Garrett Crochet unlikely to return before All-Star break after lat strain restarts rehab

Garrett Crochet said Friday that a return to the Boston Red Sox rotation before the All-Star break would require "a huge leap" — his words, offered to MassLive.com's Chris Cotillo and other reporters — and that pushing for one would be "really rushing it." The left-hander's rehab has effectively been reset after a lat strain forced a throwing shutdown that, per MLB Trade Rumors, has now lasted over two weeks.

What happened

Crochet's most recent outing was six shutout innings on April 25. He was then retroactively placed on the 15-day injured list the following day with left shoulder inflammation. After roughly a month on the sidelines, he had progressed to the point of facing live batters — a meaningful milestone in any pitcher's return arc — before the lat strain intervened and brought everything to a halt.

Per MLB Trade Rumors, the lat strain itself is no longer described as a real issue, and Crochet said he is "getting close to throwing." That is encouraging news in isolation. The problem, as Crochet framed it, is that the sequence of setbacks has consumed enough time and calendar that the rehab process must now essentially restart, and the All-Star break is simply too close on the horizon to make a pre-break return realistic rather than reckless.

The southpaw is, understandably, frustrated — a detail MLB Trade Rumors notes without elaboration, and one that requires no elaboration. A pitcher who threw six shutout innings in late April and has not thrown competitively since is allowed to be frustrated in June.

Why it matters

The Red Sox built their rotation around Crochet as a genuine front-of-the-rotation piece, and his absence has stretched from a retroactive IL placement in late April into what is now shaping up to be a multi-month gap. The All-Star break functions as a natural calendar marker in these situations: when a pitcher says getting back before it would be "really rushing it," the practical read is that the second half of the season becomes the realistic target window — though Crochet himself offered no specific timetable, and per MLB Trade Rumors, none exists yet.

That uncertainty is the operative word here. Crochet did not say he would return after the break, only that returning before it would be premature. The rehab clock cannot start in earnest until he is throwing again, and "getting close to throwing" is a different thing than throwing. The gap between those two states is where timelines live and die.

For a rotation that will send Ranger Suarez to the mound Saturday against the Texas Rangers and Connelly Early on Sunday in the same series, the absence of a healthy Crochet is a real operational weight. Payton Tolle is lined up for Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays. That is the current rotation reality, and it is a rotation navigating without one of its most significant arms.

Where the club stands

### Is Boston's Wild Card spot safe without Crochet?

The Red Sox carry an 87-75 record, good for a .537 winning percentage and third place in the AL East. They are 11 games back in the division — and have been eliminated from the division race — but they sit second in the Wild Card standings, with a +3.0 margin relative to the cut line. That cushion is meaningful but not comfortable, and it is the kind of number that makes every rotation question feel slightly more urgent than it might for a team with more separation. The streak entering the weekend is L1.

The upcoming schedule offers a reasonable look at where things stand. Saturday and Sunday bring the Texas Rangers to Fenway Park, with Jacob deGrom opposing Ranger Suarez on Saturday and Nathan Eovaldi opposing Connelly Early on Sunday. Tuesday opens a series against the Toronto Blue Jays, with Dylan Cease drawing the assignment against Payton Tolle. These are not soft matchups — deGrom, Eovaldi, and Cease represent genuine pitching on the other side — and they arrive while the Red Sox rotation is still working around a significant absence.

A third-place club eliminated from the division race with a postseason path running almost entirely through the Wild Card is a club that rewards rotation depth. Depth is precisely what Crochet's absence tests, and the schedule is not inclined to wait for the answer.

What we don't know yet

There is no timeline. That is not a hedge or a caveat — it is the actual state of affairs as Crochet described it Friday. He is getting close to throwing. Once he is throwing, a rehab progression can begin. Once a rehab progression begins, a return window can be estimated. None of those steps have been completed, and Crochet himself offered no date or target.

MLB Trade Rumors also does not specify the nature or severity of the original left shoulder inflammation beyond the IL designation, or precisely how the lat strain occurred during the live batting sessions. The lat strain is described as no longer a real issue, which is the most concrete positive in the entire update — but "no longer a real issue" and "ready to build back toward game action" are still separated by a process that has already been interrupted once.

Under general league mechanics, a pitcher on the 15-day IL can be transferred to the 60-day IL if the timeline warrants it, and a rehab assignment of up to 30 days is available once he is healthy enough to begin one. None of those steps have been reported for Crochet; they are simply the structural options that exist as the situation develops.

What to watch

The most immediate signal to track is when Crochet resumes throwing. That step — not a bullpen session, not live batters, just throwing — is the prerequisite for everything else, and it is the one he said Friday he is approaching. Once that happens, the rehab timeline becomes something that can actually be measured rather than estimated in the abstract.

The All-Star break serves as a soft deadline in the public conversation, but the more meaningful marker will be whether Crochet can get through a full throwing progression without another interruption. A shoulder inflammation that gave way to a lat strain during the return process is the kind of sequence that makes medical staffs deliberate, and it should. The Red Sox have a Wild Card position worth protecting, and the version of Crochet who threw six shutout innings on April 25 is worth waiting for — provided the waiting is done carefully.

Per MLB Trade Rumors, carefully is exactly what Crochet is asking for.