Rick Porcello doesn’t look like the same pitcher who won the American League Cy Young Award in 2016. Heck, he doesn’t even look like the solid, if not unspectacular, pitcher of 2018 or the mostly mediocre hurler of 2017.
Simply put, Porcello has been bad this season, and he’ll be the first to admit such as one member of the Boston Red Sox who’s always willing to hold himself accountable when things go off the tracks.
So, what gives?
It’s hard to explain Porcello’s 2019 struggles, but the right-hander refuses to blame his contract situation. While Porcello can become a free agent this offseason, placing even more emphasis on his performance down the stretch, the 30-year-old insists he hasn’t thought much about his uncertain future.
“I’ve never gone through it before, but that wears off pretty quickly, honestly,” Porcello told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford on Monday. “It happened and was done with. I’m a professional and completely understand both sides of the game. There’s a performance side and there is a business side. Sometimes it doesn’t go hand in hand. I haven’t really been bothered by it or focused on it at all. I’ve been concentrating on doing what I have to do to be good for our ball club this year.”
With 14 straight games against either the New York Yankees or Tampa Bay Rays, two teams ahead of Boston in the AL East standings, the Red Sox are in the midst of a crucial stretch that could determine their season. The defending World Series champions figure to be buyers or stand pat before the July 31 trade deadline, but they theoretically could sell off pieces if they fall flat over the next week. Under those circumstances, Porcello would be a prime trade candidate based on his looming free agency.
The most likely scenario is Porcello remains with Boston for the remainder of the season, after which the Red Sox will decide whether to explore a contract extension or let the hard-nosed righty depart on the open market. Porcello, in the final season of a four-year, $82.5 million contract extension he signed in 2015, plans to cross the free agency bridge when he gets to it. Right now, he’s focused on pitching better.
“I don’t think about the contract stuff anymore. I’ve been very fortunate to be in the position I’m in. I don’t feel a lot of pressure going into this offseason as far as that stuff is concerned,” Porcello told Bradford. “I feel the pressure to perform for our team, our organization now. That’s the God’s honest truth. We’ll figure out what happens in the offseason when we get there. We’ll see what happens. You can’t predict what is going on in the offseason now anyway. You have absolutely no idea what the opportunities are going to be so there is no point in thinking about it.”
Porcello is 8-7 with a 5.61 ERA, a 4.72 FIP and a 1.46 WHIP in 20 starts this season. His 2.72 strikeout-to-walk ratio represents his worst such mark since 2012, and he’s allowed at least four earned runs in each of his last five outings.
