11:50am: The Red Sox fear a “high grade tear” in Murphy’s ulnar collateral ligament, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. He’s receiving additional testing and opinions.
8:51am: Red Sox left-hander Chris Murphy underwent an MRI yesterday after experiencing recent elbow discomfort, and that imaging revealed ligament damage in his pitching elbow, reports Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. The Red Sox haven’t yet determined whether surgery will be the next step, though that’s the typical outcome for injuries of this nature. A treatment plan will be finalized in the coming days, per Speier.
The 25-year-old Murphy was slated to enter the season as one of the Sox’ top depth options in the rotation. He made his big league debut last season, tossing 47 2/3 frames with an unsightly 4.91 ERA but much better secondary marks. Murphy fanned a solid 23.1% of his opponents against an 8% walk rate and kept the ball on the ground at a 44.7% clip. All of those stats were right in line with or even slightly better than the league average. Metrics like FIP (3.70) and SIERA (3.88) painted a much more favorable picture of the rookie’s work than his base earned run average.
Boston is set to open the season with Brayan Bello, Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock and Kutter Crawford in a rotation that’s already lost top offseason signee Lucas Giolito for the season. Murphy, fellow lefty Brandon Walter and right-hander Cooper Criswell are all on the 40-man roster and were expected to be among the first names up should further injuries compromise the projected rotation. While it’s not yet clear he’ll miss the season, Murphy will at the very least no longer be an option in the early portion of the season.
Whether the injuries to Giolito and Murphy prompt the Red Sox to look for additional depth in the rotation remains to be seen, but it’s a rough development for any club to lose its No. 1 and No. 6 or 7 starters before the season even gets underway. The Sox have long been connected to lingering free agent lefty Jordan Montgomery, and others still on the market include Michael Lorenzen and Mike Clevinger. There’ll also surely be some names returning to the market in the coming days as veterans on minor league deals with other teams are informed that they’ve not made the cut with their current organization.
If Murphy ultimately requires surgery, he’ll be eligible to spend the season on the major league 60-day injured list, as he suffered the injury while in big league camp. He’d accrue a full year of service time and pay while undergoing surgery and rehabbing. He currently has just 81 days of MLB service time, giving the Sox six full seasons of control over him. Murphy won’t be arbitration-eligible until after the 2026 season and isn’t on track for free agency until the 2029-30 offseason.
It never rains, but it pours…
I thought that was from Gone in 60 seconds. Turns out it dates back to the 1700’s.
History is your friend if you keep in touch with it instead of starting with “Movies of the ’70s” as your earliest source.
Gone in 60 seconds ….Movies of the 70’s? You just aged Nicolas Cage 30 years.
@TheBoatmen: It`s a remake
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_in_60_Seconds_(1974_f…
But the line is from the remake. Raines is the last name in the remake where it is Pace in the original.
Even in rainy weather, it flows freely.
When it rains it pours.
Lets pour one out for this season. RIP
Hannibal – “Blame it on the rain” – Milli Vanilli
Just great… we might have no pitching by the all star break at this rate
Montgomery is still out there. I still the Red Sox are the most likely to sign him.
Lord – I don’t see why the Sox would give him a pillow deal with an opt out after the first year, when they are expected to finish in last place this year.
I think a mystery team will give him the pillow.
Rich Hill or bust!
Yikes! This sux for the Sox!
I wouldn’t call a 4.91 ERA “unsightly.” It’s an ERA+ of 93, typical of back-end and spot starters.
I thought the same thing, maybe “pedestrian” or “below average” but that is a serviceable back end rotation/swingman stat
Pathetic 4.91
Seriously, at this point you can’t argue that the pitch clock doesn’t have some blame for the ridiculous number of elbow injuries in Spring Training 2024. They shortened the clock more this year so pitchers have to rush their deliveries even more than last year, which jacks with their mechanics and causes injuries. The MLBPA has to step in and stop the Manfred madness.
“”Elbow room” sighed Daniel Boone”
There are always going to be statistical aberrations, so we need a large enough sample size to see an actual trend. One year isn’t enough.
I posted this in another thread yesterday but it bears considering:
Pitchers on IL starting the season
2023 – 88 (41 missed all season)
2022 – 66 (30 missed all season)
2021 – 61 (28 missed all season)
There is both an upward trend, and a notable jump last year. If this years numbers for opening day are greater then 88, that does begin to suggest there is validity to the pitch clock concerns.
Context also matters. One also needs to determine the average age of those IL pitchers and their prior injury history. Three years is also much too small of a sample size to analyze as you’ve noted.
Agreed on sample size. But I thought the jump by 22 in 2023 was noteworthy. It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on.
As well as pitch type and speed. More than one doc has noted the increase in velocity as well as the sweeper pitch as having high degree of stress on the elbow. This could just be manifesting now as the pitch timer has come in, but had to do with the pitches rather than the time between. Most pitchers weren’t affected by the pitch timer, it was the hitters and Justin Verlander.
@Bob No doubt high velo, hard sliders, and compensating for the ban of sticky stuff to maintain spin rate are factors. I get the feeling that once the owners feel the hit for increased pitcher insurance premiums, they make actually do something about their assets.
Meanwhile, guys’ careers are cut short or ruined waiting for enough “sample size” to cause a change. The pitcher injury increase as parallel to the implementation of the pitch clock. I think there is enough evidence at this point to at least pause the rule for it to be examined further.
Tyler Glasnow predicted an increase in injuries following the sticky stuff ban due to changes in grip and mechanics to generate spin
InsertWittyName
Tyler Glasnow predicted an increase in injuries following the sticky stuff ban
===================
Which leads one to question whether any of changes or the higher velocity is an issue.
It’s gotta be an issue. Pitchers are creatures of habit. Let’s face it, from Little League and on, each athlete went about their own way/strategy of how to be in between pitches. After at least a good decade of doing their own thing, each is now required to do what everyone else is doing.
Result. Not just an injury issue but an effectiveness one as well. Example. When Cole Irvin of Orioles was sent to AAA last year, my immediate thought was he’s uncomfortable with the pitch clock dynamic. They sent him down to get comfortable with this time constraint reality. You know what, when he came back up, he was decent.
A suggestion. Employ this strategy at all levels of the game starting at Little League so to get arms at a young age in a routine.
@ C Yards Jeff:
After 2 years of excellence, Alek Manoah’s performance last year also seemed like it might have been pitch-clock related.
@Canuckleb; oh boy, now ya got me thinking …
which is a dangerous activity for all concerned. (lol)
The Orioles Grayson R struggled mightily early on last year too. They sent him down. When he came back, decent numbers/performance. Hmmm.
Are you higher than me Jeff? A pitch clock in little league would 100% be absolute madness that results in sooo many hurt kids and angry parents brawling in the stands when their kid gets beaned lol.
Lol, HOPT, lol. Cheers!
Am I the only one horrible enough to say, that sounds really entertaining?
I believe it has more to do with velocity and other pitches putting a strain on pitchers arms.
Or just more random variation. It doesn’t even begin to suggest there is validity…. A whisper of a hint, really.
“Huh, that’s worth stabilizing the pool under study,” sure.
I think this is a combination of the pitch clock and the new pitching philosophies where everyone is chasing spin and velocity.
There’s too many “throwers” and not enough pitchers. You don’t have to have elite spin and velocity to get people out. Work on a good pitch mix, fastabll, change, curve/slider and then work on hitting your spot. Every time. Being able to set hitters up and sequence an AB should be the most important thing to a pitcher.
The pitch clock could be a contributing factor to the rise in injuries but it’s not the biggest one. It’s been clear for several years now that the insistence on maxing spin rate and velocity are the main culprits.
Here’s a larger sample of the opening day IL placements for pitchers going back to 2016:
2023 – 88 (41 missed all season)
2022 – 66 (30 missed all season)
2021 – 61 (28 missed all season)
2020 – 56 (23 missed all season)
2019 – 60 (16 missed all season)
2018 – 66 (26 missed all season)
2017 – 57 (22 missed all season)
2016 – 61 (22 missed all season)
The opening season IL numbers hovered just around/above 60 each year for 7 years and then spiked by 22 in 2023.
Guys throwing max velo has been around for a decade or two. Spin rates isn’t brand new either. Neither started last year. The clock did.
This is just one way of looking at injuries, and it is all pitcher injuries, not just ‘TJ’ elbows.
Again, not conclusive proof, but worth noting
If it happens again this year, it strongly hints at the clock.
MLB revenue has been fine at this point it’s just greed. The fans weren’t the ones complaining about how long games were it was the greedy team owners who started this crap. If it’s not broke don’t fix it.
he fans weren’t the ones complaining about how long games were
======================
Yes, they were. They recently took a poll and asked the entire planet if they favored watching Buchholz take 30 seconds to throw a pitch, and watch Pedey adjust his gloves for 20 seconds each AB.
There were exactly -0- votes in favor of more glove adjustments.
JoeBrady – You can’t take extremes and apply them across the board. Nice try.
Pitchers went 250 innings plus no issues. Complete games no issue. Build up the arm my friend. Pitch clock has nothing to do with it. Nice try though.
Nice try yourself ignoring the common sense facts..
Go get Montgomery
Toronto got worse, New York is still hurt and another year older, Baltimore can’t bank on an elite bullpen and rotation health again, and Tampa can’t be expected to replace a pedo-SS and 4/5 of a rotation in one offseason.
Seriously. The most likely of any of that^^^ to happen is Tampa. Go for it. Someone has to win,
The Red Sox need to sign one of the remaining free agents, if for no other reason than depth. Clevinger or Lorenzen would be worth adding to the rotation.
I can understand Montgomery still being unsigned (if he had a different agent, that probably wouldn’t be the case), but with as many teams that still genuinely need rotation help, Lorenzen and Clevinger must be asking for too much. I’m thinking a fair price is 1 year, $10M.
They almost have to sign someone with a bit of pedigree, they have almost no starting pitching depth at all in the minors.
I wonder how far away they think Fitts is?
I like the trade, but Fitts is still a flyer. Assuming Monty pitches like he should, the phrase “we have too much pitching” is really unlikely to be heard in Fenway for a long, long time.
That said, part of me wants to see Bello, Pivetta, Crawford, Houck and Whitlock * and maybe and/or Criswell get 100% of the starts in the first half. There are some good teams out there that regularly insert a new starter every year. Let’s look boldly to the future.
Joe — the problem is without dependable innings per start the BP burns out leading to a Sept. crash. Last year they were six gms over in early Sept.; then the lack of innings per start took its toll. That’s why on Dec 1 I said: they needed Monty and a 2d SP pushing Whitlock & Houck to the BP. I will be repeating that manta all year.
Oh I know he’s a flyer. But they don’t have anyone serviceable at the minor league level.
Flyer or not, he’s their best SP prospect in the minors who has pitched over A ball.
Lots of Red Sox fans are having Fitts these days….
Should mean booser makes the squad, I assume
Except that they’ve already reassigned Booser to minor league camp
but I believe they can bring him right back based on a IL placement
With the pitching weakness happening around baseball the Red Sox actually could be decent this year. Sure the young guys would have to come through on their promise and potential, but that big “if” plus if the bats come around there’s a shot.
Maybe Montgomery accepts the same deal Snell took? That would put the Red Sox in the conversation for battling in the AL East?
By decent do you mean not embarrassing? I just followed the team for 10 days and granted it’s spring training, but the pitching is more than rough around the edges. Offense should be competitive if story can resurrect himself for a full year. But every team top to bottom is better than the sox. One could argue depth is a question for a few teams but Boston is already digging into theirs and the season hasn’t even started yet
Sorry Sox fans!
you are next Mr Bello. three times a charm !!
That’s a dickish thing to say.
Keep that crap to yourself. We don’t wish injury on people here.
Useful pitcher. Easily good for 60-70 innings this year. Showed some promise last year. Dang.
I would take a fly on Syndegard at this point if they don’t sign Montgomery… Don’t think it will cost that much…. maybe he can have some type resurgence. Not a fan of Cleavinger.
@Steve Adams, your premise that Murphy was the ‘No.6 or 7 starter’ is erroneous. He had 20 appearances last season and 5 this spring without a single start, and wasn’t part of the 7-man rotation competition.
If anything this hurts the Red Sox relief pitching depth.
What’s Rob Murphy up to these days?
Or Matt Guitar Murphy…. Sweet home Chicago!!!!
with the amount of pitcher injuries going on some surprise team is going to sneak into a wild card or even win their division simply by staying healthy
I thought this guy would be decent in the rotation. Oh well… Do the Sox actually need to field a rotation? Can they just throw some position players to pitch games? I wouldn’t mind watching Tyler O’Neill or Trevor Story throw a no-hitter against the Yankees and Astros.
Trevor story already has an elbow surgery haha
@’Tang It
So, he should be good to pitch this year.
This just in. The Red Sox are ‘interested’ in finding a replacement. Plan to go forward without filling roster spot.
Hey Breslow can we maybe get some starting pitching now? Dude has not prepared for injuries at all or even added a major league starter to the roster this off-season. He added Gioltio but dealt Sale so that was a wash but now is a -1 LOL
You say breslow like he’s the one calling the shots. He’s hamstrung
There is a cost to building a highly-talented roster for the Fenway Sports Group.
All the more reason to sign depth and yet they won’t.
#BOYCOTTFENWAY
Don’t fall for the Jordan Montgomery bandwagon. He is a one year wonder and too much a contact pitcher for Fenway.
AND A 500 PITCHER WITH 30 PLUS WINS OMG !
Cora will be gone by the all star break.
This is a set up.
no, no, no. the ALE is happy that he’s in there. Boston should keep him.
You promise?!
I can hear Brais singing now ….”You’re gonna miss me when I gone”!!!! At least he answered the bell to give up 3 in a 2/3 of a inning
You know what’s worse? Giving into Boras, signing Montgomery for 7 years and a ton of money, then watching him need surgery. This isn’t good but we don’t have the burden of another bad Boras contract hurting us for years and years.
FSG is slowly turning the Red Sox into an embarrassment. Not even just the spending thing but the repeated gaslighting of fans and multiple executives turning down to even interview for the CBO spot of a “premier franchise.” The bad mouthing of past players once they leave like Benintendi. Just really losing the class the organization seemed like it once had.
I’m pretty sure that Jamie Moyer could still toss some innings
Are you serious!!! He’s 77!!! ????? You think we still have his number???
And he’s one of Connecticuts US Senators? Impressive!
Not a good start to Bailey’s tenure as pitching coach.
Another man down. Move Whitlock to the pen and Winckowski to a starter. It’s a no brainer.
Going to be a long year with this team and pitching staff. Pivetta is a long relief guy or a lower end 4th starter maybe a 5th at best. What happened to all the pitching Chaim Bloom was developing? This team will be out if it by May. Whitlock is hurt every year along with Houck. Is Breslow kidding with this rotation?