Boston Red Sox relief pitcher stat predictions for the 2022 season
By Daniel Fox
Stat Projections for the Red Sox up-and-down bullpen
In my final installment of projections for the 2022 Boston Red Sox, I’ll take a look at the team’s bullpen.
Like many other years, the Red Sox bullpen was quite the adventure in 2021, as the collapse of All-Star closer Matt Barnes forced unheralded arms into big roles come the postseason. This is also a group that has undergone some turnover this offseason, with Matt Strahm and Jake Diekman coming in to replace the departed Adam Ottavino and Garrett Richards.
Much like my starting pitcher projections, I was forced to make some assumptions. For one, I assumed that Barnes would be the full-time closer all season even though there is a very good chance he gets replaced by midseason. I also assumed that Garrett Whitlock would be in the bullpen all season despite that the Red Sox experimented with him in the starting rotation this spring.
As with my other installments of this series, every players statistics are predicted over the course of a full season. I focused only on the seven pitchers who are expected to get the most innings, although I included analysis on some other arms at the end.