Red Sox place righty on 15-day IL, putting rotation into question again

The Boston Red Sox placed Richard Fitts on the 15-day injured list on Tuesday afternoon. The righty is dealing with arm neuritis. Fitts had stepped into a bulk role out of the bullpen on Monday. The Sox needed to replace Walker Buehler in the rotation after moving him to relief last week.

Fitts’ injury again leaves that spot in question. Manager Alex Cora confirmed they’re not going to reverse course on Buehler’s move to relief (link via Tim Healey of The Boston Globe). That means they’ll need to bring someone up for Saturday’s start against the Pirates. Cooper Criswell went on the minor league injured list last week. That leaves Kyle Harrison as the only healthy depth starter on the 40-man roster.

Harrison started Tuesday's game with Triple-A Worcester. However, the Sox removed him after three innings and 38 pitches. That’d appear to tip their hand that they’re viewing Harrison as the choice for Saturday. He’d be on three days rest but that should be sufficient recovery time after today’s abbreviated outing.

The southpaw has been on optional assignment since the Sox acquired him as the centerpiece of the Rafael Devers return. He has a 3.65 ERA in 11 starts for Worcester, though he’s averaging less than five innings per appearance. Tuesday's deliberately brief outing is part of that, but Harrison has continued to struggle with pitch efficiency. That has been the question with Harrison, who has above-average stuff and strikeout potential while issuing a lot of free passes. The 24-year-old had started four of eight MLB appearances with San Francisco earlier this year, allowing a 4.56 ERA through 23 2/3 frames.

The most exciting alternative would be to turn to the organization’s top pitching prospect, Payton Tolle. Asked about a potential Tolle promotion, Cora said the Sox “haven’t talked about that” to this point (relayed by Christopher Smith of MassLive). Tolle is scheduled to start for Worcester on Thursday, so Boston would need to scratch him from that appearance to bring him up.

It’d be an aggressive promotion, as the 22-year-old was bumped up from Double-A less than three weeks ago. Tolle has recorded 17 strikeouts against two walks while allowing six earned runs across 15 innings through a trio of Triple-A starts. He has a cumulative 3.04 ERA while punching out nearly 37% of batters faced between three levels this year.