FORT MYERS — In the wake of one starting pitcher dealing with elbow problems, the Red Sox have signed another.

Thursday morning, the Sox agreed to a one-year contract with free agent starter Collin McHugh, a 32-year-old right-hander who has been hampered by back and elbow issues over the last 12 months.

McHugh will make $600,000 as a base salary, but can earn up to $4.25 million total based on incentives, according to an industry source.

He’s spent most of his career with the Houston Astros, posting a 3.95 ERA over eight big league seasons.

But a back injury interrupted the start of his 2019 season. He then experienced elbow soreness in May, causing him to miss about six weeks, and again in August, when he was shut down for the rest of the season.

McHugh had a procedure done on his elbow this winter and interim manager Ron Roenicke said McHugh has yet to throw this spring.

“They’re evaluating him still now, so we don’t know when he starts up again,” said Roenicke. “But he’s coming back from a flexor injury also, so we’re not sure when that period is when he’ll be able to pitch in games for us.”

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“Well, he can do both and he’s willing to do both,” Roenicke said. “So we’ll kind of get him ramped up, extend him out and then see where he fits.”

McHugh, who relies heavily on a 91-mph fastball and an 80-mph slider, began the 2019 season in the Astros’ rotation but struggled to the tune of a 6.37 ERA while opponents had an .808 OPS against him.

When he was moved to the ‘pen, he excelled with a 2.67 ERA and .640 OPS against over 27 appearances before the elbow injury ended his season. His velocity ticked up about 1 mph out of the ‘pen.

Over his career, he has a 4.14 ERA in 119 appearances out of the rotation and a 2.76 ERA in 91 relief appearances.

Regular season lineup

The Sox fielded their strongest lineup of the spring against the Houston Astros in a 5-0 loss.

“I love seeing that lineup today,” Roenicke said.

Xander Bogaerts (ankle) made his defensive debut at shortstop and Andrew Benintendi (quad) returned to the outfield, which also included Jackie Bradley Jr. in center and Kevin Pillar in right, the regular alignment the Sox will use most days to start the year.

Roenicke said he’s not sure how often J.D. Martinez will play the outfield this year, but noted that Martinez wants to play defense more frequently than he did in 2019, when he made just 38 defensive appearances, the lowest total of his career. Back issues also played a factor.

“I think we’ll try to put him out there more often,” said Roenicke. “Right now I know it’s important as much as we can to have Pillar and JBJ back together so they get used to calling each other off and we stay away from any collisions or problems there.”

Alex Verdugo, who should become the Sox regular right fielder later in the year, has not yet begun swinging a bat and is still recovering from a back injury. He’s expected to play in games toward the end of spring training.

A one-inning closer

Every Red Sox reliever is a multi-inning reliever, but only for spring training.

Brandon Workman made his second appearance on Thursday and was strong through one inning, but struggled the following frame. He allowed one run on four hits, three of which came in the second inning of work.

“He tired in the second inning,” Roenicke said. Pitching coach Dave Bush “wants to extend them to try to build up strength. Workman wasn’t too happy. But he got his work in.”

Workman pitched one inning or less in 65 of his 73 appearances during his breakout season in 2019. He’ll likely be a one-inning closer this year, Roenicke said.

“Yeah, maybe if we see he can four outs, once in a while maybe,” he said. “But I like one inning.”