The Boston Red Sox have been very busy this offseason, highlighted by the key big-name acquisitions of 2014 World Series Champion Pablo Sandoval and former Red Sox prospect Hanley Ramirez. These two are two of the top hitters in the game and will no doubt bolster a Red Sox lineup that struggled to score last season. The Red Sox GM, Ben Cherington, has been under pressure to address the pitching staff as well.
Boston certainly has been acquiring plenty of arms after the mass exodus last year of starters Jon Lester, Jake Peavy, John Lackey, and Felix Doubront. However, right now, their opening day starter is likely projected to be Clay Buchholz. While Buchholz has had his moments in a Red Sox uniform, he is by no means an elite big league starter. They have also added the likes of proven starters in Rick Porcello, Wade Miley and Justin Masterson.
Despite all of the moves the Red Sox have made in attempts of moving out of the cellar of the American League East, the most talked about move is the one that they have failed to make. They haven’t been able to go out and sign a top of the rotation starter.
Two things happened in the last six months that have made people think that the lack of a Red Sox ace is a huge weakness on the club. The first is their failure to resign Jon Lester, who was one of the most coveted pitchers on the market this offseason. Many reports say the club blew its chance to resign Lester at a much lower price than he ended up singing for while he was still with the team, thus highlighting the fact that Lester, or someone of a similar pedigree will not be taking the mound on opening day.
The second thing that happened is that we all watched Madison Bumgarner singlehandedly win the San Francisco Giants a World Series last fall. He went 4-1 with a save in 7 appearances, throwing 52.2 innings and finished with a cumulative postseason ERA of 1.03. After watching Bumgarner’s ridiculous Postseason/ World Series run, every fan thinks that their team needs a guy to go out and dominate every fifth day; to carry the club when things aren’t going well.
While it certainly worked for San Francisco last year, it has not necessarily been a winning formula in Major League Baseball in recent memory. The best pitcher in baseball, Clayton Kershaw over the last couple seasons has been bounced early from the playoffs, in large part due to his own struggles. It is impossible to tell who is going to get hot at that time of year, so to build a team revolving around somebody who you are counting on to carry you through a few series in October is not a wise strategy.
Take the previous five World Series winners and their best regular season pitching performers.
2014 San Francisco Giants: Madison Bumgarner 18-10 2.98 ERA
2013 Boston Red Sox: Jon Lester 15-8 3.75 ERA
2012 San Francisco Giants: Matt Cain 16-5 2.79 ERA
2011 St. Louis Cardinals: Kyle Lohse 14-8 3.39 ERA
Jaime Garcia 13-7 3.56 ERA
Chris Carpenter 11-9 3.45 ERA
2010 San Francisco Giants: Tim Lincecum 16-10 3.43 ERA
Matt Cain 13-11 3.14 ERA
Two of these five teams had guys on their roster that had elite pitching seasons. The 2014 Giants with Bumgarner and the 2012 Giants with Matt Cain. However, it is entirely conceivable to see Rick Porcello, Clay Buchholz, or even Wade Miley put up similar numbers to any of the other seasons above.
It might not please all the fans, or be the trendy thing to do right now, but maybe Ben Cherington is right to not overpay for a “top of the line starter.” In a league that is favoring pitchers more and more, maybe people should start realizing that adding two all-star caliber hitters is exactly what the Red Sox needed to turn last season’s struggles around. Not a big name ace.
