Injuries have plagued an already disastrous season for the Boston Red Sox. Losing the ace of the pitching staff and then the top prospect, hoping to be a big help for the season back-to-back, has not been what the Red Sox expected.

My Hottest Take: The Injuries Are Just Plain Confusing

It seems to be the most confusing of all the injuries that the Red Sox have dealt with all season. Garrett Crochet went down with shoulder inflammation, and Roman Anthony went down with a wrist injury, which seemed to be from an awkward check swing.

Crochet was added to the 15-day injured list on April 29 with the assumption that it would be it, but was then added to the 60-day injured list on June 5. Now the team won’t see him back until after the All-Star Break. Anthony went down on the awkward check swing on May 4, getting placed on the 10-day injured list with what was labeled as a right wrist sprain. When trying to swing as he was set to get back in the lineup, he experienced discomfort, which led to more tests.

You Should Know: They are luckily making progress

Crochet’s injury turned into a low-grade lat strain, a lot different than just some shoulder inflammation. He was placed on the 60-day injured list as a precaution, which worked in their favor when he was feeling discomfort as he began his first rehabilitation program. There were at some points rumors going around that the lat strain in his shoulder was much worse than people thought, but luckily, both the team and Crochet have shut down those rumors. On June 16, he began throwing plyo balls, hoping for a throwing program by the end of the week.

Anthony’s injury has all of his doctors baffled. What was originally diagnosed as a right wrist sprain actually turned out to be a partial tear of his ring finger carpometacarpal ligament. What made the doctors baffled was the fact that it was completely isolated to his ring finger, which connects the wrist to all the bases of the fingers and hand. This has been the most confusing, as there has never been an actual set diagnosis until now, because the team and Anthony himself were just as confused as the fans. The MRI Anthony just had on the six-week anniversary of the injury showed healing, which means he will start swinging when he can do so without discomfort. He unfortunately has not been cleared to swing yet.

Before You Go: July Seems to Be the Month of Returns

The current report is that both Anthony and Crochet should be back sometime in July. While the team would be wise not to rush either of them back due to the fact that the Red Sox are so far out of the divisional race, it would be good for the team to get two of its top players back. While Anthony is not the right-handed power the team needs, his power should help. Crochet would slot right back in and hopefully help keep the team in at least the wild-card race.