Boston Red Sox face Clay Buchholz decision

One of Dave Dombrowski’s first major challenges as the head of baseball operations for the Boston Red Sox will be deciding what to do with Clay Buchholz. The longtime mainstay of the BoSox rotation has a $13 million team option for the 2016 season.

More from Call to the Pen

Health issues have been a frequent problem throughout Buchholz’s career, and the current season has been no exception. The right-hander has been limited to 18 starts due to a strain of his right flexor tendon.

Those 18 outings, however, were pretty darn good. Buchholz posted a 3.26 ERA over 113.1 innings of work. He was managing a 4.65 K/BB ratio, which would have been the best of his career by a wide margin.

It was shaping up to be a very nice bounce-back performance from a poor 2014 season in which Buchholz sputtered to a 5.34 ERA in 170.1 frames. He was showing significant improvement in virtually every metric this year before going down with his injury in early July.

We’ll never know if Buchholz would have completed the season in the same manner he started it, but Dombrowski and his colleagues in the new-look Red Sox front office will need to predict what they might be able to expect from him moving forward.

An injury-abbreviated campaign is not exactly new ground for Buchholz, but he remains optimistic amid the setbacks. Though most expect him to not pitch again this season, Buchholz recently aired his desire to throw at least one inning before the end of the year. That might be a pipe dream, but it’s clear the veteran hurler wants to position himself to get off to a fast start in 2016.

But will that season begin with Buchholz still in a Boston uniform? It depends on whether the new Sox brass values him at $13 million. If he can remain fairly healthy throughout the campaign and pitch like he was this year before getting hurt, that amount would likely be considered a good value. However, does Dombrowski want to roll that dice, or would he prefer to look in a different direction?

Though the BoSox have experienced a rough and disappointing year in 2015, they have played better of late, and a variety of names in their rotation are presenting solid auditions for important roles next season.

Rookie lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, acquired from the Orioles in last season’s Andrew Miller swap, has pitched to a 3.94 ERA through his first 109.2 innings in the big leagues. Wade Miley overcame a struggle-filled first half and has a 3.87 ERA since the All-Star break. Rick Porcello, who was making his $82.5 million offseason extension look like an outright disaster, has put up a 3.10 ERA in his last eight starts dating back to July 8.

With several options already in-house, the Red Sox may not feel especially desperate to re-up Buchholz. They also have a whole lot of money already tied up throughout the roster, in the aforementioned Porcello, not to mention Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, etc.

Despite its existing financial commitments, the new regime could very well want to start off its reign with a big splash. If that is the plan, it might consider diverting Buchholz’s money toward the shinier names on the pitching market first, like David Price or Johnny Cueto.

Yet after nine seasons with the club, it’s still a bit hard to see the Sox not keeping the familiar face of Buchholz around at least for one more year, even with the cost and risk involved. They could also very well decline the option and try to re-sign him to a cheaper deal, something Buchholz might be agreeable to in order to re-build value.

The Boston Red Sox should be one of the more intriguing teams to monitor this winter as Dombrowski and company get to work. For now, it sounds like Buchholz is focused on making at least one more appearance for the team before worrying about where he’ll be next year.

Next: Yanks' Tanaka stepping up at right time

Home/Boston Red Sox