’ll see how it goes.”

Patrick Sandoval
There aren't any real updates on Sandoval, who is still expected to return sometime in the second half. In a profile on Sandoval published today, the Boston Globe's Peter Abraham did quote Cora as saying, "We have to be patient."