The Boston Red Sox have placed star pitcher Garrett Crochet on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 26th, due to left shoulder inflammation.
In a corresponding move, utility player Nate Easton was recalled from Triple-A Worcester prior to Wednesday’s game vs. the Toronto Blue Jays.
Crochet currently sports a 3-3 record with a 6.30 ERA, and 37 Ks across 30 innings pitched. Despite that ugly final stat line, most of that damage came in a career worst outing on April 13th against the Minnesota Twins in which the 26 year old gave up 11 runs (10 earned) through just 1.2IP.
Removing that poor outing, Crochet has been sitting batters down at his usual rate, with now fewer than 7 strikeouts recorded in each of his other starts. The 6’6″ lefty hasn’t been done many favours by the Red Sox offence, as the team has sputtered out of the gate, scoring the 10th fewest runs across the majors.
Boston currently sits in last place in the AL East with a 12-18 record, as Crochet will join fellow starter Sonny Gray on the injured list for an already thin starting rotation. The team’s poor start led to the front office relieving manager Alex Cora of his duties last week.
The club has yet to name a replacement starter for Crochet’s next scheduled turn through the rotation, meaning there could be another move to come. Crochet was scheduled to take the mound on Friday at home against the Houston Astros in a 7:10pm ET primetime matchup.
Connelly Early and Ranger Suarez could get bumped up in the rotation and still pitch on normal rest thanks to Thursday’s day off, but fans will have to wait a bit longer to see what newly minted interim manager Chad Tracy has in mind.
The good news is that the team’s ace told Christopher Smith of MassLive.com that he doesn’t anticipate being out longer than the minimum stay on the IL. Both Crochet and the team are hoping that by acting out of an abundance of caution following reports of arm fatigue that they’ll nip whatever ailment is nagging the southpaw early in the process and avoid a season long issue.
The velocity on Crochet’s four-seamer and sinker are both down slightly this year, with his fastball dropping from 96.4 mph to 95.8 mph, and his sinker dipping from 96 mph to 95.2 mph. That being said, he typically ramps up his velocity as the year goes on, and neither represented a particularly large change, leading the medical staff to believe that rest should be sufficient to get him back on track.
Photo: Kelly. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.