Nathan Eovaldi will be the Opening Day starting pitcher for the Red Sox on Thursday at Yankee Stadium, weather permitting. Charles Krupa/Associated Press
FORT MYERS, Fla. — An untold number of New Englanders spent a little extra time in the south this week as thousands of flights from Florida to Boston were canceled on Saturday and Sunday.
A little extra time in the sunshine is never a bad thing. The Boston Red Sox probably would like more time here. Instead, they were packing their bags and loading the equipment truck in 86-degree heat to head north. The season is scheduled to open Thursday in the Bronx, but the weather there will be very different.
As of Monday morning the forecast for Opening Day called for a high of 51 degrees and a 90 percent chance of rain. Not ideal weather for baseball.
Also not ideal for Alex Cora’s pitching plans. The hope is to get Thursday’s game off as scheduled, with a day off to follow Friday. That would allow the Red Sox manager to have Garrett Whitlock, the unexpected star of the 2021 bullpen, ready to pitch at some point in the opener. It would also allow Cora to get through the first trip with a four-man rotation.
If the game is rained out the Red Sox and Yankees would likely open up the season on Friday, making it the first of six straight games for Boston. The home opener would be a week later, kicking off a stretch of 17 consecutive games scheduled without a day off.
So much for easing into things.
For all the ballyhoo around this offense and the addition of second baseman Trevor Story, who signed the first long-term, big-money contract of the Chaim Bloom era, the Red Sox are only going as far as their pitching allows. And right now that staff doesn’t include ace Chris Sale, who has yet to start throwing after breaking a rib in February. Nathan Eovaldi will be the starter whenever the Season Opener is played, followed by Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck and Michael Wacha. Whitlock or Rich Hill would round out the rotation.
Or both could be in it. Hill has been named the starter for next Tuesday’s game in Detroit. Whitlock will pitch out of the bullpen, but the Sox may opt to use six starters, at least for that long stretch of games. Cora wouldn’t rule it out.
“I’m not sure if we will do it, but we’re capable of doing it,” Cora said over the weekend, “because we’ve got six guys that are ready to go deep into games.”
They went deeper than usual in their final starts. Eovaldi pitched into the sixth inning to wrap up his spring training Saturday and Pivetta went five full on Sunday. Usually pitchers back off their workload in the final start, but this year they are still building up after a preseason shortened by the winter lockout.
The bullpen is certainly a work in progress, and if Whitlock moves to the starting rotation that bullpen will be weaker. Whitlock’s role on this team is an interesting discussion. How do you get the most value out of him?
“Except for the most elite reliever you can’t top what a true workhorse starting pitcher brings to a club,” said Bloom.
That would lead you to think Whitlock will start, except he has only thrown 81 2/3 innings (including postseason) since he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019. The Sox may decide to build up his workload with multiple-inning appearances in the first half of the season before unleashing his workhorse potential toward the end of the year or in 2023.
Some of the Sox top relievers – Matt Barnes, Ryan Brasier, and Hirokazu Sawamura – struggled this spring, but Cora thinks they will be ready come Thursday.
“It doesn’t look great but I do believe they’re going to be in a good spot coming next week,” Cora said Sunday, going on to point out a mechanical issue the staff identified for Barnes and the increase in recent velocity for Brasier. Additionally they are urging Sawamura to throw his hard sinker for strikes, rather using it as a chase pitch that hitters can lay off.
If that trio delivers, this could be another fun ride at Fenway Park Last year’s postseason run was an unexpected gift for Red Sox fans. After a few extra days in the south we will all be bundling up at the end of the week to see what the Sox have in store for us up north.
Tom Caron is a studio host for Red Sox broadcasts on NESN and a Lewiston High School graduate.
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