The Red Sox largely failed in their pursuit of starting pitching this winter, swapping lefty Chris Sale out for Lucas Giolito only for the latter to miss the entire 2024 season due to a UCL injury, making right-handed depth options Chase Anderson and Cooper Criswell the club’s only starters added this winter with a chance to impact the 2024 club. The club coming up empty is not an indication they weren’t involved in the pitching market at all, however, with Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe reporting that the club was a finalist for southpaw James Paxton, per the lefty himself.
Paxton, 35, spent the past two seasons in the Red Sox organization but only pitched in 2023. He made 19 starts for the club last year, pitching to a 4.50 ERA (101 ERA+) and 4.68 FIP overall. While he posted a strong 2.73 ERA and 3.63 FIP in ten starts prior to the All Star break, Paxton’s brutal final three starts in August and September caused his numbers to balloon as he allowed a whopping 17 runs in 9 2/3 innings of work before being shut down for the season due to knee inflammation.
Abraham relays that, according to the left-hander, there was mutual interest in a reunion between his camp and the Red Sox before he ultimately settled on pitching closer to his West Coast home in Seattle. Adding the veteran southpaw to Boston’s heavily young and right-handed rotation mix would have made plenty of sense for the club, but instead the team is set to rely on internal youngsters like Kutter Crawford, Garrett Whitlock, and Tanner Houck to round out the rotation alongside Brayan Bello and Nick Pivetta.
More from around the AL East…
- Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu spoke to reporters (including those at MLB.com) yesterday regarding his rehab from a non-displaced fracture in his right foot and provided a positive update, suggesting that he could be nearing a return to action. LeMahieu indicated that he’s “making progress” after running at roughly 90 percent effort and taking batting practice on the field at Yankee Stadium over the weekend. Per manager Aaron Boone, the next step for LeMahieu is further imaging later in the week before a potential minor league rehab assignment. If the veteran can avoid further setbacks, it’s possible he could return before the end of the month. In the meantime, the club figures to continue relying on Jon Berti and Oswaldo Cabrera at the hot corner.
- Blue Jays manager John Schneider spoke to reporters (including Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi) yesterday to provide an update on right-hander Erik Swanson, who started the season on the injured list due to a bout of forearm tightness last month. Per Schneider, Swanson is scheduled to be evaluated today after throwing a rehab inning at the Double-A level last night to decide if he’s ready to be activated when first eligible on Tuesday, though Davidi adds that Schneider indicated an additional rehab appearance is possible. If Swanson is to make another appearance in the minors before returning to the big league roster, it likely won’t come for a few days, as the right-hander is scheduled to be in Toronto for the club’s home opener tomorrow evening. Swanson joined the club during the 2022-23 offseason as part of the return in the Teoscar Hernandez trade and quickly established himself as the top set-up option for closer Jordan Romano, pitching to a 2.97 ERA with a 3.51 FIP in 69 appearances last year.
If the involvement in the pitching market means James Paxton, are you really involved at all?
Yes, you are involved in a veteran pitcher who is currently 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA.
You forgot the… in 5 innings pitched part.
JTJ – I was thinking the same thing.
The Sox have clearly shifted to a longer term rebuild strategy (and are not spending on the top free agents) but they are continually lying to the fan base that they are going to go for it.
Just come clean on your plans and fans will respect your honesty.
Do we actually need something to be said to recognize it;s happening?
Personally, I’m fine with what’s going on this season. It’s better than that in between BS. They’re playing the young guys, separating the pretenders from the contenders. I’d rather see Whitlock, Crawford and Hauck out there,
They did walk back the mistake of saying full throttle and people are still complaining. I don’t think they are ever going to tell the world their exact plans. It is not smart to tell your competitors your plans.
It;s less smart to type “Full Throttle” in a comment section over and over again.
I subscribe to the theory that Werner and Henry weren’t on the same page with spending. I respect that Werner is at least willing to take that on the chin. I think he wanted to spend more and Henry squashed it.
Lars – The Red Sox deceived us and flat-out lied for one reason – money. They had to sell tickets, so what did they do?
1) When Bloom was fired they told us “winning now is a priority”.
2) They leaked stories of pursuing several top free agents. Look at all the reports of the Red Sox being heavy favorites for Ohtani and several others.
3) They allegedly made lots of offers to free agents such as Yamamoto and Imanga, but always somehow fell short …. or as they put it, “didn’t line up”. It’s the classic approach of offering less than what you know they will accept, and then claiming “we tried”.
4) Sox management finally did come clean and say they would “probably” be reducing payroll … but they waited until the day after the season ticket renewal deadline to do so. Talk about scummy behavior.
5) Remember all the reports of the Sox saying they will sign a top SP like Montgomery once they “move other salaries off the books”? They lied.
6) Remember how the Sox leaked all the reports of them wanting to sign Montgomery, but waiting until his 7-year demand was dropped? He dropped his demands to a pittance, one year $25M …. still the Sox made no offer to him. They were proven to be liars once again.
Fans like me will continue to support the players, but we will NEVER respect ownership.
John Henry is shaking in his boots. “Feverpitchguy” will never respect him.
PK – Silly, he doesn’t wear boots. He’s a loafers guy.
Fever is a troll. Henry ignores him and we all should also ignore fever.
Jimmy – Agreed! If a team is in need of starting pitching depth, an injury-plagued guy like Paxton makes no sense …. unless the team is merely trying to save some cents …
He pitched well most of the season.Maybe you didn’t see that.
Given that he signed with the Dodgers, the favorite to win it all, yes. They seem to have assembled a pretty good bunch.
The Dodgers pitching staff is exactly why they won’t win it all.
The Dodgers seem to always have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. I think they’ll be alright
Make sure you have your seat belts fastened because the Sox are FULL THROTTLE BABY!!!!!
It just gets funnier the millionth time someone writes it.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Full throttle.
Oh, that was a good one.
Apparently Nick doesn’t read his own articles, this is very old news that was reported by him back in December. LOL!!
mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/red-sox-reportedly-show…
Per manager Aaron Boone, the next step for LeMahieu is kicking him down the stairs & changing the locks on the door. Ahahaha!
In the Blue Jays blurb, I was hoping useless atkins got fired …..
Good game yesterday! Jays fought hard to come from behind and had the game-winning run at the plate.
Not really…too many runs left on base, thrown in with some running errors and strikeouts…Yankees were lucky gaus left his good stuff in the locker room
…..and you were lucky to face our #5 pitcher and that we have half our bullpen on the IR.
See….works both ways
I am really starting to like this young controlled rotation now that Bailey has come in and implemented entirely new aresenals and mechanics. The results are excellent so far!
As disappointing as their offseason was at times, the Verdugo and Oneill trades are already looking like highway robbery steals. It’s understandable why they (and every other team) refused to sign Monty/Snell to long-term expensive contracts… Instead, they should definitely add a younger southpaw via trade, like Luzardo on the struggling Marlins!
If given the choice between Paxton or starting Whitlock, Whitlock is a no-brainer. This could easily turn around, but as of today, going with our current rotation is the correct decision.
bailey and matt blake are members of a rare breed: truly impactful pitching coaches
I don’t remember the Giants pitching staff being so great last year outside of Wade and their closer.
They are always a day late and a dollar short between Breslow and Bloom.
So what does Seattle have left for the Swanson trade? And for Teo? Squat
Unsurprisingly, the torch and pitchfork crowd still hasn’t noticed that the rotation has been lights out thus far….
The rotation had been good but the quality of opponents not so much. Their biggest test of April will be the next series versus Baltimore. They will need to pitch deeper in games as well to not tax the bullpen like last year.
pzac – Four of Five have been lights out, Bel;lo has sucked thus far.
And nobody is surprised by how well Crawford, Pivetta, Houck and Whitlock have performed against inferior lineups. The problem is the depth, it’s non-existent. We are all praying they stay healthy, we don’t want to see Cooper Criswell in the starting rotation.
Fever – Had a rough month but I’m back. I believe the four pitchers will have the litmus test with Baltimore. Houck has been everything I expected, Bello has been in the opposite direction but still has plenty of upside, Crawford has matched Houck which is great and I’m still not sure where Whitlock ends up but he’s still better than expected. The pitching staff has been a pleasant surprise as has O’Neill.
The Sale deal looks worse every time Chris starts a game. Injuries are expected but boy is it fun to see him back. Story is jinxed like Sale in Boston. It’s been fun watching Duran as well.
If Boston can take one vs Baltimore then they may do better than 16-16 through the end of April. Four tough series with PIT, CHC and SF could bring the team back to .500. I expected OAK to play like crap. I expected SEA to pitch better and LAA has just two good players in Trout and Taylor Ward. In BOS, I think LAA loses two our of three.
Rafaela has been a ton of fun to watch on defense.and Devers is on a pace to finish with at least 16 more errors and 48 misplays. Not much changes but the youth has been great.
53 IPs in 10 starts plus Anderson in two mop up 3 IPs “saves” keeps the BP OK for now. They will need to get 60+ IP every 10 starts as the season goes on t0 keep the BP from over use burn out.. I like keeping Anderson stretched out as a long man.
Fair comment. I think teams tend to limit their rotation early on, so I’d like to get a bit closer to 60/10.
I didn’t realize how low this had gotten, but the MLB averaged 51.41 IPs for every start last year. That said, and echoing you Anderson remark, the lower IP/GS that we have, the greater the need for a quality #6/7/8 guy in the BP.
Slaton and Winc are also set up for multiple innings, but in the final analysis IP per start will tell the story.