This was mentioned in another thread, but surely our expected #1 starter being out for the rest of the season with a serious health condition is worth its own thread.
View: https://twitter.com/alexspeier/status/1289663818197422080
Alex Speier
@alexspeier
"Eduardo Rodriguez is out for the season. Prognosis hasn’t changed but timetable has."
Hopefully he will completely recover, but the timetable being pushed back isn't great news. Get well soon E-Rod.
As for the impact on the team, our horrible pitching staff is not going to be getting a boost from him returning. Wonder how him being officially out for the season now changes the team's approach, short term and/or long term.
Bloom in the Athletic:
https://theathletic.com/1968010/2020/08/01/eduardo-rodriguez-out-red-sox-pitching-plan/
View: https://twitter.com/alexspeier/status/1289663818197422080
Alex Speier
@alexspeier
"Eduardo Rodriguez is out for the season. Prognosis hasn’t changed but timetable has."
Hopefully he will completely recover, but the timetable being pushed back isn't great news. Get well soon E-Rod.
As for the impact on the team, our horrible pitching staff is not going to be getting a boost from him returning. Wonder how him being officially out for the season now changes the team's approach, short term and/or long term.
Bloom in the Athletic:
https://theathletic.com/1968010/2020/08/01/eduardo-rodriguez-out-red-sox-pitching-plan/
“Due to the fact that it is persistent and the amount of care we need to take with this and the time left in the season, he’s not going to be able to come back and pitch this year,” chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said Saturday. “We’re going to shut him down for the season. We are confident he’s going to make a full recovery and that his long-term prognosis is excellent, but the fact of the matter is there just isn’t enough time left this season to safely ramp him back up to pitching.”
Red Sox pitching has not inspired much confidence through the first week-plus of the season. So without Rodriguez, what is the plan?
“A lot of these guys have only pitched once or twice,” Bloom said of the pitching staff. “Even though that represents a much larger percentage of the season, it doesn’t mean those one or two outings tell us any more about the player than one or two outings in a 162-game season. So we don’t want to be complacent, but we also can’t rush to judgment.”
Bloom has continued to monitor the trade market as well as prospects on the 60-man roster at the club’s alternate site in Pawtucket, specifically Tanner Houck and Bryan Mata.
But it doesn’t sound like Houck and Mata are on the fast track to Boston, either.
“The priority now is to make sure they’re both getting innings so they have a chance to contribute as starters,” Bloom said, noting Houck is a bit further along than Mata.
“If (Houck) is going to have as much success as he possibly can in the big leagues, we need to help him in his plan with his effectiveness against left-handers,” Bloom said. “That’s an emphasis over there in Pawtucket and something we’re going to work on in targeted fashion. He certainly has the stuff to be able to do it and the ability to do it. How well he does it is going to determine his ultimate ceiling.”
With regard to Mata, the club’s top-ranked pitching prospect, Bloom called the right-hander’s simulated game Friday “really, really impressive.” But he tempered expectations of an immediate call-up.
“Sometimes you have a guy whose arm is that good, whose stuff is that tantalizing, and it’s tempting to take shortcuts,” Bloom said. “I don’t even necessarily mean on the timetable, but in terms of development and what you’re trying to help him to do. I think it’s really important not to do that if we’re going to help someone reach their ceiling.”
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