The Red Sox announced that left-hander Chris Murphy has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, as Murphy is ready to return to action after undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2024. In corresponding moves, Boston placed right-hander Luis Guerrero on the 15-day IL due to a right elbow sprain, and righty Justin Slaten was shifted from the 15-day IL to the 60-day.
Murphy hasn’t pitched in a big league game since September 2023, and his total MLB resume consists of only 20 appearances and 47 2/3 innings during his 2023 rookie campaign. The southpaw’s 3.88 SIERA was over a run lower than his 4.91 ERA, as Murphy’s 23.1% strikeout rate and 8% walk rate were both solid, and he didn’t have great batted-ball luck in the form of a .321 BABIP.
With his recovery period now complete, Murphy will get another crack at the bigs and give the Sox another left-handed relief option. Aroldis Chapman has taken over closing duties, and the Sox have been using Justin Wilson and Brennan Bernardino in lefty depth roles. Murphy figures to get plenty of opportunity in providing innings and a fresh arm within a pen that has performed respectably well in covering for a rotation that largely struggled.
Friday’s 9-0 loss to the Blue Jays wasn’t a banner night for Boston’s pen, as Bernardino was charged with four runs over an inning of work, and Guerrero allowed two runs in just a third of an inning. Guerrero’s elbow strain developed in the aftermath of yesterday’s outing, and MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith writes that for now, the injury isn’t considered serious enough to merit an MRI for further examination.
Guerrero got his big league career off to a very nice start when he tossed 10 scoreless innings over nine relief appearances in 2024, and it wasn’t until his fourth outing of 2025 that the righty finally surrendered his first earned run. Things have been shakier since, as Guerrero has a 4.15 ERA over his 17 1/3 frames and has more walks (14) than strikeouts (10). A tiny .188 BABIP has helped Guerrero manage okay bottom-line results despite those rough peripherals, but the larger concern for the moment is his elbow health.
Shoulder inflammation has kept Slaten out of action since late May, and his IL stint will now stretch until at least the end of July. The move to the 60-day IL isn’t really a surprise since Slaten only started throwing this weekend, so he’ll need some time to properly ramp up before returning to the relief corps. Speaking of minuscule BABIPs, Slaten’s .188 mark is the chief reason behind his 3.47 ERA in 23 1/3 innings this season, but the hard-throwing right-hander has also done an excellent job of limiting hard contact.
Work Murphy in slowly but in very limited watching, I was impressed and thought he could be a weapon. With the way this team has been up and down, a good showing now could become a trade candidate at the deadline. I hope not but he makes very little and if he’s finally healthy, he can help so many teams down the stretch. I’m not holding my breath but I’m hoping it’s with Boston.
I too was impressed with Murphy and his ability to go multiple innings when needed. The team this year is really killing their pitchers (to some extent, every team is doing that). They are just in so many close games.
Two scoreless innings in a blowout. Good.
Yes. Murphy today: 2 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 2 K, 2 BB, 31 pitches
It is more likely the Red Sox trade Wilson at the deadline than Murphy. Wilson is 37 years old and a rental vs Murphy who has years of controllability and is at or near league minimum. Both are LH.
Wait, I feel like I seen this one before…
Alpaca and Guerrero need to go, Bernie’s been over worked.
I think if Buehler doesn’t have a good start today ,it will be his last for some time. Cora cannot keep running him out there . Giolito seems to have found something and is on a decent run. Bello’s last outing wasn’t great ,but he was also decent before that for a stretch. This team has got to show us something before the trade deadline.
If they can get any sort of prospect for Buehler, even a mid one, they’ve got to dump him. Even Criswell would be a better option.
cdc – Until Houck is ready to return, they really can’t replace Buehler. Who knows how long Dobbins will be out, or when Sandoval will return.
Prior to the season I stated Giolito will return to top form after shaking off the rust …. that’s exactly what has happened. I don’t really understand why people here expected him to suck, he was bad in 2022-2023 because he was injured. Prior to that he was a 3.47 ERA pitcher from 2019-2021. I expect him to continue to pitch well for the remainder of the season.
Bello’s last outing was impressive because it started bad but instead of him imploding like he usually did in the past, he settled in and made it a quality start.
This is why I really think Crochet, Bello and Giolito will help keep the Sox from completely falling out of the race by the deadline. The AL is just awful this year. Did you know the Mariners are on pace to make the playoffs with just 84 wins? That’s insane.
The Sox can hang on with their pitching and the spark that I expected from Roman and Marcelo.
Bello’s last start May quantify as a quality start (6 innings. 3 earned runs) but I was not impressed. I have been a big Bello supporter and still believe a # 2 starter benchmark is within his reach. He has got to cut down on the free passes.
cdc – If you watch tonight’s game, keep an eye on Burns.
He was the 2nd overall pick in last year’s draft and absolutely flew through every level of the minors this year. He can really bring the heat, could be a high strikeout game for him.
What’s kinda cool is he was born in Napoli, Italy … and Mike Napoli is a coach with the Reds!
Burns obviously has a live arm. Merloni mentioned that the Sox hitters knew what was coming. Maybe a coach watching video picked something up on the rookie in his previous start. He got hit hard. Who knows what happens if the Reds make that play at 2ndbase.
cdc – Yeah the Sox definitely caught some breaks last night. Not just the error, but definitely Burns was tipping his pitches. No team would pound a guy throwing triple digits the way they pounded him last night, especially having never seen him before.
And another huge break was Elly falling down getting out of the batter’s box, if he doesn’t fall he’s safe at first base and it’s a 2-run game.
But like I always say, luck tends to even out.
FPG
Sox have the Reds , Rockies and Nats ,got to get some wins against these teams. I would like to get out of the 1st inning not being down. Lets get some runs for Crochet and give the pen a night off. Must admit I did not expect this team to be looking forward to Yoshidas return as lineup “saving”. That may be strong. Crazy we outscore the Jays in the series but still lose 2 out of 3 .
cdc – I wouldn’t group the Reds with the Rox and Nats …. Cincy was 14-7 before last night.
Sox have a habit of pouncing on bad pitching, that’s what skewers their offensive numbers …. feast or famine.
Unlucky for the Sox and Fitts that the game got postponed. After walking the 1st batter Fitts seemed to be on his way to a quality outing.
Duran took a big chance in stretching for a double,
cdc – I dunno, Fitts did give up the two hits and run in his last inning. In his prior game he kinda lost it around the same point.
What I don’t understand, why are games getting suspended these days before they even get to the 5th inning? It used to be the game would be rained out, everything that had happened was washed away, and they’d play all 9 innings on the makeup date.
When did they change the rules to go from everything being erased to everything being preserved as “suspended”? It used to be games were suspended only if the score was tied and they stopped play after the 5th inning.
Fever , who’s starting the ballgames today???
cdc – Interestingly, Bello will pitch in the first game ….. which doesn’t really make sense considering he’s pitched a lot worse in day games than in night games.
Maybe they want to give him a taste of what it feels like to pitch until the end of a game? LOL
Still nobody named for the night game, do they activate Houck or do they go with a bullpen game? Not many other options … Criswell?
Yeah, I don’t know about suspended , postponed,or games getting washed out. Maybe MLB or the players didn’t want any stats not counting.?.? I did like reminiscing about 1975. I lived a couple blocks from Fenway Park on Queenberry st. I was 8 yrs old and started my joy of the Red Sox and all of baseball for that matter. Freddie Lynn, what a ballplayer. Haywood Sullivan, I can’t stand that guy. A contract snafu led them to get rid of all my favorite players. Burleson, Fisk and Lynn. Imagine the vitriol he would receive today for what he did to that team. I’m getting pissed just thinking about it. Marc Sullivan wasn’t a good catcher either. Sorry Marc. Buddy Leroux another gangstah.
Cdc – Same age here, my favorite was Jim Ed because I preferred the strong silent players and man was he strong! But Freddie, Rooster and Pudge were a pleasure to watch too.
I remember the ownership power struggle, wasn’t Buddy the bad guy? Or at least the media made him out to be.
I need to find my painter’s hat with the player names on the side!
NESN had a feature about Rico Petrocelli on the other night that was fantastic. What really struck me was how he went to 3rdbase when they acquired Luis Aparicio. Petrocelli was an all-star SS who helped the team moving to 3rd. Rico was a fantastic player, a player who should get more credit than he does.