A day after Clay Buchholz allowed six earned runs and three homers in five innings vs the Colorado Rockies, the Boston Red Sox have decided to move the right-hander out of the rotation.
Red Sox manager John Farrell told the media on Friday that Buchholz will move to the bullpen, and left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez will replace Buchholz in the Boston rotation:
#RedSox: John Farrell confirms Clay Buchholz will go to bullpen. Eduardo Rodriguez will make Buchholz’s next start.
— Guerin Austin (@guerinaustin) May 27, 2016
Buchholz, 31, has a 6.35 ERA (second-worst among qualified MLB starters) in 10 starts for Boston this season, and had allowed at least five earned runs in six of those starts.
The two-time All-Star has had trouble putting hitters away, with his season-high in strikeouts for a game being just six. He’s striking out just 5.88 batters per nine innings, which is the 12th-worst strikeout rate among qualified MLB starting pitchers. Last year, he struck out a solid 8.50 batters per nine innings, so even though we’re just two months into the season, that’s an alarming decrease from last year.
Just as alarming is his walk rate, as he’s walking 3.81 batters per nine innings, after walking just 1.83 per nine innings in 2015. So, he’s nearly walking as many batters a game as he is striking them out. That’s not going to work.
Buchholz’s velocity isn’t much different from last year (91.6 mph on the fastball vs 92.1 last year), so the struggles seem to be much more a problem of command, as the walk numbers would support.
Farrell says that Buchholz will work in long relief for now, but could still win a spot in the rotation back eventually:
Farrell said Buchholz could well start again and one priority with this move was to retain starter depth. — Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) May 27, 2016
The veteran has made just two appearances out of the bullpen in his career, compared to 177 starts.
As for Rodriguez, the 23-year-old southpaw had been on the disabled list due to a knee injury suffered in spring training. In 2015, he had a 3.85 ERA in 121 2/3 innings over 21 starts with the Red Sox in 2015. He will start Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles.
[NESN]