The Red Sox announced today that left-hander Chris Murphy underwent a successful reconstruction of the left ulnar collateral ligament, also known as Tommy John surgery. It was reported a few weeks ago that the lefty had damaged the ligament and he is already on the 60-day injured list.
Murphy, 26 in June, made his major league debut with the Sox last year. He tossed 47 2/3 innings over 20 appearances with an earned run average of 4.91, though better underlying numbers. His 23.1% strikeout rate, 8% walk rate and 44.7% ground ball rate were all pretty close to league average but his .321 batting average on balls in play and 67.2% strand rate were on the unlucky side. His 3.70 FIP and 3.88 SIERA were each more than a run better than his ERA.
That big league work was all out of the bullpen but he had been working as a starter in the minor leagues. With two remaining option years, he could have either continued working out of the big league bullpen or perhaps been sent to Triple-A for some rotation depth. The Sox didn’t need to make that decision once the ligament damage was discovered. Now that Murphy has gone under the knife, he will unfortunately have to miss the entire season and likely a decent chunk of 2025 as well.
If there’s one silver lining for Murphy, it’s that he will remain on the injured list all year, collecting big league pay and service time. He’ll look to get healthy and get his career back on track next year, likely around his 27th birthday.
For the Sox, this adds to a growing pile of injuries to their rotation options. Lucas Giolito will also miss the 2024 campaign after undergoing elbow surgery while Nick Pivetta recently landed on the IL due to a flexor strain. For now, the club has Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock in four rotation spots, though that group is fairly lacking in experience. None of those four hurlers have more than 265 career innings at the big league level nor have they ever hit 160 in an individual campaign.
The Sox are hoping Pivetta’s issue is mild but they will need to cover his rotation spot for a few turns regardless. Both Josh Winckowski and Chase Anderson made long relief appearances recently and could perhaps be stretch out fairly easily while Cooper Criswell and Naoyuki Uwasawa are the 40-man roster but currently on optional assignment.