Where Things Stand with Garrett Crochet, Roman Anthony

Still just 4.5 games back from a Wild Card spot, the Red Sox have a chance to capture this energy and bring it into July, where their playoff hopes will seemingly lay in the balance of every series. With this renewed outlook, the team will need all hands-on deck to get back into the fight. The troubling reality is that it may be a while before they are back at full strength.

Injuries are an obstacle for every team every season, but few teams have suffered worse than Boston's losses of Roman Anthony and Garrett Crochet. During a week-and-a-half stretch at the end of April and into May, the Red Sox clubhouse lost their ace, longtime manager Alex Cora, and best young star.

Latest on Garrett Crochet

For Crochet, it was a seemingly minor shoulder ailment that put him on the shelf after a strong start on April 25. Four days later, he landed on the injured list. Two months later, he is now fully recovered from a different injury to his lat, but is still not throwing as he looks to build up the strength in his shoulder.

While the weekend did not bring much in the way of an update on the 27-year-old hurler's status, he did speak with Alex Speier of The Boston Globe about what he thinks caused the injury in the first place.

“I was still kind of experiencing that hangover from last year," Crochet said. "And once I started throwing again, maybe my mechanics just weren’t in a great spot… And then as the buildup occurred, that just continued to get further from the norm.”

In his first year with Boston, Crochet made a real push for the AL Cy Young, going 18-5 in 32 starts with a 2.59 ERA and major league best 255 strikeouts in an American League high 205.1 innings. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to replicate this early on in 2026, struggling out of the gate to a 3-3 record with 6.30 ERA in his only six starts.

The Red Sox won't have the hard-throwing righty back until after the All-Star break, but if he can return shortly after with the same authority as last season, they will have a case for the best starting rotation in baseball heading into the most crucial two months of the season.

Latest on Roman Anthony

Anthony's season mirrors that of Crochet's in a lot of ways. A tremendous start to his career in Boston had expectations sky-high for the 22-year-old outfielder. After just 71 games in 2025, the front office seemed content allowing Anthony to anchor the top of the lineup, failing to replace the slugging that departed in Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman.

Like Crochet, Anthony stumbled out of the gate and then got hurt. Before his hand injury on May 4, he was batting just .229/.354/.321 with one home run and five RBI. This lack of production was a big part of the Red Sox's struggles early on, as the roster construction hinged on Anthony taking yet another step and doing it right away.

Also like Crochet, Anthony has had some bizarre communication surrounding his injury. What began as a day-to-day thing became an expected minimum IL stint before turning into an organizational debate about the actual nature of the injury. Now on the 60-day IL and approaching two months away, the young slugger is still not swinging a bat.

Over the weekend, Anthony sat down with Rob Bradford on the Baseball Isn't Boring Podcast to provide the latest on his injury and how frustrating it has been to go through such a prolonged absence.

"It’s the same kind of coming through, as I push through and kind of extend through in a sense, and then turn it over in a way of just a bat, you know, against my hand is still the thing we’re trying to get through," Anthony said of why he still can't swing fully. "Seeing progress and it feels like it’s getting stronger. Feeling like I got more there to kind of support the hand and then the ring finger. So, positive in that sense."

“I wanna play baseball. I’m over sitting here and waiting on a finger. Like it sounds ridiculous to me," he said candidly.

Still not swinging, Anthony will have to be pain-free throughout a swinging progression before any timeline can be forecasted. This alone could last a few weeks once it starts, and given his prolonged absence, he will likely need some at-bats on rehab assignment before rejoining the team.

So, for now, it's still status quo for Crochet and Anthony. But with that said, there is a scenario where the Red Sox approach the deadline on a run, back in the Wild Card hunt with one of the best rotations in baseball, in which case the return of their best pitcher and young superstar becomes very important.