3. Rick Porcello
This month marked the end of Porcello’s five-year stint with the Red Sox. The right-hander was acquired back in December 2014 from the Tigers in the deal that saw Yoenis Cespedes land in Detroit.
Porcello has been one of the more up and down players this past decade. When he’s not in the right frame of mind it’s bad, but when he’s on his game then it went very well. Porcello’s first season with the Sox didn’t go well (4.92 ERA) but his second year was one of the best pitching seasons by a Red Sox pitcher in recent memory.
His 2016 season earned him the American League Cy Young Award, on the back of a 22-win season for the righty. 2017 was rough as he gave up the most hits in the AL, but he once again bounced back in 2018 and played such an important role in the postseason – where he started three games and came out of the pen in two.
The fact that he moved to the pen for a number of those games and came into it with important innings being thrown speaks tons about his character as a true team player.
After this past season and with the entrance of this new-look front office, it seemed pretty clear that Porcello was going to go elsewhere. Signing a 1-year deal with the Mets will give the veteran a chance to rebuild his stock as a starter in another big market.
He leaves Boston with the Cy Young Award and a World Series ring under his belt and plenty of positive memories which will outweigh the bad ones. He was also the winningest starting pitcher for the Red Sox this past decade.