The Boston Red Sox are coming into 2025 with high expectations after signing Alex Bregman last week. But while the Sox lineup looks strong, they still have questions about their starting rotation.
The Red Sox made improving their starting pitching a priority this offseason. A trade with the Chicago White Sox for Garrett Crochet and the signing of former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler have boosted the rotation and added to a solid core that includes Tanner Houck and Lucas Giolito.
But while optimism is in the air, the Sox have already encountered some injuries. It led to a big update on a pair of their starting pitchers as they take the field for the upcoming season.
Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford Managing Injuries to Open Spring Training
MassLive’s Christopher Smith relayed a pair of important updates on starting pitchers Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford on Saturday. Bello has been dealing with shoulder soreness, while Crawford has been dealing with a knee injury that hampered him throughout the 2024 season.
The Red Sox shut down Bello earlier this week, but he said that the MRI results on his shoulder came back clean. The right-hander felt the soreness during a bullpen session, but he plans to resume throwing on Sunday.
“We’re feeling good,” Bello said through translate Daveson Perez. “We were in the recovery process. Starting tomorrow, we’re going to start throwing again. So it’s all good...Came down to [Fort Myers], threw a bullpen, felt the shoulder a little bit, and rather than let it progress to something bad, I decided to speak up, and we just held off for a week, and now I’m feeling good.”
The news was less positive on Crawford. Crawford’s knee injury has left him behind schedule early in Spring Training, and while he’s throwing bullpen sessions, he’s not throwing it with as much intensity as the other pitchers as they’ve progressed to live batting practices.
“I had a couple hiccups with it in the rehab progression of it all [this offseason,]” Crawford said. “So I’m just a little behind. The strength isn’t there where we want it to be. Just a little behind and taking it day to day.”
Crawford also cast doubt on Opening Day, saying, “That’s not really in my hands,” but has not considered surgery at this point of his recovery.
"It’s too early for anything like that. We’ve gotta get the strength up in that knee and then kind of go from there. If I still have pain and discomfort, we’ll probably reassess the situation. But kind of just right now taking it day to day and kind of building strength in it."Kutter Crawford
Bello and Crawford are two key pieces to the Red Sox rotation. Bello went 14-8 with a 4.49 ERA in 162.1 innings last season, while Crawford went 9-16 with a 4.36 ERA in an MLB-high 33 starts despite suffering his injury last April.
Both pitchers will be worth keeping an eye on in the coming weeks and will hopefully allow Boston to start the season at full strength when they open the season at the Texas Rangers on Mar. 27.