The Red Sox placed pitcher Hunter Dobbins on the IL with a torn ACL and called up Richard Fitts as the corresponding roster move.
On July 7, after Fitts recorded his first win, he was transferred to Triple-A Worcester to make room for Dobbins, who was ready to return from an elbow strain. Ironically enough, Fitts has been recalled to fill in the spot now open from Dobbins’ season-ending injury.
Bad news: The initial belief is Hunter Dobbins suffered a significant knee injury last night, potentially with ACL damage, sources say. Red Sox are still assessing the severity but the initial read is that this is no minor injury.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) July 12, 2025
Red Sox Call Up Richard Fitts as Hunter Dobbins Replacement
In his last outing for Boston, Fitts went 5 ⅔ innings on 91 pitches (62 strikes) against the Colorado Rockies, allowing five hits and two earned runs with one walk and six strikeouts. It was good for a .222 batting average on balls in play.
This is a small sample size against a bottom-level team in the Rockies, but it was a good outing for a young player like Fitts to go out on the mound and dominate in his own way. It's something for him to build off of.
After this game, however, Fitts was sent down to Worcester. He started in one game before being recalled, but it wasn’t the greatest outing for him. He allowed five hits and four earned runs in four innings of work with four strikeouts on 65 total pitches (40 strikes).
Boston was hoping to add Dobbins back to a starting rotation that has been on fire between their Big Three of Garret Crochet, Brayan Bello, and Luis Giolito. They’ve even received positive outings from Walker Buehler.
Now the Red Sox are hoping for Fitts to step up and step into the rotation. In his outings for Boston, he has a 1-3 record in eight games this season. He has a 4.28 ERA and 1.218 WHIP in 33.2 innings.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora made a comment on Saturday during pregame, on recalling Fitts and what it means for the rotation moving forward this season.
"Fitts is here now. We’ll set up the rotation after the break probably with him in mind and go from there. … I think Fitts is the one who will jump into the rotation."Alex Cora
The Red Sox have two games remaining before the All-Star break. As Cora said, they’ll looks to reset the rotation with Fitts moving forward after the break.