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Red Sox fans reacted after Garrett Crochet landed on the IL with shoulder inflammation, creating fresh concern for Boston's rotation.

Red Sox fans panicked Wednesday after stunning injury news sent ace Garrett Crochet to the IL with left shoulder inflammation. The move comes just 16 days after the worst start of the 26-year-old Crochet’s career, when he allowed 11 runs on 10 hits including two home runs to the Minnesota Twins in just 1 2/3 innings.

The Boston Red Sox are already dealing with a managerial change before May. Now they’ve lost the one arm they could least afford to be without. Crochet has been placed on the 15-day injured list with left shoulder inflammation, retroactive to April 26, according to MassLive‘s Chris Cotillo and Christopher Smith. Crochet is now the fifth Boston starter on the IL, joining Sonny Gray, Kutter Crawford, Patrick Sandoval, and Johan Oviedo. With Boston already leaning heavily on Crochet, the timing of the setback only deepened concern among fans.

Crochet said the discomfort first surfaced during his April 26 start in Baltimore and that he fought through it to finish the outing.

“Just some fatigue I was feeling in my last start,” he told reporters at Rogers Centre in Toronto, as quoted by MassLive. “Was able to grind through it there at the end. It just makes more sense to get ahead of it now so I’m not playing catch-up the rest of the season.”

The Baltimore appearance — six shutout innings, seven strikeouts — was one of Crochet’s strongest outings of 2026. But it came after a stretch of struggles that included the disastrous April 13 start that left Boston fans questioning whether something was physically wrong with their ace.

Boston Red Sox Fans React With Alarm

Red Sox fans on social media did not take the news calmly. On X, fan account @RomanThaGod19 connected the dots immediately: “So this is why Jake Bennett was scratched,” referring to the Red Sox No. 6 prospect who was pulled back from his most recent start.

Another user, @LFCJC6, was blunter: “Season’s over before May.”

The sentiment spread fast across baseball forums as well, with one commenter on MLB Trade Rumors writing, “As if the Red Sox season wasn’t looking great already.” Another noted the dramatic workload jump Crochet absorbed in 2025, well over 60 innings more than the prior year including playoffs.

The concern is legitimate. Boston entered Wednesday with a 10-17 record, already having fired manager Alex Cora over the weekend following the team’s worst April start in recent memory. Losing Crochet, last year’s Cy Young Award runner-up in the American League, to a shoulder issue, however short-term, adds a new and urgent layer of pressure on an organization already in crisis mode.

But Crochet told reporters, per MassLive, that he feels “pretty confident, in this moment” that he will not need more than the minimum 15-day IL period to recover. If Crochet is right, his return should come around the second week of May.

“It started when Cora left the ace in too long. Breslow fired him for it,” another fan wrote on social media.

“I’ll give Crochet my left shoulder so he may pitch on,” wrote yet another altruistic fan.

Crochet’s Shoulder Issue Rattles Red Sox Rotation

A source told MassLive that Crochet’s shoulder has been trending in the right direction on a day-to-day basis, and that the organization chose to act out of caution rather than necessity.

Crochet himself did not stop throwing after the Baltimore game. “We saw some pretty good development over the course of the past three days,” he said. “The plan is just to continue to challenge it while also giving it time to recover.”

To fill his roster spot, Boston recalled outfielder Nate Eaton from Triple-A Worcester. The 29-year-old posted a .292 average with five doubles, three home runs, six steals, and an .831 OPS in 27 games at Worcester this season. Eaton was one of the final spring training cuts and appeared in 41 regular-season games for Boston last year, adding two postseason starts against the New York Yankees.