The Red Sox signed Ranger Suarez to a 5-year, $130 million deal this past January to be the front-of-rotation arm this team hasn't had in years. He was worth every penny through the first half, pitching well enough to make his first All-Star team. Now that season is getting derailed at the worst possible time.
According to reporting on the move, Suarez exited his July 5 start against the Angels early after feeling tightness in his left adductor while fielding a comebacker, and the IL stint is retroactive to July 6. That means it runs through at least July 21, wiping out his next scheduled start against the Mets and knocking him out of the All-Star Game in Philadelphia just weeks after he made the roster for the first time.
For a guy who spent his entire career with the Phillies before hitting free agency and cashing in with Boston, this is a rough first taste of injury adversity in a new uniform. Suarez posted a 3.20 ERA over a career-high 157 1/3 innings last season in Philly, the kind of workhorse profile that made him such a coveted target — durability was the whole pitch.
Now the Red Sox have to scramble to fill the gap. The most obvious internal fix is Brayan Bello, who's been stashed in Triple-A and figures to get the call to soak up starts while Suarez rehabs. It's a fine stopgap, but it's not the same as running your newly minted ace out there every fifth day in the middle of a playoff push.
A groin strain isn't usually a season-altering injury on its own, and a retroactive 15-day IL stint is about as low-stakes as these things get. But for a Boston team that paid up specifically to stop patching together a rotation, even a couple of missed starts stings — and it's a reminder that no contract, no matter how big, buys immunity from bad injury luck.