The injury bug hit the Boston Red Sox hard in 2022
The 2022 season has been a massive disappointment for the Boston Red Sox. There’s no sugarcoating it.
After getting to within two games of the World Series last year, the Sox have fallen to the bottom of their division and hopelessly out of the playoff hunt. While the front office should be held accountable for not patching some of the glaring holes on the roster (and even creating new ones by parting ways with Kyle Schwarber and Hunter Renfroe), it must not be overlooked that this is a roster that has been ravaged by injuries.
According to Spotrac, the Red Sox have had 26 players spend time on the injured list this season. So far, those players have been sidelined for a total of 1,567 days, the seventh-most in the majors. Entering the day, Boston has spent $63,362,970 on players on the injured list, by far the most in the majors.
This might not have been a championship-caliber team but it’s one that should have been contending for a playoff spot. The roster they brought with them to training camp was much better on paper than the one they have now that is sitting five games under .500 and 11 games out of the final Wild Card spot.
Every team deals with injuries. It’s an unfortunate part of the game. It’s why building depth is so important for navigating the grueling schedule. The “next man up” mentality can only take you so far though. When the injuries keep mounting, every team will inevitably reach their breaking point.
That’s what happened with the 2022 Red Sox. They broke down. Not only was it the staggering number of injuries, but replacing the quality of the players that missed significant chunks of the season proved to be an insurmountable challenge.
Boston suffered more than their fair share of injuries this year but losing these five players for long stretches of the season was the most damaging.