The Boston Red Sox rotation is off to a start that hasn’t been seen in almost 20 years. New pitching coach Andrew Bailey has set the tone.
The Red Sox are coming off a successful west coast trip to start the season. Much has been made about the offseason moves that the team promised and never delivered on. A lot of these rumors swirled around the starting rotation, with fans and analysts alike looking for the Red Sox to add one or two arms to a rotation that was sorely lacking in innings and consistency. Jordan Montgomery made a lot of sense. Yoshinobu Yamamoto made a lot of sense. Lucas Giolito even made a lot of sense until he went down with an injury. The Red Sox entered the season with a huge question mark, and the hopes that new pitching coach Andrew Bailey could bring out the best in this Red Sox rotation. He’s delivered for the Boston Red Sox, and it’s been a historic start.
No Big Names for the Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox traded away a question mark but a potential ace in Chris Sale. They brought in Lucas Giolito who had been a workhorse for so many years with the Chicago White Sox. Now, the Red Sox rotation features names like Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock, Kutter Crawford, Nick Pivetta, and Brayan Bello.
That’s not a lot of star power, and that doesn’t matter to this rotation.
The team has gone through the rotation twice, and it’s clear that Andrew Bailey getting in the lab with the pitchers has paid off in the early going. The Boston Red Sox rotation has been dynamite to start the season, shutting down the Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics, and Los Angeles Angels to open the season.
They’ve pitched to a 1.53 ERA on the season, which is the best in MLB. Their FIP of 2.67 backs up any doubt that pitching coach Andrew Bailey’s work has already paid dividends.
The starting five for the Boston Red Sox have pitched the sixth most innings in the bigs at 53. They are 3rd in groundball percentage at 50.4%. The Red Sox starting rotation leads are first in K%, sixth in BB%, and have given up 37 hits, tied for fourth in the majors.
How is the Rotation Doing This?
The first thing that’s noticeable for the Red Sox rotation is their ability to throw strikes. They’ve thrown 561, the fourth-best in the majors and second-best in the AL. It’s a far cry from being 24th in that same area just a season ago.
Beyond that, they’ve all ditched the four-seam fastball. They’ve thrown a four-seamer only 13.5% of the time – the lowest mark in MLB by 8.5%. Instead, they’ve opted for the cutter at 13.1%, the sinker at 20.7%, and sliders at 32.8%.
It’s playing to the strengths of the players that they have in-house. Nick Pivetta started his great run since he opted out of throwing four-seamers and his ugly curveball. He learned a new, popular pitch, the sweeper. Brayan Bello was a sinkerballer to begin with. Garrett Whitlock now throws more changeups than anything else. Tanner Houck throws exclusively sinkers and sliders while mixing in a couple of other pitches. Kutter Crawford is the anomaly in that he throws his four-seamer the most, but he has more movement than most.
It’s clear that the Boston Red Sox have decided on an approach that is almost common sense. It’s ditching what’s not working, using more of the player’s good pitches, and locating them in the strike zone.
The Red Sox have a 7-3 record to show for it, and we’ll see if it holds up over the long haul of the season. For now, what Andrew Bailey is doing with this Red Sox rotation is working, and they might not even need a big name to compete if they keep it up over a full season.
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