The Red Sox announced a slate of roster moves Friday morning, including an ominous 15-day IL placement for right-hander Johan Oviedo, who’s been diagnosed with a right elbow strain. Right-hander Tyler Uberstine has been recalled from Triple-A Worcester and will be making his major league debut whenever he first gets into a game. Boston also placed righty Garrett Whitlock on the paternity list, where he can spend a maximum of three days. Right-hander Zack Kelly has been recalled in a corresponding move.
Oviedo, 28, came to Boston in the offseason trade that sent touted outfield prospect Jhostynxon Garcia to Pittsburgh. He was terrific through four spring starts (11 1/3 innings, two runs on eight hits and six walks with 14 strikeouts) before being tagged for six runs in his final spring tune-up. Oviedo’s official Red Sox debut was ugly, however; the Astros tagged him for four runs on six hits (including a pair of homers) and a walk in 3 2/3 innings of long relief.
More alarming than the bottom-line results was the pronounced decline in Oviedo’s velocity. He’s averaged better than 95 mph on his four-seamer in his big league career and sat 94.4 mph this spring as he built up for the season. His fastball averaged 93 mph flat in that outing against Houston. Oviedo’s velocity on all of his pitches was down across the board. Manager Alex Cora said after the game that the team was confident Oviedo was healthy (link via MassLive’s Christopher Smith).
“We had a conversation with him today and there’s a few things that the pitching department has noticed,” Cora said at the time, seemingly implying that the issue was mechanical rather than physical. Clearly, the team’s thinking has changed. Cora said this morning that Oviedo has undergone both x-rays and an MRI (via Ari Alexander of 7News). The MRI results are being compared to prior MRIs.
The Sox have yet to provide further updates on Oviedo. That the injury is termed a “strain” (indicating it pertains to a muscle or tendon) rather than a “sprain” (pertaining to a ligament) is perhaps a reason for some cautious optimism, though flexor tendon strains frequently require lengthy absences in their own right. Until the team provides further updates, all that’s known is that Oviedo will be shelved for at least the next 12 days. (IL stints can be backdated up to three days, so long as the player has not appeared in a game in that time; Oviedo last pitched on March 30.) It bears mentioning that Oviedo missed the entire 2024 season and much of the 2025 campaign due to Tommy John surgery performed in December of 2023.
Uberstine, 26, was added to the Red Sox’ 40-man roster this past November. He pitched 120 2/3 innings of 3.58 ERA ball between Double-A and Triple-A last season, striking out 26.9% of his opponents against an 8% walk rate. He’s worked in a variety of roles during his climb through the minors, pitching as a starter, as part of a piggyback tandem, in long relief and in short relief.
Back in February, the Boston Globe’s Tim Healey took a look at Uberstine’s remarkable journey to simply end up in pro ball. Baseball America’s Geoff Pontes did the same last August. Uberstine was barely used on his high school team, was turned away from both the club team and actual D-I team at USC as a sophomore, and wound up transferring to Northwestern simply hoping to land a spot on the fringe of the roster, as he’d missed being part of a team during his early time in college. Uberstine posted a 5.90 ERA in his final season at Northwestern and was the Red Sox’ 19th-round pick in 2021, signing for a $97K bonus. Fans of any club will want to check out those pieces from Healey and Pontes for a look at the determination that led to this morning’s promotion for Uberstine.
We are a few days removed from the Red Sox (Cora?) insisting Oviedo was healthy and the velocity decrease was a mechanical issue. Yikes.
This might be a case of cora and the sox taking a man at his word…either way prior to the first start didn’t seem like injury was a concern…Just poor results at the end of st.
Joemo doesn’t think that way. The Red Sox are horrible and so is Cora and that’s just the bottom line answer for everything.
I hate this for Johan
steve – Not surprised though, he ramped up too fast in ST throwing VERY hard early on. Towards the end of ST he was getting lit up. Just another casualty of max velo on every pitch.
Lucas Giolito
This is obviously not good. One thing that is a plus is the fact that the Sox have depth in the starting rotation. Last year our 1st 5 starters were , Crochet,Houck, Buehler,Fitts and Newcomb. Most of those guys are elsewhere now. As well as not factor into the teams playoff push. Injuries can and will happen and hopefully the Sox have the proper depth to overcome them.
Need Sonny Gray to go a solid 6 innings today and get this team going in the right direction.
cdc – hi!
Oviedo should not have been constantly throwing 98 MPH his first couple ST games, that’s what did it. You know how I feel about the max velo every pitch organizational philosophy.
Why are you omitting Bello from last year’s list of SP’s?
Sox have depth when Crawford & Sandoval are ready to go. Tolle got lit up so he probably won’t get a callup.
Oil Can will be in the park today, maybe he can give them a couple innings?
So bummed Roger won’t be there.
Do they have depth? Or is their starting rotation made up of roughly 2.5 viable starters (given talent declines, innings limits, etc), and the guys in the minors don’t even make it an even 5? Just having a bunch of bodies does not equal depth.
andrew – Yeah, they do have depth. Sandoval and Crawford makes for great depth, once they are healthy and shake the rust off.
If he winds up needing surgery then they will have given away the Password for virtually nothing.
Red Sox gave up a minor Leaguer whose path to the big leagues was blocked, for a number five starter. Everyone on the face of the planet knows you need plenty of starting pitching to make it through the season.
Probably not the people in North Korea. Everyone that follows baseball knows you need plenty of starting pitching. Correction.
Astros – Agreed, and I would think the guys on the Space Station know you need plenty of pitching.
Especially with the constant push for pitchers to throw max velo every pitch, even early in ST.
Congrats on Whitlock!
Astros – Yes, even though his timing was bad. Every MLB player knows, ST is the right time. That way the kid comes in Nov/Dec.
Let’s fire Cora