Red Sox will have competition for rotation spots
The impending returns of a pair of injured starters is about to create an internal competition for spots in the Boston Red Sox rotation.
The Boston Red Sox will soon have an abundance of starting pitchers at their disposal, which means someone is going to be left out in the cold.
With Eduardo Rodriguez and Joe Kelly nearing the end of their rehab assignments, the Red Sox will have some decisions to make to determine which five pitchers are going to stick in their rotation.
This pits the members of the Red Sox pitching staff in an internal competition for those coveted rotation spots. Teams facing this dilemma may toy with the idea of temporarily using a six-man rotation until the situation sorts itself out, but manager John Farrell revealed he has no intention of going that route, in part due to the team’s upcoming schedule.
“I would say probably not a six-man at this point just because of the number of off days,” Farrell told reporters on Wednesday, per WEEI.com. “I mentioned the 19th and the 23rd — I think 1o days later we have two more around the San Francisco series. A Monday and a Thursday are off. All that will be up for review depending on the needs of our guys, if there is an extra day needed. I think from a workload standpoint we’re approaching a point in time where we’re going to get a little bit of a break with the number of off days.”
There’s no need to use six starters when the schedule has extra days of rest already built in. Besides, when you have a guy at the top of the rotation making the kind of money David Price is getting, do you really want to limit his starts? If Farrell is intent on narrowing his rotation down to five starters, that means two of the seven potential options will get bumped.
Next: Who is a lock to stay in?
One would imagine that Rodriguez is a lock to rejoin the staff, coming off an impressive rookie season where he went 10-6 with a 3.85 ERA. E-Rod showed flashes of brilliance last year and has as much upside as any of the team’s other options, aside from perhaps Price.
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Rodriguez will almost certainly replace Sean O’Sullivan, who earned a win despite an unspectacular performance in his first start of the season. The journeyman’s track record suggests he should be counted on as little more than emergency rotation depth, so he’s the clear first choice to get the boot when the Red Sox get an injured starter back.
That still leaves us with one more starter to remove from the mix, so who else is going to be left out?
Obviously not Price, no matter how much he’s struggled in his first season in Boston. There’s no reason to think he won’t get back on track at some point, especially now that he seems to have found a flaw in his delivery. Rick Porcello seems to have remembered how to pitch again, recapturing the form he showed in his breakout season in 2014, so he stays too. Steven Wright was initially expected to be a short-term injury fill in, but he’s been one of the league’s best pitchers this year. The Red Sox need to stick with him for as long as he can keep this up.
Next: Time to let Buchholz go?
Does that mean Clay Buchholz is the odd man out? The 31-year old has been erratic, posting a 5.90 ERA through his first seven starts. Just when he appeared to be turning the corner with a 7 inning, 2 run effort that earned him his first win of the season, Buchholz followed that performance with another dud. He gave up 4 runs in 5 innings, getting the win only thanks to an offensive explosion from the Red Sox lineup.
As much of an enigma as Buchholz has been throughout his career, we’ve all seen what he’s capable of. When he’s got his head in the game he can be one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. Unfortunately he can just as easily swerve in the opposite direction, which has been the case in most of his outings this season.
The Red Sox could let Buchholz go in free agency after this season if they don’t pick up his option again, but should they cut bait with him mid-season? We’ve seen with how the team handled the Pablo Sandoval situation that the Red Sox aren’t going to let contracts or past performance dictate playing time. If Buchholz can’t turn things around quickly, he may be the one that gets replaced.
Next: What do they do with Kelly?
There’s also the possibility that Kelly doesn’t return to the team when he’s deemed ready. If the team feels he isn’t one of their five best options, he could be left in Pawtucket until the need arises for another starter.
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Kelly could also potentially shift to the bullpen in order to punch his ticket back to Boston, but doing so likely removes him as an option to make spot starts if another member of the rotation were to fall to injury or need to be replaced due to performance issues. Even if he were to be used in a long relief role, he may not be stretched out enough to jump back into the rotation right away, depending on how long his stint in the bullpen lasts.
Besides, would Kelly really be a better option out of the bullpen than Heath Hembree or Matt Barnes? Kelly is more valuable as a starter, so ideally that remains his long-term role within the organization.
Kelly had an up-and-down 2015 season, but he ended it with an 8-game winning streak and had a solid spring heading into this season. The Red Sox are better served giving him another shot to prove he can recapture that form.
Next: Internal competition for last spot
Assuming O’Sullivan is the first choice to get bumped from the rotation, that means the No. 5 spot is likely to boil down to a competition between Buchholz and Kelly.
“I think if there’s one theme through the first 33 games, it’s competition,” said Farrell. “Internal competition is a really healthy thing and we’re obviously encouraging it.”
The Red Sox have plenty of options for their rotation now that they are getting healthier, which puts the pressure on the players to perform. Nobody is being handed the role, they’ll need to earn it.
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Rest assured, the five pitchers that make up the rotation will be the best available men for the job. Depth is a good problem to have, as it will allow the Red Sox to turn to alternative options if one of these pitchers doesn’t perform to expectations. That’s good news for the Red Sox, as it should lead to improved results from the staff as a whole.