3 former Red Sox who are performing well on their new teams
The Boston Red Sox have had a very up-and-down start to the 2023 season. They currently sit at 26-21, which leaves them 4th in the AL East. With that, they remain 7.5 games out of first place in the division, despite being 6th in the American League record-wise. In the AL Central, they would be in first place currently, and they would sit in third place in the AL West.
With this, the Red Sox are left in the middle of a weird stretch in which they have won the majority of series played this year, but not enough games to be at the top of their division. It leaves fans thinking about the various players lost in the past offseason, and if they would have had a positive impact this year to get that record up.
Chaim Bloom will always see mixed results, as well as mixed responses from the fanbase. While some of the players he let walk this offseason were for the best, some others are now performing at their peak with their new teams.
An honorable mention for this list would be Xander Bogaerts, who despite playing well this season, has seemingly declined just a little bit offensively. He was definitely in consideration for this list, but the three above him have just been performing exceptionally well this season so far.
#3: Eduardo Rodriguez is Detroit's new ace
Something you will notice on this list is that all three members are pitchers, both due to their talent and the Sox need for late-rotation starting pitchers. Eduardo Rodriguez being the first of them, as a talent that was traded to the Red Sox back in 2014 from the Baltimore Orioles for Andrew Miller.
Rodriguez always had been a solid starter for the Sox and was a reliable arm in the middle of the starting rotation. From 2015-2022 with Boston, he threw a 4.15 ERA through 170 starts and 947.2 innings pitched. He also had 964 strikeouts to 328 walks, nearly a three-to-one ratio exactly. With a 69-44 record during his time, home runs were always one of his biggest struggles, giving up 119 in his 170 starts which is not horrid, but also not great.
This season, however, Rodriguez has turned into the ace for a middle-of-the-road 20-24 Detroit Tigers team. In nine starts this season, he has a 2.06 ERA through 56.2 innings pitched, averaging 8.3 strikeouts per nine innings to only 1.9 walks per nine innings (only 12 allowed total). He has a sub-1.0 WHIP at 0.865, and has 52 strikeouts on the season, with only five home runs allowed, much better than previous seasons.
At 30 years old, he still has some of his best baseball ahead of him as well. We will see how long his quality pitching lasts, but for now, he has been absolutely phenomenal with Detroit this year.
#2: Michael Wacha is torching opponents as of late
Michael Wacha is next up on our list, and he is having a great season so far, but more importantly, an even better last five starts. Wacha has been on various teams throughout his career, including the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, and now the San Diego Padres.
With the Red Sox, Wacha was a very high-quality starter throughout 2022. He posted a 3.32 ERA and 1.115 WHIP through 23 starts and 127.1 innings pitched. He had an 11-2 record in those starts, with one shutout and one complete game to his name, as well as 104 strikeouts to only 31 walks. He was not necessarily a strikeout pitcher, but rather a merchant of being capable of getting quick outs and out of innings.
This year Wacha has continued his success, especially so in his last five starts. On the season he has had nine starts with 50.1 innings of pitching. In that time frame, he has a 3.58 ERA and 1.152 WHIP, a 5-1 record, and more strikeouts than hits allowed (45 to 44 respectively). In his most recent five games, he has pitched 30 innings, giving up five or fewer hits in every outing, zero earned runs in three of the contests (only one and three earned runs in the other two games), and walked only eight batters in that span. His best outing came against the Kansas City Royals, where he pitched seven innings, giving up only one hit, no earned runs, one walk, eleven strikeouts, and threw 103 pitches.
Overall, the Red Sox lost another quality starter in Wacha, who is also only in his early 30s at 31, so he has lots of quality baseball ahead of him presumably.
#1: Nathan Eovaldi is now a Cy Young candidate
Finally, on this list, we have probably the most painful one as a Sox fan. Many fans knew Nathan Eovaldi had it in him to be a quality starter in this league, which he had been for Boston and a few other teams throughout his career. However, the pace he is now playing at is that of a Cy Young candidate, which makes this loss tough.
In his four full seasons with Boston, Eovaldi had made 73 starts with 407.2 innings pitched, registering a 4.15 ERA and 1.268 WHIP. He accrued 420 strikeouts to 97 walks, with 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings which is very good. Injuries near the end of his Boston career were what concerned Bloom seemingly, and ended up making Eovaldi move on to Texas.
Now, with the Rangers, he has pitched nine starts and 60.1 innings, putting together a 2.83 ERA, 0.994 WHIP, 1 complete game shutout, with 61 strikeouts (9.1 per nine innings) to 10 walks (1.5 per nine innings). As of right now according to the ESPN Cy Young tracker, he is currently ranked 4th in their predictor.
At the time, letting him walk made sense due to the injury and seemingly poor production post-recovery. However, a chance of scenery has allowed Nathan to turn into one of the game's best current pitchers, which definitely stings for Boston in the short term.
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