Neither the Boston Red Sox's pitchers or bats have lived up to expectations through the first quarter of the 2025 season. It's resulted in another stretch of unimpressive, .500 baseball for a team desperate to return to the postseason.
Garrett Crochet has logged a 2.00 ERA with 73 strikeouts over 63 innings pitched so far. Yet, the Red Sox rotation's ERA is 4.45 over 259 innings, the seventh-highest metric in MLB. The offense and bullpen have struggled to pick up the slack, resulting in a league-leading 11 blown saves and 12 one-run losses.
"They need to step up," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of his rotation on May 18. "That's the bottom line. We have to step up as a rotation. It's not only Garrett, it's everybody. We have to do a better job as a group."
Luckily, the team expects reinforcements during its series with the Mets. Walker Buehler is slated to start on May 20 after a stint on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder bursitis. Boston needs him to take a step toward returning to his 2021 form.
Red Sox need Walker Buehler at his best when he returns from 15-day IL to face Mets
Buehler, formerly a homegrown pitcher in the Dodgers organization, earned All-Star nominations and National League Cy Young Award votes in 2019 and 2021. The latter campaign was the best of his career, with a 2.47 ERA, 212 strikeouts and 52 walks over 207.2 innings.
The righty is still finding his way back from Tommy John surgery, which he underwent in the 2022 season. He missed all of 2023 while rehabbing and returned in 2024 to the tune of a 5.38 ERA in 75.1 innings. After Tanner Houck's recent struggles and Brayan Bello's lack of command, Boston needs a veteran starter like Buehler to step up with long, efficient outings on his start days.
The Red Sox could also ask the same of Lucas Giolito, who has nine seasons of MLB experience. But his UCL-reconstruction procedure is more recent than Buehler's, who has shown that it can take quite some time to bounce back to pre-Tommy John/internal brace production. Giolito owns a 7.08 ERA after four starts since 2023.
Buehler has shown flashes of his earlier success during his time in the Sox's rotation. He pitched 6.1 one-run innings against the Blue Jays on April 10 and seven one-run frames against the White Sox two starts later. He racked up seven and nine strikeouts, respectively, in both of those starts.
If Buehler, a former ace, can become Boston's No. 2 behind Crochet, the rotation would immediately feel more stable. The Red Sox need length and consistency, the likes of which a veteran and two-time World Series champion is best equipped to provide.