All these years later, one of the oldest baseball truisms remains frighteningly accurate: you can never have enough pitching.
It wasn't long ago when the region's favorite parlor game was: which Red Sox starter was going to be squeezed out of the rotation? Speculation was rampant.
The Red Sox had Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, Nick Pivetta, Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello and James Paxton. That amounted to seven starters. What was a team to do?
Now, even before April wraps up, what was once an abundance of arms has become dangerously thin.
On Friday, out of nowhere, the Red Sox announced that Whitlock had been diagnosed with right elbow ulnar neuritis. Whitlock first experienced some symptoms in a bullpen session more than a week ago, but pitched through it. After experiencing some numbness in the elbow area during his last start in Milwaukee over the weekend, the Sox had him examined Thursday, on the team's off-day.
"We just decided to get it looked at,'' said Whitlock. "It's kind of hard to describe for people who haven't felt it before.''
Whitlock's answers from reporters Friday were brief, bordering on terse. Whether that was a result of frustration over another physical setback -- he was hampered by a hip injury most of last year before undergoing surgery last September -- or due to actual anxiety over this issue is unknown.
But Whitlock quickly dismissed any line of questioning that linked this injury to the Tommy John surgery he had in 2019.
"We're not concerned with it being anything like Tommy John,'' said Whitlock. "We're not really worried about the ligament at this point.''
That should be comforting, except for this nagging thought: Two weeks ago, former Red Sox lefty Jeffrey Springs, now with the Tampa Bay Rays, was diagnosed with the same ulnar neuritis. A week later, it was revealed that he would need Tommy John surgery and be sidelined until the middle of 2024.
No two diagnoses are precisely the same, but that has to present at least some fear.
Curiously, Whitlock was unable to present a timetable for how long he'd be out. Manager Alex Cora voiced the hope that Whitlock could return after missing just two turns in the rotation, though that seems highly optimistic.
"Probably if it was later in the season, he'd push through it,'' said Cora. "But right now, it doesn't make any sense. We'll take care of him and whenever he's ready, he's ready.''
"We're just going to re-evaluate in a couple of days and just kind of go from there,'' said Whitlock. "We're going to take precautions and just kind of do what the trainers and doctor say.''
Even if this doesn't prove to be a long-term problem for Whitlock, it's bound to raise new questions about his suitability for the rotation. In his pro career, he's suffered a torn UCL in the elbow, required major hip surgery and now, this. Is the workload of trying to pitch 180 or so innings contributing to these injuries? Meanwhile, in 2021, when he pitched exclusively out of the bullpen, he didn't have any health challenges.
"We can see it the other way around -- if you're a reliever, you pitch every two days,'' rationalized Cora. "It really doesn't matter. As a starter, you get four days between, right? Of course, (you go) five innings, six innings and the work you put in, but at the same time, if you're pitching every other day, what can happen? So that part, we cannot control. We see him as a starter. We'll make sure he's ready to go and that's how we're going to use him for now.''
For now, the Sox have the luxury of turning Whitlock's turn in the rotation over to Bello, who only earlier this week fell victim to a roster crunch and ended up in Worcester when the Sox needed to add a reliever to an overworked bullpen.
Waiting in the wings, still, is Paxton. The veteran lefty is scheduled to make his next rehab start Sunday for Worcester. Paxton is fully recovered from Tommy John surgery in 2021, an oblique injury that cut short his comeback journey late last summer, and finally, a strained hamstring in spring training.
He's not, however, regained his earlier form. In four rehab starts in the minor leagues, Paxton has a bloated 10.32 ERA and is averaging more than two baserunners per inning.
"It might be his last (rehab outing) Sunday,'' said Cora, "and it might not be. He's feeling OK, not great, as far as like mechanics and all that stuff. Healthy? He is. But obviously, he's still going through the process. We have to be smart about this.''
To put Paxton's workload into perspective over the last few years, he makes Sale look like a workhorse. Since the end of the 2019 season, he's thrown all of 20.2 innings in the major leagues. It stands to reason that all of the things Sale is going through after missing so much time will also impact Paxton -- when he's cleared to rejoin the rotation.
In the meantime, the Red Sox depth is now perilously thin. Beyond Paxton, they have Kutter Crawford as a potential depth option, but he's proven invaluable for the beleaguered bullpen and the Sox might be reluctant to move him from that spot.
In Worcester, the likes of Chris Murphy, Bryan Mata and Brandon Walter are all unknown and untested.
The depletion of the rotation depth isn't the only cause for concern, either. After Pivetta's thoroughly mediocre start Friday night in a 5-2 loss to Cleveland, the Sox have a starter's ERA of 6.44, second-to-last in both leagues -- a reminder that the Sox' rotation problems aren't just a matter of quantity, but also, of quality, too.