Red Sox Eduardo Rodriguez Will Not Be Ready For Season Start
Boston Red Sox young starter Eduardo Rodriguez is still not healthy and is expected to be on the disabled list for the start of the regular season.
BoSox Injection released an article about Henry Owens needing to make a good impression on the Red Sox coaching staff to become one of the five starters in the rotation. However, as much as it may have been touched upon, not many would have bet that Rodriguez would have been the one to replace from an injury.
Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe reported that “Rodriguez is scheduled to throw in the bullpen Wednesday, his first such workout since dislocating his right kneecap Feb. 29. The two-week layoff means Rodriguez, 22, is essentially starting over and will begin the season on the disabled list.” A tough break for the kid, considering the hot rise to stardom that he had in 2015. “[Red Sox manager John] Farrell said Rodriguez needs to throw in the bullpen at least three times before getting into a game. From there, he will need six starts to build up to the 23-25 spring innings the Sox typically want from their starters before the start of the regular season.”
Owens, along with Roenis Elias and Steven Wright, now have eyes on that fifth starting position, while David Price, Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello, and Joe Kelly round out the other likely starters.
Brian MacPherson of Providence Journal also commented on the news, stating that “if all goes smoothly from this point forward, he still won’t be ready to pitch in a regular-season game until April 26 — by which time his replacement would have made at least three starts in his absence.”
One could argue that, if that was true, then Rodriguez could lose his spot permanently if one of the other young arms has the proverbial hot hand.
Let’s be honest: does anyone actually see that happening, based on what they have seen not only in this spring training but also last season?
So far, having five or more innings under their belts, the only Red Sox starter with a respectable line is Kelly, with a 1.08 ERA in 8.1 innings. Yes, a very small sample-size, but he was able to strike out seven opposing batters to allowing four walks, eight hits, and only one run. Steven Wright is the next best, allowing only two runs on eight hits in seven innings. Price got shelled for three home runs, accounting for all of his three runs in seven innings. Owens, himself, gave up four runs in his 7.2 innings. Buchholz has only four earned runs to his name in 5.1 innings, yet seven runs crossed the plate on his watch. And Porcello, while tinkering with his pitches, has allowed nine earned runs on 13 hits in his five innings of work.
Even with this only being spring training, it’s not exactly like anyone on the staff is motivating Red Sox Nation to believe that this regular season will be any different than last year. If anything, tempers and leashes will be shorter on the veterans to get the job done, with new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski observing each start.
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Rodriguez just needs to get healthy to get another crack at the starting rotation. Anything could still happen, as spring training is what it is, but the likelihood of any of the Red Sox starters looking like dominant forces of nature on the mound come April is still pretty suspect.