The Boston Red Sox’s top trade deadline need just got a little more dire.

Sometimes, teams will justify a lack of buying at the deadline by counting on injury returns. That could have been the case for the Red Sox with Patrick Sandoval, who they signed to a two-year contract last winter with the expectation that he would miss at least the first half of this season after Tommy John surgery.

But Sandoval’s recovery hasn’t quite progressed the way the lefty had hoped, and on Friday, the Red Sox learned that it is doubtful he’ll be able to pitch at any point this season. He was throwing bullpens at one point, but Boston is backing off that plan.

“He wasn’t moving the way he was moving early, so right now we’re just playing catch and doing the things he needs to do to keep the arm going,” manager Alex Cora said Friday, per Christopher Smith of MassLive. “But not throwing bullpens. Just kind of slow down the pace.”

The Red Sox already needed a starter, because it was too hard to project anything from Sandoval coming off a full yea’rs absence. But this still increases that need, because starting pitching is a numbers game.

Season-ending injuries to Kutter Crawford and Hunter Dobbins already dealt a hit to those numbers. Tanner Houck’s setback puts him in doubt as well. And now, one more injury could leave Boston without enough starters to fill out a group of five.

It seems like the Red Sox are destined to add at least one starter by the deadline, but now, if they don’t, it will be borderline inexcusable.