It was only last weekend that manager Alex Cora, asked what he liked most about spring training so far, didn't hesitate with his answer.
"We're healthy,'' said Cora, noting that a number of players who had missed significant time last season due to injuries and/or surgical procedures were trending in the right direction.
Now, days later, it appears he may have spoken too soon.
On Friday, lefty James Paxton had to leave his start against the Minnesota Twins in the second inning, having suffered a right hamstring strain while facing his sixth batter of the game.
Paxton was attended to be the trainer and immediately left the mound.
"The hamstring just grabbed at me a little bit,'' Paxton told reporters at Hammond Field, "just as I was starting to find that firing pin, let the ball go a little bit harder. I went to step on it a little bit and the hamstring just grabbed. We don't really know yet. We'll see tomorrow and go from there.''
The setback came after Paxton had retired the first five hitters he faced, putting an abrupt end to his first outing of the spring, and indeed, the first time he'd faced major league hitters since 2021. Paxton, whom the Sox signed after the 2021 season -- during which he underwent Tommy John surgery -- had hoped to return in the final weeks last season, but incurred a lat strain in a minor league rehab outing in the Gulf Coast League late last summer.
This spring, he felt that he was completely recovered from the arm injury and ready to contribute to the rotation. Now, that plan is in jeopardy since he will have to be sidelined for a while as the hamstring heals.
"Going out there and filling up the zone the way I did, I felt good,'' said Paxton, "I had a good breaking ball and the fastball felt pretty good. It was coming out of the hand well. But then this happened and now we're going to have to deal with this before I can move forward. But I'll do whatever I have to do to get back out there.''
Paxton said the training staff told him it could be a light strain and that the strength in the area was still pretty good.
Still, the frustration was evident.
"Yeah, absolutely, this is not how I wanted this to go,'' said Paxton. "I wanted to go through spring training clean. But I can't control that. All I can control is try to work on this now and do whatever I can do to get back out there and pitch again.''
If it's any consolation for the Red Sox, the team is well-positioned with depth options in the rotation. Beyond Paxton, the team has Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, Garrett Whitlock, Brayan Bello and Nick Pivetta, to say nothing of Tanner Houck, who is being stretched out as a starter
But even there, it's surely not a good sign that the team's depth is being tested four weeks before Opening Day. Sale is hardly a sure thing physically, having pitched so little over the last three years. And Whitlock, though progressing, is going somewhat slow thanks to hip surgery last September.
The setback for Paxton wasn't the only hamstring-related injury to the roster, either.
On Thursday, catcher Connor Wong came out of the game with a hamstring strain, too, and with Cora ominously noting: "It doesn't look good.''
That fear was allayed somewhat Friday when testing revealed that Wong has suffered a Grade 1 left hamstring strain.
"We'll see how he reacts in the coming days,'' said Cora.
As with Paxton, the Sox have options. Jorge Alfaro was signed to a Triple-A deal in January, with an invite to spring training. MassLive.com reported that Alfaro has a unique clause in his deal that allows him to go elsewhere in the final week of March if a team shows interest in adding him to their 40-man roster.
That complicates things somewhat because Alfaro is out of options. The ideal scenario would have been for the Sox to start the season with Wong as the backup to Reese McGuire and evaluate his readiness to play regularly at the major league level before having to act on Alfaro's traditional opt-out at the end of May.
Now, with Wong slowed, Alfaro may have to be ready to start the season on the major league roster. The Sox would then be unable to option him back to the minors and would have to wait for either an injury or be forced to DFA Alfaro in order to summon Wong to the big leagues.