Chaim Bloom Could Add To Red Sox In This Area Before MLB Trade Deadline

The Boston Red Sox looked to be in a good spot in terms of their starting pitching at the beginning of the season. They even had more arms than available slots in the rotation at one point.

But now nearing the end of June, their starting pitching depth is a clear issue.

Boston’s starting rotation has thinned dramatically mainly due to injuries with Tanner Houck and Chris Sale on the injured list. The Red Sox seemed to avoid losing another starting pitcher Saturday when James Paxton exited early from his outing, but he feels he’ll be ready to go for his next start.

The injuries coupled with the struggles of Corey Kluber and Nick Pivetta in a starting role, which forced them to be moved to the bullpen, only caused more problems. And with Pivetta finding success as a reliver, Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom told MassLive there’s no plan on turning Pivetta back into a starter.

The Red Sox have only four starters at the moment and could go with a bullpen game Wednesday against the Miami Marlins. It’s something they already did this past week when they started Justin Garza in a series finale loss to the Minnesota Twins.

With Boston’s starting pitching concerns and the MLB trade deadline just over a month away, it’s something Bloom might be forced to address.

“You have to constantly be on the lookout to add it and constantly pushing yourself to see if you can get more out of the guys that are in-house,” Bloom told MassLive’s Christopher Smith, “because if you can help somebody take that leap to where they really become a viable part of that mix, it just gives you that many more options moving forward.”

Bloom doesn’t have a plethora of in-house options to choose from, but has tried to make some moves if he wants to go that route. The Red Sox signed Kyle Barraclough to a minor league deal last week as the veteran right-handed pitcher, who has had big-league success as a reliver, transitions to a starter. Barraclough impressed in his first start with Triple-A Worcester, tossing six scoreless innings and allowing just one hit to earn the win.

But if Bloom looks to acquire more starting pitching, he knows it will be a difficult assignment given the high demand for it.

“One of the things I’ve learned in this new calendar with where the draft is now (at the All-Star Break instead of June), you see these discussions start to happen now in June and then for the most part they go on a little bit of a hiatus around the draft,” Bloom told Smith. “When the draft is over, now all of a sudden, it’s deadline season. But obviously again, it’s a need that 30 clubs have. So many clubs are in the hunt that it’s not something that is going to be easy to go out and get. There obviously will be guys available. But because it’s a need for everybody, they’re going to be hotly contested.”