FORT MYERS, Fla. – Less than a week into spring training, the Red Sox’s newfound pitching depth is already bringing manager Alex Cora some measure of comfort.
Kutter Crawford is “a little bit behind” the other starters due to right-patellar tendon soreness, Cora revealed Friday. The right-hander, who turns 29 on Apr. 1, has been managing the issue for several months.
“This is something that happened during the season,” Cora said. “Last year he grinded through it, and the offseason was OK as far as the rehab, he had some good days and bad days.”
It’s still too early to say if he’ll be ready for Opening Day. Crawford is throwing bullpens, his manager explained, but “not with the intensity” of the other starters.
“I don’t know what that means as far as like, a month from now, a month and a half from now, but right now he’s behind everybody else,” Cora said. “He hasn’t, kind of like, gained momentum the right way.”
Brayan Bello was also briefly shut down earlier this week with shoulder soreness, but will resume his throwing program Sunday or Monday, Cora said.
Bello, Crawford, and Tanner Houck are coming off career years. They each made at least 30 starts, becoming the first homegrown Red Sox trio to reach the benchmark since 1987.
Houck threw to live hitters for the first time on Friday. After an All-Star campaign last year, the Red Sox are hoping he can keep building on his success. In particular, by “adding stuff to his arsenal” to be more effective against lefties, Cora said.
“It was a good offseason for him. He put work, he looks stronger and loose,” Cora said. “He’ll be ready and we expect big things out of him.”
With several starters’ at risk of not being ready for Opening Day, including Lucas Giolito, who is returning from elbow surgery last March, Cora mentioned rookie Richard Fitts, ‘24 trade deadline addition Quinn Priester, and Cooper Criswell as candidates to fill potential spots in the rotation.
“I’m not alarmed yet,” he said, referring to Crawford and Bello. “I think it’s too early for that, but you saw them last year when they came up. Fitts was great, he threw a lot of strikes. Still trying to maintain the velocity, I think is very important for him.”
Cora noted that Priester is among the players who’ve caught his eye so far.
“Impressive. He put work in the offseason, he’s a lot stronger,” he said. “We saw what he did the last day (of ‘24). He’s got good stuff. He looks really good.”
Cora also highlighted how the rotation depth will help maintain the bullpen down the stretch.
“It seems like ever since LA it was hard for us to finish games,” he said, referring to the team’s first series after the All-Star break, when they blew multiple leads in late and extra innings and were swept in three games at Dodger Stadium. “But going back to the rotation, we can talk all we want about the bullpen but in the regular season those first six innings mean a lot. … If we have guys that are capable of giving us six innings, we’re going to be in a good spot.”
Still unable to directly discuss Alex Bregman, who arrived at the complex an hour after Cora’s media session but whose contract has yet to be made official, Cora doubled down on the bolstered pitching staff. Such depth is “huge” for the Red Sox, who’ve long struggled to develop homegrown pitching and been weighed down by rotation injuries in recent years, Cora said.
He pointed to last summer, when left-hander James Paxton, who’d returned to Boston in a trade with the Dodgers days earlier, suffered a season-ending injury during the first at-bat of his third start.
“It was actually Bregman (batting), if I’m not mistaken,” he said, then remembered that the contract still wasn’t official. “I don’t know why I said that.”
“So Pax is hurt, and for a week, we were playing catch up,” he continued. “We didn’t have the talent to actually solve that problem at the moment. So this year, I think we’re going to be in a good spot.”
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