As we all should have expected, the thesis that the Boston Red Sox had too many starting pitchers quickly proved false.

Boston lost de facto No. 6 starter Johan Oviedo to an elbow injury after his first appearance of the regular season, but it took until Monday for their first member of the rotation to go down. Right-hander Sonny Gray exited his start against the Detroit Tigers in the top of the third inning, and multiple reports confirmed that he would be placed on the 15-day injured list on Tuesday.

Left-handed reliever Tyler Samaniego is Gray’s expected short-term replacement, but by his next turn through the rotation on Saturday, the Red Sox will need to get another starter in the mix. Here are the three most logical candidates.

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Payton Tolle – LHP

The Red Sox won’t find a better combination of big-league readiness and impact potential than Tolle. Most still consider him the team’s No. 1 prospect, even though he threw 16 1/3 innings in the majors last regular season, then made a brief cameo on the mound during the playoffs.

However, Tolle was scheduled to start for Triple-A Worcester on Sunday before he was held out of action due to concerns about a rainout in Boston. So he’s already out of his rhythm a bit, and waiting until Saturday to have him go could either be a nice bit of bonus rest or an accidental rust situation.

Jake Bennett – LHP

Bennett, the prospect acquired in the December trade with the Washington Nationals for righty Luis Perales, has allowed just one earned run in his first 16 1/3 innings this year, allowing eight hits and striking out 13 batters. He’s already on the 40-man roster as well, so no maneuvering would be required to get him in for his debut.

The question, since Bennett is a fairly legitimate prospect, is whether the Red Sox want to cast aside whatever timeline they had in their minds for his debut to help the team. That might be irrelevant if they think Tolle is a better option anyway.

Jack Anderson – RHP

Likely the least appealing of the three options, Anderson was called up to make his major league debut out of the bullpen last week and has remained on the active roster to make two three-inning appearances. If he didn’t throw during this week’s series with the New York Yankees, he’d be on five days’ rest by Saturday.