Good morning, although if you’re just finding out about this news now, it might not be a very good morning.
Last night, after the Red Sox lost their fifth game in a row, they also revealed Garrett Whitlock is dealing with elbow inflammation.
This obviously has the potential to be disastrous as elbow
inflammation is often a harbinger to something much more serious, and given the way injuries have manifested for this club all season with guys like Garrett Crochet, Roman Anthony, Triston Casas and Johan Oviedo, it’s hard for the mind not to wander directly to a worst case scenario.
Personally, I’d put Whitlock on the IL immediately! Not only is he a critical and effective part of this bullpen that’s been a pillar to the team’s success, but he’s also had arm troubles in the past. The two options here seem to be either keep going, manage it day by day, and hoping it gets better, or shut him down for a few weeks and see if you can get him back closer to 100 percent for the stretch run. Given the team is now ten games off the division and is almost certainly going to have to go through the Wild Card round to have any success in October (where Whitlock may get heavy use), I’m choosing option B.
However, you could also argue the playoffs are not guaranteed. This has been one of the streakiest Red Sox teams of all time, and a season filled with things we either haven’t seen in decades, or have never seen at all. Whitlock still might be needed to punch the ticket, and losing him right now only adds fuel to the fire of the five game losing streak (especially with Aroldis Chapman looking more vulnerable by the week and Tyron Guerrero failing to retire any of the five guys he faced last night).
What about you guys? Would you IL Whitlock right? Use this space to talk about that and anything else you’d like before today’s game (it’s an afternoon affair at 3:00pm), and as always, be good to one another.
