Red Sox injury troubles are somehow infinitely worse than the Yankees'

As frustrating as it is for New York Yankees fans to deal with backbreaking after backbreaking injury each and every year, their situation might not be even close to comparable to what the Boston Red Sox are going through at the moment.

Now, we're by no means sympathizing with our most hated rival, who as recently as 2018 coasted to a 108-win season and World Series title in one of the most effortless, stress-free campaigns you'll ever witness, but it's noteworthy to document their situation just over a week from Opening Day.

First of all, things are so bad in Beantown that Corey Kluber was named the Opening Day starter. Yup, that's Yankees legend Corey Kluber, who has a 1.42 WHIP and .260 batting average against this spring. He's Boston's No. 1 starter at this very moment.

The saddest part of all is that the delusional Sox fanbase has managed to buy into it, despite evidence to the contrary that Kluber's ace-like days are far in the rearview. If anything, his ceiling at this point is a mid-rotation arm.

But that won't stop the folks over in Red Sox Nation from hyping up Kluber's four totally decent Spring Training starts!

Yankees fans actually have it good with injuries compared to the Red Sox

Boston's 2023 was derailed from the start when Xander Bogaerts left and Trevor Story needed elbow surgery. That took away their "replacement" for one of the best players in franchise history.

Since then, it's been a domino effect. The reason Kluber is the Opening Day guy is because all of Garrett Whitlock, Brayan Bello and James Paxton are reportedly starting the season on the injured list (though Whitlock started Monday's spring contest). Chris Sale, for some reason, has been given the privilege of starting the second game of the year. And does anyone even trust him? He's thrown five innings this spring and has made 11 starts since the beginning of 2020.

In other news, the recently acquired Adalberto Mondesi won't be ready until May at the earliest. Backup catcher Connor Wong isn't on track to be ready for the start of 2023. Reliever Joely Rodriguez is the latest to go down, suffering a Grade 2 oblique strain that will more than likely keep him out until May.

Not to mention, Justin Turner's Spring Training was upended when he was hit in the face with a fastball and returned to action on Monday for the first time since the incident happened two weeks ago.

Yes, the Yankees have more "high-profile" injuries if you want to go tit for tat, but they have the depth to absorb a good amount of the temporary losses. The Red Sox almost look as if they're fielding an Oakland A's roster amid a hellacious rebuild.

All we're saying, guys? Things could always be worse.