How Red Sox Plan To Adjust To Short-Term Rotation Shuffle

BOSTON — Just 11 games into the season following Tuesday’s home opener, the Boston Red Sox have work to do in shuffling their rotation after placing Nick Pivetta on the 15-day injured list.

Boston will have to readjust without one of the main innings-eaters of the staff. Luckily for the Red Sox, the team had an off-day Monday. As a result, Boston will simply skip Pivetta’s spot this trip through the rotation.

“In the short term, we can take advantage of the off-day and guys can pitch on regular rest,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told reporters at Fenway Park. “We’ll have a decision to make in a few days.”

That puts Kutter Crawford in line to start Wednesday, followed by Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck. Saturday will be the first day that the team will need to address Pivetta’s spot and could turn to internal depth.

“There are a number of paths that we could take there,” Breslow explained.
“Whether that’s giving someone like Chase (Anderson) the chance to make a few starts. We saw what Cooper (Criswell) was capable of doing this spring. He’s gotten off to a good start in Worcester. We brought in (Naoyuki) Uwasawa for starting pitching depth. I think we’re going to need to read and react the next couple of days. Thankfully, we’ve got a little bit of depth built up.”

Without Pivetta, the Red Sox rotation, which has held up in production to start the year, must match the league-leading production it featured on the West Coast.