Red Sox pitcher likely done for year due to wrist surgery

It sounds like Kutter Crawford's 2025 season may be over before he got a chance to pitch for the big league club. On Wednesday afternoon manager Alex Cora told reporters that Crawford will have to undergo surgery for a wrist injury, describing the surgery as "most likely" season-ending.

Crawford, 29, had been off the field since the spring as he recovered from a knee injury. He was making progress on that recovery and was supposed to pitch in a rehab start earlier this month before this wrist injury occurred.

Cora said that the injury happened off the field. "It’s not disappointing; it’s just an accident,” Cora told reporters. “It just sucks that it happened this way. I’m not going to get into details, but it wasn’t irresponsible.”

"It’s been a tough year for him," Cora added. "From spring training to getting ready then for this to happen and now surgery, it hasn’t been a great year for him."

Last year Crawford was a constant presence in the Red Sox rotation. He started 33 games, which led all of Major League Baseball. He went 9-16 with a 4.36 ERA.

Meanwhile the Red Sox do have a few more starting pitchers on the IL who are working their way back to joining the team. Tanner Houck has been out since early May with an elbow injury but has made a couple of rehab starts. Hunter Dobbins was placed on the IL earlier this week but is still with the team and was playing catch on Wednesday morning according to Sean McAdam of MassLive.