Breslow: Crochet 'making good progress' on lat strain
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Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow refuted a report that star left-hander Garrett Crochet’s lat injury is worse than initially thought.
“As far as I know there is nothing new and Garrett is making good progress on the lat strain,” Breslow told MLB.com’s Ian Browne.
On Wednesday, Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe reported that Crochet has “no idea” when he will be cleared to throw. Crochet told Abraham that the injury is “a lot worse than what we thought.”
Crochet has been on the IL since April 29 due to left shoulder inflammation. He suffered what was originally described as a “very minor” setback in his rehab at the end of May, just two days after facing hitters for the first time since landing on the IL. Imaging later revealed what interim manager Chad Tracy termed a “very low-grade” lat strain.
Crochet has not thrown a baseball in two weeks since suffering the setback. The Red Sox plan to give Crochet another check-up with additional testing over the next few days when the team returns to Fenway Park to determine if he is asymptomatic.
“We’re still doing good with Crochet progressing,” Tracy said before Wednesday’s 7-5 loss to the Rays. “I think in the next couple of days, he’ll probably have another testing day with medical and see if we’re [asymptomatic] so we can go see if he can get out there and [throw].”
Entering play on Wednesday, Boston’s starting pitchers had combined for a 4.08 ERA since Crochet first landed on the IL. That ranks 15th best in the Majors for a unit that projected to be one of the best rotations in baseball entering the season.
And the Red Sox could surely use Crochet to anchor the unit as the club attempts to claw back into the postseason picture. He pitched to a 6.30 ERA through his first six starts of the season, but is just one year removed from finishing in second place in AL Cy Young Award voting. Last year, in his first with Boston, Crochet went 18-5 with a 2.59 ERA and notched 255 strikeouts in 205 1/3 innings.