Red Sox Make Noteworthy Move To Open Roster Spot For Pitcher

The Red Sox on Sunday made it official: Lucas Giolito won’t pitch for Boston for quite a while.

Four days before the club’s Opening Day game in Seattle, the Red Sox announced Giolito was placed on the 60-day injured list. The move was made in order to create a roster spot for Chase Anderson, a veteran right-hander who joined Boston on a one-year major league contract Sunday.

Of course, an official designation wasn’t needed to know Giolito would be off the mound for some time. The 29-year-old underwent surgery earlier this month to repair ulnar collateral ligament damage in his pitching elbow. Giolito did avoid a Tommy John procedure, however, so his road back to the diamond doesn’t figure to be as long as the path typically necessary to fully recover from a serious elbow injury.

As for Anderson, he took an unconventional route to the Red Sox’s Opening Day roster. The 36-year-old spent time with the Philadelphia Phillies and the Pittsburgh Pirates in spring training before latching on with Boston less than a week before the start of the regular season. He’s in line to start the campaign as a multi-inning reliever for Alex Cora and company, but Anderson does have 200 major league starts under his belt.

Boston will play three more spring training games before getting the show on the road Thursday at T-Mobile Park.