The Boston Red Sox have had an interesting offseason by any metric. They said goodbye to homegrown icon Xander Bogaerts who signed with the Padres, but managed to overhaul their much maligned bullpen in the process.
JD Martinez and Justin Turner were essentially swapped out between the Sox and Dodgers, and the front office also brought in highly touted Japanese outfielder Masataka Yoshida on a 5 year deal.
However the Red Sox lineup still has multiple holes in it, most notably at 2nd base, and their rotation leaves much to be desired.
Which is why many found it bizarre, if not flat out shocking, when rumours began circulating that the club was considering moving LHP Chris Sale in a deal prior to spring training.
The fact that Boston could be shopping the 7x All-Star wasn’t the surprising bit. Afterall, Sale has only managed to suit up for 11 contests since 2019 due to a variety of injuries. It was the club’s justification for why they were considering the move in the first place.
The notion that their rotation was “an area of depth” left many fans bewildered given the fact that the club had the 6th worst ERA in all of baseball in 2022. Not only that, but that same “area of depth” gave up the 8th most HRs in the league, 10th most walks, had the 12th fewest strikeouts, and allowed opposing batters to hit .256 off of them last year.
If the season were to start today, the Red Sox starting rotation would consist of Sale, Nick Pivetta, Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck, and Brayan Bello. Not exactly a murderer’s row of arms to say the least.
And it’s not as though Boston has a plethora of pitching talent ready to make the jump to the Major League level in 2023 either. Of their top 10 prospects, only 2 are pitchers. RHP Bryan Mata rose through the ranks making 18 starts across 4 levels, pitching 83 innings and recording a 2.49 ERA and 105Ks.
Meanwhile, lefty Brandon Walter spent most of the year in AA Portland, but got a taste of AAA ball for all of 7.2IP. Could one or both be ready for MLB action in 2023? Possibly. But to expect them to become front of the rotation contributors immediately seems like a large ask.
There are still a few names left on the free agent market including Nathan Eovaldi, Corey Kluber, Wade Miley, Rich hill, Zack Greinke, and Michael Wacha. But unless Chaim Bloom plans on dipping into the UFA market to fill his rotation, then the claim that the Sox have a surplus of pitching talent remains a curious one at best.
While several teams are reported to have checked in on Sale’s availability, the White Sox, Cardinals, and Padres are rumoured to have at least kicked the tires on the lefty at this point.
Should Boston elect to move on from the World Series winner, then one would have to assume they’d be looking to acquire younger, cheaper talent given the front office’s penchant for remaining cost conscious in recent years.
But one thing is certain. If Boston winds up trading Sale for cents on the dollar, you can all but expect the Fenway faithful to let the club know about their displeasure following yet another rough offseason for the club.
With average attendance down roughly 4k per game in 2022 from its pre-pandemic figures, and arguably a worse product on the field in 2023, fans may begin looking for alternatives to home games for the upcoming season unless they see some positive change on the horizon.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Keith Allison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.