The Boston Red Sox have some holes to fill in their rotation, maybe now more than ever.
Eduardo Rodriguez signed a five-year deal with the Detroit Tigers after spending the last six seasons in Boston. Losing your No. 3 starter certainly isn't ideal, but there is a robust market for pitchers this offseason.
So, just how will the Red Sox replace Rodriguez?
"We certainly want to have more guys who are capable of starting games in the big leagues and doing it well," chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom told reporters Wednesday, via MassLive. "We're not too focused on how famous they are. It's more about what we think they can do. With that said, certainly a lot of the guys who could do the job well are also well-known. We're focusing on those guys, too. We need to cover the whole map here and make sure we're involved in everything that could help us."
Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock could be options as starters. Whitlock dazzled out of the bullpen last season with a 1.96 ERA, and Houck showed flashes of his potential both as a starter and a reliever.
Pitching without a doubt is a priority for the Red Sox heading into the 2022 Major League Baseball season and it sounds like Bloom is ready to explore all options in order to improve the team.