It’s been a bumpy Red Sox tenure for Tyler Thornburg so far, but Boston is hoping the reliever can start things anew in 2019.
Sox manager Alex Cora on Wednesday announced that the team essentially is shutting down Thornburg for the rest of the season so that he can focus on the 2019 campaign.
“There’s no need to push him hard,” Cora told reporters, via WEEI’s John Tomase. “For us, we talked to him, we’re happy with everything he did throughout the season and getting to the point that he was competing at this level, but his last few, as far as command, it wasn’t there, he wasn’t able to bounce back, so we decided to stay away from him.
“The way (trainer) Brad (Pearson) talks about it, we pushed it to the point where this is enough for the season. We feel that he’s going to be OK, he’s going to have a really good offseason, and he should be fine next year.”
Thornburg was acquired prior to the 2017 season from the Milwaukee Brewers, but an injury kept him sidelined until he made his Red Sox debut on July 6 of this year. He logged 24 innings of work over 25 games, which appears to be a suitable amount as far as Cora is concerned, especially since he hadn’t thrown a big league pitch since Sept. 2016.
The Red Sox paid a high price to get Thornburg, sending Travis Shaw to Milwaukee, and it was for good reason. When acquired, Thornburg was coming off a 2016 campaign where he was a premier late-inning arm in the big leagues.
As such, it was made clear by president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski this summer that part of his rationale for not getting a bullpen arm at the trade deadline was optimism that Thornburg would provide exactly what they needed. At the time that seemed reasonable, as the 29-year-old tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings in the five outings leading up to the non-waiver deadline.
Though he wasn’t his best this season, something not totally unexpected, getting him back to peak form ahead of next year would be tremendous for Boston’s bullpen. He boasts a mid 90s fastball with great natural movement and a devastating breaking ball that he can use to put away hitters.
Cora believes that Thornburg will benefit from an offseason where he’s not worrying about his health, and instead can gear up for what will be his first normal spring training with the Sox.
“You go through your normal routine and you do all your baseball activities, and going into spring training, there’s no hesitation,” Cora said, via Tomase. “You know this is what we’re going to do, this is the plan, we’re going to throw bullpens, I’m going to pitch right away, and I should be fine. So he’s looking forward to that.”
Thornburg has not pitched since Sept. 14. If he has, indeed, thrown his last pitch of the season, he’ll have finished his year with a 2-0 record with three holds and a 5.63 ERA.
