Massarotti: Red Sox Need To Build Better, Deeper Bullpen For 2017
BOSTON (CBS) - The playoffs are gone. The offseason begins. And the reality is that the 2017 baseball season already has begun.
So welcome to Opening Day.
Here's something you already know: the Red Sox aren't quite good enough. They're pretty close, but they need help. Shortly after the Chicago Cubs won the World Series on Wednesday night, Las Vegas oddsmakers pegged the Cubs as favorites to repeat in 2017. The team with the next-best odds was the Red Sox, even if the gap between Boston and Chicago is somewhere around 1,000 miles.
So how do the Red Sox improve this team? The options seem limited, especially given the seeming dearth of quality starting pitchers available. Take a look at this story this morning, even if it confirms something you already know: relievers are becoming more and more important, especially in the big games. FOX analyst John Smoltz pointed out during Game 7 that this was the first World Series in which a single starting pitcher did not last more six innings.
For Dave Dombrowski, this seems to make the primary challenge quite simple, even if does not necessarily play to his strength. The Red Sox need a better, deeper bullpen. (Dombrowski has a spotty history, at best, when it comes to building bullpens.) Yes, Boston must replace David Ortiz as best it can, but the lineup is generally good and the rotation is largely set. The bullpen is where Dombrowski can have the most profound impact on this team, with or without the return of right-hander Carson Smith (elbow surgery last spring).
Of course, more innings for relievers means more pitching changes, which means a greater emphasis on the manager. Curiously, Dombrowski said after the season that game management is not as important as some other things when it comes to assessing a manager's value, an argument that conveniently plays to John Farrell's strength. But if this postseason told us anything, it's that managers can have a profound impact on the outcome of games – positively and negatively – and that managing in the postseason versus the regular season is a very different thing.
In the end, here we are, back at Square One. Farrell will be back in 2017, though it will be interesting to see whether the Red Sox pick up his option for the 2018 season. (If they do not, that would be quite a tell, wouldn't it?) Meanwhile, the 2016 playoffs continued an indisputable trend in which managers relief pitchers and managers became a more integral part of deciding the most important games, and the 2017 Red Sox do not appear strong enough in either department.
Farrell, again, is staying.
So get to work on that bullpen, Mr. Dombrowski.
And if and when you build it, let's hope that your manager knows how to use it when it matters most.