Chris Hatfield of SoxProspects and Noah Song, a young player for the Red Sox, will start the season on the injured list.
com stating that Tommy John surgery is scheduled for the right-hander. Brandon Walter, a southpaw, will be out to start the season because, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive, he has a strained rotator cuff in his left arm.
Neither Song nor Walter were expected to open the season in the majors, but the twin injury updates are nonetheless a brutal blow for the club’s pitching depth at the upper levels of the minor leagues. Song, 26, is perhaps the more well known of the pair despite not yet having made his major league debut. The right-hander was one of the more well-regarded hurlers in the 2019 draft but fell to the Red Sox in the fourth round due to his military commitments as a Naval Academy cadet. He made just seven starts in the Red Sox organization before missing the next three seasons while fulfilling his military duties, but he was moved to the naval reserve prior to the 2023 season, allowing him to return to professional baseball.
That offseason, the Phillies seized the chance to select Song in the Rule 5 draft.
Song stayed with the team for the first few months of the 2023 season, but he did not play in the major leagues after starting the season on the injured list with a low back strain. Returning to a minor league mound in late June, Song battled mightily with Philadelphia, logging 11 innings of work at three different minor league levels with a 7.36 ERA before the team elected to designate him for assignment in late July.
Song was promptly returned to the Red Sox, and he finished the season strong with a solid 4.15 ERA in 21 2/3 frames at the High-A level down the stretch. Song appeared likely to open the season at the Double-A level for Boston this season, which could’ve potentially put him back on the big league radar at some point this year. That won’t come to pass now, however, as he figures to miss the entire 2024 campaign and perhaps some of the 2025 season as well while rehabbing from surgery.
Walter, 27, was a 26th-round pick by the Red Sox in the 2019 draft and made his big league debut with the club last season.
The lefty struggled badly through nine appearances in Boston, pitching to a 6.26 ERA in 23 innings of work. His peripheral numbers indicated that his performance was better than the results indicated, as he posted a 4.60 FIP that was closer to league average. Walter’s numbers at the Triple-A level were similarly mediocre, as he threw 94 innings of 4.60 ERA ball while striking out 21.3% of batters faced.
The left-hander, who will now be out for the foreseeable future, was expected to give the Red Sox elite pitching depth, both out of the rotation and in the bullpen behind fellow lefties Brennan Bernardino and Joely Rodriguez, despite those lackluster results. But in addition to Bernardino, the team still has depth players on the 40-man roster in the form of Zack Kelly and Cooper Criswell who may be called upon to support the big league squad as needed.
