As the Boston Red Sox continue to struggle and fall to 12 games below .500 for the first time in years, all fans can hope for are positive injury updates on the team's two missing stars, Roman Anthony and Garrett Crochet. But Anthony still isn't swinging a bat and the Red Sox on June 10 gave a devastating update on Crochet.
Crochet initially landed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation that caused fatigue in his throwing arm. During his IL stint that's been going on since April 26, Crochet sustained a lat strain he initially characterized as minor.
Now, Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe has reported that Crochet's lat strain is "a lot worse" than the Red Sox originally thought (subscription required). The ace doesn't know when he could be cleared to play catch, but since he hasn't played in a game in over a month and he's been shut down for the last few weeks, it'll be a while before the Red Sox see Crochet in action again.
When Crochet first hit the IL in late April, he was confident that he would only need a 15-day minimum stint before he was ready to take the mound again. The lat strain is a new injury so his prior timeline wouldn't apply, but Red Sox fans are over the timeline estimates that end up being incorrect — the Red Sox were also way off with Anthony's estimated recovery time.
Garrett Crochet's lat strain "a lot" worse than Red Sox expected, still no timeline for his return
While Boston's rotation has performed fine with Crochet out of the mix (4.02 ERA since April 26), having him healthy and in peak form could keep this team in more games. The Red Sox have struggled severely after they fall behind — they're 0-36 after they've gone down by three runs at any point in a game — and an elite Crochet can keep the scoreboard clean as well as anyone.
The news of Crochet's setback hits even harder after Braden Montgomery's heroism in his June 9 Chicago White Sox debut. The Red Sox are nowhere close to losing that trade, but Crochet's second season in Boston is setting up to be a lost one. Not only will he likely be out of commission for at least another month, given his setback and recent 60-day IL placement, he wasn't pitching like himself when he was healthy. He'd posted a 6.30 ERA and 1.47 WHIP over 30 innings across six starts, including a 10-run disasterclass against the Minnesota Twins.
Crochet's return, alone wouldn't save the Red Sox this year, as offense is the team's glaring problem. But fans would at least have Crochet start days to look forward to if he were healthy. Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray have all been incredible at times, but no one moves the needle quite like a healthy Crochet, and there will be a lot of ramping up and a rehab assignment to get through before he's ready to pitch again.
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