I'll frame my view with this hypothetical:In other words you feel that Buchholz' place in the rotation is more threatened than Wright's at the moment? Not sure I agree. If you asked me which guy would be out of a job if he got shelled in 5 consecutive starts my answer would not be Clay Buchholz
Lets assume that Eduardo Rodriguez needs three rehab starts before returning to the majors.
Lets assume that in that time the current starters pitch like they have for another three turns through, meanwhile Owens has three solid starts.
At that point do I think Dombrowski is going to just cut bait with Buchholz? No. He'll send Owens back down, obviously. But Buchholz is on a one year deal with an option for 2017. I'd expect Dombrowski to let him keep his spot in the rotation for as long as it takes to find a team willing to give something for him and if he continues to be the mercurial Buchholz we've seen for the vast majority of his career by mid to late June he'll basically be hunting for someone just willing to take the salary, baring another injury (which is, obviously, pretty likely).
Clay won't get demoted/released, but to me he is the guy Dombrowski will be fastest to cut bait on, barring a return to his early 2013 form or some approximation thereof. He isn't Dombrowski's guy, the rotation has a #1 in Price and they believe they're just additional recovery time from having a #2 in Rodriguez. Porcello has picked up where he left off 2015, looking like a very good #3 or better, and Wright is having repeated success as a starter for peanuts in salary. The last thing the FO should want with how this offense looks so far is someone who is as likely to give up 5 runs over 4 innings as he is to go six scoreless. He's more likely to squander a good game at the plate with a bad outing than he is to throw a gem when the offense needs to be picked up, simply because they aren't going to need to be picked up as much as they'll need to just not be let down. That's the rub with Clay. For him more than any pitcher I can recall his metrics for runs allowed are more an average than an "average game". He gets shelled or he kills and rarely finds any middle ground.
We'll see test #4 this afternoon. If bad Buch shows up more often than good Buch I don't think Dombrowski is going to sit on his hands and watch the team flip a coin every five games while they're consistently scoring 4+ runs a game.
Yes, my mistake, looking forward to Owens' return to the majors too much for my own good.Buchholz pitches today, Owens on Sunday.
My hope/belief is that following this call-up Owens will have thoroughly eliminated the chances of us seeing another Joe Kelly start short of a Permo-Triassic level extinction of starting pitchers. He needs to go straight to the 'pen upon his return until Owens, Elias, and probably Johnson all get a shot before him. Hell, I'd rather see the new release point Stank get a call up if he continues his early AA success before watching Joe Kelly throw 97 mph heat at a batter's ear hole again. I didn't think I could hate that trade more than I did when it was first made, but the continued insistence to start Kelly sure is trying to make me feel otherwise.I think Kelly has to be the odd man out once he returns from the DL. Wright has been pitching great. It would hurt the 2016 team to have him in the pen.