Yankees right-hander Andrew Bailey’s road to recovery has again been slowed by a setback, reports Chad Jennings of the Journal News. GM Brian Cashman tells Jennings that Bailey underwent an MRI that has revealed a shoulder strain, and the former A’s closer will be shut down for the time being with no clear timetable for a return. Bailey tossed just 44 innings over the 2012-13 seasons with the Red Sox after being acquired in a trade that sent Josh Reddick to Oakland, and he’s signed Minor League deals with the Yankees in each of the past two offseasons.
Here’s more from the AL East…
- The Red Sox have struggled tremendously in terms of starting pitching, but those hoping for a quick fix might instead need to be more patient, because the Sox themselves are typically patient with this type of problem, writes the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier. Speier looks at recent slow starts and poor stretches for a number of Sox hurlers in the Ben Cherington era, noting that more often than not, starters are given the opportunity to work out of slumps rather than replaced after limited struggles. Examples listed by Speier include Clay Buchholz in early 2012, Daniel Bard in 2012 and Felix Doubront in early 2013. Speier also notes that even amidst rotation in 2013, Allen Wesbter, arguably the team’s most MLB-ready prospect, made 10 starts at Triple-A while the big league group tried to sort things out.
- Fangraphs’ Craig Edwards also tackles the Red Sox rotation, noting that the starting mix is filled with pitchers whose FIP is significantly better than their actual ERAs. Edwards looks at teams whose rotations have endured similar struggles stranding runners in the month of April over the past five seasons, noting that each has demonstrated marked improvement moving forward.
- Ricky Romero was surprised to be released by the Blue Jays after a positive meeting with manager John Gibbons and pitching coach Pete Walker late in Spring Training, writes David Singh of Sportsnet. “(They) let me know they were still thinking of me and still believe in me,” said Romero. “They told me ‘Make sure you take your time’ and we think it’s going to be a great story the day you come back up and help us.” Romero said that while he was uplifted by that conversation, he understands that it’s a business decision for Toronto. GM Alex Anthopoulos recently explained that Romero was cut loose after the team realized that he wouldn’t be recovered from a pair of knee surgeries by the end of the season.
The Red Sox rotation is the reason why they shouldn’t trade for an ace. As of right now, any ace, no matter how good, is just going to be an ace with 4 inconsistent pitchers behind him. The Sox don’t need an ace, they need 5 consistent starting pitchers. Until the 2015 Red Sox team can prove they deserve an ace, I don’t think they should make any trades. This Red Sox team is not “one ace away from contention.”
i understand where you are coming from but given the state of the AL East this year that one stud SP might really be all that is needed. At least to win the division and make the playoffs.
Well, I think that ace at the top of that rotation would do two important things for Boston, in that it would take a lot of pressure off of the rest of the rotation, and it would represent stability every 5 days that they don’t currently have. Maybe an ace won’t fix the rest of the rotation, but it certainly couldn’t hurt.
So what are you suggesting? Do nothing?
I know FIP is lower than ERA for their pitchers, but sometimes that trend continues throughout the entire season for pitchers. I’m guessing 2-3 pitchers will “normalize” in the coming starts, and some will remain sub-par, which will bring the entire team down as a whole.
Doing nothing is a huge risk. The failure here is on Cherington in constructing the rotation with a bunch of 3s and 4s. But the failure will only compound if they do nothing about it, especially now that they see this isn’t working out as they had hoped.
The FIP argument is pretty solid re: Sox rotation. I think the 12-10 April is pretty promising given how bad the team’s “luck” numbers have been
Let’s be honest; the number of earned runs the Sox scored in April leads one to believe the team was fortunate to be 12-10.
The Sox high ERA 5.5 + tells me they are very fortunate to be 12-10.
HanRam’s 10 dingers and 23 RBI was very impressive considering Nap, Ortiz and Sandoval didn’t do much.
The Sox have an early season opportunity to take 1 st place in the East from the Yankees. Both groups of high priced superstars can show what they’ve got.
I doubt there will be much response if ARod overtakes Willie in the series.
On the other side of that coin, the 4.11 FIP suggests that the pitching should improve somewhat, and the .272 BABIP is kind of low for the offense too, especially for
Shane Victorino (.179)
Daniel Nava (.194)
Mike Napoli (.196)
Hanley Ramirez (.233)
David Ortiz (.245)
Mookie Betts (.261)
Brock Holt and (to a lesser degree) Pablo Sandoval are the only ones with abnormally high numbers.
So while surface numbers suggest we’re lucky to be at 12-10, underlying numbers suggest that the team could improve on both sides of the ball.
The three pitchers cited as examples of slow starters for the Sox are three guys that have ultimately proven to be busts for the team…even if they did have moments of success…
I’ll give the starters one more month. Bucholtz and Porcello are locks. Kelly has looked very good at times. So i think the M&M brothers, Miley and Masterson, should be given one more month in the rotation before being sent to the bullpen or DFAd (which would just apply to Masterson because he is only on a one year deal where miley has multi Years left). If you were to remove one of them from the rotation, Johnson and Rodriguez would be given a shot
Wouldn’t mind seeing Romero rehab those knees in the Royals organization.
So is Romero technically still rehabbing with the Jays but not part of the team anymore or has he been set free? Kinda odd that a player can just be sent packing while recovering from injury.
He was just set free. He is gonna be out the whole season I believe, so it made no sense for the Blue Jays to keep him when he is set to become a free agent after this year.