Plenty Of Question Marks Surrounding Red Sox Rotation Heading Into 2022 Season
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Red Sox should have a pretty potent offense this season, but there are some big question marks surrounding the team's starting rotation and pitching staff. And no, this is not a repost from 2021.
We'll start with the starters, since that it what a team's success usually hinges on. The bad news is that Eduardo Rodriguez is now in Detroit and no longer at the front end of the Boston rotation, and Chris Sale won't be back anytime soon. And there is no guarantee Sale will be all that good when (if?) he does return.
So here is a look at the rotation the Red Sox will trot out to start the 2022 season:
Nathan Eovaldi
Nick Pivetta
Tanner Houck
Michael Wacha
Rich Hill
The good news is there's reason to be optimistic that Eovaldi and Pivetta can lead the way in the rotation, and that Houck will continue to build off the promise he showed in 2021.
Eovaldi showed that he could be an ace last season, handling the workload and putting together a consistent campaign that earned him his first All-Star nod. He was just 11-9 on the year, but had a 3.75 ERA and struck out a career-high 195 batters in 2021. Boston is going to need more of that -- and then some -- in 2022. He is just about the only sure thing in the Boston rotation heading into the new season.
Pivetta, 29, is looking to build off a decent first season in the Boston rotation last year. His 4.53 ERA over 30 starts leaves a lot of room for improvement, but such is life when one comes to the AL East from the National League. He fanned 175 batters over his 155 innings, and held opposing hitters to a .234 average -- the lowest of his career. And Pivetta was pretty solid when the postseason rolled around, shaking off a rough first start (three earned over 4.2 innings against the Rays in the ALDS) to toss nine innings of one-run ball in his other two October starts.
Where he needs to improve now is how long he goes every time he takes the bump. Pivetta lasted five or fewer innings in 17 of his starts, which simply isn't good enough for a guy in the No. 2 spot in the rotation. Whether he can give Boston more quality innings in 2022 is one of the biggest question marks with the staff.
Houck was just 1-5 over his 18 games (13 starts) in 2021, but going into the season with a defined role should help the 25-year-old. He can throw some serious gas and struck out 87 batters over his 69 innings, and then fanned 10 more over 10.1 postseason innings out of the bullpen. Now we'll see if he can handle the rigors of a full season in the rotation, though he could end up back in the pen when reinforcements arrive in June.
Wacha (3-5, 5.05 ERA over 30 games with the Rays last season) and the 42-year-old Hill (7-8, 3.86 over 31 games between the Mets and the Rays) will round out the five-man rotation to start the season. Wacha was a mixed bag for the Rays last season and allowed a ton of runners to reach, giving up 132 hits and issuing 31 walks (plus four more batters that he plunked) in his 124.2 innings. Hill also allows a lot of runners, but the southpaw is a veteran escape artist, a skill he's gotten pretty good at over his 17-year career. The back end of Wacha and Hill is at least a little more promising than last year's concoction of Garrett Richards and Martin Perez. We think.
Boston is hoping that Sale and Paxton can join the mix at some point in the summer. Sale is starting the season on the 60-day IL with the rib injury he suffered during the lockout offseason, and isn't eligible to return until early June -- at the earliest. Paxton is coming off Tommy John surgery and while he's said to be ahead of schedule, recently starting to throw bullpen sessions, he likely won't be back until mid-June. Given Sale's recent injury history, and the fact that he has yet to pick up a baseball since we learned of his rib injury, it's probably best to temper expectations for the former ace.
If needed, Connor Seabold could get the call up from Triple-A after a pretty good 2021 season in Worcester. He had a 3.50 ERA over 11 starts and struck out 52 over 54 innings. But the 26-year-old struggled with base runners, allowing 43 hits, issuing 19 walks and hitting six batters.
Closer to home, Garrett Whitlock is always a possibility to get a spot start should someone falter in the rotation. But he's best used as a Swiss Army Knife out of the bullpen, as we saw throughout last season. With all the uncertainty in the starting five, Whitlock is going to be a major piece once again. Let's once again thank the Yankees for that Rule 5 gift that keeps on giving.
Add it all up and the Boston starting five might be pretty good. Or they could be pretty bad. We just don't know how it will all hold together, and that is a big concern.
While Eovaldi should be just fine at the front of the rotation, and Pivetta should be able to build on a good 2021, the question marks are aplenty in Boston's starting rotation. And with some question marks in the bullpen that are just as big (which we'll look at on Wednesday), the pressure will be on Boston starters to perform all season. While the Red Sox have a decent enough collection of arms to start games, it's an area that Chaim Bloom should be exploring to improve any chance he can get.
