The Red Sox announced that infielder Romy Gonzalez has been placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to April 11) due to a left wrist sprain. This move comes a day after another IL placement, as Boston sent right-hander Isaiah Campbell to the 15-day injured list Friday due to a right shoulder impingement. Infielder Bobby Dalbec was called up from Triple-A to replace Campbell, while righty Cooper Criswell was promoted today from Triple-A in Gonzalez’s spot.
As manager Alex Cora told The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey and other reporters, Campbell kept his shoulder discomfort private but his attempts to pitch through the issue had disastrous consequences. Campbell allowed eight earned runs over two innings of work in relief appearances on Wednesday and Thursday, quickly halting what had been a positive start to Campbell’s Red Sox tenure. Acquired from the Mariners for Luis Urias back in November, Campbell had a 2.08 ERA over his first 4 1/3 innings and five appearances in a Boston uniform. The righty will now be sidelined for at least the next two weeks, and the severity of the impingement isn’t yet known.
While Campbell worked out of the bullpen, Criswell will act as a spot starter in today’s game against the Angels, filling in after Nick Pivetta went on the 15-day IL earlier this week. Today’s start will mark Criswell’s Boston debut after signing a one-year, $1MM free agent deal with the club after the Rays non-tendered the right-hander in November. There’s some full-circle significance in facing Los Angeles since the Angels drafted Criswell in the 13th round in 2018, and he made his MLB debut in a Halos uniform in 2021. After tossing 4 2/3 innings in cup-of-coffee fashion over the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Criswell got a longer look with Tampa last season and posted a 5.73 ERA over 33 innings, often working as a bulk pitcher behind an opener.
Gonzalez is another offseason acquisition, picked up from the White Sox on a waiver claim in January. Gonzalez played in two games with Boston before hurting his wrist in a fall during Wednesday’s game. X-rays were negative on Gonzalez’s wrist, but an IL stint has been deemed necessary to give the infielder some time to fully heal up.
Dalbec’s addition can shore up the infield mix to some extent, but Gonzalez is now the fourth infield option on Boston’s injured list, joining Trevor Story, Vaughn Grissom, and utilityman Rob Refsnyder. Story will miss the entire season in the wake of shoulder surgery, while Grissom (hamstring strain) and Refsnyder (broken toe) have started minor league rehab assignments. Grissom and Refsnyder are tentatively on pace to be activated off the IL in late April, though Grissom’s timeline is a little uncertain since injuries prevented from playing whatsoever during Spring Training.
The impact of so many missing infielders is evident in Boston’s glovework, as McCaffrey notes that the defense has essentially fallen apart since Story was sidelined. The Red Sox are near the bottom of the league in Outs Above Average (-5) and Defensive Runs Saved (-7), and their 16 errors is tied for the most in baseball.
Three of those errors came in yesterday’s 7-0 loss to the Angels, and the lineup was also missing Rafael Devers. Due to nagging soreness in his left shoulder, Devers has missed Boston’s last two games and will also sit out of today’s contest.
“I’ve been feeling it since Spring Training,” Devers told MLB.com and other media yesterday. “But every time I was swinging, I was feeling it a little bit more and more. So for me, I think like two or three days [off] could be enough. I hope it doesn’t keep bothering me after these two or three days, but that’s something I can’t control. That’s why I’m just trying to keep working to get stronger, to get my shoulder back in a good way.”
It’s safe to say that Devers’ shoulder has contributed to the third baseman’s slow start, as Devers is hitting just .184/.326/.395 over his first 46 plate appearances. This relative lack of production has contributed to the lineup’s inconsistency, as the Red Sox have had trouble scoring runs despite hot starts from Tyler O’Neill and Jarren Duran.
When you find a tender Romy that is right for you, make it official.
Haven’t heard Tenderoni mentioned in a minute. Time to bust out the 90s hip hop tracks.
It was 90’s r&b… But close enough I guess
I only heard it mentioned in 90s mixtapes. Like from the NFL crew. I never listened to Bobby Brown. But, you right.
Does anybody really pay attention to a reliever’s ERA after just 4 innings?
Announcers were expecting Winck to start today, but I figured the Sox were anxious for the Cooper Criswell era to begin.
Dalbec is hitless in his last 25 PA’s with just one walk and 16 strikeouts. He is not a major leaguer, his presence shows how the front office did nothing to build some depth.
Rafaela should be playing middle infield at least until Grissom debuts, but Cora refuses. Winning is still not a priority with him.
Will Tek be given an opportunity as interim manager at some point this season? Seems more likely with each passing day.
I am very confident the Sox win today, but don’t ask me about tomorrow. LOL!!
News flash: every major league pitcher placed on the IL.
Yayy, more strikeouts from Blobby Dalbec…this team is sunk
Bill – So true about Bobby, 16 strikeouts in his last 24 AB’s ….. maybe he’ll be the first MLB player in history to have a 67% strikeout rate over 500 consecutive PA’s.
I was thinking Dobby Balbec, but I like yours better.
Fart – I like yours better. Blobby doesn’t really apply, he’s not fat.
Let’s get an MLBTR poll going
IM – Remember Jose Offerman’s anagram?
I just remember him being called Jose Awfulman.
Jose Offerman = Major Offense
Fat – Ironically Offerman was touted as the first Moneyball player 3 years before Beane’s Moneyball.
Dan Duquette justified replacing Mo Vaughn’s offense with Jose’s because Jose’s OBP the prior year was .403 and his salary was a lot less than Mo’s in 1999.
The following year Duquette signed Manny, so it worked out quite well considering how much Manny produced in Boston and how little Mo did after leaving.
Bring back Reggie Jefferson and Morgan Burkhardt
Moley – I never understood why Reggie retired so early. He killed RHP with a career .869 OPS and he wasn’t that bad overall, take away his rookie season and he had a career .838 OPS against all pitchers.
There’re only 1.5 back in the wildcard with 148 to go. Still time to catch the O’s for the final spot to get in the postseason.
Jimmy – Problem is, they aren’t playing the White Sox or Marlins very often this season …. I think only 10 games combined.
That’s means 138 against everyone else.
Lesson: never hide an injury
It’s just a flesh wound.
hayzee – And he has a whole lotta flesh.
Either he was overthrowing, or the Sox want him to work on his game in the minors. Time will tell.
Seriously, that comment you make about overthrowing makes me wonder because the rate of minor league pitchers getting hurt seems to be considerably lower than in the majors. If that’s true, someone should look at why that is. You’d think they’d be overthrowing in the minors to get to MLB.
Coop – It’s about service time. Getting injured in the minors keeps you from being promoted. Once in the majors if you go on the IL you still accrue service time.
It’s becoming increasingly apparent how weird it is that Breslow had such faith in Trevor Story’s health that he didn’t bring a single other pure shortstop into the fold as a depth option. All of Grissom, Hamilton, Reyes, Rafaela, Dalbec, Gonzalez, etc. are utility infielders who are really better suited as second basemen (or, in Rafaela’s case, in the outfield). I’m not as bothered by the lack of competitiveness in a year that was clearly always tabbed for rebuilding, but this seems like such a massive oversight that it makes me question the basic competence of the front office.
Hindsight’s 20/20, I guess… but, like, even signing Elvis Andrus to a minor league deal or something like that would have been achievable at no significant cost to the organization or to the development of the team’s young core. All of the last four games might have been winnable with an actual shortstop on the field.
crocus – I agree about Story, he’s had a significant number of injuries over his entire career. But there’s no reason why Rafaela isn’t filling in for him right now. Mayer will likely be called up sooner than expected, until MAT is promoted it’s not a rebuilding year …. it’s a “thank you for your money, fans – now don’t bother us” year.
The last 4 games winnable with Story? They got shut out yesterday with no hits after the third inning.
They coughed up a 5-0 second half lead with Martin on the mound.
They lost the home opener by 6 runs when they had just 2 hits.
It’s not just shortstop that is the problem, Rafaela already has 3 errors and Casas already has 2. O’Neill has gone stone cold and is swinging at pitches in the dirt.
There’s a LOT wrong right now than just shortstop.
Hey Fever— I agree that this roster has holes up and down, but I also think something Dave O’Brien said on broadcast is (for once) true. He was observing that with Story at SS and the infield defense looking significantly better than it had last year, the starting staff was trusting their stuff and pitching to contact, which is how all 5 of them managed to get through 5+ innings the first time around. But the errors that have been made by Hamilton, Valdez, & co. this time around have led to at least 20 unnecessary pitches being thrown by starters each game. Then you start leaning too heavily on a bullpen with heavy upside but limited experience and you’re bound to run into disaster—which they have.
In other words, I’m not sure the pitching staff looks nearly as patchwork with competent defense behind them. Both the raised pitch counts and the psychological inability to believe you can pitch to contact are horrible for a staff’s long-term outlook.
That being said…. with the looming IL trip that Devers is going to take, the inevitable downturn in production from Duran and O’Neill, Kenley’s bad back, and the “””mild””” injury to Pivetta’s arm… yeah, it’s gonna be a long season.
crocus – I definitely agree with Dave.
Just like one hitter can transform a lineup (see what Soto has done for the Yanks) I do agree Story’s presence helps the pitchers. Not so much the offense, or the defense at 1B and OF and catcher (there was a Catcher’s Interference too).
Overall I still like the pitching staff when they are healthy, but even when Story was playing the starting rotation wasn’t pitching to contact. That’s why Bello’s first two starts saw him last just 5 innings, Pivetta went 5 innings and 6 innings, Whitlock went 5 innings and 4 innings, and Crawford went 6 innings and 4 innings.
The only thing I disagree with in your final paragraph is Duran, I don’t think there will be a downturn. I expect at least an .800 OPS from him this season.
Didn’t mean to shade Duran! He’s one of the more convincing young talents on this team and I love the energy he brings on the basepaths. It’s been a long time since one guy’s speed really felt like it changed the game for a Sox team. Last I can think of is… Ellsbury? (I like Duran better than Ellsbury.)
Totally agree with you about the corner defense (Casas and Devers are rough on the eyes) and the strikeout-forward staff. But then, with defense like ours, who in the world could justify pitching to contact?
crocus – Totally agree on Duran, the way he frequently turned singles into doubles last year while also stealing bases was indeed reminiscent of prime Ellsbury. He is the first true leadoff hitter the Sox have had since Ellsbury (Mookie to me belongs in the 3-hole, but that’s a different discussion for another day).
BTW – Anthony has been tearing up AA. Yesterday he hit 2 homers, reached base 4 times and stole a base. His OPS is now 1.093 !!! I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets called up this year too, and Tyler is flipped by the deadline.
It’s just a shame that both kids will be coming into such a crappy environment.
Their offense is all or nothing. They don’t have good “hitters.” That includes Story. They have a few sluggers. But they don’t string together hits & walks to keep the line moving because there is rarely a line. If they don’t hit home runs they don’t create much of a threat. We see them score 2-3 runs early & then they go silent & have an impossible time catching up. And we know there are real holes all over this roster. All phases. This is going to be a long, long road.
Dave – I totally agree!! One aspect that made previous Red Sox championship teams so successful was their patience at the plate, their willingness to take or foul off bad pitches. This year’s team is the opposite, swinging away as if they are anxious to get the at bat over with.
You look at what the Yankees are doing now, it’s no coincidence they have soared to the top of the majors in Pitches Seen at 4.18 and are 4th in the majors for OBP.
How about Nick Ahmed, too? A below average bat, but certainly an adept SS. But at less than $1MM, he seems like a good, durable, affordable option for any team. The Giants came in and scooped him up, and he seems to be doing well there.
That Ahmed pickup is looking awfully smart for them, I agree!
I thought the Red Sox were going to be pretty competitive this year, but not much has gone their way starting with the Giolito injury.
I will be shocked if the Red Sox win any games when the infield consists of 3 of the 4: Hamilton, Reyes, Dalbec.Valdez. The defense isn’t there, and neither is the offense.
Are you shocked? They won today with all 4 playing
I am shocked they scored 7 runs with that offense, and that Criswell only gave up two runs.
Bobby Dalbec is a fine human being and a great baseball player. The other players are just ganging up on him and the Red Sox never give him a chance or support him. He deserves better chance and he will be MVP.
Signed Bobby Dalbecs mom
Stan – Here’s the latest update on Dalbec:
30 AB hitless streak
19 strikeouts in his last 28 AB’s.
The good news is he still has 24 hitless AB’s to go before tying the ML record.
Calling Refsnyder an infield option is really pushing it. David Ortiz was more of an infielder than him.
Refsnyder has played numerous games at second base you mook,
He hasn’t played second base since 2017. The Sox would put Connor Wong there before him.
Story has company in the training room now
See if a team that will give him 500 at Bats will trade for Dalbec.I love when you get out or go 0-4 and get sent down.I know i would build a routine if i was in an out of a lineup.
Agreed. The man makes the team, and then play him part time. Even then, he was used more as pinch hitter.
Does Cora hate him? Dalbs is obviously in his own head right now, expecting to fail. And what does Cora do? Has him bat 5th, while Mac is hitting 8th.
Let Dalbec hit 8th and give him to find it again. And for God’s sake, stop bringing him in as a pinch hitter! Just tell him he is up to play the field nobody cares if he hits. Heck he might accidentally get a hit then!
DBH – I totally agree! Players should bat in the lineup based on merit, but Cora has a habit of putting the worst hitters in the most critical lineup slots. I know part of it is because of his obsession with L-R throughout the lineup.
Is use to think it was the right-left thing, too. But then then you would have Duran, O’Neil, Devers, etc. Now I just think it is Cora trying to prove how smart he is
DBH – Or Cora sending a message to the front office that he’s not pleased with what he was given. He’s probably like “Well if they are gonna insist on Dalbec being on the roster, I’m gonna stick it to them by using him in the 5-hole.”
He’s probably toast, imo. He struck out a staggering 169 times in 413 ABs in AAA at age 28. That projects to about 250 Ks in 600 ABs, and probably closer to 270 if he was in the pros. He’s Michael Chavis’ doppelganger.
I’m just commenting to let everyone know how angry I am about the Red Sox.
It’s hard to even explain how angry I am.
I’m mad.
Oh.
Full throttle
What an absolute mess this team is ! After an impressive season opening road trip we come home and S*&T the bed. ERRORS galore!! What’s going on here. The infield coach should be shown the door. And I’m beginning to believe the manager too. This team has ZERO depth. When you have Bobby Dalbec as your backup 3rd baseman, you have a problem. They put out a AAA infield last night. The only quality Util INF is Pablo Reyes and he is being over used. Story really was the glue keeping this INF together, and now with Raffy having a bum shoulder they are lost.
How about checking in with Miami and seeing if Tim Anderson is available. I know, he has issues but he isn’t that far removed from an All-Star season & may come cheap, at least for this season. You can’t piece meal SS this early in the season!
I’m so p’d off right now at this team.
OK I’m done venting.
Just when it looked like hey maybe they’ll give us a reason to watch this year, a giant pelican by the name of reality emerges from the sky and takes a four and a half pound dump right on top of us. Maybe next year…
Dirty – Thanks for the visual …LOL!!
Sorry but winning 5 out of 6 against the Angels and A’s didn’t impress me. I said all along the Orioles would be the true test, and it proved exactly what we expected. The Red Sox are not yet a bottom-5 AL team, but they aren’t a playoff-caliber team either.
Oh yeah. I was never expecting playoffs and winning some games in Oakland and Anaheim didn’t change that. But it did have me hopeful they’d at least be watchable. Baltimore came in and made a quick, thorough dispatching of that notion though.
Dirty – It’s even more disappointing they played so crappy on Patriot’s Day.
Their #1 SP on the hill, best possible lineup, facing a Guardians team that played extra innings Sunday and then had to fly into Boston for an 11AM game. Pitiful the Sox not only lost, but got shutout 6-0.
And did you hear Cora making excuses for the collision. Watch the video, Alex …. neither player said a word when they were going for the catch.
Yeah you should stop watching..
And posting,
Let’s make a deal, I’ll do that and you stop breathing.
fenway – Trust me, you don’t want Tim and Tyler on the same team.
They won today.
hayzee – I said this morning I was very confident they would.
Tomorrow could get quite ugly though.
Dalbec is breaking out on Sunday. Just watch.
hayzee – I hope you’re right.
See that, he walked! What an accomplishment.
Fun fact: Bobby’s lifetime OPS is less than 50 points below Error in Judgement’s postseason OPS. Practically the same, he said whimsically.
hayzee – Bobby is on fire!! He’s up to 33 hitless AB’s … only 21 away from the record!
GO BOBBY GO!!!
Redsox will be fine as long as they solidify SS. If they dont then its a long season
The next solid SS you see will be Mayer, and he is at least half a season away. It will be a long season.
Fever – Remind me again. A pop fly to short left field in Fenway and who gets to call off the other player?
Ultimately who gets hurt due to complete incompetence by the worst defensive 3B in the history of baseball? The hottest player on the team, O’Neill!!
Fire Cora and move Devers to DH.and trade Yoshida for a 3B. It’s the only way this team starts in a new direction and wins more than 66 games.
TF – I know who you want me to say, but the answer is the outfielder. :O)
All outfielders can call off all infielders, because they have the play in front of them and they have the momentum if a throw is necessary.
Shortstop can call off all other infielders.
Centerfielder can call off all other outfielders.
You know that collision reminded me of Beltre smashing into Ellsbury! Gotta give credit to Devers for staying in the game after running into a mountain like O’Neill.
One way or another, Cora will not be manager of the Red Sox after this season. So there is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel!!
Fever – Can’t give credit to Devers since the back of a head is hard but the face is very dangerous in a collision. Plus, I am superstitious and hate to see a hot player get taken down by bad defense.
Lets hope he is back soon!!! Let me guess, no error? hahaha Why even use score keepers? The accuracy is gone. Why not just declare 15 errors for Devers in 2024 and never keep track? If there are 50 misplays, it’s no different than now.
Fans should take the issue of inaccurate errors to the political commissioner so he can crack down on accuracy. I think 30 to 50 real errors charged on Devers might speed up the process of moving him to DH..
TF – Errors are never given on collisions. I do hope Tyler is back soon, if anything so Rafaela can shift to shortstop.
Did you see tonight’s lineup? I think it’s as good as can be, Devers 2nd and Yoshida 3rd and Casas cleanup. Sox should win as Bibee sucks …..
TF – You are very fortunate to not be watching the games, they are so painful!!
Abreu made another huge error in right field, and Casas inexplicably decided to try and steal third base …. the look on Cora’s face was priceless!! Of course he got thrown out by a country mile.
Kenley is showing his age, he got roughed up. Of course Joely got shelled as usual. Devers left the game with a knee injury and Whitlock left with an oblique issue.
Good thing the front office prepared for injuries by ensuring there is depth on the team ….. NOT!!
I still don’t agree with your prediction of 66 wins, only because I think Casas will have a monster offensive season and a couple others will have good seasons, but if forced to guess I’d say they are ticketed for 70-75 wins. Time will tell.
And on a positive note, because I am a glass half full guy, Abreu did make another great catch in right field. He reminds me of Rafaela, both can make sensational plays but then they will botch the routine ones.
Fever – I have the MLB channel and app so I do get to watch a lot of Red Sox games and if you ask me the season takes me back to The Natural when Redford has to sit in the locker room and listen to the guy talking about how to win but nobody is doing anything until Bump Bailey runs through the wall and Redford plays.
You have a terrible owner like in the movie, you have some talented kids who are being played out of position, you have no defense and you have lots of injuries. Abreu is just like Rafaela and Duran when he came up, experience doesn’t exist when it relates to Fenway so year one is all about learning the details of HOW to play defense in Fenway. I hold nothing against these young guys. Devers, Yoshida and the catchers, they need to be replaced on defense.
Devers has been healthy for the majority of his career and his character suggests that if the team is tanking he’ll be ducking games or coming up lame or sicks far more than in the past.
66 wins is a system of guessing the future. I don’t claim to know what the total will be, just that the quality of opponents got better and the quality of the team got worse. So far, nothing contradicts with that premise which means an excellent draft pick like in 2020.
I agree about Casas. The trick is how do you string players around him in the order who can consistently hit. JT was excellent at it and so far O’Neill has been an excellent replacement. Too bad we didn’t keep both!!! Duran looks like he may become a perennial potential all-star so that is great but Rafaela and Abreu are still raw hitters. We haven’t seen Grissom but his minor league stats were about batting average like Yoshi so we’ll need to see if he develops any power or speed.
Like you I am positive about the young guys, but until Cora is gone, Devers is off 3B the two biggest obstacles will continue to exist and block progress in winning.
Houck, Bello, Pivetta and Whitlock need to continue to work hard to improve their locating of the ball and game plan with the pitching coaches. It sure would be great if all the Sox needed was ONE top of the rotation guy to go with the four younger pitchers. That reduces the money issue in 2025.
TF – That’s great to hear, I thought you had said baseball was taking a backseat to other things going on in your life.
Now that there’s a draft lottery, no guarantee the Sox get another Mayer. I think it’s a moot point though, they are not as bad as the ChiSox, Rockies, Marlins etc.
I’m thinking Pivetta is a goner, if the Sox had interest in keeping him they’d have made a competitive extension offer to him by now. Once he hits free agency I don’t see the Red Sox outbidding others, especially with next offseason’s free agent pitcher class so thin.
You’ll be happy to know Baseball America has projected Devers will be at DH in 2027 when Cespedes takes over 3B, so only three more years to go!
“who gets to call off”
———————-
Did ONeill call him off? How do you know?
You are right. Always assume the two time gold glove player doesn’t know what to do and the worst 3B in the history of the sport never heard him. Sound logic.
How about we dont assume anything? That to me is ‘Sound logic’.