Garrett Whitlock, the Red Sox reliever, was pitching with a fractured right tibia this season, an injury that only got properly diagnosed *after* Boston’s postseason elimination last week. His wife, Jordan, posted an offseason beach picture on Instagram Friday morning, showing Whitlock looking relaxed, but crucially, in a walking boot , and not on the same leg as his previous knee injury from over the summer. This casual social media post, tagged #thriving, quickly blew up once the true extent of the situation came out.
The “Thriving” Truth: A Broken Bone Undiagnosed
So yeah, the dude was out there with a fractured right tibia, and nobody on the medical staff clocked it until the season was effectively over for the team. Whitlock himself told the Herald on Friday that the diagnosis came only after the Red Sox got bounced from the postseason. This isn’t some minor tweak; this is a broken bone. And it’s wild to think Whitlock was out there in September, pitching with a 0.00 ERA, completely unaware of the severity of what he was dealing with. It makes you wonder how a fracture goes missed for so long, especially for a guy playing at the highest level.
More Than Just One Missed Call: A Disturbing Pattern
This Whitlock situation isn’t an isolated incident, either. The Red Sox had Garrett Crochet battling shoulder and lat soreness that just lingered and lingered, from late April all the way into September. Then there’s the Roman Anthony saga. His hand/wrist injury started as a wrist sprain, supposedly day-to-day. Then it was a minimum IL stint. But wait, it was actually a ligament in his ring finger, requiring more than a minimum stint. Then it was a sprained right hand/wrist that just wasn’t progressing, leading to him not swinging a bat a month later, and getting shipped off to Fort Myers, missing nearly four months of MLB game action. During a press conference, when asked why Anthony didn’t get more imaging after early July, Breslow pushed back, asking why they would need to do that if the player hadn’t asked. That’s a huge red flag right there. It sounds like the medical staff is reacting, not proactively diagnosing.
The takeaway here is pretty stark. Whitlock pitched his heart out, even with a broken bone, putting up incredible numbers in September. But the fact that his injury, and others like Anthony’s and Crochet’s, seemingly slipped through the cracks for so long, paints a really concerning picture of the team’s medical protocols. You can’t just trust a player saying “they’re fine” when their career and health are on the line. The Red Sox front office has to take a hard look at how these injuries are identified and treated. Player health isn’t just about individual well-being; it’s about the team’s success, and right now, this department looks like it needs a major overhaul to avoid more serious issues down the line.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Over the Monster.
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