The Boston Red Sox have been without Garrett Crochet for most of the season, as he's been working his way back from inflammation in his left shoulder, along with a left lat strain. However, his return is seemingly nearing, and with the club set to take on the New York Yankees in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, interim manager Chad Tracy provided an official update on Crochet.
Tracy admitted that he and the Red Sox are still evaluating the 27-year-old left-hander, according to insider Joey Mistretta. While Crochet has participated in a live batting practice, Tracy is not yet ready to confirm when the star pitcher will return from injury.
“We're still seeing… He threw the live BP, came out of it well,” Tracy said. “We obviously just got here a little bit ago. We're going to be here for a while, let guys go through treatments, let guys go outside and play catch… We'll see as we get to the end of the workout if we can key down on making decisions like that. I think the answer to that is up in the air. If we're able to activate Garrett and we do that and we decide to do that, obviously he's available, right?
Article Continues Below“I think beyond that, if you were to use him, the availability, whether that's the next day or for another game in the series, it's still going to be contingent on us continuing to evaluate him,” Tracy continued. “We know where he's at. We know he's worked very hard to get everything back strong the way it needs to be, but we're still going to be evaluating him daily to see where he's at.”
Garrett Crochet last played in the Red Sox's 17-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles back on April 25. The 2026 campaign did not go according to plan for the six-year veteran before the injury. Through six appearances on the mound, Crochet recorded a 6.30 ERA and 1.467 WHIP with 37 strikeouts in 30.0 innings pitched.
Boston will begin its playoff journey on Tuesday, September 29 against New York. The Red Sox will start Payton Tolle on the mound for the first matchup of the Wild Card series.