Red Sox's Alex Cora Names Which Players Have Made Opening Day Rotation

The Boston Red Sox did not make the pitching staff upgrades many across the industry believed they would, or at least would have to make to be completive.

Some marquee starters remain available for Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow to scoop up -- but the current roster will rely on a bounce-back candidate in Lucas Giolito plus a bunch of internal options hoping to take a step up from a season ago.

With that said, manager Alex Cora has started to put his plan together for the upcoming season. In doing so, he essentially locked in three spots in the rotation and tipped his hand regarding a fourth.

“As of now, if everything stays the same and they’re healthy, obviously Lucas (Giolito) is in the rotation and Nick (Pivetta) is in the rotation," Cora told the media, as transcribed by MassLive's Sean McAdam on Saturday. 

"Brayan (Bello) too. We believe Kutter (Crawford) is a starter, but obviously, we have to make decisions accordingly. I do believe his future is there. He’s proven before, so we’re going to give him a lot of chances. Or let’s say he has the lead in that one, let’s put it that way. Then, after that, we’ll see how it looks.”

Cora's update essentially leaves a three-man race for the final spot in the rotation -- a battle between Garrett Whitlock, Tanner Houck and Josh Winckowski.

Of the trio, Whitlock makes the most sense to earn the job. Houck's biggest defect is that despite early-game dominance, he struggles mightily facing a lineup the third time around. It's always made the most sense to put him in a position to avoid that scenario -- a high-leverage, multi-inning reliever role would make the most sense. His 4.37 career ERA as a starter compared to his 2.68 ERA further reinforces that point. 

Winckowski has an even greater discrepancy between his numbers as a starter versus a reliever (5.66 ERA/3.13 ERA) and should continue to settle into a similar role as a year before. 

The reality is, all three probably are best suited for reliever roles and the Red Sox still should invest in Jordan Montgomery. However, unless they do so, Whitlock has the best shot of becoming a reliable back-end starter.