I disagree. If he has a good start and then he continues to pitch well (in the rotation or out of the pen) through the end of the season, I think DD has to think long and hard about picking up the option.
Out of curiosity, if he's pitching well, what reason would the Red Sox have to trade him?
At this point the only way Buchholz brings anything of value back via a waiver trade is if a team on the cusp of playoff contention desperately needs help at the backend of the rotation or needs to throw crap against a wall in a bullpen. Which... is the Red Sox.
13.5 isn't a ton of money for a starting pitcher in today's market and given the coming FA class, it will probably be a bargain for a solid 4or 5. Question is, is there much of an indication that Buchholz is going to be that? The season is quickly slipping away. Barring injury he's not looking at many opportunities to start. Perhaps he gets featured a bit more out of the pen due to the general shit show that they have been displaying lately, but I think he's really got to be near shut down the rest of the way to get that option picked up. As for Masterson, true enough what you say, but he was formally with the Sox. I'm guessing that part of that flyer included familiarity and perhaps the idea that they might be able to help turn him around because of that.
Which is ultimately why I'm ready to move on. Sure he could be exactly what this team needs. But he's a question mark year in year out. They need to stop relying on someone like that.
Maybe he's fixed with the new arm angle. We keep lusting after pitching coaches that might be able to help a pitcher, maybe Bannister actually did.
If he does that you definitely pick up the option because he would be worth something on the trade market.
I have fully broken with 1-pitch (changeup) Owens. Trade him before the man of Clay.
We are well past the times of relying on Buchholz which was a large part of acquiring a legit 200 inning guy in Miley last year. Nearly all if not all #5 starters throughout baseball are question marks with varying degrees of upside. If you're in contention by mid-season you are looking to upgrade certain areas of the team anyway......is paying Buchholz $13m worth the upside of possibly not having to move a Devers for another Pomeranz-type next July?
I think he's already proven he's equally as effective as some of the guys back there.
We do have a 1-2-3 who can consistently get us into the 8th and 9th innings so his mitigates the need for a 5th starter to give us 7 to a certain degree. As I mentioned earlier how many teams have a reliable 7-inning 5th started? If Buchholz is pressed into duty over Pomeranz or Erod (it gets murkier if he's replacing one of the other 3) getting 4-5 strong innings out of him would be a major win for us.
Might need to wait until Wright comes back first. Depending on opponent, a spot start for a sixth starter might not be a bad idea. If Wright were healthy, this series might have been that sort of situation.
Brentz has been gone for a few days (he went down for Elias). No doubt two of the call ups should be position players. I'd guess Brentz and Hernandez.
I might be off-base here, but I believe Brentz has to replace Hanley or Wright, because he was sent down less than 10 days ago.
Could you elaborate on your definition of 'consistently'? If we have the same one we are apparently watching two different teams.
Healthy or not, I can't imagine they're going to add Moncada to the 40-man if they have no intention of giving him a lengthy look or a "for good" spot on the big league team (like Benintendi). I expect they'd rather keep him off the 40-man until spring just to have the flexibility of that spot through the winter for free agents or Rule 5 protection purposes.
I'm not sure what there is to elaborate. Price leads the AL in IP and we'd have all 3 starters in the Top-10 had Wright not missed his last start. All 3 are eating a ton of innings and projecting 200+ for the year.
Which is nice and certainly helps but it's not consistently pitching into the 8th or 9th inning.
I don't know where you got these numbers but Price has pitched 7+ innings in 14 of his 25 starts, Wright 10, and Porcello 8 with all three of them doing so more consistently as the season has progressed.
With 11 straight days of games including the dreaded day game following a night of travel I'm expecting the shuttle to be very busy over the next two weeks to keep a fresh backend bullpen AAAA inning eater. Then there is the Hanley roster move in 3 days as starting quite a bit of Holt, Hill, and ultimately Young to keep guys as fresh as possible.
Speaking of which --
Would it be that outrageous for Kelly/Owens/Ramirez to be called up following the night game while already being shipped ahead with Buchholz while serving as his "long man" to be returned immediately following the game? This would avoid us having to play the night game one short.
Without a DL stint this is correct which isn't an issue with so many fungible parts and why I didn't include Elias on that potential callup list......but Marrero or Marco would be the obvious player to be sent down.. There is also the potential of ERod to the DL which would allow for Elias or the abovementioned utility player to return sooner.
