Tthe Red Sox are amidst a stretch of ten games in nine days, thanks to a doubleheader against the Orioles on Saturday. That could necessitate the club using a spot starter, with manager Alex Cora suggesting Josh Winckowski as a possible candidate, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.
The right-hander was a 15th round selection of the Blue Jays in 2016, but went to the Mets as part of the Steven Matz trade, about two weeks before the Mets sent him to Boston in the three-team Andrew Benintendi deal. Last year, his first in the Red Sox organization, he split his time between Double-A and Triple-A, throwing 112 total innings with a 3.94 ERA, 21.3% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate, earning himself a spot on the 40-man roster.
This year, the 23-year-old seems to have taken things forward a notch over his first seven starts and 31 2/3 innings for Triple-A Worcester. His ERA is at 3.13 with a 27.9% strikeout rate, 4.9% walk rate and 57% grounder rate. He last started for the WooSox Sunday, which would line up as the team’s 27th man for Saturday’s doubleheader on five days’ rest.
Further down the road, the rotation should get a boost from the return of Chris Sale, who threw a 15-pitch bullpen session today. Alex Speier of the Boston Globe writes that Sale is scheduled for another bullpen on Friday and is likely to throw another next week. Cora suggested that Sale could be in line to throw live batting practice following next week’s session if all goes well. That’d mark his first time throwing to hitters since he was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his rib cage in March.
There’s still a long road ahead before Sale can contribute to the big league team, though it’s encouraging that he’s at least making progress. The lefty threw 42 2/3 innings last year in his return from Tommy John surgery and was effective, though not quite at the ace level of previous years. His 3.16 ERA was over a run higher than his 2018 mark, with his 28.4% strikeout rate coming in about 10 points below the same number from three years earlier.
Boston is also awaiting the season debut of James Paxton, who is rehabbing from last April’s Tommy John surgery. The southpaw is a bit behind Sale in his recovery after being sidelined by continued elbow soreness this month, but he tells Rob Bradford of WEEI (audio link) he’s feeling better and has again started throwing. Paxton suggested he’s looking to gradually progress from 60 to 120 feet during his work from flat ground before he could begin throwing bullpen sessions of his own.
The 33-year-old Paxton signed a convoluted free agent deal over the offseason. He’s making $6MM this year, and the Sox will have to decide whether to trigger matching $13MM options for 2023-24 at the end of the season. If the team declines their end, Paxton can exercise a $4MM player option for 2023 only or test free agency. How long Paxton’s stay in Boston lasts will certainly be determined by his progress in his ongoing recovery and his form whenever he makes his return.
Really hope Paxton can get fully healthy — he’s an animal.
We are all animals, but only some of us can use tools.
Lloyd – correction…..Yankee fans are single cell organisms
Yeah, I agree. Most likely hound dog, or bulldog family, judging by the jowls.
The weakest in the animal world is the jellyfish, which can’t even support it’s own body weight.
Just sayin’ ….
The jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula is biologically immortal and could, under ideal conditions, live for 1000s of years.
That’s assuming the Turritopsis Nutricula doesn’t watch the Red Sox bullpen try to protect slim leads.
*mic drop*
I should be the GM of the Red Sox
Paxton seems always hurt. The Sox gambled he’ll be available down the stretch.
Maybe Josh Winckowski can join Houck and Whitlock in the rotation / bullpen role. If he’s on their level, that would be quite an addition.
I was thinking the same thing. I’m not high on Wink or Seabold, but both are pitching well right now (IIRC Seabold is IL’d). So while I don’t expect either to be successful SPs, Bloom might be developing the next generation of 2-3 inning pitchers. There is a lot of value in that, imvho.
hayzee – That would be great, but I’m thinking the plan is to immediately send him back down no matter how well he pitches.
If anybody gets called up for a long stay, it would probably be Seabold who has been pitching great in AAA.
I am curious about Seabold. It took the Sox awhile to straighten out Pivetta at the major league level. Hopefully, they have done the same with Seabold. I believe they are getting better at developing pitchers.
I’ve complained about this forever. I loved Theo, but it felt like our pitching prospects never developed the way they should, at least relative to their draft position. 1st round picks, including supplementals, since 2007-2017:
Hagadone
Kelly
Price
Ranaudo
Barnes
Owen
Johnson
Light
Ball
Kopech
Groome
Houck
That’s a lot of draft capital to spend with very little return. I can’t believe that they were all bad picks. I think it was a developmental issue. They kept Houck down a long time, until he was ready. Whitlock blossomed once he got here. We actually have quite a few that have pitched above their career norms, albeit smaller sample sizes.
Joe – You didn’t do your homework.
Kopech, Groome, Beeks, Espinoza (not drafted) to name a few all had TJS once or twice.
You didn’t even bother to mention Beeks, have you seen what he’s been doing with Tampa this year now that he’s finally healthy?
I was only referencing recent RS 1st round picks. For years, people have complained about how we never draft pitching. We draft plenty of pitching, but for whatever reason, they don’t develop with us.
Beeks was drafted in the 12th round of the 2014 MLB draft. He was traded for Eovaldi in 2018.
While I hated to see Beeks go, that was a good trade that directly led to a World Championship.
Joe, the good times were in the early to mid 80s. Clemens and the lefty trio of Tudor, Hurst and Bobby O basically came up together.
For those of us that understand positional players better than they understand pitchers (who are all too crazy to predict), I ;loved the early-60s thru mid-70s, when we developed Yaz, Reggie Smith, Dewey, Lynn, and Rice. Two HOF outfielders, one outfielder that could make the HOF in the next vet vote, and one OF that was an AS 9 straight seasons.
And Smith, along with Grich, remains one of the most underrated players ever. had e not had the misfortune to play in the Blair era, where Blair collected GGs like they were a BB card collection, Reggie would had 5 GGs and already been in the HOF.
Smith is also on my list of deserving HOFers. He and Dewey would both be in in my view if it weren’t for the peds.
While I am certainly rooting for Dewey to get in, I would argue that Smith might be the better player. Evans has a better career bWAR (67.1v 64.6), and smith has a slightly better fWAR (64.6v 64.1). But Smith accomplished this in a lot fewer PAs. Smith’s WAR/650 PA is 5.3 while Evans is only 4.2.
The 5.3 by Smith is very high relative to recent HOF OFs.
Vlad 4.3
Puckett 4.3
Dawson 4.0
Gwynn 4.4
A. Jones (ststill voting) 4.7
Raines 4.4
Unfortunately, many writers (especially back then) have trouble assessing players that were very good offensive players and very good defensive players, but not a superstar in either category.
I ignore saberstats as to me my eyes are the best judge and both belong. Smith though came up a CFer with an arm to match Dewey. He also was a switch hitter. Both played the game right.
Josh Wincowski is probably next up at this point his peripherals have been a little better then Seabolds but they are pretty close.
It’s been quite some time that I have been as exited about pitching in the Red Sox organization. Bello has looked very good over his first two starts after his promotion to AAA. It’s possible we can see him see late in the season possibly as a bullpen option where his 97 mph fastball will probably play up. Seabold has been very good and quietly Wincowski has been excellent.
The Red Sox also have three pitchers in Portland that have been excellent. Murphy, Walter and Groome. Groome has been excellent his last few outings with the last outing in Portland being his best. All three of those guys appear ready to be called up to AAA. I think all 5 of those guys can be big league pitchers with varying degrees of success from bullpen arms to starters. The guy I am most excited about is Brayan Bello. If you get a chance watch him pitch it’s also refreshing to watch a guy that gets the ball and throws a pitch clock isn’t going to bother this guy very refreshing to see.
Bruin – I agree, lots of legit pitching talent in the minors. I’m especially interested in seeing what Groome has, we’ve been watching and waiting on him for quite some time. And yes Bello has been very impressive.
Fever I think the thing to watch with Groome is that hammer curve. He had the best curve in the draft when he was drafted and that hasn’t returned fully yet if he can get that true plus plus curve back then he can be a TOR starter without he will probably be a back end starter/bullpen guy. I haven’t watched his last outing yet to see how the curve looked but if that comes back look out.
Bruin – Great point.
Personally fever I would bring Seabold and Winckowski up and give them a shot in the bullpen. I think they can both help and both are strike throwers.
I think midseason management will have seen enough to assess which relievers should be sent packing, and then those two guys will get their chance. I don’t see any BP shakeup happening until early July.
That could be the case unless there are any injuries at least I feel confident in the depth in pitching and we dont have to rely on castoffs if an injury occurs.
Groome reminds me of Lars Anderson…it just never happened. Hope I’m wrong.
C’mon, he’s only been with us 10-20 years, or so it seems. The important thing is to remember that he is only 23.277 years old. I’m not sure his stuff will ever recover completely, but he is pitching pretty well. I’d like to believe a promotion to AAA is on the horizon.
He’s the kind of guy who has had to reinvent himself due to injuries. Could even be a valuable big club addition in August. Who knows?
FPG let’s also not forget Mata. He is in xst in Florida and apparently his fastball hit 100 five days ago when struck out 5 in two innings. I think this is very exciting news.
Bruin – Sure is! Will be interesting to see who gets sent down or released.
Me too, Bello looks like his stuff will play in the bugs
*bigs
Bello had 10 strikeouts in both of his AAA starts since being called up.
Yup I watched both games he looked great I especially like the fact the pitch clock only gets down to 12-14 before he pitched he’s a pleasure to watch pitch.
The Sox should shift to using an opener with Whitlock. He is more at ease coming out of the pen.
OFF topic: Did anyone think it weird that the ump let the SEA C stick his bare hand in before showing he maintained control on Sun. I was always told that on a tag play at any base the fielder must demonstrate control of the ball first to record an out.
Yes. Vasquez should have been called safe as soon as the ump saw the catcher digging for the ball with his non-glove hand in my opinion.
Unfortunately the angles didn’t show what he was grabbing. Hoping at least Vasquez enjoyed it. Seriously, on replay I thought he even got his opposite foot/leg across the plate before the tag was actually applied.
My point was the very act of digging in with the bare hand before showing control of the ball post tag should make the run count because it is the fielder’s obligation to show control to record an out.
The only reason no one is talking about it is that the Sox won the game.
Unfortunately, the call on the field was out and the replay ump in NY could not assume he didn’t have the ball. We all know that was the case but there was no visible proof on the screen. They could have though ignored that issue and have ruled he was safe by crossing the plate first. They apparently though didn’t see what I thought I saw.
Good win last night. Not just on the score, but taking 2-3 at Chicago is a good thing. Wacha got hit up a little, but not everyone pitches well with a big lead. Barnes was really bad, but i am not counting on him for anything at this point.