Ahead of Saturday afternoon's game against the San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora provided injury updates on four key members of the roster.
Boston Red Sox Manager Alex Cora met with the media ahead of this afternoon's game against the San Diego Padres, providing injury updates on starters Johan Oviedo, Kutter Crawford, and Patrick Sandoval, as well as first baseman Triston Casas. Here's what you need to know:
Johan Oviedo
Ahead of Friday afternoon's Home Opener at Fenway, the Red Sox placed Oviedo on the 15-day injured list with a right elbow strain.
Oviedo made his Red Sox debut on Monday in Houston to limited success, allowing four earned runs, striking out just three batters in 3.2 innings.
As reported by MassLive's Christopher Smith, Oviedo was experiencing a dip in velocity of 2.5 mph dating back to his final Spring Training appearances. In Monday's appearance against the Astros, Oviedo's fastball averaged 93 mph, a 2.5 mph drop from the 95 mph it sat at last year.
Cora reiterated Saturdayt that Oviedo will see Dr. Keith Meister, who performed Oviedo's 2023 Tommy John surgery, to compare MRIs and get to the root of the dip in velocity.
The Red Sox acquired Oviedo from the Pirates in an offseason deal in exchange for top 100 prospect Jhostynxon Garcia.
Kutter Crawford
It's been over 18 months since we last saw Kutter Crawford take the mound at Fenway Park. Crawford missed the entirety of the 2025 season thanks to patellar tendinitis, as well as undergoing right wrist surgery last July.
"He's going to throw an up and down thing Monday or Tuesday, and then he'll go on a rehab assignment," Cora told reporters.
Crawford was an effective innings-eater for the Red Sox in 2024, giving them 183.2 innings and a 4.26 ERA.
Patrick Sandoval
The Red Sox signed Sandoval, who was recovering from a July 2024 Tommy John surgery, to a two-year, $18.25 million contract ahead of the 2025 season. The 29-year-old lefty, who missed the entirety of the 2025 season recovering from the surgery, is now nearing a return to a big league mound.
Sandoval will get the start in his first rehab appearance Sunday afternoon in Portland when the Sea Dogs take on the Somerset Patriots.
The last time Sandoval was on a big league mound was with the Los Angeles Angels in 2024, throwing 79.2 innings with a 5.08 ERA, though a Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) of 3.87 shows Sandoval may have been the victim of some bad luck.
Triston Casas
Earlier this week, Cora announced that Casas, who has been out since May of last season with a torn patellar tendon, would be shut down from swinging thanks to what the team called an intercostal strain.
It appears that Casas avoided the worst-case scenario with the new injury. "He's going to start his progression again on Monday," Cora said.
Where they'll factor in
The Red Sox have one of the best rotations in baseball with Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray, Ranger Suarez, Brayan Bello, and Connelly Early, leaving no clear path for playing time for Crawford or Oviedo upon their return. However, if there's one lesson that can be learned from the 2025 season, it's that you can never have too much pitching, something Cora referenced: "We went through this last year, we had so much pitching, and then we had Early and Tolle here at the end." While Cora made it clear that nothing has been promised to either Crawford or Sandoval, he does believe that they are going to be a factor in the 2026 season.
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