10:30am: The Red Sox have officially announced the roster changes. Holt hits the 10-day IL with a scratched cornea in his right eye, while Johnson is placed on the 10-day IL with left elbow inflammation.
9:50am: The Boston Red Sox have called up right-handed reliever Marcus Walden, a source tells Evan Drellich of the MLB Network and WEEI in Boston (via Twitter).
Walden, 30, made eight relief appearances for the Red Sox last season, giving up six earned runs in 14 2/3 innings (3.86 ERA). He joined the Red Sox as a minor league free agent prior to the 2017 season after stints with the Blue Jays, Reds, Twins and A’s organizations. Though most of his time in the minors has been as a starter, the Joe-Kelly-lookalike pitched primarily out of the bullpen for Pawtucket last year after missing most of June and July due to injury.
He’ll join a Red Sox bullpen that is second in volume usage thus far in 2019 with 33 2/3 innings of work. The unit is under the microscope this season after management chose not to resign back-end stalwarts Joe Kelly and Craig Kimbrel, the latter of whom, of course, remains available on the open market. The 8-man unit has held form thus far, striking out 10.69 batters per nine innings while stranding 77.4% of inherited baserunners.
Walden can help as a long man to bolster a rotation that has, meanwhile, absolutely cratered (to put it nicely). The unit as a whole is 0-7 in nine starts with a 9.60 ERA and -1.5 fWAR in a little over a week. Their 5.76 xFIP paints a slightly less face-melting picture, though even that number ranks dead last among starting units this season.
Infielder Tzu-Wei Lin is also being added to the 25-man roster, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (via Twitter). Lin started at least one game at shortstop, second base, third base and centerfield for the Red Sox last season. Brock Holt and Brian Johnson will land on the injured list as the corresponding roster moves, per Speier (via Twitter).
Perhaps the Sox need to implement a little of the Tampa magic and go with the 1-3 inning
6 man rotations.
That’s all they need another poor starter. I think they’ll be fine but it’s really hard watching these games.
Pasha your full of it . Few days back your panicked now they’ll be fine seriously you need to go get professsional help !
I know Blake Swihart has been hitting a little bit lately but I still blame GM Dombrowski for not being able to deal him last year, this past offseason, and even during spring training for some bullpen help because not only do the Sox need arms but that would also have let Sandy Leon stay on as catcher to help call games and manage the starters a lot better this year.
And what would you get for him? Nothing is the answer. He still has upside at a position where late bloomers occasionally shine. When he’s been healthy, his bat is above average. His versatility is also valuable.
You can’t have it both ways. Is he still valuable or is he worth nothing?
You can’t turn around and say no one will offer anything because he’s not worth it and then try and act like he has so much upside
Agree and even just for his upside and his entry level contract you could’ve gotten a lot more for Swihart from somebody like the Billy Bean & the A’s than you did for Leon which was absolute nothing.
It looks like it’s going to be a long year for the sox and there pitchers
Dude it’s 8 games into a 162 game season let’s see what it looks like in June you guys that panic crack me up.
Bring up Leon now. Pitching staff needs more than Sandy but it’s a start. Finally an off day. One less reliever.
I agree 100%, his value was nothing, it’s worth it to see if he progresses
Exactly , Sandy Leon should be calling games period !
Problem is, swihart caught the 6-3 win against the As (something Vaz couldn’t accomplish), and he also caught the 6-5 loss that nearly was a win. Other than that he was in last night’s clunker.
So, all said and done, Swihart has done a better job calling games than Vaz has. You wanna blame the catching for the pitching results? Ok, but it isn’t swihart you want…
Marcus WELBY couldn’t help this rotation……
But what about Quincy, M.E.?
Is he a Kelly look-alike or pitch-alike? That’s more what they need.
Not the way Joe Kelly has pitched for LA so far. Last I saw, he had an 18.00 ERA!
Sox will be fine; they just need to bear down for the rest of this brutal road trip and get back to Fenway!
Maybe not such a good idea to rest starters at the start of spring training because of post season workload.
Any shakeup is good right now. Johnson out, Walden in is fine. There will be quite a few more faces through the pen this year, and some will even be good for a while. Kelly blew as much cold as hot in 2018 and wasn’t even a lock for the post-season–no more lamenting his loss. And no more extensions until JDM becomes an issue. Next up: the E-Rod Final Solution–Unleash DD!
I think the Red Sox underestimate the importance of Sandy Leon behind the plate, low BA or not. Better bring him back quick!
It is a 162 game season. Let the season play out my guess is, barring significant injuries, the Red Sox will be just fine in the long run. Tough to start on the West Coast but it is what it is and the Red Sox brass had the starters not pitch much in Spring Training. Let’s see how they look on June 15th my guess is it will all be fine by then there is absolutely no reason to panicking in Red Sox nation it’s almost silly talking about it this early.
“Panick”
“Panic”
guessing the amount of dead end options to patching their bull pen could’ve been accomplished close to what kimbrel would cost
Sox Bullpen hasn’t been the problem it is the Staters that have had the slow start. Brazier and Barnes have looked particularly good and there stuff is good enough to close, maybe not at an elite level but plenty good enough to win games. Once the Starters start pitching better the Sox will start winning again simple as that. The spring their starters had, with the exception of Edro, was very light. They should be rounding in for around May 1 if not a little sooner everything will be fine. They just had the hardest trip any east coast team can open with and were not ready for it. My guess is by June 1st this will all be a bad memory and the Sox will be battling for the top of the AL East.
I love your optimism!! Trying to follow suit but it’s not easy with all the mistakes that showed last year but were ignored because we were winning. As always, I hope you are right!!
Cora made so many mistakes last year that were overlooked because we were winning. I got blasted every time I pointed one out and because we were winning we chose to ignore them. Cora’s beginner’s luck is gone and we are left with a manager who is a wonderful person but unqualified to make the field decisions. He screwed up under pitching the starters in Spring Training because he’s a “give them plenty of rest” guy because his Houston team did that so he does it. Next, he can’t figure out that JD Martinez should be batting 3rd in the order EVERY DAY. Why? Because I think he should? NO because he is their best hitter!! He hits for average and power. Mookie had a great season but he doesn’t hit for the average or the power that JD hits for. In an ideal world, Mookie should bat second like Trout, Judge and so many other superstars. When Benny starts hitting and his OBP goes back up to around .400 you’ll have 3 players in a row who get on base 40% of the time. Even an average pair of 1Bs like Moreland and Pearce should be able to drive many runners in batting fourth or even better put Bogey 4th and the 1Bs 5th. Until Benny gets his act together I’d bat Bogaerts at leadoff and Betts second with JD third and Benny fourth. If they only produce 1 run each time through the order from these guys being clustered, it would still be better than what we are doing now. Batting Devers 3 is ridiculous but I understand you are trying to build his confidence (as if that is something he needs considering how much he plays for himself and not the team by swinging for the fences on every pitch). Not a decision that helps the team … only the individual so I don’t like it but it’s typical Cora. He likes to be a coddler not a commander. If I were him I’d sit Devers down and tell him he’s going back to the minors unless he starts focusing on making contact, starts playing better defense and stops focusing on being the hero and instead play for the team win.
Everything went right for Cora last year despite his poor management choices. This year it will bite us in the rear-end all year because luck tends to even out over time. The key hit that came last year isn’t coming this year. We spent an entire season watching our team fall behind and pull it out in the last 3 innings. That’s why nobody picked us to win it all because it appeared to be ‘lucky’. It was and now without luck we are 2-8. The MLB schedulers should be fired for creating the schedule they handed the Red Sox compared to the Yankees (the two top teams in the division) but it’s not just the schedule. The pitchers aren’t ready due to a management philosophy mistake. The hitters aren’t ready because they didn’t play enough in Spring Training. And most of all, it’s never good to stand still because you won. I love all the extensions but we needed to add at least one new impact piece to the puzzle to give us the jolt that is needed after a championship. We are sleep-walking through March and April. I hope Peddy is that lightning bolt!!