With baseball season in full swing, I think one of the more important storylines to carry over from the offseason throughout the year will be with the Red Sox’ starting pitching. Most baseball fans were left surprised by the lack of talent, especially with pitching, that Boston did not bring in. Firing Chief Baseball Operator Chaim Bloom and replacing him with former player Craig Breslow made it seem like the team was ready to spend, but that just wasn’t true. Boston is running out a starting rotation, fronted by newly extended Brayan Bello and followed by Nick Pivetta, Kutter Crawford, Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck. These are all players who have been with the team since at least 2022. Lucas Giolito was brought in as the big pick up for the team, but an injury to his throwing arm has lessened his chance for playing in 2024 at all. Despite the lack of changes in the rotation itself, I wanted to take the time to break down why the pitching should still be a drastic improvement in 2024 and point out signs of hope in their first series.
Looking back at 2023, the Red Sox’ pitching was their main problem. Boston had zero complete games, finished well below league average with just 47 total quality starts and had starters average 4.8 innings pitched per game started––fifth worst in the league. All of this contributed to a below-average team ERA of 4.52. Corey Kluber, Boston’s opening day starter, went on to pitch in just 15 games, making six relief appearances on his way to a 7.04 ERA. The Red Sox had 17 different players start a game for them in 2023 (including several openers), eight of which made more than nine starts and all of which had ERAs above 4.00.
This offseason, with the newly appointed Chief Baseball Officer Breslow, many thought this was the year the team would spend on pitching, especially with Breslow’s background as a former MLB pitcher in Boston. Besides Giolito, most of the pitching additions have been small depth moves, including Greg Weissert, Isaiah Campbell and Justin Slaten. The real moves to improve the pitching, however, seem to be coming more from off-the-field moves instead, mostly aimed at improving the structure of how the Red Sox develop and approach pitching on all levels of their system.
Breslow brought in a former teammate and good friend of his, Andrew Bailey, from the San Francisco Giants to replace Dave Bush as the Red Sox’ pitching coach. Justin Willard, formerly with the Minnesota Twins organization, was brought over to become the new director of pitching for Boston. Lastly, Kyle Boddy of Driveline Baseball was hired as an advisor to Breslow, with the goal of improving the Red Sox’ pitching organizationally with new technologies and different ideas. While not as flashy as signing players like Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery, this is how the Red Sox believed they would best improve their pitching for 2024 and beyond.
So how has it been working so far for the team?
Through their first four games of the year, the Red Sox split the series with the Seattle Mariners. Each starting pitcher went at least five innings allowing five total runs combined across 22 innings pitched. Brayan Bello started the year with a five-inning performance allowing two earned runs. Pivetta followed it up with a six-inning show, striking out 10 with just one earned run. The Red Sox then turned the ball to Crawford and Whitlock to close out the series with Crawford throwing six innings of one run ball and Whitlock going five while striking out eight, a feat he didn’t accomplish all of last season. The pitching staff as a whole looked quite impressive, with the lone exception of Joely Rodriguez who has a 13.50 ERA through three appearances so far.
Comparing this to how the Red Sox season started last year, it’s a complete 180. To start 2023, Kluber only went 3.1 innings while allowing five runs in Boston’s 10-9 opening day loss against Baltimore last year. Chris Sale pitched in game two, but he didn’t fare any better. Sale went just three innings and allowed seven runs, but the Red Sox were able to squeak out a 9-8 win off an Adam Duvall walk-off. To close the opening series, the ball was handed over to Houck, who had the best performance of the three, pitching five and giving up just three as the Red Sox went on to win 9-5.
2023 saw the Red Sox give up 23 runs in the first three games with each game having to use more than five pitchers. As for 2024, the Red Sox finished their four-game set giving up just 10 runs and had two games where they used four pitchers or less. Starters going deeper into games was the biggest area of concern for Boston a season ago. Pivetta and Crawford, despite pitching in the two losses, picked up quality starts in their six-inning appearances. Through their first four games, the Red Sox are second behind the New York Yankees in team ERA at 2.04.
While the team, much to fans dismay, didn’t add a big-name pitcher this offseason, the improvements around the pitching and its development seem to be working out really well. While it is only April and the season is far from over, I’m expecting this Red Sox rotation to prove their doubters wrong.