Sports

Red Sox Reveal Timeline for Garrett Whitlock, Romy Gonzalez

By Ezra Lombardi Athlon Sports

The Boston Red Sox will have to get healthy if they want to make the kind of mid-summer push necessary to avoid a MLB trade deadline fire sale. On Sunday, they got several key updates on that front before their getaway day matchup with the New York Yankees.

The most immediate was regarding Garrett Whitlock, who has been sidelined for the past two weeks with a knee injury. Whitlock was back in action for a rehab appearance on Saturday, throwing one inning for the Worcester Red Sox, allowing one hit, no runs, and two walks with one strikeout on 21 pitches.

According to manager Chad Tracy, the veteran reliever felt good after the outing and will "likely" be rejoining the team this week in Tampa Bay.

Whitlock was the typical steady force in late innings for Boston before hyperextending his knee at Fenway Park on May 24th, going 3-0 with a 3.20 ERA in 20 appearances this year. When the soreness did not subside after a cortisone shot in the knee, the team deemed it necessary to place the 29-year-old on the 15-day injured list.

Getting Whitlock back in the mix for the Red Sox's bullpen will be welcomed boost, especially considering the concerns about Aroldis Chapman's hamstring after he was seen limping while picking up his 13th save of the season against the Yankees on Friday night.

Rumors of Boston's interest in a right-handed bat have picked up in the last week, with multiple reports suggesting that Craig Breslow is picking up the phone to line up a trade.

But help could be on the way internally, as righty slugger Romy Gonzalez continues to progress through his rehab from March shoulder surgery. The 29-year-old infielder is back swinging 100 percent and has taken a big step towards a rehab assignment.

According to Tracy, Gonzalez is now working on swinging with a one-handed finish, something that he was previously staying away from to avoid aggravating his left shoulder. With the injury on his non-throwing arm, getting comfortable swinging the bat has been the most important piece of the rehab equation, something that seems to be moving in the right direction now.

Tracy told the media that Gonzalez is "starting to creep closer towards rehab assignment," but was hesitant to give an exact timeline for it, saying that he will have to continue on this step of the swinging progression "for a little bit." His status is now being judged day-to-day based on how he responds to different hitting workouts.

He also emphasized the importance of the rehab assignment both for getting comfortable with the shoulder and also knocking the rust off, as Gonzalez hasn't appeared in a game since the Wild Card round in October of last year.

Tracy also had an update on pitcher Patrick Sandoval, who returned to a Triple-A rehab assignment on Friday for the WooSox. The left-hander was scheduled for just a one-inning start but worked through the top of order quick enough that he was sent back out to retire the first batter of the second frame as well.

He finished his outing with zero hits, zero runs, zero strikeouts and one walk on 16 pitches (11 strikes) in 1.1 innings. The plan moving forward for Sandoval, Tracy said, is to build up his pitch count to a starter's load. He will throw a side on Monday and have another rehab appearance on Thursday this week.

Before he was shut down with the elbow injury, it seemed Sandoval could factor in as either a depth starter or bulk reliever. But with the recent demotion of Brayan Bello and Garrett Crochet's move to the 60-day IL, it seems the Red Sox would prefer to bring him back as an option in the back end of the rotation.

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This story was originally published June 7, 2026 at 1:15 PM.

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