As teams reported for spring training, the injury news around the league came in fast and furiously last week. From pitchers who dealt with arm injuries in 2025 and did not have them repaired in the offseason — like Pablo Lopez, Blake Snell, Shane Bieber, and Josh Hader, being eased into the preseason — to a trio of hitters in Corbin Carroll, Francisco Lindor, and Jackson Holliday needing surgery on their hamate bones. Anthony Santander missed over four months a year ago and is just now getting surgery on his shoulder, likely to miss most of 2026 as well. Blue Jays fans should be allowed to file a lawsuit for such behavior.
The lone Red Sox injury of note last week was not to a full-time starting player but is notable nonetheless. Romy Gonzalez is behind schedule in spring training with shoulder inflammation, but “hopes to be ready for Opening Day,” according to Christopher Smith’s article for Mass Live last week. The more alarming details in this piece are that Gonzalez sustained this injury in the September 19-21 series at Tampa Bay last season. He had a setback in early January and then received a PRP injection later in the month.
As a general rule, much like with the pitchers listed above, if you end the season with an injury and then arrive at camp the next season with the same injury still bothering you, that’s probably not going to end well. Locally, a recent example would be pitcher Kutter Crawford. In a story that was, coincidentally, posted on February 15th of last year, we learned that Crawford had pitched through a knee injury for 90% of the 2024 season, did not get it repaired in the offseason, and that his “status for the start of the season is iffy.” Innocent wording of that nature — just like “Opening Day is in question,” or “a bit behind the other players” — seems to be copied and pasted into all articles this time of year. It rarely ends well. Crawford did not pitch for Boston in 2025.
Over the past two weeks, the Red Sox notably signed Isiah Kiner-Falefa to a head-scratching $6 million contract for 2026, as well as bringing back three versatile infielders in a trade with the Brewers. Additionally, the team claimed another versatile infielder, Tsung-Che Cheng, off waivers from the Washington Nationals and added him to the 40-man roster, and added second baseman Brendan Rodgers on a minor-league deal. That is a whole lot of ordinary infielders that have been added to the organization in recent weeks. One might even describe it as a plethora of ordinary infielders. “Would you say that we have a plethora of ordinary infielders, Brez?”
This quantity over quality of approach didn’t make much sense until the Gonzalez news came down a week ago, and is a result of waiting until late in the offseason to address clear deficiencies in the lineup. When noted lefty-killer Rob Refsnyder signed with the Mariners in December for $6.25M, it was hard to fault the team for letting him go with all of the outfielders on the roster and the likelihood of Kristian Campbell also shifting to the outfield.
But with Refsnyder gone, if the team is also without Gonzalez for part, or all, of the season, that is a definite concern against left-handed pitching. Gonzalez, Refsnyder, Rafael Devers, and Alex Bregman were the top four hitters in OPS for the Red Sox a year ago against lefties. Without them, someone is going to have to step up. It should also be noted that Gonzalez is the only other player on the expected Opening Day roster with any experience playing first base except for Willson Contreras. And Gonzalez wasn’t just good against southpaws a year ago, he hit the ball hard against most everybody.
Here is a listing of the 13 players currently projected on Roster Resource to make the Opening Day roster, alongside their stats versus left-handed pitching in 2025, sorted by wRC+. I also included Kristian Campbell, who figures to play a key role on the team this season, and could be a replacement for Gonzalez if he misses time.
Fangraphs
For reference, Refsnyder slashed .302/.399/.560 (.959 OPS) with a 159 wRC+ against lefties in 138 plate appearances. After Romy, the top player in the list above, there isn’t much to hang on to. Roman Anthony will continue to improve, but he struck out 39% of the time. Kristian Campbell walked plenty against lefties, but hit just .207 compared to a .227 average against righties. Ceddanne Rafaela posted a .220 batting average. Jarren Duran was at .211. Alex Cora has already noted that Abreu will get more chances to face lefties, but he had a .230 mark a year ago and has a .205 career average against them. The right-handed hitting Kiner-Falefa, in case you wondered if he was brought in to help in this department, walked 1.6% of the time (!!) and had a .536 OPS against lefties, compared to a .668 OPS against right-handers. Marcelo Mayer was barely allowed to face them, but hit .154 in 26 at-bats.
A few days ago, when asked about Romy’s progress, Cora described it as “a tough offseason” for Gonzalez and that he is “frustrated” as they wait for the PRP injection to kick in.
For two-plus years now, many of us on this website have noted the lack of lefty-righty balance in both the major league team and with the looming prospects who are now up in the big leagues. Very little has changed in that sense, and now there’s a new weakness — a lack of power in the lineup after the departure of Alex Bregman and Rafael Devers — that has emerged over the past eight months. It will be interesting to see if anyone on the current roster, such as Abreu, Duran, and Mayer, is able to step up against southpaws this season. Or perhaps it will be a name we aren’t even focusing on at this time, from that plethora of infielders that Craig Breslow has acquired so far this month.
