Red Sox manager Alex Cora informed reporters today that right-hander Johan Oviedo has been diagnosed with a flexor strain. He has avoided surgery but will be shut down from throwing for six weeks. Chris Cotillo of MassLive was among those to relay the details of the situation.
“Thankfully, (the ligament) is really strong right now,” Oviedo said of his own arm. “It’s just the things that are around it, all the little muscles are what’s getting damaged right now. Still, it’s not what you want. You don’t want anything to get to this, but it’s just the case right now. No one wants to get hurt but it’s better to get rest and heal from it than actually going through a surgery or anything like it. We’re positive about it.”
As Oviedo himself outlined, it is good news, in a sense. He required Tommy John surgery in the fall of 2023 and missed the following season, in addition to part of the 2025 campaign. He started this season with diminished velocity and then landed on the 15-day injured list with a right elbow strain. If his ulnar collateral ligament had required another operation, it would have put him on the shelf for another year-plus.
Relative to that scenario, this is a welcome development, though it’s still quite notable. Even if he is fully recovered after six weeks of not throwing, he’ll then have to ramp back up, effectively starting spring training from scratch. Even in a best-case scenario, he’s probably looking at something in the range of a three-month recovery timeline.
In the short term, the Red Sox have a good on-paper rotation without him. They currently have Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray, Ranger Suárez, Connelly Early and Brayan Bello taking the ball every five days. Both Patrick Sandoval and Kutter Crawford are making rehab starts this week and should be back in the mix soon. Prospect Payton Tolle is pitching in Triple-A. The rotation numbers haven’t been great so far, contributing to the club’s grim 3-8 start, but the results should be better going forward.
Still, it’s a less than ideal outcome. The Sox made Oviedo a key piece of their offseason. They traded a couple of prospects, including Jhostynxon García, for a three-player package headlined by Oviedo. At the time, Oviedo had just come off his surgery absence but showed some promise by posting a 3.57 earned run average with the Pirates in 2025. The Sox decided to jump on him, with Oviedo having two years of club control at the time of that deal. He will now miss a decent chunk of the first of those two years.
Turning to another part of the roster, Triston Casas appears to have hit another unfortunate speed bump. Casas recently tried swinging and Cora said it “didn’t go well,” per Cotillo. Casas began the season on the injured list, still recovering from last year’s knee surgery. About a week ago, a strained left intercostal muscle added to his woes. Thanks to those injuries and some torn cartilage in his ribcage in 2024, Casas has only played in 92 games since the end of the 2023 campaign.
The Sox don’t really need Casas for now, as they have Willson Contreras at first base. The designated hitter spot is being used to spread playing time between outfielders Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Masataka Yoshida. But getting Casas back to full health would give the Sox some coverage for the event of someone else getting injured, or perhaps allow them to make a midseason trade.
Casas hit 24 homers in 2023 and slashed .263/.367/.490 for a 131 wRC+. He is under club control through 2028. He’s in wait-and-see mode until he gets back into game action and it’s unclear when that will be.
Photo courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel, Imagn Images
The injury bug is alive and real
Not a good first look for the trade. This may be one Boston regrets.
Its a wash so far depending on how the guy they called up does..garcia is struggling really bad to start the season..
Injuries are a wild card in any trade. A team doesnt have to win every trade, just most trades.
Is the Password really looking any better to you, hitting a buck eleven at AAA?
J. Oviedo just needs a couple of months off… He’ll be fine.
Did you see T. Samaniego pitch today? He struck out the side. I think it is a little premature to call this a regrettable trade.
He looked good! Can we keep him around and bump Weissert when Slaten comes back!?
Yesterday was a great win, using Weissert, Samaniego and Watson to finish things up.
And it begins. Here come the lingering issues with Casas I was worried about.
Its time to move on from Casas, the work ethic doesn’t seem to be there. Can we really count on him even if he does have a decent stretch of health?
Right now, I wouldn’t think so, but he’s young enough still that this can be corrected. He has minor league options left so I don’t think it’s time to fully cut bait and give up on him. But he could definitely stand to benefit from being humbled a bit with a stint in Worcester instead of treated as a foregone conclusion they’ll work him into the lineup immediately upon return.
The Red Sox faithful need to put Casas in the rearview mirror. He’s the poster boy for the IR. As for Oviedo, he’s been damaged goods for most of his career which made him a perfect acquisition for the clueless Boston FO.
I’m not a huge Casas fan but he just turned 26 and has a career.800 OPS. He’s coming back from an injury. What’s the problem?
I’m gonna put your takes in the rear view mirror,
I wouldn’t be ready to put Casas in the rearview were I a Red Sox fan (which, praise the heavens, I am not). I think he still has a shot to be a decent player.
But the problem is pretty clear and it’s that he’s always coming back from an injury.
Lets not forget the injuries are happening on the most mundane tasks.
Swinging a Bat: Lost a Season
Running to Firstbase: Lost more than a season
Rehabbing an Injury: New injury, extending his stay on IL
He’s cheap, so leave him in the minors for insurance. But, clearly the Red Sox moved on from him when they traded for Contreras.
Casas still has 3 options left.
Breslow will occasionally do something good but is his own worst enemy half the time. He loved Oviedo’s velo and arm extension so much he ignored the career 4.29 ERA (despite his home games in pitchers park) and meager 2.6 fWAR through 82 games pitched, and despite throwing hard, less than a strikeout per inning and very high walk rate. Oviedo’s just not very good. On his best days (which are few and far in between), he’s an average pitcher.
Thirdbaseman:
If you can predict injuries with certainty in baseball, you’d be rich working in a Front Office.
He’s avoiding surgery for now. But what about later? I would suggest reducing the spin rates and velo. Just take it easy, man. Don’t go balls out on every pitch. Know when to bring it, and when to hold back a bit. These pitchers aren’t machines. They’re mere mortal men, and the human arm isn’t meant to contort in such horrific ways. It wasn’t that long ago that a pitcher went out and finished what he started on a regular basis. We need a dose of nostalgia in baseball amongst all these newfangled rules changes. Let’s bring back the complete game!
Unfortunately the brilliant minds who currently constitute Boston’s “brain trust” don’t have any better ideas than “throw as hard as you possibly can” or “swing as hard as you possibly can”, despite mounting evidence that it isn’t effective and is getting guys hurt.
Dirty – I have nothing to add because you nailed it!
Dirty- Breslow and Bailey think they can “fix” everyone by forcing extension and hard break down everyone’s throat once they get here. They try to fit every round peg into every square hole.
I’ve yet to see a pitcher come here and the FO says here are the things you do well, lets keep that and tweak a little and more development along the way. Its my way or the highway day one.
To be fair, i will admit theyve down a better job with the kids they’ve drafted, but, thats because they start on day one.
You can’t acquire guys today and tell them we know better than anything youve done so far, so scrap everything youve known and do it our way.
This is how Giolito got hurt, this is why they messed up Priester and Harrison, and why they basically can’t unlock Bello.
Sad – So true! Tibbs publicly said just that, he didn’t buy into the Sox system and was very relieved the Dodgers wanted him to just go with his strengths and what makes him most comfortable.
Playing for the Red Sox is like playing for a robot, they have complete tunnel vision and can’t comprehend players are human.
That’s a really great point. Their way is at least getting decent results with the kids they’re signing as amateurs or drafting, but has mostly been a trainwreck with trade and FA acquisitions. Good coaching should be able to adapt to a player’s strengths and weaknesses instead of trying to force them to do things they can’t do.
I don’t think Tibbs ever said anything like that. Post a link to the quotes. That would have been big news.
He sure did. This all but confirms they were messing with his swing which threw him off. The Dodgers, because they actually know what they are doing, allowed him to go back to what is comfortable for him, and now he’s raking and his prospect stock is taking off like a rocket. Imagine that.
latimes.com/sports/dodgers/story/2026-03-12/dodger…
“Tibbs said that joining the Dodgers helped him to rediscover himself and return to his form from his time at Florida State.
“[When I joined the Dodgers, they] were like, ‘Hey, you know, we just want you to be yourself,” Tibbs said. “We want you to do what you need to do to be successful. Like, we believe in you, we believe in what you did in college. We want you to get that back and be able to be successful with how you swing the bat and how you play defense, and like, we don’t want to take that away from you.’ So obviously, there was tweaks being made, and there was things we needed to change a little bit to get to that spot, but I think for the most part, they just allowed me to be me and work within those boundaries to help figure out how to continue to make that better and better and better.
“And with that being said, I just felt a lot of relief from that.””
Dirty – Even though I’ve posted that same interview a few times here, it’s still great to see you post it because it really says so much about what’s wrong with the Sox system and why so many players immediately flourish after leaving the Sox organization.
With Tibbs, how can you miss it? He was great in the Giants organization, then he sucked in the Red Sox organization, then he was great again in the Dodgers organization. Not a coincidence.
There’s an old saying, if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it.
And if you have a leak in your roof, don’t tear up the entire house and foundation.
BTW – Grissom is hitting .367 in AAA right now.
Of course he is. That’s so classic.
Dirty – Remember the trade that brought Nick Sogard & Ronaldo Hernandez?
The guy we traded, Jeffrey Springs, just pitched 7 innings against the Yanks today, giving up only one hit and no runs.
DW04: No, Tibbs didn’t say he didn’t buy into the Red Sox system, not in that article, which was my original point.
Earlier I looked to see if I could find any comments from Tibbs and I only found this article:
mlb.com/news/dodgers-prospect-james-tibbs-reflects…
Tibbs said: “When I got traded the first time, you know, it was bittersweet because I was leaving a bunch of guys that I’d been really close with, an organization that I felt comfortable with,” Tibbs said. “And then getting traded again (from the Red Sox), it was kind of the same way. I loved being there.”
Tibbs said he loved being with the Red Sox. Can you love being somewhere that you think is messing you up? Tibbs only played 30 AA games with the Red Sox. He wasn’t there long. I’m not sure what can be done with a player’s swing in that short amount of time. So, I have a hard time believing your conclusion at this point. You may be right, but I don’t see it right now.
Maybe I’m misinterpreting his comments, wouldn’t be the first or last time I’m incorrect about something, but that sounds an awful lot to me like he is implying that a previous team he was with in between the Noles and the Dodgers wanted him to play with an approach that wasn’t comfortable for him and wasn’t getting the kind of results wanted or expected of him.
Suppose he could’ve meant the Giants as this unnamed team, but when you look at the 3 Minor Laegue teams he played for last year:
Eugene (SF): .857 OPS, 12 HR in 57 games
Portland (BOS): .586 OPS, 1 HR in 30 games
Tulsa (LAD): .900 OPS, 7 HR in 36 games
That would seemingly line up perfectly with the Red Sox being the org who asked him to play a different way that wasn’t working, then after the trade being told to go back to what was working and beginning to flourish again.
Maybe he really did love it, I don’t know the kid I certainly can’t say any reason why he would or why he wouldn’t. But it could just as easily be a case of making it a point to say the right thing, which most athletes are known to do.
DW: Tibbs will be interesting to watch. Just like Elmer Rodriguez, Priester, Harrison, Fajardo, Dobbins, Teel, Montgomery, Fitts, Clarke, the Password and Yorke.
I guess you could read between the lines and interpret it either way. But, where there is no misunderstanding is Dave Roberts saying “the kid loves baseball and ……is a championship player”. I guess Breslow missed that about him, casually throwing him in a deal for a washed up SP.
Sad – Not sure what you think could be interpreted either way, he made it very clear the way he’s being treated by the Dodgers organization makes him much happier than he was before. He’s not gonna come out and mention the Sox by name because he’s not jerky like Kennedy, but it’s clear as day he’s referring to the Sox. They were his last organization, he said it right after leaving them not the Giants, and his performance with only them was very bad as he performed well with the Giants.
It’s kinda interesting the Sox are facing recently discarded pitchers in consecutive games, Drohan and tonight May who has been really struggling. Should hopefully be another easy win, important thing is Early having a nice rebound.
The Red Sox Haters Club. Are you still a “Fan” of a team if 95% of your posts are negative?
Fever- Not good to see the Sox struggling to get runs against May who has appeared to be a below average pitcher. Obviously something is off with the offense. Early has been solid, it was too bad he could not get through 5 innings. At least the back end of the bullpen looked good, just Kelly not able to get through the inning. On paper we have a really strong team, so as you have said these results make you really question the coaching. The pitching seems to be settling down, but if you can’t score more than two runs (especially when they were the result of the other team’s defensive miscues) you are not going to win games. I don’t think a power bat would have made any difference, so losing Devers and not signing Alonso is not the reason.
If they don’t improve as the year goes on, you have to wonder if they will rehaul the coaching staff next year. Eventually Cora and Breslow would seem to be in the hot seat. The players they have are too good to look so bad and they made a significant financial commitment this year so it is not that they have not put money into the team. Each game they lose against a very winnable opponent makes me concerned that they are not going to get back on track in time to turn the season around.
You realize that swinging as hard as you can,hitting it with a great exit velo,and throwning very hard gets you a spot.It also gets you paid.How many 90 mph pitchers are on rosters.How many are top prospects.People want high velocity whether it is swinging a bat or pitching.Times have changed for the worse.
TB – I agree with your overall point, but there are exceptions.
The Red Sox just gave a massive contract to Suarez, who averages 90-92 on his fastball and 90-91 on his sinker.
They also acquired another guy, Sonny Gray, whose fastball and sinker are around 92-93 and other offspeed pitches 79-89.
I know, everyone’s after the sexy tools, but what good is swinging the bat as hard as you possibly can if you can never put the bat on the ball doing it that way? To people who understand that baseball is not played on a spreadsheet, a guy who can consistently put balls in play is a lot more valuable than a guy who strikes out 3 times a night, regardless of the exit velos.
Dirty – Does it make sense to you that the Red Sox preach swinging the bat as hard as you can on every pitch, and then they complain about the sky-high strikeouts?
Is it really possible they don’t understand harder swings mean less bat control?
Do they really not see the correlation between homerun hitters and high strikeout totals?
Just doesn’t make sense, at all.
Exactly why i would rather have a team of Tony Gwynns than Some power hitter.But Management and fans like power.Not singles hitters or weaker pitchers.Yes the Sox have two but how many get drafted in the first round that throw 88-91.
Power’s great, if a guy can still make contact while swinging hard! I love power hitting as much as everyone else and want to see them have some guys with that skill in the bag. Problem is those guys cost a ton of money and the team doesn’t want to give them that money. My issue is sending up a bunch of dudes who can’t sniff any contact when they’re swinging as hard as the team wants them to. That obviously does not work, and shouldn’t take someone with an Ivy League stats degree or a 20 year playing career to understand this.
Some guys are better off choking up a little, swinging a little softer, and dumping singles or doubles into the outfield. It is a crime that they are wasting someone with Jarren Duran’s skillset by telling him to go up there and try to sell out for a 3 run homer every time. Guy is a walking XBH if he puts a line drive into a gap, what are we even thinking trying to make him a 2 outcomes guy!?
Dirty – This is precisely why Fenway Park has been chanting “Sell The Team” all week. The players are so incredibly mismanaged, even when the farm system does produce talented players it seems inevitable Cora and Company will screw them up somehow.
Tibbs is 100% correct, the Dodgers are far better at handling players than the Red Sox are.
FPG: “Tibbs is 100% correct, the Dodgers are far better at handling players than the Red Sox are.”
==============
Tibbs never said that. Please stop making things up.
Dirty..Umm..you might want to check your facts . As recently as 2024 the red sox used the fastball less than any team in mlb..cant imagine that philosophy has changed much with all the same brain trust in place…so..that basically proves your theory 100% false if youd like Google it and you will find more than a few links…next time do a little research before typing..yer as bad as fpg making things up
You want to talk about making things up, show me where I said anything about throwing fastballs.
Arent fastball the picth thrown the hardest?..you said something to the effect all the brain trust teaches is how to throw as hard as you can.
What did miss dirty?..or am I making that up ..perhaps I misunderstood you ..please help me understand what else you were referring to
There are different fastballs and everyone has different physiology. My release has a natural pronation whereas others might supinate. This makes throwing certain pitches more natural. I would surmise maybe less wear and tear if you utilize your natural tendency. I’m sure the physiology geeks (thinking of Tom House) would be on to this. Use Nolan Ryan as a case study. No hitter at age 42 with a devastating curve ball. There probably needs to be more study on this topic.
If you’re throwing a ball at all, you can throw with max effort. The pitch type is irrelevant. My point is that they are over-exerting themselves and putting too much stress on their arms, regardless of pitch type.
Last May Giolito completely reinvented his slider under the guidance of Bailey and Holt which in his words allowed him to “rip it” more like a cutter – or put another way, throw it harder. Gio went on to miss the WC round with elbow soreness which is also a major reason why he remains a free agent.
Bello’s best out pitch used to be his changeup. Under direction from Bailey last year, he threw a fastball (primarily his sinker but also with a new cutter and to lesser extent a 4 seamer mixed in) 65% of the time last year. Thanks to their throwing program he didn’t even make it into a game in Spring Training before he was hurt, and started the year on the IL with a bum shoulder. There wasn’t officially an injury listed with it but he was also visibly fatigued by the end of the season – after routinely going 6+ IP per start all summer he only made it into the 6th once in September and he looked like a completely different pitcher. Because he was throwing his changeup harder than before, it lost movement and speed differential from his fastball, rendering it ineffective. This played a part in why he continued to struggle with walks and hits while striking out relatively few guys despite an impressive ERA.
Oviedo came out this spring giving max effort from the jump – averaging around 95 MPH and topping out around 98 early on in Spring Training this year. By the end of the month and in his first appearance in Houston last week, he could only hit 93. Now he’s on the IL with – you guessed it! – a flexor strain.
There are plenty of other guys I could keep going on about, but this hopefully is enough to demonstrate what I’m talking about.
Thank you for taking the time to go in to detail that makes alot of sense.
No problem. If I wasn’t being clear enough that’s on me. And part of me is torn because it’s been hard to argue that Breslow and Bailey have done a far better job developing young pitching and getting results compared to Chaim’s regime. But the track record they’re starting to build has me worried we’re going to be just like the Dodgers when it comes to killing guys’ arms instead of maximizing their shelf lives, and that is one of few ways I actually don’t want to emulate them.
The guy who should be on the “hot seat” right now is Fatse. A. Cora is not going anywhere.
Monstah- I know deep down that Cora isn’t moving. But, (while not defending him) Fatse doesnt teach defense or baserunning or inspire the players.
This team for 5 yrs has lacked inspiration, motivation and fundamentals. Those things are explicit domain of the manager. Cora does none of them. This team may be worse defensively (right now( than at any point I’ve seen in the last five years.
There’s always a danger in trading for pitchers since the other team knows more than you possibly can. It does seem like a pattern with the Red Sox but probably other teams as well.
Interestingly said. Everyone always asks, “would Greg Maddux (type) get drafted and play in the mlb now?”
Baseball was never a ‘copy-cat’ league like the NFL is. But, its certainly become one. Analytics can’t see the forest for the trees. Lost in all the numbers and spreadsheets is the player.
Funny part is, analytics were originally used to find players who were different, equally good as mlb players but until devalued. Now its exactly the opposite as the analytics are used to exclude players who aren’t like anyone else.
Sad – You make several excellent points!
Maddux was a true pitcher, one of the best ever.
So true about copy cats. Seems like Henry always wants to copy others …. first it was the Moneyball A’s, then it was low budget Rays, then it was the contract extension Braves. What he doesn’t realize, you need the right people to emulate those teams. Just because it brings varying success for some teams, doesn’t mean every team can do it. Just because Breslow is an Ivy League guy, doesn’t mean he knows everything or is good at everything.
Analytics has become information overload, it leads to not valuing the right data enough. And look at all the times when humans have beaten computers. Years ago there was a Russian boxer, not sure if his name was Drago? Dick Drago maybe? Anyway, he was preparing for this big fight against a guy named Rocky, and Drago’s managers used the latest computer technology and data while Rocky trained old school by dragging heavy stuff and doing other things that farmers typically do. Guess who won? Not Drago!
So true about different players. The whole point used to be finding hidden value such as high OBP, but now with everyone looking for the exact same thing then nobody is finding anything that’s different from everyone else.
As far back as I can remember playing baseball from 1966 to 1999, all anyone cared about was how hard you threw. The romance with velocity is not new. In fact, it’s always been there. What has changed is a constant stream of rule changes to aid the hitters, all at the pitchers’ expense. I won’t bother to list them, the internet’s not big enough.
Anyone who is surprised at the pitchers’ modern day efforts leading to expansive injury problems hasn’t been paying attention as the game has done NOTHING to help with the pitchers’ health.