MAY 30: Whitlock will indeed have the internal brace procedure today, Cora tells reporters. Chris Cotillo of MassLive was among those to relay the news on X.
MAY 25: Whitlock is tentatively set to undergo an internal brace procedure, he told The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey and other reporters. The details will be confirmed after more testing this coming week. Assuming the surgery takes place as planned, Whitlock will miss roughly 11-12 months in recovery, as opposed to the longer 13-15 month timeline associated with Tommy John surgeries.
MAY 20: Garrett Whitlock has suffered ligament damage in his throwing elbow, Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced to reporters (including Chris Cotillo of MassLive). The Boston right-hander will go for further evaluation tomorrow to determine whether he can avoid surgery.
This was the outcome which the team and its fans feared last week. Whitlock reported elbow soreness coming out of a rehab start for Triple-A Worcester on Wednesday. He’d been working back from an oblique strain that had shelved him since the middle of April and had been hoping to return to the MLB team in the coming days.
Instead, there looks to be a good chance that his 2024 season is over. If Whitlock does need surgery, it would threaten his ’25 campaign as well. Whitlock has already undergone a Tommy John procedure in his career. That came back in 2019 when he was pitching in the Yankees farm system. Whitlock also had two elbow-related injured list stints in 2023, the latter of which cost him five weeks between July and August. Neither of those involved any ligament damage, but this injury unfortunately appears to be more serious.
The 27-year-old hasn’t had a full season as a starting pitcher since his time in the minors. He was an excellent multi-inning relief weapon for his first two MLB campaigns. Boston gave him 10 starts last year before his July injured list placement. Whitlock worked out of the bullpen after returning. The Sox moved him back into the starting staff to open this year. He allowed only four runs in 18 1/3 innings prior to the oblique injury.
Cooper Criswell has stepped into the rotation behind Brayan Bello, Nick Pivetta, Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck. Signed to a $1MM contract last winter after being non-tendered by the Rays, Criswell has been quietly excellent through his first 29 1/3 frames for the Sox. He owns a 2.76 ERA with a solid 23.3% strikeout percentage and a tidy 5.8% walk rate.
Criswell, who will take the ball tomorrow against his old team in Tampa Bay, should hold a rotation spot for the foreseeable future. Starting pitching could be an area that first-year chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and his staff look to address around the deadline, assuming they hang in postseason contention. Boston blanked the Rays this evening to pull back to .500 at 24-24. They’re long shots to stick with the Yankees and Orioles at the top of the AL East but are firmly in the Wild Card picture.
While Boston’s rotation has been a surprising strength thus far, their front five is light on experience. Pivetta is the only member of the group who has ever started 30 MLB games in a season. He and Bello are the only ones who have surpassed the 130-inning threshold at the big league level.
That lack of volume is a big reason that Boston signed Lucas Giolito, who had been one of the league’s most durable pitchers, to a two-year free agent deal. Giolito immediately down with a partially torn UCL in Spring Training. He underwent an internal brace procedure and will miss the entire season.
Even if Whitlock is able to avoid going under the knife, he’s certainly in for a long-term absence. The Sox will move him to the 60-day injured list when they need a 40-man roster spot. Whitlock, who signed an extension back in 2022, is playing this season on a $3.25MM salary. He’ll make successive salaries of $5.25MM and $7.25MM over the next two seasons. Boston holds a $10.5MM option on his services for the 2027 campaign.
What a shame. I know we’ll hear about his extension being bad about now from some, but, you never know injuries and let’s hope for the best.
I still maintain locking him up was worth the risk and the very low salaries involved. Let’s look forward to Garrett’s return with the best possible stuff however long it takes.
I agree the Whitlock contract was a good risk to take.
His performance to date was more than worth the money committed.
With the staff Breslow has brought on I dont think there’s a better place in baseball to try to come back from a pitching elbow ligament issue like his.
He’s in good hands.
It’s why players should look for fair but secure deals at the beginning of their careers if such is offered. In his case, it’s especially true given his earlier surgery. Smart agent. Smarter player.
I couldn’t agree more. If I were a top-5 pick, with a $5M bonus, I’d bank 100% and play it by ear.
But if I were a fringy top-100 guy, I’d look to lock in my control years, even if I had to give a team option. I’d rather have that $12M guaranteed, even if it meant possibly foregoing an additional $20M at the end.
Internal Brace Procedure (IBP) the new medical nomenclature. All our pitchers will eventually go to the mound looking like Frankenstein until we can create a mechanical arm, maybe then, all our teams can depend on their expensive rotations…
With less than two months of sample size? Let’s see how the season goes first
They should have kept him in the pen all along as a dominant 2-3 inning guy like Andrew Miller. He seemed perfect for such a role and maybe it would have saved his arm.
ISOB – I always agreed with that sentiment, BUT, Whitlock always asked to get a shot at being back in the rotation, and, Bloom/Cora both obliged. Once they signed Martin/Jansen the die was cast, even though having Whitlock as a high leverage/multi inning guy plus those two would’ve been one dominant back end.
It will be interesting to see upon his return if he eventually gets a crack at the rotation, or, agrees the ‘pen is a better fit for career longevity.
That’s super cool they accommodated his request to try being a starter. Look how that’s worked out for Jordan Hicks and Reynoldo Lopez. And it was working for Whitlock too, but alas…
GASox – It was ALWAYS his AND the team’s intention for him to be a SP again. The contract is proof. It would have been a good gamble for a pre-2020 Red Sox team that spent, but not for a cheapskate franchise that began counting every penny.
“Whitlock’s options can escalate by up to $2.5 million each based on significant innings pitched in previous years (some cumulative from 2023-26) and for award recognition, a source said. Each year’s option can increase by a maximum of $4 million per year. The innings-related escalators are based on Whitlock accumulating a significant number of innings as a starter.”
Ignore FPG he is and has always been a troll.
I thought you went back to 4Chan, or was it TruthSocial, Mr. Classy
call out his BS. Eventually he’ll talk himself into circles. it’s pretty funny.
Fever Pitch Guy is not only a troll, he’s bad at it.
too bad you have muted him because a post like this would have sent him into a fit
You seem to not understand what the motivations of a troll are.
I have no desire whatsoever to engage with someone online who is being entirely disingenuous. All this weirdo wants is attention. You. can’t win an argument with him, because he doesn’t mean what he says. I only mention his name as a troll on occasion to let people new to the board know he ain’t legit.
I do get how trolls work.they crave attention even the negative variety.. I also think it’s hilarious when they lose their mind when they get insulted or watching them twist themselves into knots. It;s just funny to me. Either way to each their own.
Number of posters still using mlbtraderumors since Tim begn this site and now recognize using same username, after all these years can count with fingers on 1 hand. So many of what I term “rookies” come and go, as will yourself.
fever posts items of interest regarding Boston. he doesn’t veer of course very often and from what have seen myself over the yrs? Is pretty up to date on what’s going on.
probably a much better idea, all involved for users, such as the one above requesting fever to go to one of the dozens of places, ate up with kiddies like all so called chat areas have become.. just another pile of nonsense.
Please, ignore anyone, me also if stops dolts from spamming. go to ur FB, TkTk etc and just park it.
John – I’m showing 20 comments hidden because of people (or I should say accounts) muted, so I can’t see to what you’re responding. But thank you for putting them in their place. Most of us are here to talk baseball and engage in friendly convo, those who are not will be muted. Simple as that.
I do see several comments by Acel all directed at somebody that he apparently doesn’t like. I don’t care who they are about, I have zero desire to read comments solely about other posters. Plus he runs and hides every time he backs himself into a corner, so he’s now muted.
John silver : good post. I look at it that , It’s someone’s opinion about baseball topics on here. So to me it’s interesting to see everyone else’s take . I don’t get the muting or the smack talking about a poster. Who cares
he made very little sense. Fever is making even less sense which is his MO. Fever likes to pick fights with people and is as Icon said a troll and bad at it. His takes are not rooted in reality and are not in tune with anything boston related. if he’s going be sensitive and mute me now that’s his prerogative.
@acell It would be enlightening if you or Icon could actually point out specific examples where he is being completely disingenuous or not arguing in good faith instead of just throwing out aspersions. But I don’t think you can or will.
ok Ignorant. I’ll bite. There have plenty of times he’s argued in bad faith. He’s accused myself and others of having alternate accounts because we made similar points or agree on points on certain topics.. There was the time that he tried to claim that Bloom signed more minor league free agents than the average MLB team does and then embarrassed himself by including international free agents (IE the 16-18 year olds who sign every winter from the DR etc. not former big leaguers signing minor league deals) when that was pointed out he refused to admit he was wrong and then did one of his disappearing acts that he accuses others of after he embarrassed himself. Then he had his weird obsession with accusing me and Joe Brady of posting that we said the Schilling theo thanksgiving dinner never happened which neither of us did then found the conversation and owned himself when in fact neither of us did comment on it. there’s profuse praising he does of others post that only started after reasonable posters called him out for trolling. The list goes on and on….
B dog – I totally agree that it’s cool to hear other people’s views, and sometimes they can change my mind on things.
Problem is, not all posts are about baseball and there are people here whose only goal is to stir up crap and go after other people. They openly admit they are just trying to get a reaction from others, lonely people seeking attention even if it’s negative attention.
So regarding the muting, why would you want to continue reading that sort of thing? If they don’t talk baseball, and don’t even post entertaining non-baseball stuff, what’s the point of reading posts that have no value?
That’s how many of us look at it. The more quality discussion here, the better this place is.
I’m not sure why so many people think pitching out of the pen is so much easier on the arm than starting. The total number of innings pitched is less but innings pitched in and of itself isn’t a standard unit of work. Then on the relief side there’s the strain of pitching multiple days in a row, the relatively quick warm up of the arm for pitching, and a host of other stressors (coming in with men on and having to be “on” immediately for example) that a starter doesn’t have to deal with.
Whitlock had great success with the Sox his first year with them working out of the pen, but it just might be he had success and stayed healthy because he was at his healthiest just after recovery from TJ surgery and would have been successful starting too if the team had been bold enough to use him in that role.
The total innings definitely matters, which is why so many pitchers (especially younger pitchers) wear down in the last third of the season.
The number of “pitches when fatigued” is critically important. Tough to throw 100 pitches at 90+ and not be fatigued…
If you listen to the professionals, the easiest role is a 2-3 inning relief role with a couple days (at least) between appearances. Similar to what Whitlock did in 2021 and what Slaten is doing this year — for the same reason! There were/are injury concerns about their arms and this is considered the best way to manage it.
That was also Whitlock’s most valuable season.
John Smoltz kind of showed it was.
TFF – I totally agree with everything you wrote!
What needs to be pointed out, in 2021 he was pitching for the first time since July 3, 2019. It made sense to keep his innings to a minimum because of his return from TJS.
But the expectation by both him and the team was that he’d be fully recovered in 2022 and therefore able to return as a SP. The extension proves that as the bonuses were all based on innings pitched as a starter. If they didn’t think he was healthy and able to return to starting in 2022 they never would have given him that ridiculous extension. Their MOP was always to go really cheap on relievers and pay more for starters …. and I agree with that philosophy, relievers are highly volatile ….. that’s one reason why they are relievers!
But pointing to his current injury as a result of his starting this year is just as silly as thinking Gio was healthy and injured himself in his first 4-inning ST game.
Whit made just 4 starts this year, never pitched more than 5 innings and he averaged 80 pitches per start. That workload couldn’t have possibly caused the injury, it was obviously a pre-existing injury that would have surfaced no matter how he was used this season.
Some people here are under the crazy notion that relievers can be on set schedules …. they can’t! They need to be available based on game situations that are impossible to predict. So if the plan is to pitch him every 3rd or 4th day, good luck trying to time game situations where 1) He’s needed because Slaten and all the other relievers aren’t available and 2) The Red Sox are still in the game.
Whitlock had a couple injuries last year as well, all pointing to cumulative stress (as are his injuries this year). I don’t think you can blame it on “pre-existing injuries”, especially when there are so many DIFFERENT injuries all pointing in the same direction.
I agree that the plan was always to return him to the rotation, and it would have been a great plan if he could stay healthy in that role. But I’ll repeat my question — when did he last make ten consecutive starts without an injury?
You can manage workload for a couple relievers — obviously not for all eight guys in the pen. Since starters so rarely go past six innings these days, there is usually space for somebody to pick up a two inning stint.
I do realize it wouldn’t be the highest leverage innings, but then neither are the innings pitched as a starter. His highest leverage index was in 2021 by a good margin.
@TFF Speaking of high-leverage. Check out Andres Muñoz’ last three saves (Saturday vs. Balt, Monday vs. NY, Last night vs. NY). Now if those weren’t all high-leverage situations, I don’t know what else they could be lol.
Sure, closers focus their innings in the high-leverage situations and typically have the highest leverage index on the team. But they can’t do that with scheduled innings. The role I would envision for Whitlock is roughly what he did in 2021, carefully scheduled innings (and quite a few of them!) but not the highest leverage situations.
Whitlock is a really good pitcher, when healthy. The trick for the team is to figure out how to keep him on the mound. He threw almost identical innings from 2021-2023, and will be lucky if he reaches the same total this year. His 2021 performance was the most valuable because it averaged higher leverage situations than starting (starting is leverage-neutral) and because it was his best performance.
Completely agree, wasn’t arguing just making a side-bar comment & shamelessly plugging my team lol.
TFF – I didn’t answer your question the first time because it’s a trick question …. he never did make 10 consecutive starts. LOL!
Honestly I’m kinda worn out from the Whitlock starter/reliever debate that has been going on in baseball forums everywhere for years now. It’s like the Ginger or Mary Ann debate, no way to prove either is better.
There’s no way to predict how the human body will react to pitching whether it’s as a starter or reliever, every pitcher’s situation is unique. If Whitlock had remained a reliever-only and kept his innings under 80 every year, there’s no guarantee he would have stayed healthy. If and when he returns I’m fine with him shifting into that role, but I don’t think he will ever shed the injury risk.
For sure, it would seem injuries are part of his makeup. I tend to trust the team on stuff like this, as they have better information than I do (and they really aren’t idiots). But I do have misgivings on this one…
TFF – No matter how good anyone is at their job, nobody is ever perfect. Nobody always makes the right decisions. As good as the B-Team is, I don’t expect them to be perfect so it’s fair to question some of their decisions.
Marry Ann hands down
Sure, is fine to question decisions, Only becomes hubris when I’m certain that I’m right and they are wrong. We have too little information on the outside to ever be certain that we know better.
I would say Mary Ann too, but she is on the short side. I like how tall Ginger is, but being a redhead myself, I tend to stay away from them for combustibility reasons. Gilligan’s Island really needed a blonde.
Ignorant – I think Ginger’s 5’9″ height made Mary Ann’s 5’4″ average height look shorter. But yeah Mary Ann all the way.
I always had a solution for the missing blonde, my dream was to have Jeannie accidentally blink herself into the cast. Talk about Fantasy Island!
@Fever I like it !!! And you must have insomnia because I never see you post this late (or early!)
TFF – Depends on the situation.
Everyone on the planet knew Grady Little sending Pedro out for the 8th inning was a horrible decision. Did he do it because he had information nobody else had? Nope. The thing about information, there’s a lot of it. Managers don’t always value the right information. They will always have a “reason” for their decisions, but sometimes their rationale is idiotic.
Like Dave Martinez opting to walk an ice-cold O’Neill to pitch to a red-hot Devers. He said he did it because he felt his southpaw pitcher matched up better against Devers. Obviously it was an idiotic decision, the announcers were all stunned, and the Sox won the game because of the decision.
So those are two examples where you and I DID know better, but the manager just made horrible decisions. We were certain we knew better, and we did.
Ignorant – I travel a lot, so it depends where I am.
If I wake up in the middle of the night, like when my wife snores, I learned long ago looking at any type of screen will only keep me awake longer.
This weekend I will be in 4 states, all EDT ;O)
Ginger would have been too high maintenance
Birdie – Totally agree, but even in terms of beauty I think Mary Ann wins … wholesome, all natural.
The extension is made or broken by his performance in the 2-3 years of free agency that it bought out. They wouldn’t have non-tendered him over this.
And as you say, worth the risk for sure.
Absolutely no objection to the extension, which as you say was a good risk, but the value on that is made or broken by the years of free agency bought out at the end. They would have had Whitlock through 2026 regardless, and the uncertainty in arbitration awards is relatively small.
Him and everyone else. Injuries are just ruining the sport.
While we’re at it, the umpires union is also ruining the sport since they protect incompetent clowns like Bucknor and Hernandez.
Brian O’Nora also was absolutely terrible in Skenes’ start on the 17th.
Birdie – great point. He was so bad it seemed personal.
It is personal for a lot of these umps bc they need to feed their ego and make the games about themselves. It’s rare for them to admit fault. Humans make errors but apparently a good deal of MLB Umps like CB Bucknor and Angel Hernandez are perfect.
Medicals were the reason the Yankees exposed Whitlock to the Rule 5 draft.
At least the Sox received elite bullpen innings (where he should have remained) before the chickens came home to roost.
The Yankees didn’t expect the success Whitlock had, not as quick as it happened.
He still provided north of 4 fwar/6 bwar depending on your preference (as inexact as was is for pitching.)
We still have him under contract for a good bit if you include the options, he will be back and hopefully throwing just as hard and mowing down the opposition.
That was during a time when the Yankees had more pitchers with interesting arms than available slots. It’s still the case as they’ve had more players taken in the Rule 5 than any other team. They took a gamble coming off of TJS and Covid that he might slip through.
I followed him in the minors. I thought he’d be a mid-level reliever or maybe a backend starter. He turned out much better. On average, a TJS can last eight years but that varies. Some never have a second TJS and others now seem to have them in less than seven or eight years. Looks like he might be in that group.
GASox – I followed his progress after being drafted. He was a top prospect.
“The Yankees pulled off a coup when they signed David Robertston as a 17th-rounder in 2006, and they think history may repeat itself with another late-round sophomore from an Alabama college 11 years later. Whitlock signed for $247,500 out of Alabama-Birmingham in 2017, sliding because of back issues and questionable signability. He fashioned a 31-inning scoreless streak early in his first full pro season and logged a 1.86 ERA between three levels, including a brief stint in Double-A, but he succumbed to Tommy John surgery in July 2019.”
Why are all these pitchers getting injured? Are they not stretching before the game? Guy doesn’t have a high spin rate or velocity. Is it the lack of control of the ball and they’re overcompensating the grip? Or is it just that pitchers nowadays are bad at pitching compared to the good ol’ days?
This caught my attention:
nytimes.com/athletic/5325032/2024/03/08/elbow-inju…
From the article:
Meister, director of the Texas Metroplex Institute for Sports Medicine, acknowledges the dangers velocity poses. But, he said, “spin is worse.”
The sweeper puts tremendous stress on the inner elbow, Meister said. The power “movement” changeup, as Meister calls it, also puts inordinate strain on the arm. “And to throw these pitches,” he said, “you have to squeeze the crap out of the baseball.”
Years ago, Meister recalls hearing the late Johnny Sain, a former major-league pitcher and independent-minded pitching coach, say when a pitcher is holding a ball correctly, he should grip it in a way that he could throw a raw egg without breaking it.
Today it’s the opposite, Meister said. Pitchers apply a “death grip” to the ball, essentially pre-loading every muscle in their arms. At release, those muscles acutely lengthen in what is known as an “eccentric contraction.” The result can be almost like a hamstring tearing, affecting different pitchers in different parts of the arm.
@all in the suit that you wear
But not all of the pitchers are throwing sweepers, so are the pitchers now applying a “death grip” to the ball for every pitch because they can’t grip it correctly as they used to? And Whitlock doesn’t have a high spin rate, so even if he throws his sweeper, it’s not major sin compared to his other pitches.
Old York: Good point. They also may be gripping the ball harder since sticky stuff was banned. Just my speculation. Garrett Cole said gripping a baseball is like gripping a cue ball.
You are right not every pitch is a sweeper, however it definitely seems to be something Andrew Bailey preaches and loves. It is getting results, but it’s also probably destroying arms in the process. Any team implementing this strategy needs depth, and pitchers should be told the risks. They are grown men, if they still want to throw it let them but educate them. Boston pitchers throw these off-speed breaking sweepers more often than fastballs now.
@kingbum
But the point is, not everyone is throwing sweepers and they’re still getting injured. Strider doesn’t have a sweeper but he got injured. I’m just looking for common situation and given that the balls are supposed to be uniform for all the pitchers, and many have complained about them, maybe they’re trying to over grip the ball in order to gain more control and it’s putting more strain on the arm.
Very possible that the “hard ball” is playing a role.
Just because its not a high spin rate compared to others, doesn’t mean he isn’t doing every thing he can to get the most spin rate available to him.
One surgeon says he can recognize which pitchers throw sweepers when he operates on them. It’s a distinct type of tear.
Personally, and with the acknowledgment that I have absolutely no expertise in the matter, I believe it is a combination of spin rate, max velocity on every pitch, banning of sticky stuff, and the new super smooth balls that are causing the problem.
The proverbial camel’s back can only hold so much straw.
It’s a combination of it all
“Banning sticky stuff?”…..I always thought it was illegal all along. Then the few pitchers who never used the stuff were at a big disadvantage in their careers.
Not stretching before? Old York more like really really old york
@Dumpster Divin Theo
I tell my players, if you don’t stretch, you’ll be injured and on the bench for the rest of the season as I don’t put up with preventable injuries. I benched my top player for the rest of the season because he injured himself jumping off a staircase.
Seems like guys nowadays get far too much conditioning and training. Probably best to take a page out of the Babe Ruth diet and hit the bar and restaurant a few more times.
Old York : Don’t Forgot the cigar or cigarettes.
Bdog – A few months ago a Chinese man chain-smoked while running a marathon. Not kidding.
And more stories of the days you and Hawk Harrelson and Yaz would go a courting Betty Grable while on shore leave
I think it’s specialization that’s hurting guys. Kids today don’t just play baseball in the spring and summer, they have fall and winter leagues too. My brother didn’t run into arm issues until he played for his middle school, AAU ball, and town ball all at the same time, then he played more baseball in the fall and winter in AAU leagues. By freshman year of high school he quit pitching and just played center field he was tired of arm pain. It’s a shame because he was throwing low 90s at age 14. My mother did try to have him branch out, when he was 10 he played football, and well broke his arm so that was that lol….When we went to the gym together to workout we shot hoops together….
And don’t forget about them along with Bob Hope commenting, “hubba, hubba” at the sight of Dorothy Lamour.
Yikes, this could be 18 TJ surgeries to date – an alarming rate, particularly since many have also had the newer, less invasive internal brace surgery.
Hope he recovers well. This was a great acquisition by the Sox when they took him from the Yankees.
Clipper, what’s scary is I saw a chart a few weeks back that indicates there is no increase in TJS’s over the past decade. It’s just that we’ve had some more notable names this year. They often are clustered together at the start of the baseball season. If I can find the article I’ll link it. I wasn’t fully convinced by what the author was selling!
I think probably in the past it was the lesser pitchers trying to exceed their abilities to be able to make it at the MLB level. Now there’s co much money involved, everyone seems willing to push themselves beyond their capabilities.
Plus, the phony idea that you need to be bulkier, although that doesn’t apply so much to Whitlock. Ligaments and such are only so able to support what the muscles push them to do.
Lord – Months ago I documented TJS exploded after Chapman threw 105.8 in 2010. So the article is right, TJS has been sky high since the early 2010’s.
L99: Yeah, thanks, man! I would appreciate the read. It seems that we are ahead to this point, YTD, than the prior three seasons; but I didn’t go back farther than that.
It’s a shame that so many notable arms are going down, but it’s part of the game now.
There’s a massive Excel spreadsheet on the internet that makes it easy to crunch the data.
Cora mentioned this after tonights game. On one hand you hope surgery isn’t necessary, but on the other hand the longer you wait the longer it takes to return. I guess the question is will we see Whitlock in ’25 or ’26?
TJ surgery is my biggest fear with Cole. Especially if he will eventually have it you’re risking all of next year too
Why would Gerritt Cole “eventually” need TJS??
Cole could be trying to do something like Tanaka did and pitch with a partial tear and without surgery.
All reports said he hadn’t sustained any UCL damage when he last was examined by Dr. ElAttrache. He’s recovering from elbow inflammation so I don’t know what you guys are talking about unless the Yankees are not disclosing a UCL tear.
Cole has been dealing with right elbow issues. For now they’ve been calling it nerve inflammation and edema issues.
However, that does point to a lot of stress and forces going on in there, and, remember Cole used to be a tack user. Why mention that? Well, for all the talk of squeezing the ball harder and the resulting after effects, you’d imagine Cole might be one of those guys inclined to do just that since he lost use of that sticky stuff.
So, despite the previous track record of Cole’s durability, it could be that he breaks down at any moment. You never know with injuries. Ligaments are intact until all of a sudden they aren’t.
I *think* that’s where suggestions on Cole’s elbow come from, but, thats just a guess.
Rsox – The bigger question is why the Red Sox refused to keep Sale or sign Shota, Lugo, Hicks etc knowing Whitlock was a huge injury risk and Pivetta is a pending free agent. Unless they truly had no intention of contending in 2025 either.
All good questions. It’s not like there is a bevy of young arms on the way either so either Breslow didn’t have a plan or ownership cut him off at the knees.
There’s this thing every GM is given, called a budget.
Yup. And half the teams in baseball have a larger player budget than the Red Sox at this point. Embarrassing given the market size!
Well they weren’t expecting a guy with Giolito’s track record of durability to wind up on the shelf with a season ending injury before ST even began. During the off-season the talk was Whitlock and Houck were going to compete for the 5th starter spot this year, with the idea that whoever didn’t make the rotation was someone who could slide into Pivetta’s spot in 2025.
Nothing to fear but fear itself. And a boo boo
Theo – Red Sox Nation is fearing Sale wins Cy Young while Grissom flames out under the pressure of playing in Boston. Both could happen.
Good thing they pivoted and signed Giolito. Oh wait
While it’s obviously too early to give up on Grissom, he should be playing at AAA til he gets his bat going. Let Hamilton and Gonzalez share 2B in the meantime
This just in, Hamilton is doing quite well.
Yes, but some need to be in a rush to make judgments so they can pat themselves on the back for being “right” and smarter than the FO, even if they spent plenty of keyboard strokes last year bemoaning Sale being on the team and demanding he be traded for “a bucket of used baseballs” repeatedly.
Given what Grissom has gone through to start this year it’s not at all surprising that he;s struggled offensively so far. Given his overall track record as a player it will be surprising if that continues all season long. Optioning him to AAA to give him a chance to get his feet under himself again might not be a bad idea, especially now that Romy Gonzalez is healthy again and can give them that right handed batter in the IF along with Cooper.
Hamilton has definitely settled in….
It’s only May, but I will cry if come August and Sale is the Ace of the Braves staff and healthy. I am still expecting a couple IL stints. I also think it’s too early to tell with Grissom. I am certain Atlanta won that trade, I just hope Grissom makes it a little less one-sided
Bummer, his medicals should tell the story. What does premier surgeon say n if they recommend cutting then don’t waste time n have procedure asap.
We can’t have nice things…..
I know if it were me i’d want whatever is going on in my elbow fixed ASAP so i can get back and pitch next year.
Best wishes for a quick recovery for Whitlock.
From what I’ve read elsewhere, the damaged ligament is in his left elbow, not his right/throwing elbow. Rather unusual, but should allow him to return quicker.
Apparently that was wrong. They updated to his right elbow. Oh well, so much for having hope.
Bee – There’s another pitcher that injured his non-throwing elbow, can’t remember right now who it was.
So it wasn’t Jurrangelo Cijntje.
Pretty soon all the pitchers will be out with TJ
Mlb will need to start signing guys from the long island ducks & Diablo de Los rojos mexico
I would support signing Trevor Bauer off the Diablos….
Rest him up this year and leave him in the bullpen. This team is not going anywhere this year. It is another rebuild year like next year will be too. I am wondering if next year will be full full throttle year too. This team is destined for last place again. This will be the 3rd year in a row.
There are 3 wild card spots….Let’s give one to Baltimore the other to Kansas City….that 3rd spot is up for the taking….Minnesota, Boston, Tampa…..The 2 big questions I got are will Houston and Toronto get hot or Texas….You basically got 1 spot for 6 teams which isn’t good at all
It’s just a real shame this guy just can’t seem to remain healthy. There is no questioning the talent when healthy. He seems like a good guy a hard worker but it’s feeling like hes just one of those guys who can’t stay healthy.
On a good note Houck looks to be a different guy under the tutelage of Bailey. He has a similar arsenal to Webb and felt before the year started that Bailey would be able to help him like he did Webb so far so good.
The AL East is a bit more imbalanced than I thought. BAL and NY are proving to be far better than TB and TOR. With so many games left, BOS may have a chance to not lose so many more games than 81 as expected. They need to break even with TB and TOR to finish around .500. Based on the pitching and the ineptitude of TB and TOR I think they can do it. The pitchers like Houck, Crawford and Bello need to stay healthy and Pivetta needs to perform well the rest of the year. By winning the TB series they are now 1-2 versus the AL East in series. Last year the Red Sox had a couple of early series lopsided wins against NY and TOR. Maybe this year it will be TB and TOR. To sweep tonight Bello needs to be on his game and of course Cora is sitting O’Neill so that should make things a bit more difficult. Also, Rafaela is in CF so Hamilton will be making errors at SS and Devers at 3B making Bello’s chances extremely low but if he is on it could happen. Note that the guy batting 9th has 25 RBIs the most of tonight’s starters. Cora being Cora.
TF – Great post as always!
Preseason I stated that I thought the O’s would finish first and the Yankees second, so I’m not surprised they are both at the top of the division.
I also picked Tampa 4th, which I’m sticking with.
The Jays are the only one I missed on as of now, but I wouldn’t write them off yet.
It was great to see Devers, Houck, Duran and Abreu lead the team to a sweep in Tampa. Now let’s see how they do as they enter that difficult stretch of games that we’ve talked about for a while.
Has anyone said it yet?
Wait for it……
That darn pitch clock strikes again!
Tonight after the Yankees win the Red Sox will be 9 games out. I said it before the season started that they would be out of it by mid May. The Yankees and Orioles are better than we are are and show no signs of letting up and there is no way with the talent level on the Red Sox now that this team will be able to make the playoffs. This will be year 1 of Breslow. Full throttle 2 next off season ? I know injuries are hurting this team but the Yankees don’t even have their ace Cole back yet. By mid June they will be 12- 14 games out. Then we can await the sell off at the trade deadline.
Broken Record.
Another 1 bites the dust !
Ugh
Gotta bring back El Guapo and Ugie Urbina when he gets out Venezuelan prison
Guess Bosox fans will have to brace for some good news