The rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, often regarded as the greatest in sports, has been relatively quiet since 2021, the last time the two teams played a truly significant game. However, after the Red Sox completed what experts called an “A+” offseason, they faced two major setbacks in their efforts to revive the rivalry with the defending American League champion Yankees.
Two key Red Sox pitchers, as revealed by manager Alex Cora, are still battling injuries that could affect their readiness for Opening Day, which is scheduled for March 27 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, where they will face the 2023 World Series champion Texas Rangers.
The 2021 season saw the Red Sox and Yankees finishing tied for the American League Wild Card spot, both winning 92 games. That was also the last year with only two Wild Card teams per league. The two teams then met in a high-stakes, one-game playoff for a chance to advance to the Division Series.
Thanks to winning the regular season series 10-9 over the Yankees, the Red Sox earned home-field advantage for the playoff game, where they stunned Yankees ace Gerrit Cole by scoring three runs in the first two innings, eventually securing a 6-2 victory in front of an electric Fenway Park crowd.
Offseason Sets up Red Sox to Resurrect Rivalry
In 2025, Boston’s team president, Sam Kennedy, emphasized that the goal is no longer just to make the Wild Card playoffs, but to surpass the Yankees and claim the AL East title. To achieve this, the Red Sox made three key moves during what Fangraphs analyst Ben Clemens described as “a brilliant offseason.”
The team traded for Chicago White Sox ace Garrett Crochet to anchor the starting rotation and signed Los Angeles Dodgers World Series hero Walker Buehler to bolster rotation depth. The addition of free-agent infielder Alex Bregman, made on the day spring training camp opened, completed the Red Sox’s rebuilding efforts.
However, to truly compete with, and ideally surpass, the Yankees in the AL East, the Red Sox will need more than these three players. The full depth of their 40-man roster will be crucial. On Friday, manager Alex Cora acknowledged that two starting pitchers, 25-year-old Brayan Bello and 28-year-old Kutter Crawford, are dealing with injuries and are falling behind in their recovery timelines.
Cora shared that Crawford, who had a tough 9-16 season with a league-high 34 home runs allowed but notably made 33 starts (tied for the most in the Majors), began experiencing right patellar tendon soreness near the end of the 2024 season. Despite the injury, Crawford continued to pitch through the discomfort.
Injury Setbacks to Key Pitchers Cause Concern
For the right-handed Crawford, that means he experienced soreness in the knee he uses to push off the rubber when delivering a pitch — obviously a difficult injury for any pitcher.
“Kutter is a little bit behind,” Cora told the media Friday. “It’s been going on through the offseason so he’s behind in his throwing program. I don’t know what that means as far as like, a month from now, or a month and a half from now, but right now he’s behind everybody else.”
As for Bello, the righty’s shoulder soreness may be even more concerning, appearing at the start of spring training camp. The injury forced the team to take the Samana, Dominican Republic, native off the mound completely. But he resumed a throwing program on Friday. The setback, however, his put him on a slower path toward Opening Day than the team’s other starting pitchers.
Bello has been injured in all three of his Major League seasons so far, with an adductor strain on his 2022 rookie season, inflammation in his pitching elbow in 2023, and tightness in his latissimus dorsi, a major back muscle, last season.
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