The Red Sox have exercised their club option on righty Clay Buchholz, the club announced. He’ll cost the club $13MM next year and also comes with one more season of control via option (at $13.5MM).
Buchholz, 31, endured a rough 2014 campaign but bounced back nicely last season, posting a 3.26 ERA over 113 1/3 innings with 8.5 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9. That performance largely made the option decision an easy one, except that — as the innings tally would indicate — the righty again experienced injury issues.
It appears that Boston feels comfortable with the status of Buchholz’s right elbow. He dealt with a flexor strain late in the year, but the club did have a good chance to watch him work as he contemplated a return. Though Buchholz ultimately did not make it back to active duty, he obviously showed enough.
There’s at least some possibility that the Red Sox will entertain trade offers for Buchholz, as Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe discussed yesterday. Boston has a lot of rotation options, even as they consider adding a big arm at the top, and might consider swapping Buchholz or one of the club’s younger pitchers. Indeed, one GM says that he expects plenty of clubs would have keen interest in adding Buchholz at that price, even in spite of his injury issues.
Of course, the Red Sox can afford not only to keep Buchholz but also to take a chance on his health. That’s all the more true precisely because of the aforementioned depth. Adding an “ace,” then, wouldn’t necessarily mean that the club needs to deal away the veteran righty. But it’s certainly plausible to imagine him being shipped out as part of a broader restructuring of assets.
Sox loading up to make a deal. After they sign one of the big four starters, they’ll be overloaded with rotation depth, and they’ll go after either a closer or a corner OF.
Feels pricey for Clay, since he can never seem to stay on the mound and be consistent, but I’d rather this happen then have him go make 28 starts with a 2.40 ERA in Pittsburgh or something
As a pirate fan, I wouldn’t mind seeing that scenario :)
Bucholz is not worth that much.
Fangraphs says he was worth $57M the last 3 years. That’s $19M/season. So…. yeah… he is worth that much.
Totally agree, in today’s pitching market, he is completely worth that. The $57 million quoted over 3 years includes the 14 season in which he was awful. He was worth 25 mil last year alone in only 113 innings.
Not bad for one year deal, wouldn’t commit to multiple seasons at that price.
Buchholz in the fold behind Porcello, finally the rotation is coming together…
And you can certainly bet on a rebound from porcello. Add a bonafide number one and that could be a deep rotation.
It is a rotation with very good potential then. If they don’t bounce back, the rotation is still a bit iffy. Add two top of the rotation arms, and then they have a really deep rotation.
They actually have an over abundance of starting pitchers right now, but I wouldn’t confuse that with having a deep rotation.
I think Owens and Johnson will end up in AAA again next year unless they kill it during spring training. Then, that will change things.
Beyond that, they’ve got E.Rod, Buchholz, Miley, Kelly, and Porcello. Rich Hill is a free agent, and *could* get a small term contract if he impressed the right people last year during his short stint in Boston (I think he’s worth a gamble if the price is right). All of the guys listed are consistantly shaky. Kelly could be a star if he took a tick or two off his delivery and used that to add more control to his pitches. I don’t know what Buchholz problem is. He’s a god one day, and Justin Masterson the next. Porcello is a dud. I don’t care that he had a resurgence at the end of the season, the guy is a super over paid pitcher that wont do crap in Boston. Mark my words. Miley….he’s a slightly lesser Buchholz. When he’s good he’s good, but when he’s bad, he’s really bad. E. Rod is too new to make a proper assessment, but I think he’ll be a solid #2 or 3 starter for Boston.
They need an ace. I really don’t want them going after Cueto, because the last thing they need is another high priced shaky pitcher. I’d prefer them to go after David Price, but I don’t think they’ll get him. Greinke will likely resign with L.A. which means they’re left with the other high profile guys who didn’t exactly have stellar years. They’ve got enough depth to put together a solid trade offer to get someone really good though. Best case would be if they got Price AND worked out a proper trade deal to get someone on the level of Sonny Gray or Noah Syndergard. Problem is, I don’t see either team moving off those guys. Gonna be an interesting offseason.
I would have to disagree with Owens and Johnson having a chance to make the Opening Day roster as starters. They will open the season in AAA unless there is an injury during Spring Training to one of the projected 5 starters. There is no way that Dombrowski heads into Spring Training without already having the 5 starters set in stone. There will not be a competition for starting positions unless someone is on the DL.