Nathan Eovaldi will look to bounce back from a disappointing 2019 season.
The Red Sox pitcher battled issues with his elbow last year, resulting in a surgery to remove loose bodies and found him pitching out of the bullpen at times.
But after a solid spring training start in which he struck out four of the six batters he faced while reaching 100mph on some of his pitchers, MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince pegged the right-hander as their “feel good story” out of spring training.
Here’s why:
How well that stuff will translate when the lights come on remains to be seen, but Eovaldi was hitting 100 mph and had good secondary stuff in his Grapefruit debut against the Twins. What this guy did in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series is the stuff of legends. The game was lost, but Eovaldi’s six innings of relief on just one day of rest saved the bullpen and allowed Boston to live to fight — and win — another day.
All that extra effort may have caught up to him in a lost 2019 in which he posted a 5.99 ERA in 67 2/3 innings, but, if the early stuff is any indication, Eovaldi might be bound for a bounce-back year.
Of course, no one can forget his Game 4 performance that moved some teammates at the time to literal tears.
There’s reason to be optimistic about Eovaldi. He appears to be healthy, the elbow appears to be 100 percent and he had his velocity and command in a good spot during his spring training.
Only time will tell, though, if his debut is foreshadowing what’s to come in 2020.
