Breslow disputes darker update on Crochet’s lat strain, says left-hander is progressing

The Red Sox moved to clarify the status of Garrett Crochet’s left-lat strain on Wednesday, saying the diagnosis has not changed in a meaningful way. Craig Breslow, the team’s chief baseball officer, told ’s Ian Browne that, “as far as I know there is nothing new,” adding that Crochet is “making good progress on the lat strain.”

The comment came after reporting suggested Crochet’s issue might be more serious than the initial assessment indicated. In professional baseball, even small shifts in how a strain is responding can affect pitching timelines, rehab intensity, and when a pitcher can safely ramp workload. Breslow’s message is therefore less about a specific timetable and more about the club’s current medical view: the injury is not deteriorating as had been implied.

Crochet, a key piece of Boston’s pitching mix, has been at the center of team-building conversations because of his role as a frontline starter-capable arm. A lat strain can be particularly impactful for left-handed pitchers given the strain that shows up during the late phase of the delivery, when the torso rotates and the arm whips through. That is why clubs typically manage these injuries with conservative, performance-based milestones rather than by calendar alone.

In Breslow’s framing, the Red Sox are tracking progress but are not announcing a return date. That restraint is typical for high-leverage injuries, where the priority is to restore pain-free mechanics and strength before increasing pitch volume or intensity. Without additional new information, the practical takeaway is that Boston’s plan has not been forced onto a harsher path by a medical setback.

The clarification also matters for roster planning. Even when a team does not publicly tie injury status to specific lineup decisions, pitching depth and bullpen usage are designed around expected availability. A clearer medical update helps management and coaches decide whether they can continue working toward a conventional rotation plan or whether they need to further extend other starters and set different bullpen matchups.

For fans, the most important watch item is how the Red Sox translate “making good progress” into the next visible phase of the recovery process. That generally means monitoring progression indicators such as throwing tolerance, bullpen session results, and whether Crochet’s workload can be increased without flare-ups. Until the club offers a concrete baseball activity update, the story remains one of steady recovery rather than a sudden timeline shift.

Still, Breslow’s statement is a meaningful public correction. It indicates that Boston believes the earlier report overstated the situation, and it sets the tone for how the organization wants Crochet’s recovery understood: slow, supervised, and improving, not worsening.