{"id":5262,"date":"2025-07-12T22:24:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T22:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/5262\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T22:24:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T22:24:04","slug":"red-sox-place-hunter-dobbins-on-15-day-il-due-to-acl-tear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/5262\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Place Hunter Dobbins On 15-Day IL Due To ACL Tear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hunter Dobbins<\/a>\u2019 2025 season is over, as the Red Sox placed the right-hander on the 15-day injured list due to a right ACL tear.\u00a0 Right-hander Richard Fitts<\/a> was called up from Triple-A to take Dobbins\u2019 spot on the active roster.<\/p>\n

Dobbins was only just activated from the 15-day IL yesterday, as the rookie right-hander had been out of action since June 20 due to what ended up being a minor elbow strain.\u00a0 His return start was cut short in the second inning, when he hurt his right leg while covering first base on a Chandler Simpson<\/a> grounder.\u00a0 MassLive.com\u2019s Chris Cotillo<\/a> reported earlier today that Dobbins was believed to have \u201ca significant knee injury\u2026potentially with ACL damage,\u201d and unfortunately the worst-case scenario has proven to be true.<\/p>\n

This is the second time Dobbins has torn his right ACL, as he told the Boston Globe\u2019s Tim Healey<\/a> and other reporters that he sustained the same injury while playing high school football.\u00a0 Between that previous ACL tear and a Tommy John surgery during his college days at Texas Tech, Dobbins has a lot unwelcome experience in managing long-term injuries, and he\u2019ll now face another extended absence.\u00a0 His recovery process will keep him sidelined for at least the start of the 2026 season, though a more definite timeline may be difficult to establish for now given Dobbins\u2019 past knee issues.<\/p>\n

An eighth-round pick for the Red Sox in the 2021 draft, Dobbins steadily climbed the ranks of Boston\u2019s farm system and made his MLB debut this past April, as injuries thinned out the Red Sox rotation and opened the door for the 25-year-old.\u00a0 The Sox moved him up and down between Boston and Triple-A Worcester a few times in April before recalling him in early May for an extended stint in the bigs, as Dobbins had done plenty to impress the organization.<\/p>\n

Dobbins has a 4.13 ERA and 17.6% strikeout rate over his first 61 innings and 13 games \u2014 11 of them starts \u2014 in the majors.\u00a0 While he isn\u2019t missing many bats, Dobbins is doing a good job of keeping the ball on the ground (48.4% grounder rate) and keeping opponents from free passes (6.6% walk rate).\u00a0 Dobbins has relied mostly on his 95.5mph fastball as his primary pitch, but his heater has helped set up batters for slider and curveball, which have significantly higher whiff rates.<\/p>\n

Essentially the only minor silver lining for Dobbins is that he\u2019ll continue to accumulate big league service time while on Boston\u2019s injured list.\u00a0 The Sox will shift him to the 60-day IL as soon as 40-man roster space is required.<\/p>\n

Injuries have impacted Boston\u2019s starting depth this year, as Kutter Crawford<\/a> was also recently lost for the season due to wrist surgery.\u00a0 Tanner Houck<\/a> has missed two months due to a flexor pronator strain but is on a Triple-A rehab assignment right now and is expected back soon.\u00a0 Fitts has pitched pretty well over parts of two big league seasons and is the best bet to fill in for Dobbins right now.\u00a0 Kyle Harrison<\/a> is likely the top rotation depth option at Triple-A, as the former Giants top prospect has yet to make his Red Sox debut since being acquired in the Rafael Devers<\/a> trade.<\/p>\n

The All-Star break will give the Sox some extra time to figure out their rotation picture, yet the more obvious answer might be to add a new pitcher prior to the trade deadline.\u00a0 Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow<\/a> said<\/a> even prior to yesterday\u2019s game that the Sox were going to explore the market for both starting and relief pitching options in advance of the deadline, and that need has only grown greater in the wake of Dobbins\u2019 injury.\u00a0 Boston\u2019s ongoing eight-game winning streak has revived the club\u2019s playoff chances, and put the Sox more firmly into buying territory as the deadline approaches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hunter Dobbins\u2019 2025 season is over, as the Red Sox placed the right-hander on the 15-day injured list…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5739,5740,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-5262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-hunter-dobbins","9":"tag-richard-fitts","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}