As if the Red Sox starting rotation didn’t already have enough drama with Clay Buchholz failing to keep the opponents to under six runs in a game and what to do with the struggling righty, Daisuke Matsuzaka is close to returning which will complicate matters much, much more.
The Sox just called up Aaron Cook who looked well until he got spiked and now he’s on the DL. But that is only going to last two weeks at most and throw in Dice-K and now the Sox have seven starters to try and find enough starts for. A nice problem to have? Maybe, maybe not.
Dice-K made his third rehab start on Monday night for the Pawtucket Red Sox and despite walking three, he only surrendered two hits, struck out four in 4.2 innings of shutout ball. He threw 87 pitches in the outing and matched his longest start of his rehab stint. It’s expected that he’ll make two more starts before being activated and called up to the big club which then will create a log jam in the rotation.
Jon Lester and Josh Beckett are locks and aren’t going anywhere despite the inflated ERA’s and lack of leadership. Felix Doubront has been good and his last start he was borderline great, making his spot in the rotation fairly secure. Daniel Bard has fell victim to lack of offense and his inability to keep the walks down it’s easy to point to him and say to put him in the bullpen.
Buchholz is the likely candidate to get sent to the minors for a few starts so he can iron out any mental or mechanical issues he is having. He says the back is fine so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, but something is wrong with the former 17-game winner and he’s become a liability to put on the mound every fifth day.
Talk of a six-man rotation was brought up a week ago and if Buchholz heads to AAA and Cook is activated from the DL, Dice-K could round out the rotation……for now. Cook and Doubront are bullpen options but only if Dice-K and Buchholz can find their form and provide solid outings when they take to the rubber. So far Matsuzaka looks like he’s going to do that but until we see him at the major league level we won’t know for sure.
They say you can never have to much starting pitching and suddenly the Red Sox could have some difficult decisions to make. Some of the guys in the bullpen may be out of options meaning the 40-man roster could look vastly different in a month’s time and I’m just talking about the pitching. We’ll leave the infield dilemma for another discussion.
What are your thoughts with what the Red Sox should do with their starting pitching puzzle?
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