New week. Same questions.
While the Boston Red Sox have been rather inconsistent this season, one consistency that has emerged relates to the NESN.com mailbag. People, for the most part, are very concerned about Boston’s rotation, which entered Thursday sporting a major league-worst 5.75 ERA.
The level of concern can be measured in tweets, Facebook comments, direct messages, you name it. Seemingly everyone wants to know if/when help is on the way, which makes sense given that every Red Sox fan’s worst fears regarding the club’s pitching staff have been confirmed in the early going.
Since it’s the most important topic surrounding the Red Sox these days, and could be for quite some time, it’s absolutely worth diving into Boston’s pitching woes. There are other topics worth pondering, though, so let’s mix, match and get a little crazy for the second mailbag of the 2015 regular season.
Do the Red Sox have any plans to call up Henry Owens or another prospect to help out the struggling major league rotation?
— Jason Desaulnier
Let’s tackle this from several angles.
It sounds like the Red Sox are committed to seeing whether the rotation, as constituted, can dig itself out of its current hole. It’s not a popular philosophy, obviously, but the Red Sox still are in the process of figuring out what exactly they have before making any major moves.
Boston is not even five times through the rotation, and manager John Farrell said himself it typically takes six to eight starts — 40 or so innings — to gain a better understanding of where each starter is to open the season.
With that in mind, I wouldn’t expect the Red Sox to acquire Cole Hamels tomorrow or decide this weekend it’s time to bring up a Triple-A arm. General manager Ben Cherington’s recent comments only strengthen that assumption.
“Right now, (we’re focused on) the five guys we have here,” Cherington told WEEI.com this week. “Keep running them out there, and getting better. The first step is just to help our guys — they have to help themselves, they’re a part of it — but get them closer to pitching to what they’re capable of doing. If they do that, they’ll win games.”
That said, I do think the Red Sox have a contingency plan. Red Sox president/CEO Larry Lucchino basically confirmed such during a radio appearance Thursday, though he didn’t divulge any specific details. That leads me to believe the Red Sox will have no problem making a call to Pawtucket in search of reinforcements if the rotation continues to struggle for another two or three times through.
If the Red Sox call up anyone in the coming weeks, Henry Owens shouldn’t be the guy. Owens has a 4.29 ERA and, more importantly, 17 walks to 19 strikeouts in his four starts with Pawtucket. The 22-year-old has pitched more than five innings only once this season, and when you consider he earned a promotion to Triple-A late in 2014, it’s easy to see he could benefit from more seasoning. Rushing anyone to help put out the ongoing fire in the majors only compounds the issue over the long haul.
Brian Johnson instead is the most logical call-up not named Steven Wright or Matt Barnes, both of whom already have major league experience this season. Johnson is 24 years old, more polished than Owens and fellow lefty Eduardo Rodriguez and has been excellent (3-1, 0.86 ERA) to start the season.
The biggest problem with relying on the farm system is that it’s not a slam dunk, by any means. While Johnson or someone else could help, it’s also possible they could flop after reaching The Show, especially in the early going. Therefore, to expect success is rather risky, no?
The Red Sox’s best bet right now is to hope the starting pitching trade market materializes more quickly than in years past as their own staff sorts itself out. It’s still too early to pinpoint the buyers and the sellers, meaning a trade probably isn’t imminent, but dealing for a hurler seems like the only way to alleviate the current problem if it lingers too far into May or June.
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How far away are we from seeing Johnson, Owens or Rodriguez in the big league rotation? We need something from somewhere.
— Zach T Shaw
This is pretty much the same question as above, but if you’re going to hold my feet to the fire and ask for a specific time frame, I’ll say that Johnson is in the rotation by late May.
For now, it’s up to the offense to outslug opponents, which it’s done fairly well to this point given Boston’s 12-10 record.
How long until Owens is ready to be the ace?
— Job Townsend
Never?
That’s not a knock on Owens, who should evolve into a fine major league pitcher. Perhaps he’ll even develop into a good No. 2 starter as soon as next season.
Owens doesn’t project as a No. 1 starter, though. So until he has some success at the major league level, it’s ill-advised to slap a “future ace” label on him despite his well-documented minor league track record.
Does anyone else think that Sandy Leon is better behind the plate than Ryan Hanigan? To me, pitches located on the corner or close to the strike zone at times are called balls because of the way Hanigan receives the baseball.
— Eric Stoops
Most across baseball probably would tell you quite the opposite with regard to Ryan Hanigan. The 34-year-old is considered a very good defensive catcher who’s an above-average pitch-framer.
There certainly is some variation when it comes to pitch-framing metrics — Baseball Prospectus, for example, pegged Sandy Leon as a slightly above-average pitch framer before this season, while StatCorner.com tabbed Leon as a slightly below-average pitch framer — but there is very little suggest Hanigan can’t hold his own behind the dish, is worse than Leon or in some way is responsible for Boston’s starting pitching issues.
Would the Red Sox be better off with Christian Vazquez starting 65 percent of the games this season? Absolutely. But it’s tough to jump on either Hanigan or Leon, especially when you consider the rate at which Leon has been forced to learn a new pitching staff.
(To be fair, Eric simply posed a question comparing/contrasting Hanigan and Leon. But I’ve heard some, albeit slight, criticism toward Boston’s catchers in some bowels of the Internet and on talk radio, and it seems a little unfair at this point, especially given the small sample size with which we’re working.)
Is Leon also partly responsible for the pitching drama? It seems every game he calls, the pitchers have a bad game.
— Sam van Rest
See above.
It hasn’t always been pretty for Boston’s starters, particularly with Leon behind the plate. But let’s focus on the real issue, which is the underperformance of the pitchers themselves.
Do you think with the kind of year that Mookie Betts is having at the plate and in the field that he could be American League MVP?
— Thomas McCusker
That sounds like a heavy dose of homerism.
Let’s keep in mind Betts is batting .230 with two homers, 13 RBIs, five stolen bases and a .658 OPS.
In theory, he should get even better as the season progresses and as he continues to adjust to major league pitchers. And given the number of highlight reel moments he’s had, it’s easy to lose track of his actual numbers through 22 games.
But MVP? Not seeing it. Yet.
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Man, I hope so.
Then again, maybe I don’t. It’s kind of entertaining.
It’s actually amazing how patient Ramirez is with regard to his helmet when you consider how aggressive he is at the plate.
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This is an action-packed tweet. Solid use of 140 characters.
Let’s breeze through so everyone can wet their whistle with the NFL draft, but let’s also use this as the gold standard of tweets for future mailbags.
1. There’s a good chance Jonathan Papelbon will be traded. Just not to the Red Sox.
2. I wouldn’t rule out either DFA at some point, especially the latter scenario.
3. Very, very good — with the exception of Ramirez’s defense and the ongoing helmet debacle.
4. David Ortiz has started slow before, only to pick thing up in a big way. There’s no sense in doubting him yet, even at 39 years old.
Thumbnail photo via John Bazemore/USA TODAY Sports Images
