The Red Sox starting rotation has not gotten off to a good start. Entering Tuesday, three of the club’s first four starters had given up five runs or more and put the team in huge early holes.
One silver lining? The new-look Red Sox bullpen has mostly been good as advertised.
Outside of an Opening Day hiccup, the bullpen has done well keeping the Red Sox in games. The group played an instrumental role in both weekend wins over Baltimore, and even though the Red Sox couldn’t complete the comeback on Monday, the bullpen still shut Pittsburgh down and made sure it remained a one or two-run game.
Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen, the group’s veteran leader and one of baseball’s most decorated closers, said it was important they set the tone early when things are still getting settled.
“Once our starting rotation figures it out, which they will, they’re going to have our back most of the time,” Jansen said. “It’s early in the season right now, we’ve got to set the tone. When you take pressure off your starters, it’s going to make them even more dangerous.”
Though the Red Sox bullpen hasn’t had many late leads to protect just yet, there have been plenty of encouraging signs. Purely from a production standpoint, Red Sox relievers combined to post a 3.48 ERA over 20.2 innings the first four games. That number is a much more impressive 1.80 ERA over 15 innings if you leave aside the rough Opening Day performance.
The bullpen also hadn’t yet given up a home run entering Tuesday, and more promising than the results has been the structure, something last year’s leaky group sorely lacked.
Jansen and Chris Martin have stepped into the high-leverage roles they were signed to fill, and John Schreiber has recorded a hold already as well. Richard Bleier and Kaleb Ort are being used as lefty and righty specialists, respectively, and Ryan Brasier has so far gotten the ball when the Red Sox are trailing in close games.
Josh Winckowski, who made the big league roster as a long-relief man, has so far shown tremendous improvement from his rookie year. His sinker’s velocity has reached as high as 97 mph and Cora said the second-year righty had a highly productive offseason and his work is clearly paying off.
“Physically, as far as his mechanics, there’s a lot of stuff that’s different,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said over the weekend. “He’s not getting caught up in the swing and misses, he’s just filling the strike zone and getting quick outs.”
Most interestingly, rookie Zack Kelly has emerged as the club’s fireman, the guy called upon to get out of a jam when the starter doesn’t have it and there is trouble on the basepaths.
Theoretically the bullpen should get stronger as the year goes on. The injured Joely Rodriguez would have made the Opening Day roster and Wyatt Mills probably would have as well.
Once they and Garrett Whitlock, Brayan Bello and James Paxton return there will be substantial reshuffling, but the end result should be an even deeper and stronger group.
“If we have a bullpen where any of us can pitch in big situations – which we can and we will, we’re capable of doing that – that’s going to make this bullpen even better and it’s going to be scary,” Jansen said.
Whenever Masataka Yoshida has stepped to the plate he’s been greeted with thunderous chants of “Yoshi! Yoshi!” by the Fenway Faithful.
But what does Yoshida himself prefer to go by?
“When I was in Japan most of the guys called me Masa,” Yoshida said this past weekend via translator Keiichiro Wakabayashi.
Yoshida, who hit his first MLB home run in Monday night’s loss to the Pirates, has quickly become a fan favorite in Boston. He’s also sparked what could become a teamwide trend, using a pair of inflatable dumbbells as part of his home run celebration.
Cora said Tuesday that those dumbbells have been making their way around the team since their original Zoom meeting with Yoshida over the Winter Meetings, and at one point the scouting department got their hands on them during a trip to Japan.
“They’ve been around and they just decided, that’s what they used yesterday,” Cora said of the dumbbells. “I don’t know if that’s going to be the rest of the week, the rest of the month or the rest of the season but at least for now that’s what they’re doing.”
One question some fans have had about Yoshida since his arrival is his choice of walk-up music. Yoshida famously used “Macho Man” by the Village People when he came to the plate, but since debuting with the Red Sox he’s used “Good Feeling” by Flo Rida.
Yoshida explained that he actually used both songs while playing in Japan.
“I used that song [every other at bat],” Yoshida said. “It reminds me of Japan so it’s helpful to go to the at bat.”
That Yoshida has become something of a sensation already isn’t a surprise to anyone in the Red Sox clubhouse, but Cora joked that he might want to lean into the “Macho Man” and “Yoshi” bit, if nothing else for personal branding purposes.
“There’s a few things, the Masa-Yoshi stuff, the music, we’ll get it right,” Cora said, adding that they should try to get him a deal to promote the new Super Mario Bros Movie. “I think because the movie is coming out he should be ‘Yoshi’ so he can make more money.”
Paxton (right hamstring strain) got back on the mound Tuesday in Fort Myers and threw three innings. Cora said his velocity was good, hitting 95 mph on the radar gun, and he’ll stay in Florida for the rest of the week before they decide the next steps.
“I texted with him earlier, he feels good about it,” Cora said. “Still a little bit off mechanically but getting closer.”
Cora said Rodriguez (right oblique strain) and Mills (right elbow inflammation) have both begun throwing within the last day as well. Both relievers are feeling better, he said, but neither has any timetable for return just yet.
Bello (right elbow inflammation) will pitch Wednesday in Fort Myers and Whitlock (right hip rehab) is slated to start Opening Day for the Portland Sea Dogs in Maine this Thursday.