The Boston Red Sox made a point to build up depth in their bullpen this past offseason.
Boston acquired Kenley Jansen, Chris Martin, Richard Bleier, Joely RodrÃguez and Wyatt Mills over the winter, and has seen the results of those signings on the back end, with Jansen locking down his first save in a Red Sox uniform against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday. Unfortunately, the rest of the bullpen has looked eerily similar to the unsuccessful unit that influenced all of those offseason moves.
Josh Winckowski, Kaleb Ort, Zach Kelly and Ryan Brasier, all of who pitched for Boston last season, lead the way in terms of innings pitched out of the bullpen in the early portion of the season. Why? Well, the injury bug has bitten the Red Sox early, with RodrÃguez and Mills each opening up the season on the injured list.
After receiving a discouraging update from Red Sox manager Alex Cora on RodrÃguez, we now have another on Mills.
"He hasn't started his throwing program," Cora said Saturday at Comerica Park, per Christopher Smith of MassLive. "Not responding the way we thought at the beginning. So we've just got to keep working."
Mills pitched in a spring training game March 13, but was shut down because of elbow inflammation shortly after. He was traded for on Dec. 16 but has been on the outside looking in when it comes to pitching staff projections throughout the offseason.
