With some time having passed since the Boston Red Sox were eliminated from the postseason, there’s been a chance to look back on what went wrong this season. Among the concerns that pop up, it’s hard to ignore just how many injuries the team endured.
There were some very notable injuries, like those that Roman Anthony, Trevor Story, and Garrett Crochet suffered. In Anthony and Crochet’s cases, Red Sox fans had grown frustrated because of initially positive diagnoses that proved wrong. That’s before considering the smaller injuries that popped up and limited the Red Sox in the postseason.
To add to that, there has been a string of injury announcements following the season. That includes Caleb Durbin needing surgery on his long since injured pinky, as well as Garrett Whitlock in a boot after apparently playing the last month or so of the season with leg pain. When he underwent imaging following the season, it turned out to be a fractured tibia he was playing on.
Boston Red Sox Broadcaster Lou Merloni Defends the Medical Staff
For Red Sox fans, there has been a growing frustration with the team’s medical staff. That’s both about how the team is conditioned, suffering injuries from overwork in training at times, as well as what has seemed like a rash of underdiagnosing injured players. True or not, it’s a concern that has flooded the fanbase.
One person who doesn’t want to hear those concerns is Lou Merloni. The Red Sox color commentator and a former player himself, Merloni took to Twitter/X to voice his own thoughts on these recent injuries.
“We used to praise players for playing injured,” Merloni wrote. “Are we really going to blame medical staffs for allowing it? Whitlock wanted to pitch. He did and did well the last month. He knew something was going on but didn’t want them to shut him down, so he managed it. Please look at every case individually.”
Merloni is specifically talking about the Whitlock injury. He dealt with leg pain, but the medical staff didn’t have him do any imaging that would let them know the severity of the injury he was playing through until after the season ended. It turned out to be a fractured tibia.
That’s a very different case from Durbin, who was injured sliding headfirst into first base, and then visibly dealt with an injured pinky for the rest of the season. It’s also different from a case like that of Roman Anthony, who seemed to publicly disagree with the team’s comments about the severity of his injury.
Within the Whitlock case that Merloni is referencing remains several unanswered questions. That includes if Whitlock refused imaging earlier or downplayed his pain until after the season. In that case, it becomes much harder to blame the Red Sox staff. However, until more information comes out, it’s another concern for fans to jump on and voice concerns about.
Red Sox Fans Disagreed With Merloni
Red Sox fans took notice of Merloni’s post. At the time of writing, there are 53 replies. The vast majority of those pushed back on his defense of the medical staff.
One wrote, “Lou love ya man but they mismanaged or misdiagnosed almost every injury this year. Crochet, Roman, [Curtis] Mead and Whitlock. This medical staff has a serious history of negligence.”
Red Sox Broadcaster Lou Merloni Defends Medical Staff Amid Injury Updates