5 key injuries that doomed the Boston Red Sox 2022 season

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.

Red Sox centerfielder Kiké Hernández

Centerfield is another spot where the Red Sox haven’t been getting production, ranking 27th in the majors with 72 wRC+ from that position.

Kiké Hernández sputtered out of the gate, hitting a woeful .193 in April. His batting average slowly crept up to .209 by early June, but then he landed on the Injured List. What was initially diagnosed as a hip flexor strain turned into an abdominal strain created by a hematoma in the psoas muscle. He ended up missing over two months, a far longer absence than originally expected.

The extended IL stint was more troubling than one might expect from a player flirting with the Mendoza Line, but the notoriously streaky Hernández was bound to snap out of his funk eventually. He showed promising signs of recovering from his slow start by collecting hits in 15 of his final 16 games prior to his stint on the IL.

Since returning on August 16, Hernandez is hitting .244 with a .667 OPS in 86 at-bats. He hasn’t been great at the plate, but that’s about league-average for centerfielders and far better than what Boston produced from the position this season.

Hernández has been at his best with runners in scoring position, hitting .301 in 83 at-bats. Those opportunities were limited when he was hitting at the top of the lineup but Kiké has moved down in the order since returning from injury with Tommy Pham claiming the leadoff role during his absence. That has led to more chances to drive in runs and Hernández is thriving in those situations.

Jarren Duran had the opportunity to cement a spot for himself while Hernández was recovering, but the rookie failed to take advantage. Duran hit .220 with a .658 OPS in 57 games before riding the bus back to Worcester. His 28.8 K% was an improvement from his brief stint in the majors last year but it still showed Duran has a lot to learn about plate discipline if he’s going to succeed at this level.

More troubling were Duran’s adventures in the outfield. The converted infielder has the tools to cover centerfield with his blazing speed being an appealing asset but he’s still learning the position. Losing a routine pop-up in the sun is an embarrassing disaster that we won’t soon forget but his defensive issues extend beyond that memorable moment. Duran doesn’t get a good jump on the ball and he often takes poor routes, preventing him from making the play even with his speed.

Even when Hernández isn’t hitting, he’s still providing excellent defense, not only in center, but also at several other positions all over the field. But the outfield defense, in particular, benefits greatly when he’s anchoring the alignment.

A full season from Hernández would have drastically improved the outfield defense, which the pitching staff would certainly be grateful for. He also provides more potential with his bat than the alternatives who were filling in for him. A healthy Hernández also would have allowed the Red Sox to keep Duran in Triple-A to continue working on his plate discipline and polishing his defense. The Red Sox say they’re still optimistic about Duran’s potential, but he was exposed during his premature call-up, which had negative short-term consequences for the team and potentially long-term concerns for his development.

Red Sox pitcher Tanner Houck

Tanner Houck’s role has been in flux all season. He began the year in the starting rotation but made only three starts before a trip to Toronto in April cost the unvaccinated Houck his spot.

With Garrett Whitlock also moving around the bullpen and rotation, Houck worked mostly as a long reliever for the next several weeks until suddenly ascending to the closer role in June. Houck finally appeared to have found a home in the ninth inning, converting eight out of nine save situations. He owned a 2.70 ERA as a reliever this season and a 0.79 ERA over 11 1/3 innings in save situations.

The bullpen has been awful this season, ranking 25th in the majors with a 4.48 ERA. They have 30 losses charged to a reliever, tied for the fifth-most in the majors. Boston’s bullpen has notched 33 saves while blowing 26 opportunities.

Houck filled the void in the ninth inning until lower back inflammation sent him to the IL in early August, resulting in season-ending back surgery.

The Red Sox have a few outstanding arms in their bullpen but their lack of depth was exposed without Houck. John Schreiber’s breakout season has been one of the few highlights for this team but he’s been tasked with an enormous burden due to a lack of other reliable options in the bullpen; his manager often calls upon him to work out of bases-loaded jams and other stressful situations created by his teammates. The workload started to catch up with him, as Schreiber posted a 3.95 ERA in August, his worst of any month this season.

Whitlock is s one of the few other reliable options but Cora’s insistence on using him for multiple innings limits his availability to a couple of appearances per week. He’s running out of gas down the stretch, surrendering seven earned runs over his last six innings. He’s also been pitching through injury. The Sox might need to reconsider how they utilize one of their best bullpen weapons going forward, but without Houck, Boston has needed to lean on Whitlock even more than last year.

These relievers can’t pitch every day. The Red Sox were always going to struggle with their lack of bullpen depth but losing Houck made it a steep challenge to finish games when at least one of their other top relievers was unavailable.

Red Sox second baseman Trevor Story

Trevor Story’s first season in Boston hasn’t exactly gone to plan. The prized free-agent acquisition came to town with high expectations after signing a six-year, $160 million deal but the former Rockie’s tenure in Boston got off to a rocky start.

A late arrival in camp due to the lockout delaying his free agency negotiations, along with the birth of his child, meant Story had limited time in spring training to prepare for the season. He was adjusting to a new city, a new league and a new position with only about a week of exhibition games under his belt before Opening Day. A slow start was hardly surprising.

Story’s bat finally announced its arrival with a power surge in May, including a stretch where he blasted nine home runs in 14 games. His batting average hadn’t recovered from his dismal start to the season but he was starting to find consistency with his swing.

His progress stalled when Story was hit on the hand by a pitch on July 12 in Tampa Bay. He was placed on the injured list and wouldn’t return until the end of August.

In 13 games since his return, Story is hitting a scorching .340 with an .889 OPS, five doubles, a home run and eight RBI. This is the Story fans expected to read this season.

Don’t be fooled by the low batting average. Story has had a productive season. Despite missing over six weeks, Story is still second on the team with 16 home runs and third with 66 RBI. He easily leads the Red Sox in stolen bases with 13. We’re talking about a potential 20/20 season if Story had stayed healthy. He has also provided Gold Glove caliber defense at second base, a position he had never played before.

Factoring in his all-around contributions, Story has been one of the most valuable players on this team. His 2.4 WAR trails only Xander Bogaerts (5.7) and Rafael Devers (4.3) among Red Sox position players.

The Red Sox were in third place in the AL East and held the second Wild Card spot on the day that Story injured his hand. His absence doesn’t completely explain their free fall but it certainly was a factor.

Red Sox starting pitcher Chris Sale

The Sox stockpiled pitching depth last winter but they mostly shopped in the bargain bin. They struck gold with Michael Wacha and have received acceptable production from Rich Hill at the back of the rotation. Though both spent time on the IL this year, too, other roster decisions deserve real scrutiny.

One thing the Sox didn’t do is seek a frontline starter, and the reason they didn’t break the bank for an ace is that they felt they already had one in Chris Sale.

Of course, there was concern about relying on a pitcher who had made only nine starts over the previous two years. Those nine starts were impressive though, as Sale went 5-1 with a 3.16 ERA and 11.0 K/9. He was on the shelf for a very long time but it was all due to one injury, which he proved he had successfully returned from. Even though he wasn’t exactly vintage Sale, the idea going into last year’s offseason was that as he got further removed from Tommy John surgery, he’d get closer to returning to peak form.

But when pitchers arrived for spring training, it was revealed that Sale was dealing with a rib injury that would delay his season debut. By that point, the crop of desirable free-agent starting pitchers had been picked clean.

It was a frustrating setback but it also wasn’t a doomsday scenario yet. The expectation also shouldn’t have been for Sale to return to being a 200+ inning workhorse this year anyway, so missing a month or so would help keep his innings total in check.

Unfortunately, the timeline for his recovery kept getting pushed back. While we had hoped for a late-May or early-June debut, Sale wouldn’t make his first start of the season until July 12. In his second start, Sale was drilled by a line drive that fractured a finger. While recovering from that injury, Sale fell off his bike while riding around the city, suffering a wrist injury that required season-ending surgery.

Sale was once considered to be a durable pitcher but it’s been one setback after another since his Tommy John. Is there any player in baseball more snake-bitten than Sale? Many will call him injury-prone at this point but the reality is that it has been a series of unfortunate accidents.

The Red Sox rotation has been ravaged by injuries this season. Nick Pivetta is the only starter on the Opening Day roster who hasn’t spent time on the IL. There was a stretch earlier this year where Boston was relying on four rookies in their rotation, none of whom they planned on using this season. Nathan Eovaldi, who claimed the mantle of staff ace last season when he finished fourth on the AL Cy Young ballot, has made only 18 starts this season. Wacha has been the team’s best starter this year but he’s been on the IL twice.

Red Sox starting pitchers rank 22nd in the majors with a 4.43 ERA and they are 19th with 8.3 fWAR. It’s a wonder that they aren’t closer to the bottom considering that their best pitchers have missed so much time.

Injuries have taken a toll on this pitching staff but none more so than losing Sale for nearly the entire season. He was supposed to be the stopper at the top of the rotation. The anchor of the staff. Having a pitcher of his caliber leading the rotation for a full season drastically changes their outlook. His absence had a trickle-down effect that derailed this team. Prospects were called up before they were ready for the majors. Middle of the rotation arms were thrust into the ace role. A thin bullpen was overworked when the rotation struggled to eat enough innings.

The Red Sox were doomed by an overwhelming amount of injuries but a case can be made that none were more damaging than the three different ailments that plagued Sale.