James Paxton has been outstanding for the Boston Red Sox this year, but he becomes a free agent at the end of the season. Will the Red Sox part with him before Tuesday’s trade deadline? Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
The search for pitching continues for the Boston Red Sox right up until the final hours before Tuesday’s trade deadline in Major League Baseball.
Boston has surged into contention for a playoff spot with its best month of the season. Even after losing the final two games of the weekend series in San Francisco – the Giants won both with walk-off hits — the Red Sox entered the final day of July with a 15-8 record for the month.
They’ve done it with a three-man rotation. Manager Alex Cora, in the midst of his finest performance as a big-league manager, has cobbled together bullpen nights for more than a third of his team’s games over the past month. He has taken advantage of off-days to reset his three starters.
Boston isn’t the only team using openers these days. The Giants won both their games this weekend without a true starter coming out for the first inning. Cora called San Francisco’s approach “interesting.”
That was before Sunday’s 11-inning game, the longest game by innings the Red Sox have played this season. Cora used seven pitchers in that game, effectively depleting the bullpen. Cora had to go with newly acquired Mauricio Llovera, a journeyman who has thrown only 6 1/3 innings this season, in the 11th inning.
He never recorded an out.
After the game, things got worse as Joely Rodriguez was headed to the injured list as the Red Sox scrambled to get another pitcher to Seattle for Monday night’s game.
All of that opened the door for Nick Pivetta to return as a starter on Monday for the first time since May. Pivetta has been reborn out of the bullpen, with an ERA of 1.98 in 41 innings. His ERA as a starter was 6.30 this season.
Pivetta clearly wants to be a starter. Now he gets his chance. If he can recapture his success out of the bullpen, he could stay in the rotation.
Meanwhile, Chris Sale was preparing for a three-inning rehab start on Tuesday with Triple-A Worcester. He’s expected to make a second rehab outing this weekend and could return to the Sox after that. The oft-injured lefty had been brilliant over his final six outings before going on the 60-day IL, averaging six innings per start with a 2.25 ERA and a 41-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
Pivetta and Sale could return just in time to prop up the rotation before it sags under the weight of a busy August. Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock could also be back before the end of the month. President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom would have to be thinking about that as he gets calls about James Paxton.
Paxton, who has been outstanding for the Red Sox this season, is a free agent at the end of the year. The Sox are building toward a bright future, one that seems to be closer than many thought. If Paxton isn’t part of the future, why not make a move that could help continue the rebuilding process?
For one thing, it would send a message to fans that the Red Sox do not believe they have a chance to make the postseason this year. And trading away one of three healthy starters (four if you include Pivetta) could have a chilling effect on a clubhouse that has overachieved the past six weeks.
Rafael Devers, growing into a leadership role in that clubhouse, told reporters after Sunday’s game that he wants Bloom to add to the current roster. Not subtract from it.
“Everybody knows what we need,” Devers told The Boston Globe before the team left for Seattle.
It needs pitching. It also needs to be realistic.
Analytic-focused websites had Boston’s chances of making the playoffs at about 30%, up from around 10% at the beginning of June. That’s a big improvement, but it’s still far from a sure thing.
Is it enough to invest in this current group? We’ll find out by 6 p.m. Tuesday when the clock strikes midnight on teams hoping to land a player that could improve their odds in the final two months of the season.
Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. He is a graduate of Lewiston High School.
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