The initial removal was discouraging.

The initial diagnosis was frightening.

The outlook for the Boston Red Sox is back to ugly.

Clay Buchholz, the Red Sox’s top pitcher during a season in which their pitching has been nearly nonexistent, was removed from Friday night’s start against the New York Yankees, the team his team is chasing in the American League East.

At the time, it was just more bad news for a Red Sox team that entered the contest four games below .500, a fortunate 5.5 games out of first place and doing everything to not live up to offseason expectations that had them in the postseason.

Minutes after Buchholz was removed, an early diagnosis was announced. For a pitcher, or anyone who has paid even mild attention to baseball trends in the past few years, it was the type that makes one shudder.

Manager John Farrell told reporters Buchholz was feeling “some tightness, some stiffness in the elbow area.” An MRI was scheduled for after the game.

Reactions were similar all across the baseball universe.

In this era the phrase “elbow tightness,” or any relative of it, elicits that kind of response. The plague of Tommy John surgeries is the reason.

Too often that is how the diagnosis starts. A tight elbow. A strained forearm. Any kind of discomfort in that general area.

And then, bang! Some poor pitcher is done for a calendar year, give or take, and his team is left to pick up the pieces of its immediate future, while the player worries about his long-term one.

For now, until we know more about what ails Buchholz, the first concern is how the Red Sox will fare if the 30-year-old has to go on the disabled list.

The Red Sox eventually lost Friday’s game at Fenway Park. It dropped them to 6.5 games behind the first-place Yankees, and their standing in the Wild Card race is even more discouraging, since they’d have to leap over eight teams to land the second spot.

Boston went into this series having won eight of its previous 10 games, shaving 3.5 games from its division deficit in the process. It also became the final major league team to have a winning streak of at least four games.

That surge was exactly what the brass needed to see before the All-Star break if it was going to declare, at least internally, that the team would buy rather than sell at the July 31 trade deadline.

Alex Speier of the Boston Globe even wrote Thursday, “So, they’re buyers, right?” 

But that was assuming the Red Sox would have a healthy Buchholz, who has by far been the team’s best starting pitcher. He went into Friday’s start having won four consecutive decisions, and over his previous 10 starts he had a 1.99 ERA. That is quite the turnaround from his first seven, when he had a 5.73 ERA.

Entering Friday, Buchholz had a 3.27 ERA and 2.54 FIP for the year. His FIP was third-lowest in the league.

With Buchholz, the Red Sox’s rotation is last in the AL with a 4.73 ERA. Without him, it might be the worst baseball has to offer.

So, if Buchholz is out for any significant length of time because of this “elbow tightness,” they are sellers, right? Well, the thing is, they don’t really have anything to sell if they can’t sell Buchholz, because parting with their youth should be a no-no.

Oh, the irony.

The Red Sox hold club options for Buchholz for the next two seasons that would total $26.5 million. Those options, especially if he performs like he has recently, are part of what makes him so appealing to buying teams. He would be a top-of-the-rotation starter at a bargain price.

Now, if Buchholz’s injury is anything remotely serious, he carries no trade value at this deadline. Whether it was winning or losing, he is the player Boston could least afford to lose because he was either carrying it into contention or because he could bring back a strong return in a trade.

From a team standpoint, this forces the Red Sox’s hand one way or the other. If Buchholz is out, they cannot seriously contend for a postseason spot because the rest of their pitching is abysmal.

In order to remain relevant, the team has to be aggressive on the trade market. That means engaging teams about Cole Hamels, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija and whoever else is out there. But even with one of them and no Buchholz, Boston’s chances are slim.

Opting not to go that route leaves one other option: punting the season.

What is known for certain is the Red Sox will have to decide shortly after the All-Star break, and how they finish this series against the Yankees and come out of the break against the Los Angeles Angels and Houston Astros will be the deciding factor.

For now, they remain in limbo.

 

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball.

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