With pitchers and catchers set to officially report on Wednesday, the Red Sox have six established big league starters potentially available to open the season in the rotation.
A lot could happen over the next six weeks, but Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow acknowledged that if everyone makes it to Opening Day healthy the club could utilize a six-man rotation to accommodate all of them.
“We’re definitely considering it. I think there are a few factors that will help determine the viability,” Breslow said Tuesday in Fort Myers. “Obviously health is one, performance is another. We’ll take a look at the schedule early in the season and try to optimize matchups and recovery, but it’s definitely in consideration.”
One benefit to using a six-man rotation is each starter will get an additional day of rest between outings, potentially enabling each pitcher to stay fresh and pitch more effectively deep into the season. Though six-man rotations aren’t common and many starters prefer to stay on a five-day routine, Breslow said the concept isn’t as radical as it might seem at first glance.
“A lot of this is a matter of how you characterize things. Right? If you say hey you’re going to pitch in a six-man rotation you get one type of response, and if you were to say hey lets look at the data and figure out how many times you actually pitched in line with what a five-man rotation would be,” Breslow said. “Most teams are already employing extra rest just by nature of the schedule, weather, travel, and so if you work backwards from the number of starts that a starting pitcher is making, what we’re asking to do would not be revolutionary. Our hope is that it helps us get the best out of our players.”
Manager Alex Cora said he hasn’t discussed whether or not they’ll use a six-man rotation with the players yet, but noted that the club’s early schedule will be a factor. The Red Sox are scheduled to open the season with 20 games in 21 days, including 15 in a row between April 2-16, before then playing another 10 straight following the April 17 off-day.
Regardless of what kind of rotation structure they use, Cora said they’ll need a sixth or seventh starter at some point in April.
“Obviously we have plenty of arms, but if you take a look at the schedule at some point somebody has to pitch that first month, an extra guy,” Cora said.
Potentially having too many MLB-caliber starters is a good problem for the Red Sox to have, as Breslow and Cora each noted the club’s lack of starting pitching depth was among the main reasons why the club tailed off in the second half last season.
“We ran out of pitching,” Cora said. “I believe we’re deep enough now that if something happens with the starters we’ve got some capable guys that can come in and help us for three starts, for a month, for a month and a half. We didn’t have that in the past.”