What James Paxton’s hamstring strain means for the Red Sox’ starting rotation
Paxton is the third pitcher in the Red Sox' rotation that's dealt with an injury during spring training.
The Red Sox’ starting rotation has taken another hit in spring training.
In his first unofficial game with the Red Sox, James Paxton departed early due to a hamstring injury on Friday. The injury was determined to be a Grade 1 strain, which is the least-serious type of strain, Red Sox manager Alex Cora shared Saturday.
However, Paxton will miss some time due to the injury as Cora said it’s unlikely he’ll be ready to play again by Opening Day. The Red Sox’ skipper found a positive though in Paxton’s injury update.
“If we need imaging, we’ll do it. Right now, we don’t feel that way,” Cora told reporters Saturday. “He’s going to fall behind a little bit here. But worst-case scenario, you know, it’s actually a best-case scenario. It doesn’t look that bad.”
The 34-year-old lefty, who’s in his second season with the Red Sox’ organization, pitched in just one rehab start in 2022 as he recovered from Tommy John surgery in April 2021.
Paxton signed a one-year, $10 million with the Red Sox prior to the 2022 season and picked up a $4 million player option for the 2023 season. He’s pitched just 21 2/3 innings since the 2020 season. But in 2019, Paxton went 15-6 with a 3.82 ERA in 150 2/3 innings pitched with the Yankees.
The injury to Paxton leaves some uncertainty as to who’ll be in the Red Sox’ rotation at the start of the season. Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, and Nick Pivetta are either all healthy or should all be ready to go by then. However, Brayan Bello suffered a forearm injury at the beginning of camp and his timeline is still unknown while Garrett Whitlock is still being ramped up following hip surgery in September.
With a pair of possible open spots in the rotation, The Boston Globe‘s Pete Abraham speculated that Tanner Houck will likely get one of the spots while Josh Winckowski or Kutter Crawford will get the other.
After spending the 2020 and 2021 seasons as a starter, Houck spent much of the 2022 season pitching out of the bullpen, going 1-2 with a 4.32 ERA in 16 2/3 innings pitched over four starts. Houck pitched well out of the bullpen as he had a 2.70 ERA over 28 appearances. The Red Sox planned to have Houck build up as a starter over the offseason but also left the door for him to pitch out of the bullpen if much of their rotation was healthy.
Both Winckowski and Crawford threw two shutout innings in their first spring training appearances, but they each struggled last season. Winckowski went 5-7 with a 5.75 ERA over 14 starts while Crawford went 1-5 with a 5.43 ERA over 12 starts.
As for Sale, he’s expected to make his spring training debut next week.
Paxton wasn’t the lone Red Sox player to suffer a hamstring strain in recent days. Cora shared that catcher Connor Wong also suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain that could keep him out past Opening Day.
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