SATURDAY: The Red Sox have placed Buchholz on the 15-day DL, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com tweets. He does not have any ligament damage, however, which looks like good news for the Red Sox. It appears the newly promoted Brian Johnson will start in his absence, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald implies (Twittter links), although he’ll be in the bullpen today. The official diagnosis on Buchholz’s injury is a right flexor strain.
FRIDAY: Red Sox righty Clay Buchholz has left tonight’s start against the Yankees in the fourth inning. The Sox have since announced that he is dealing with right elbow tightness.
Trade rumors earlier this summer had connected teams like the the Astros and Pirates, to Buchholz. The Red Sox have won nine of their last 12 games and aren’t entirely out of the playoff race, however, and they hold options on Buchholz for 2016 and 2017 at reasonable prices, so it’s not surprising that rumors about Buchholz haven’t been particularly active lately. In fact, WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford reported in late June that the Red Sox had no interest in dealing Buchholz. As the Providence Journal’s Brian MacPherson tweets, though, the threat of injury was one key reason a trade might have made sense.
The Red Sox’ recent surge has them only five games back of the second Wild Card spot in the American League, although they remain in last place in the AL East and are just two games up on the Athletics, who have the AL’s worst record. Buchholz’ excellent season (he has a 3.26 ERA, 8.5 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 in 113 1/2 innings thus far) is one of the key reasons the Sox remain on the fringes of contention, and losing him for any significant period of time would be a serious blow to the Sox’ pitching staff and to their season as a whole.
Why.
If Buchholz needs tommy john surgery, I think it would be close to calling the Red Sox a definite seller 🙁
Agreed , I said the same thing. It looked like he was turning things around in june, and now he get’s hurt, But if it’s tommy john they mise well start trading pieces.
Joe Kelly recalled?
I hope not. I doubt they recall anybody so close to the All Star Break. They will probably just wait and see, unless it is pretty certain he will need to have tommy john after exams are done. Henry Owens right now matches up with Buchholz in the rotation, so they could call on him after. I will be pretty upset it Masterson or Kelly goes back in the rotation, but I’m not sure if they will want to rely on E-Rod, Owens, and Johnson all at once (though they should IMO if Buch’s injury is serious). Also, I just remembered that Kelly was struck by a ball in the arm the other day, so he could be injured right now too.
1st will be Brian Johnson, who is mlb ready now at Pawtucket it seems.
Cue the Cole Hamels rumors.
One Boston station was discussing the possibility of trading Buchholz, with the jocks stating that the Sox shouldn’t—as he was having a good run lately. We all know his history or good, then bad, then hurt. Well, looks like the Sox may have waited too long to trade him. I would have traded him long ago.
If they had traded him, then they would’ve basically been calling this season over which would’ve been premature (as we see right now). The issue then for the Red Sox would’ve been needing to get two pitchers to anchor the top of the rotation next year. That cost a lot of money, and Boston doesn’t like to spend a lot of money on aging pitchers. Add in the fact that teams aren’t gonna pay a ton for Buchholz because of his inconsistancies and there really isn’t a huge incentive for them to trade him.
They weren’t going to trade him, just look at his numbers since getting hit hard by NY in his 2nd start of the season and will see he’s been one of the most solid starters in the league. Guy has gone (or had until tonight) 7 innings or more 8 times and 6 innings or more in 14 of 17.
That’s the point his value was finally back up, and he’s been pretty awful over his career. Could’ve sold him in the rare time he was healthy and productive. Though i don’t imagine they’d get much back anyway.
Any type of season ending injury, to me anyways, has to be a sign that thinking about next year may not be such a bad plan. Some may see this as a spark to talk about acquiring an ace asap, but I don’t follow that logic with the state of the team as is, even considering the recent hot streak.
With their roster an ace pitcher might be all they need to get to the world series this year.. I don’t see a team in the American League that is a clear cut favorite.. If they lose Buchholz though (which I doubt because I was watching the game and it seemed pulling him was more precautionary than anything) then their season might be done for.. Picking up an ace will pretty much just replace the production from Buchholz.. They will still need another solid pitcher.. I don’t know though.. I think we are going to see Porcello turn it around in the second half.. If he does, while Buchholz continues to pitch like an ace and they get someone like Price at the deadline, the Sox are going to be scary in the second half.. I really hope the Sox only get a rental ace for next season and stay away from Hamels.. He is going to take too much to get him and I am not sold on how he will preform in the AL East.. But if they pick up a rental for this year and Toronto doesn’t get one themselves then I am going to stick with the Red Sox winning the East. Cashman has never traded for a superstar at the deadline and that will be the Yankees downfall this year.. Unless, he calls up Severino and he performs well.. Sooner or later Tanaka or Pineda will hit the DL again and they will start to slide..
It’s going to take more than an ace for them to stay in this thing with their roster as is, even if the AL doesn’t have a stand out team. There have been plenty of teams to show the ability to win for stretches, and play well enough to sit in that conversation, and Boston really hasn’t been one of those teams.They’ve had issues that were both seemingly obvious, and complete shocks, running through all facets of the team. That isn’t to say there haven’t been bright spots, or that it’s entirely impossible they turn things around, but they’d need a heck of a lot to start going right internally, on top of being witty on the market to help themselves without hurting themselves down the road. Without Buchholz, you have to wonder if it’s even worthy to go get that ace, because beyond that, you have E-Rod, whose sample size in the MLB is small, and an under-whelming/under performing supporting cast. Also, assuming specific injuries is such a terrible way to base predictions on in this sport because they can happen to anyone, not just the people typically included in the narrative or that suit your bias.
They would need .626 win percentage to get to 88 wins. Their season was already done.
Played .650 their last 20 games.
I am sure he will be fine.. It was the Sox catcher (Leon?) that came to the mound and then called Farrell and the trainer to the mound.. When Buchholz was walking to the dugout he seemed pretty upset at being taken out of the game.. He was pitching a good game but had gotten into a bit of trouble in the 4th..
I do agree that the Sox should not trade him.. He does seem to be one of those pitchers that has an outstanding season, then a poor one, followed by another outstanding season, but when he is in the midst of one of his great seasons he pitches like a #1.. The main reason I hope Sox keep him is that they have so many young pitchers getting ready to break through to the majors they will need a mentor like Buchholz who came up through their farm and was on the roster for a championship year.. That alone is worth keeping him.. If they trade him who do they have that can fill that void? If the Sox don’t continue with their current play and go on a losing streak I hope they only trade off Napoli.. I am sure they will pick up a solid pitcher in the off season and can use Kelly as trade bait to National League teams for a prospect. He hasn’t performed well in the American League but that can be said about several players and Kelly still has a very live arm.. Look at the Yankees with Eovaldi.. He gave up more hits than anyone else in the National League last year and the Yankees still traded Prado to get him.. Next year’s rotation imo should look like this:
#1 Hired gun (or traded for) Ace
#2 Porcello (should settle down and get more comfortable)
#3 Buchholz
#4 E-Rod
#5 Johnson/Owens (Johnson is ready but Owens has a higher ceiling)
I would like to see them get a pitcher in their walk year like Strasburg who can be the ace for a year while one of their other guys develop in the majors.. Porcello, Rodriguez, and Owens can all refine their games and become a Lester type #1..
Sorry about the long drawn out post.. Sometimes I get a little carried away..
Porcello has never had #1 upside. If he can be a solid #3 with glimpses of #2, that’d be more than they should reasonably have hoped for. His numbers don’t even support those lofty goals.
Can you Spell Cole Hamels !
He gone!
Like clockwork, he goes from ace-level buchholz to injured (shades of 2013)
Perfect timing. Now no chance to trade him. Red Sox are cursed. The Curse of the Panda.
Are you saying with the curse… they only win a championship every other year?
More like curse of spending too highly on players in FA and via an extension, then realizing one is a headcase and sucks at defense and Panda is aging horribly, but yeah. You can call it a curse of the rich.
Clay will probably continue his streak of never having started 30 games and never having pitched 200 innings. An injury of some sort was inevitable.
Boston , 5 Games out, Still winable with Cole Hamels, One really good Prospect and Two Good Prospects and one Fair Prospect. According to Industry Standard not Bostons
I gotta feeling it is gonna cost more than that, otherwise it would’ve already happened by now….
Pretty much all industry standards agree on which Red Sox prospects are good. No one knows what was offered for Hamels if any offers were even given, but given the lack of Philly trades and tons of sources within baseball, its the Phillies who have a high asking price, not the Red Sox low balling. Its not a good time for the Red Sox to pull off a blockbuster unless they play well the next games against the yanks,Angels, Astros before the break. Out of the current top five Red Sox prospects (Not counting those that have or are about to break rookie mins) Three are probably tradeable. Those are Margot, Owens, Johnson. They are all top 100 prospects easy. Devers could also be moved but no chance in a Hamels trade. He just doesnt have that much added value due to age and contract.
As a Phillies fan, I do not see Hamels going to Boston. I just don’t see the Sox budging on what the Phillies want or the Phils lowering their asking price. However, I do think that the Sox should be aggressive in improving their team, specifically pitching. First, I don’t think they need to categorize their approach in traditional terms. I don’t think they have to declare themselves buyer or sellers at the deadline. They can make moves that can improve themselves now without sacrificing the future. They also don’t have to choose between making moves at the deadline or the off season. They can do both. They should focus on how to convert their surplus of young, inexpensive talent/prospects into a few young but better talent that is also inexpensive. By changing their thinking, they don’t have to waste time deciding if they should throw in the towel for 2015 or not. They don’t have to pigeon-hole themselves into the mindset of whether they would trade cheap, unproven young players for old, established and expensive players.
Yay, no ligament damage! 🙂
LOL @ Boston. Keep going out and signing those big name FA boys, and have them keep faltering. The guy in Chicago wasn’t all that bad at assembling a team was he.
You mean the guy who signed Lester, Crawford, Lackey and others…… doesn’t sign big name free agents?
First off that is clearly not true. Second, why is this on a bucholz article? He is the third longest tenured player on the Red Sox.