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The Boston Red Sox struggled to maintain an efficient, reliable and healthy starting pitching rotation last season, which had a huge hand in dragging the team to a second consecutive last-place finish in the American League East.
So far, with just weeks ahead of the start of spring training, Boston has made one notable pitching addition: Lucas Giolito. Presumably, the plan is to run with a rotation built mostly by returning arms like Brayan Bello, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Garrett Whitlock. This means it’ll likely be on the youngsters to establish themselves and seek redemption in 2024.
That’s just part of the overarching goal for the Red Sox rotation, as broken down by newly-hired pitching coach Andrew Bailey.
“I think there’s talent in our rotation, there’s opportunity, and helping them understand who they are and giving them identities and creating some accountability is going to be kind of our name of the game,” Bailey said, according to Ian Browne of MLB.com. “I’m excited about this group. We want to get to a place where we don’t have to supplement our Major League roster with large investments. Hopefully, we can do that. That’s the goal.”
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Bailey, who previously spent two seasons pitching as a reliever for Boston, joined the program in hopes of helping restore the rotation. Last season, Red Sox pitchers — relief arms included — recorded a 4.52 team ERA, ranking 21st in Major League Baseball, which was the worst of any team in the AL East.
While playoff hopes hung on a thread around the All-Star break, the rotation began to fall apart with Boston’s injured list piling up. That left manager Alex Cora no choice but to utilize bullpen arms as openers to start games, which proved to not be a sustainable plan for getting the Red Sox to October.
“I think my goal is to set expectations, hold players accountable to those expectations as a group, and I want us to be viewed industry-wide as, ‘Come to the Boston Red Sox, they know how to pitch,’” Bailey added, per Browne. “I think if you look at the Giants and the Twins and Seattle and Tampa (Bay), that’s where we’re gonna get to. When you come to Boston or when you’re gonna go play the Red Sox, these guys are gonna come at you, throw strikes with really nasty stuff and throw hard in the zone.”
Boston pitchers and catchers will report to spring training and hold the team’s first formal workout on Feb. 14.