WORCESTER — Red Sox manager Alex Cora recently admitted that he’s concerned with the team’s starting pitching depth.
“Obviously we’re one pitch away from somebody (else) getting hurt,” Cora said during the last homestand. “That’s the nature of the business. So obviously the more we have the better. Compared to where we were in spring training, we’re a lot shorter than that group.”
Kutter Crawford (wrist surgery) and Hunter Dobbins (ACL tear) are out for the rest of the season. Tanner Houck has been on the IL since May 14 with a right flexor pronator strain. Boston recently pulled him off his rehab assignment and shut him down because of an injury recurrence.
Patrick Sandoval — who signed a two-year, $18 million contract in free agency this past offseason — is doubtful to pitch this year. His rehab from an internal brace procedure has gone slower than expected.
The Red Sox need to add a starting pitcher before Thursday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline. However, an official with another team on Tuesday described the Red Sox to be in “stealth” mode with 48 hours to go.
Kyle Harrison — the 23-year-old lefty who the Red Sox acquired in the Rafael Devers trade — is part of the thin starting depth group at Triple-A Worcester. It’s important for him to be in a position to contribute whether the Red Sox trade for a starter or not.
Worcester manager Chad Tracy said it’s “hard to say” how close Harrison is to being able to contribute in Boston. He has a 4.78 ERA in six starts. He was sharp July 22 at St. Paul, allowing just one earned run, three hits and one walk while striking out five in 6 innings.
He then lasted just 3 ⅔ innings in his July 27 start (also at St. Paul), giving up two runs, four hits and six walks while striking out four.
“Two starts ago, it was electric,” Tracy said. “It was the best I’ve seen him by far. The Tuesday game in St. Paul. Completely in control of the outing from start to finish. Sixty-two out of 86 pitches for strikes. Everything in the zone. Backdoor slider … throwing the fastball in the zone at the top. Swing and miss. Like, it was awesome. It was like, ‘Wow. That’s a major league starter right there.’ And then on Sunday, stuff still looked good, but just a little bit more erratic. He walked five or six, was underneath the ball a little bit, losing it armside. So the outing wasn’t as crisp. Still got through almost four innings and kept us in the lead and only allowed a couple runs.
“But we’ve seen flashes,” Tracy added. “Tuesday, we were like, ‘That right there plays at any level at any time.’ So you just got to be consistent with it. But there’s certainly no question, having watched him, the guy’s got really good stuff. So when he’s attacking the strike zone, it’s pretty good. So just got to keep going and see when they call his name. But I think the biggest thing for us watching him is, if we can consistently get him in the zone like he was on Tuesday, he’s going to be great. And he’s shown that when he’s in there that he gets misses and foul balls and it’s not easy to put him play on him, but we got to get him there consistently.”
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