Starter-turned-possible closer Nathan Eovaldi will join the Red Sox for their upcoming series in Baltimore beginning on Friday, as per multiple reporters (including MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo). Eovaldi may not necessarily be activated from the 60-day injured list on Friday, since his final minor league rehab outing came today and the Sox could be hesitant about having Eovaldi pitch on consecutive days in the wake of elbow surgery in April.
Eovaldi tossed just 21 innings (of 6.00 ERA ball) before going under the knife this season, and rather than extend his rehab process by stretching him out in preparation to start, Boston will instead try to solve its season-long issues at the back of the bullpen by deploying Eovaldi as a closer. It’s a creative solution that has some real upside, though using Eovaldi as a reliever surely wasn’t on Boston’s mind when the club re-signed Eovaldi to a four-year/$68MM deal last winter.
How Eovaldi performs even in the short term will be of significant consequence to the Red Sox as they approach the trade deadline. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski suggested that the team’s recent acquisition of Andrew Cashner to address the back of the rotation (more or less filling the hole left by Eovaldi) could potentially be the sum total of Boston’s pre-deadline moves. It’s possible Dombrowski’s stance could change should Eovaldi get off to a rough beginning out of the bullpen, even if it’s adding one more lower-tier arm to further bolster the pen.
Maybe the plan is to get Houck ready fast also and push back his starter development half a season. Not mentioned in the article is he also threw 2 nice innings in relief at Pawtucket today.
Hernandez was already called up, Eovaldi this weekend, give Houck another 3-4 relief appearances and then call him up for the rest of the year as a power, side arming righty out of the pen and next season go back to starting.
Not ideal, but better than over paying for mediocre relievers available via trade.
I’m just happy Nate is healthy n I hope it continues. They can’t beat the Evil Empire, but the wild card race can be fun.
Don’t say it. Regardless of the facts. Just don’t.
Workman should be the closer
He was a beast as a reliever in the world series last year.
Workman is great for 8th.
Really ?
Yes. Really. He has the mindset for it.
Yes…really