Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine has said he wants to stretch Aceves' outings, but Valentine didn't say whether that would be as a starter or in long relief.
On Sunday, though, Valentine said he was leaning toward giving Aceves a start before the end of the season.
"The program is for him to pitch a couple innings sometime after October," Valentine said, according to ESPNBoston.com. "If we want to move that up a couple days and get a couple innings in, we’ll visit that. I don’t know the benefit of it."
Valentine has been on the verge of overusing Aceves recently — he's called on him in four of the last five games for 143 pitches, a huge total considering Aceves' arm hasn't been conditioned for that kind of workload this season.
Reliever Scott Atchison is scheduled to make a return from a forearm strain later this month, which could offer Valentine the flexibility to slide Aceves to the rotation if he chooses.
"[I've] given a thought" to the idea, Valentine said.
Considering Red Sox' starting pitchers haven't made it into the fourth inning in three straight starts, there's nothing to lose.