5 adjustments Red Sox can make to improve their roster

Red Sox should call up Josh Winckowski

So with Houck moving to the rotation and Hill and Whitlock moving to the bullpen, that levaes one open spot in my make-believe rotation. And while the Red Sox could theoretically do bullpen games and openers until Chris Sale and James Paxton return, they have a better option just sitting in Triple-A in Josh Winckowski.

Now it’s easy to say that the grass is always greener and a pitcher dominating the Triple-A level is better than the one struggling in the bigs, but as we’ve seen already this year with the Red Sox, Triple-A success can translate to the show. John Schreiber similarly tore apart the International League, and has been even better with the Red Sox.

Winkowski, who owns a 2.10 ERA over six starts in Worcester, shares many of the same traits as Schreiber. He throws a ton of strikes, as evident by his 2.1 BB/9, and generates ground balls at over a 60% clip. Those types of pitchers have an extremely high floor and can excel in a multitude of roles. There’s not much more that WInckowski needs to prove at the minor league level, and it’s only a matter of time before he gets his chance in the bigs.