Red Sox right-hander Kutter Crawford is going to have surgery on his right wrist. Manager Alex Cora told Tim Healey of The Boston Globe today and added that the righty is “most likely” done for the year. He’s already on the 60-day injured list and will stay there for the remainder of the season.
It’s the latest development in what has been a very frustrating season for Crawford. Back in mid-February, he was behind schedule to due soreness in the patellar tendon of his right knee. He began the season on the 15-day IL, with his ailment listed as patellar tendinopathy.
Earlier in June, it was reported that Crawford was dealing with wrist pain, with an unknown cause. Cora revealed today, per Healey, that the injury was a result of some off-field accident. He didn’t provide any specifics but said it wasn’t due to anything “irresponsible” on the part of Crawford.
Perhaps more light will be shed on this accident in time. Regardless, 2025 will probably be a lost season for Crawford, though Cora’s use of the phrase “most likely” seemingly leaves the door open for some work late in the year.
Crawford has been establishing himself as a viable piece of the Boston rotation in previous years. From 2022 to 2024, he gave Boston 390 1/3 innings with a 4.47 earned run average. His 23.9% strikeout rate and 7.2% walk rate in that time were both a bit better than average. Ideally, he would have continued to build on that performance in 2025 but that won’t be coming to pass.
He qualified for arbitration for the first time this past offseason as a Super Two player. He and the Sox avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $2.75MM salary for this year. An arbitration-eligible player who misses an entire season will often end up making the exact same salary in the following year, so that is perhaps what will play out here.
For the Sox, they have received nothing from Crawford this year and have also lost Tanner Houck and Hunter Dobbins to the IL during the campaign. Their rotation mix currently consists of Garrett Crochet, Lucas Giolito, Brayan Bello, Walker Buehler and Richard Fitts. Houck is currently on a rehab assignment and could be back soon. Dobbins isn’t expected to be out long. The Sox also added some rotation depth by acquiring Kyle Harrison in the Rafael Devers trade. Patrick Sandoval could get back into the mix later in the year once he recovers from last year’s elbow surgery.
Crochet is the only one in that group currently putting up really strong numbers, so it’s possible the Sox will look to bolster the rotation at the deadline if they stay in the race. They are currently 40-41 and 2.5 games back of a Wild Card spot.
Photo courtesy of Dale Zanine, Imagn Images
Roman for Sandy
Keep dreaming.
Dirty – Agreed, I want no part of Sandy aka Buehler 2.0
More than a Roman
Clone me a prime sandy koufax and I’d listen to see what else is to the deal.
GaSox – Agreed!
So what do you think of the sweep today?
Offense was anemic again, only 3 Hits and 2 Walks and 14 K’s.
There were some silver linings though:
1) Didn’t lose in extra innings again
2) Didn’t lose a 1-run game again
3) Didn’t commit an error
4) Cora didn’t get ejected
5) They had beautiful weather
6) They can’t lose again until Friday
Ya think Raffy’s BFF Vladdy will have some extra motivation this coming weekend in Fenway?
Still waiting for some of those wins that Breslow insisted wouldn’t have happened if Raffy was still on the team ;O)
Maybe get knee surgery??
cdr – He developed the wrist injury while on the IL, it was not an error by Darragh.
It makes sense to get the surgery since the Sox have stated they won’t try to contend until 2026 at the earliest.
They will need Kutter healthy next year.
That has healed, the wrist is new
No, the Red Sox have not stated they won’t try to contend until 2026. That would be big news, repeated often like the Full Throttle comment.
Well they certainly aren’t looking like they are competing for 2025. But you’re right to call out Fever who just makes assumptions
Well, it was funny back in February talking about how superfluous the Patrick Sandoval signing was.
Fast forward 4 months with Houck and Dobbins on the DL, Crawford done for the year, Buehler being a spectacular failure, Giolito predictably being a bum, and Fitts struggling, and man, I can’t wait to see Patrick Sandoval.
Life sure comes at you fast.
Based on the current track record of Buehler and Giolito (Paxton, Kluber…. Etc) I don’t have high hopes for Sandoval.
Pitching depth is huge, it would have been nice to spend on actual good pitchers this off-season but that’s too much to ask.
Certainly true. It’s like Boston’s approach to building a pitching staff was adapted from the mystery box bit from that old Family Guy episode. “Lois, a boat’s a boat but the mystery box could be anything! It could even be a boat!”
Sandoval probably isn’t gonna be any better than the rest of these stiffs, but at least for the time being he is still technically the mystery box.
Dirty – There’s another box in play …. Kyle “Don’t Call Me George” Harrison.
We should see him shortly after July 4th …. when he no longer is able to accrue a full year of service time this season.
Also true! I chuckled when I saw the quip in the media about him being down in the Minors to “revamp his arsenal”, like yeah, they’re just gonna overhaul his pitch mix in the next 10 days. Sure, okay. Lol.
I am hopeful he will turn out to be a decent arm in time, though still being young and relatively inexperienced I’m expecting he’s going to have to take some lumps this summer adjusting to pitching in Boston. Which is fine. But I’d rather see him and Fitts in there taking the beatings and getting the learning experience from it, than continue to see Buehler and Giolito keep taking up space without moving the needle.
Dirty – I’ll go on a limb, if the Sox are sellers both Gio and Buehler are gone by the deadline.
If the Sox are buyers, Buehler is gone or demoted to the pen.
Dirty – I think of that same family guy scene often ha!
That’s exactly how I viewed most of the signings.
Why sign Max Fried when you could sign Buehler! He could be anything, even as good as Fried!
giolito has actually been more than serviceable. buehler looks like he is legit done it’s painful to watch and i’m a yankee fan
WAR is exactly zero, he’s been extremely hittable and sporting a hard hit rate close to 50%, and an xERA over 5 and a half.
To be fair he has a surprising 6 quality starts, though even in a couple of them that I watched he was skating by without much in the way of “stuff.” He’s hardly generating any swings and misses and has a pretty low ground ball rate.
For a team claiming to have playoff aspirations, him being our third best starter, which he is right now, is flat out not good enough.
6 of Giolito’s 10 starts have been quality starts. I’d say he’s being a fine middle of the rotation arm so far.
Correct on the number of quality starts, which is kind of surprising. His stuff is not fooling anyone and is getting hit hard. That’s why in three of his other starts he’s given up 6, 6, and 7 earned runs. Even in some of these quality starts he has still allowed a bunch of hits and walks, he is not fooling anyone up there. There have just been a surprising number of fluky days where the baserunners happened to not translate into runs.
It’s actually quite funny, the Red Sox ended up winning 2 of those 3 starts where he allowed 6+ runs.
True, but you can’t count on good fortune like that to continue.
Yeah, just thought it was funny. I was at the one 3 weeks ago and it was an emotional roller coaster.
“Even in some of these quality starts he has still allowed a bunch of hits and walks”
Thats not true. Take out the Bad 3 and the rest are decent to very good.
6 inn, 6 H+W
6 inn, 3 H+W
6 inn, 6 H+W
4.2 inn, 7 H+W
7 inn, 8 H+W
6.2 inn, 3 H+W
6 inn, 7 H+W
Result: 0.94 Whip
Dirty – I know I’m always the eternal optimist, but it’s really not THAT bad!
Houck isn’t really injured, he was just messed up by Bailey and the coaching staff and Cora leaving him in blowout games TWICE.
Gio has been great of late, seems like he’s finally shaken the rust off.
I don’t want to jinx my man Fitts but his last start doesn’t count, as he should have still been rehabbing …. it was just another panic move by Cora and management because they were desperate for a starter at the time.
Yes Buehler is a disaster, just as I had feared at the time they signed him.
Sandoval should be good as new around Labor Day ….. 2026 ;O)
For the first time in a very long time, Boston has a quality pipeline of young pitchers in the minor leagues. Next year, they have both Crochet & Bello locked up for multiple years and will still have Houck & Crawford controlled via arbitration for another 2 years.
Down on the farm, they have Luis Perales (recovering from TJS) who is projected to be a solid #2 starter with a ceiling of a #1. Then they have a TON of #3, # 4 and #5 starting pitching prospects in Harrison, Tolle, Early, Clarke, Sandlin, etc. along with some very solid prospects in A & A+ ball as well (Valera, Paez, Monegro, Cason).
On top of that, they will have Fitts & Dobbins for 2026 depth and hopefully a full season of a healthy Sandoval as well.
This year was clearly a year of final development for their young pitchers in the minors, not to mention the development of their Big 3 (Mayer, Anthony & Campbell). They hoped that Giolito, Buehler, Story, Wong, etc. would play well enough to get them to the playoffs, but their real years of contention will begin in 2026 and it will be tied to the success of their young pitchers coming up from the minors and the growth of the Big 3.
Realistically Houck is the actual guy who can return and help stabilize the rotation rather than Sandoval, but I felt like being sarcastic. It’s also been discouraging to read about Houck’s rehab starts, neither has sounded all that impressive. Hopefully just a couple of bad days he moves on from. If they aren’t giving up on the idea of the playoffs yet he needs to return to form and put up strong results down the stretch.
Gio I don’t have any faith in to be a major contributor. He’s somehow making it work better than he should be able to with how hard he’s been getting hit, clearly he is not fooling anyone. If they are actually still trying to push for a playoff spot he cannot be our third best pitcher. If we need him to eat innings as the fifth guy, fine, there is some value in that but given some of his contact and batted ball metrics I think he is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.
Hate to admit I was wrong on Buehler, but while it was easier to write off a couple of the early starts as rust or adjusting to a new team, he’s only gotten worse and they just cannot keep running him out there. Houck will hopefully bump him from the rotation for good upon his return.
Dirty – If Fitts can stay healthy, I think he will play a bigger role this year than people think.
Dobbins is the big question mark because of the health concerns.
So who do you envision as their #2 in the second half? It kinda sounded like Houck, but no mention anywhere of Bello? He’s been pitching well too.
Bello is absolutely the number 2 right now. No mention of him because that was my gripes list. Assuming no trade acquisitions the rest of the way, I’m envisioning the pecking order ideally as:
1. Crochet – rock solid ace
2. Bello – he’s been cruising and I hope he keeps it up. It really feels like he’s turned a corner and this is the version of him I’ve been waiting for
3. Houck – I’d say I’m like a 3.5 out of 10 in how worried I am about him, which is to say just a tick above mild concern. Probably half of the concern is just because it’s getting late enough in the season that margin for error is shrinking more rapidly so there won’t be a lot of time to figure out if he is back to being an effective starter before they have to either go trade for one, or give up.
4. Fitts – Same as Houck, I do think he’s a better pitcher than his results have looked this year, so big picture my concern is minimal and I still see him fitting into the staff in some capacity in the future.
5. Gio – if all the above are firing on all cylinders, I’ can live with letting him run with the 5 spot for as long as he continues to keep them competitive through 6 innings. If he falters, especially if they give up on pushing for a wild card, he should go to the bullpen to make way for Harrison.
6 .Harrison – probably a work in progress until next season, so if they’re competing I won’t be upset if Giolito or Sandoval stay ahead of him. If they wave the white flag, getting him experience should become a higher priority so he should slide into the 5th spot.
If you get that group firing on all cylinders, we’re talking about a 1-3 that can more than hold their own in a playoff series.
Ironically, starting pitching isn’t even the biggest issue on this team. Not even top 3.
“Houck and Dobbins on the DL, Crawford done for the year, Buehler being a spectacular failure, Giolito predictably being a bum, and Fitts struggling…”
To quote Seinfeld, “but you gotta like their chances”. lol
youtube.com/watch?v=0mkMJre_PbE
Love their chances.
Tim Healey is from the Boston globe, not newsday
Doesn’t matter who’s on the field, who’s on the farm or who’s on the IL… this team is going nowhere with Cora in the dugout. It’s embarrassing man. A total failure in preparation and execution. That falls on the manager and the coaching staff.
It’s so bad that NESN has changed the graphics when they show the defensive “line up” for the Sox. They used to show how many team errors they have and their rank in MLB. They don’t show the rank anymore because it was always 30th.
The season is half over and this team is incredibly hard to watch. Lead off double and no one (NO ONE) can advance the runner to 3rd. It happens nightly. And can we please go a whole game without having multiple guys get thrown out on the bases?!? FFS…
But hey… Go Sox!
Agreed. Swan.
It would also be nice to see a game where one of our players who has 1 or 2 hits in the game is NOT pulled for a player who hasn’t had a hit in the past 7 years!
swan – You are 100% correct! And it’s not just this season …..
The Red Sox have the most errors in MLB going back to 2019.
As for “hard to watch”, it depends on how you approach it.
If you watch the games expecting wins, sure you will be disappointed.
If you watch the games to see the performances of players like Mayer (GREAT game last night), Duran (don’t give up on him!), Narvaez, Crochet, Chapman, etc it’s definitely enjoyable.
Even Roman has had a lot of great PA’s, he has tremendous plate discipline for a kid his age. He may make an out, but he’ll drive up the pitch count doing it.
The resurgence of Story is pretty cool too ….
Fever—When…WHEN…will this David Hamilton experiment be over??? The hot dog vendor at Fenway can hit better than him!
Chance – Bregman will be back soon, that’s when the Hamilton Experience ends.
Heck, he’s even getting thrown out trying to steal.
But to his credit, he does have two of the biggest homeruns this season.
But yeah, one big homerun a month doesn’t make up for all the futility.
I wonder how Grissom feels watching Hamilton.
You have to wonder how much all of these injuries / struggles has to do with the Bailey and his “Pitching Lab'”
After all Crochet is the only one in the rotation enjoying any success. Is that because Bailey hasn’t had time to destroy him, too?
I was hugely excited about the Bailey hire. Now I wonder if it is time for him to go?
DBH – You’re right. Crochet is a beast, his pure size definitely helps him stay healthy …. he won’t be fracturing a rib any time soon.
But Bailey’s emphasis on constant max effort, max velo, spin rate, etc is definitely taking it’s toll.
Keep in mind Driveline has it’s hands all over the pitching changes too …. they are not just about hitting.
Is ” pitching lab” the new catch phrase for pitching development people? ..seems like just today ive heard that term be used in connection with at last half a dozen or more teams on mlb radio (not Boston as I think you need to be good to have a “lab”)
Here is a link from Jan 2024, Pool…
statslugfest.com/post/andrew-bailey-craig-breslow-…
Basicially, Bailey and Breslow came up with the idea of getting away from using the fastball so much. It worked for about 2 months until teams caught on to what the sox were doing.
But being Boston, they’ll never admit that the project failed.
Worse, other teams have now begun to develop their own labs.
Analytics gone asray in my opinion.
There’s also the ‘Run Prevention Coordinator’ or similar phrases title which is equally as annoying.
I think the important thing is that there is now a strong focus on the pitching side. Not all labs are good/quality, but I hope that a team with the resources like the Red Sox can eventually create a good one. Whether you call it a pitching lab, development program, whatever. Just find a way to have a steady pipeline of pitchers, and find ways for the pitchers to adapt.
The only good news is with the money moved from Devers and letting Giolito and Buehler walking they can at least make a run at Cease or Valdez, if they hit the market.
Maybe go get another more proven and healthy veteran to slot in as #3 and hope Bello shows enough to be more than a competent 4.
This season is cooked and they should dump Cora. It goes to show he was lucky in to win the series.
Being this was an off-field incident is it guaranteed that the red Sox cover the surgery especially after he lied about it.
Long time Sox fan. It’s time to admit they are a clown show.
Worst fundamental team ever. Poor fielding, base running , hitting with men on base.
Terrible optics – Devers.
Manager seems to have checked out and team seems lifeless.
Ownership enough said.
Wanted to go to a few games this year but watching this dumpster fire is easy to say no to the most expensive tickets in baseball to sit in a mausoleum.