Is Eduardo Rodriguez The Odd Man Out In The Red Sox Rotation?
If you were to ask me, the day that the Red Sox traded for Chris Sale, what Boston’s rotation would look like once the season started, I would’ve thrown out a guess of Chris Sale, Rick Porcello, David Price, Eduardo Rodriguez and Steven Wright.
Now, that rotation tells you a few things. One, Sale is the ace of this staff. I think that’s pretty clear, regardless of where he’s inserted in the rotation to start the year. Second, it was tough to not give the ball to Porcello on Opening Day. How do you tell the reigning Cy Young award winner that he can’t even be your Opening Day starter? I go back and forth on that a lot, but today’s a “Sale gets the ball on Opening Day” kinda day. Next, you have Price as your No. 3 starter. Now, before all the Price haters come out of the woodwork with their megaphones to gloat about Price being a $217 million number three starter, just shut up.
Price is a No. 1 starter on any other team in the American League, except for Cleveland (Corey Kluber), Detroit (Justin Verlander), and Seattle (King Felix). That’s just how stacked the Red Sox are, in addition to the righty/lefty dynamic playing a factor within their rotation. However, if Price does end up being Boston’s No. 3 starter to begin the season, I think that sends a clear message — the same message that they sent to Pablo Sandoval last year — that salary dictates nothing on this team, and that spots are earned. That being said, it doesn’t really matter what the order of the rotation is to start the year. The only time that the order matters is for the postseason. Regular season rotations gets jumbled up about two weeks into the season, anyway.
While the order of names is largely overblown, the names themselves are what’s worth discussing. In the rotation that I had foreseen after the Sale trade, the name that I had omitted was Drew Pomeranz. You might remember him as the guy that Dave Dombrowski traded the Red Sox’ top pitching prospect for, who then came to Boston and underperformed. Dombrowski had the chance to send Pomeranz back to San Diego after the Padres were caught being sketchy with their medical information, and the Red Sox declined, keeping Pomeranz in Boston and Anderson Espinoza in San Diego. So, technically, and embarrassingly, they traded for Pomeranz twice.
Over the weekend, Dombrowski was on Buster Olney’s podcast, and he more or less said that Rodriguez would be the odd man out in the Red Sox rotation.
“We have three guys basically battling for those spots, but if everybody is healthy come the start of the season it’s a great situation to be in because Steven Wright and Drew Pomeranz both made the All-Star team last year and they’re penciled in fourth and fifth, along with Eduardo Rodriguez, who we think is one of the best young pitchers in the game,” Dombrowski said.
He said “penciled in”, which is basically just saying that it’s subject to change, so I’m not going to get all worked up about this in January, but I’m not sure I understand the logic of having Rodriguez out of the rotation already. I get that he’s the least dependable starter of the six in terms of health, as he’s already battled several injuries over the past year, including one that he’s recovering from right now after hurting his knee in winter ball. But talent wise? Ability wise? Rodriguez’s ceiling is higher than Wright’s and Pomeranz’s. I almost wanted to say “combined” there, but I held back.
We may be dealing with Clay Buchholz 2.0 here. I realize that. We might have another young pitcher with all the talent and potential in the world, but it never comes together because he can’t stay healthy. I hope to GOD that’s not the case, because I’ve seen how good this kid can be. But there’s a reason why the Orioles gave up six years of control of Rodriguez for three months of Andrew Miller. And, keep in mind, that was really before he was ANDREW MILLER, Andrew Miller.
So yeah, I see the same downside to Rodriguez that everybody else sees, but if he’s healthy at the start of the year, he should be in the rotation over Pomeranz. I think the Red Sox have too much pride to admit their mistake (twice), and say that they traded their top pitching prospect for a lefty reliever, and that’s playing a factor here. Rodriguez isn’t a reliever. Pomeranz can be, and when he is, he’s a pretty good one — mostly because he hardly ever pitches past the fifth inning as a starter. But he was good out of the bullpen at the end of last year.
I’m willing to wait it out. I’m willing to see who’s healthy come spring. But please — spare me any argument in regards to who’s in and who’s out of the rotation that contains spring training statistics. They could not mean less. You know what Porcello’s ERA was last spring? 9.77. Cy Young, bitch. If Rodriguez is at full health by the end of spring training, he needs to be in the rotation, and Pomeranz needs to be in the bullpen. That’s what’s best for business.