The 2025 season may have ended the Red Sox pitchers and members of the 60-day injury list. Speaking with Tim Healey of the Boston Globe and other journalists today, both Sox’s chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and manager Alex Cora indicated left-handedness Patrick Sandoval And right-handed Liam Hendriks It’s unlikely to pitch this year.
Sandoval had an internal support surgery on his left UCL last July, so Southpaw promises at least a full year of recovery. Since pole surgery usually requires 12-13 months of recovery rather than a 13-15-month schedule related to Tommy John’s full procedure, it’s been suggested that Sandoval might restore it before the end of the 2025 campaign.
However, Cora said last week that Sandoval’s throwing progress has been scaled from a bullpen meeting to a captured-only game. Now, the setback seems to lengthen Sandoval’s schedule so much that he will hardly intensify it completely (after bullpens, simulation games, minor league rehabilitation games, etc.) and be ready by the end of September.
The Angels chose Sandoval last winter, and the Red Sox signed for two years in a $18.25mm free agent trade. Only 5.5mm of that salary is owed in 2025, because Sandoval will be missing for at least the first four months of the season anyway. Although this result is not surprising, Sandoval is certainly disappointing as his UCL injury continues to put him off the field.
Hendriks can sympathize with the close fight with cancer, and then Tommy John’s surgery restricted him to 5 MLB innings in 2023, then lost him throughout the 2024 season. Similar to Sandoval, Hendriks’ hopes for a late-season return were shattered by some persistent arm soreness, and then his return in 2025 was postponed by inflammation of the elbow during spring training. After finally returning to the mound and making his official Red Sox debut, Hendriks released a 6.59 ERA in 14 games and 13 2/3 innings before hip inflammation sent him back to Illinois in late May.
Hendriks signed a two-year, $10mm deal with the Red Sox in February 2024, just like Sandoval’s contract. He made 2mm when he recovered in 2024 and then made 6mm this year, plus he also received a 2mm acquisition in the $12mm co-select for the 2026 season. Sox rejected their choice given Hendriks’ ongoing injury, and the first three All-Stars may have to be determined for a minor league deal for free agents in the offseason.
