Clay Buchholz: Nobody has had a rougher career in Boston than Clay Buchholz. The guy came up as a prospect with high expectations, was a Cy Young contender in 2010, and is now struggling to tread water in the Red Sox starting rotation. His season was anything but clean, going 8-10 with a mean 4.78 ERA. After being bumped to the bullpen, he found his way mechanically and started to look like a pitcher John Farrell could trust both in relief and to start. I personally wouldn’t trust Buchholz as far as I could throw him, but he deserves just one more shot as a member of the rotation. Despite Eduardo Rodriguez, Joe Kelly, and Drew Pomeranz being other candidates for the role that may seem more attractive and approachable, I believe that Buchholz is so close to figuring it out and being back to how he was once before.
Plus, In his final season of his contact, he has more of an incentive to drive up his value before he either gets traded away or hits free agency because there is no chance the Red Sox sign him again. This season will be a better one for Clay. I swear.
My Take: Alright, I might of lied depending on how you look at it, but Clay will most likely produce mediocre numbers again. His win.loss will be similar, probably one of two games over or under .500 and his ERA will be in the mid 4.00 range. All of that is easy to assume just based off the fact that he is a mediocre at best pitcher. However, I do see him getting ample opportunity to be “the guy” for Boston, because if the Red Sox are tying to move him as badly as it has been rumored then they are going to keep giving him the chances to look as good as possible. His innings will jump to more than what he had in 2015 (139.1), but I have that feeling if he does end up looking like 2013 Clay Buchholz again then he will end up in a different uniform by July. We hope.
Next: Boston Red Sox Must Hang On To Their Pitchers
My Prediction: 9-10 4.60 ERA, 100.0-120.0 mark if lucky, with about 100 K’s.