The laundry list of questions about the Red Sox pitching staff is never-ending; every answer is quickly replaced with a new puzzle to solve.
What does Alex Cora want to see from Brayan Bello on Saturday? To get ahead in the counts.
When will Chris Martin return to the bullpen? He could be activated as early as Sunday.
What’s going on with Chris Sale? He’s been making adjustments in between starts.
Is Garrett Whitlock a starting pitcher? His manager says yes.
How is James Paxton doing? Some days are better than others.
Ahead of Saturday’s game, Cora went into detail about each pitcher:
With Garrett Whitlock on the injured list with right elbow neuritis, Brayan Bello is back in the rotation for the foreseeable future.
Over his first two starts of the season before getting optioned to Triple-A, the 23-year-old righty allowed eight earned runs on 13 hits, walked three, and struck out eight batters across 7 1/3 innings.
Getting the ball on Saturday, there’s “one thing” his manager wants to see from him. “For sure, work ahead,” Cora said pre-game, “That’s the most important thing.”
“Stuff-wise, we felt he was good (in his last game). Just go out there and do the same thing. This is a team that, they’re going to put the ball in play, don’t get frustrated with that,” the manager advised. “Induce them to quick outs and be efficient, and give us five or six innings.”
Chris Martin is back in Boston, and “there’s a good chance he’ll be active” on Sunday, Cora announced.
The right-handed reliever made a one-inning rehab appearance with Triple-A on Friday, and allowed two unearned runs on two hits. He threw 14 pitches, 10 for strikes.
“It doesn’t look great, the line, but the stuff was okay,” Cora said.
Sale’s last two starts were night and day; 11 strikeouts of the Twins, followed by a zero-strikeout game in Baltimore.
Following the latter, Cora said that they need to get the 34-year-old lefty back to being an athlete, after several years of injuries and time away from the game. He says the Red Sox are “using everything that we have to get him right.”
“No strikeouts in five innings. We had a lot of people with two strikes, too,” he added. “The results weren’t there, but I honestly feel like it wasn’t that bad. I think, fastball command, they did a really good job with the fastball up and away. But then you look at it, it was an non-competitive pitch, it was way off, he was above the strike zone.”
Sale threw a bullpen on Friday and “felt good about it,” Cora said. “He’ll make some adjustments, delivery-wise, and see where it takes him.”
“I think there’s a few things that he needs to do to get back to his delivery. He’s a little bit off timing right now, and I mean, I know extension looks good and all that stuff, but it’s how you get to the extension that matters, and right now, he’s not doing it the ‘right way.”
Sale’s extension is much further out than it was in the prime of his career, and his manager says that’s exactly the issue. “Sometimes, people feel like extension is the best thing in the world, and sometimes, it’s how you get to that point that matters. And we feel like right now, he’s jumping there instead of gliding there.”
Said adjustments also include going back to a full windup “or close to it,” Cora says. “Yeah, we gotta get him moving.”
Despite having an incredible rookie season out of the bullpen, Whitlock is a starter in his organization’s eyes.
Due to right elbow ulnar neuritis, the righty is currently shut down from throwing altogether, and Cora has “no idea” when that will change.
But when he’s back, “he’s a starter for us,” the manager said. “We see him as a starter, I know that, and when he comes back, that’s what he’s gonna do.”
The Red Sox will continue to “be patient” with Paxton, who hasn’t appeared in a major league game since 2021.
“He’ll let us know,” Cora said. “Sometimes, he feels great on the rubber, sometimes the breaking ball feels good, sometimes it doesn’t, the fastball, so it’s a work in progress. The good thing is that he’s trending in the right direction. He’s been able to bounce back after every outing, which is the most important thing.”
Paxton has been on the 15-day injured list since March 30 (retroactive to March 27). While the veteran lefty’s velocity consistently sat in the mid-90s in his most recent rehab outing with Triple-A on Tuesday, he allowed five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. He’ll make another rehab appearance on Sunday, and the Red Sox will discuss next steps after that, Cora said.
Rich Hill and Matt Strahm were two of the most reliable pitchers on the 2022 Red Sox, and by the looks of their first months of the ongoing season, they could’ve been useful in Boston this year, too.
According to Pittsburgh Pirates beat writer Jason Mackey, Hill is the first pitcher aged 43 or older to have a streak of four starts of 5+ innings and 2 or fewer earned runs since Bartolo Colon in May-June 2016. The Milton, MA native’s 4.18 ERA would lead the current Red Sox rotation; Tanner Houck is the only starter with an ERA under 5.11.
Strahm had 25 starts among his 157 career games pitched between 2016-21, but despite expressing his belief that he could be a full-time starter, the Red Sox exclusively used him in a relief role last year.
During the offseason, the 31-year-old lefty signed a two-year, $15 million contract with the Philadelphia Phillies. He’s made five starts and one relief appearance so far this season, and only allowed six earned runs on 12 hits, walked seven, and struck out 32 over 23 1/3 innings.