The regular season hasn't even started yet and the Boston Red Sox are battling with a slew of injuries. Unfortunately, many of them impact Boston's already-stressed pitching staff.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora recently revealed an injury to reliever Chris Murphy. The left-hander, one of the only ones on Boston's staff, underwent an MRI on March 18 to try and discover the cause of his left elbow discomfort.
Murphy has been diagnosed with ligament damage, according to Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. The extent of the damage and whether or not it requires surgery to repair is unknown. The team is working on determining the next steps and answers should be expected in the coming days.
Murphy is one of the more capable left-handed depth options in Boston's bullpen. Lucas Luetge and Joely Rodríguez are also options, but Murphy has been trusted to make more appearances than either of them.
Chris Murphy and Kenley Jansen's latest injury updates bring more bad news for the Red Sox
The Red Sox are also battling an unforeseen delay in Kenley Jansen's recovery time from his various ailments. At the start of spring training, Jansen was dealing with lat soreness that kept him sidelined and slow-played as a precaution for quite some time.
Jansen has made one Grapefruit League appearance for the Red Sox, during which he let up two home runs in .2 innings. The veteran was pulled, and since his first appearance, he's been healing back issues.
Kenley Jansen was again scratched today with lower back tightness. He needs to get right in the next day or two to start the season on the active roster.
— Ian Browne (@IanMBrowne) March 19, 2024
Jansen was scratched from the Red Sox lineup yesterday, but he was still expected to be able to pitch Opening Day — a veteran of Jansen's caliber only needs a few games to warm up to close games. Today, though, he was scratched again. Cora stated that he's "running out of time" to be ready for Opening Day, which is a swift turnaround in the expectations for Jansen.
Without Jansen in the lineup, Chris Murphy will likely serve as Boston's closer, although he's contending with an injury himself. He has not appeared in a Grapefruit League game this spring and is expected to need a few starts before he could be ready for Opening Day.
Boston was unsuccessful at its attempts to trade Jansen this offseason, and the failures sting even more now that he's unable to play. The team has been hung up on shedding payroll and Jansen's $16 million salary for the coming season is one of the bigger paydays on the team.
Despite the promise of a "full throttle" offseason and improvements to the Red Sox pitching staff, the rotation and bullpen are somehow in worse positions than last year. After dealing Chris Sale to the Braves this winter, Boston believed it might be lucky enough to go a season without a chronically injured staff. There's no such luck in Red Sox Nation.
All the Red Sox and their fans can hope for, at this point, is for the injury bug to finally bite somewhere else.