Boston Red Sox: David Price won’t make a start until May
The Boston Red Sox are expected to win the American League East and travel deep into the playoffs, but there already seems to be a bump in the road.
When the Boston Red Sox landed Chris Sale in a trade in December, they were on their way to building the newest and scariest super-rotation. Sale, partnered with former Cy-Young winners Rick Porcello and David Price isn’t an easy trio for any team to lineup against. But, it looks like the full trio won’t come to fruition to start the season.
It was announced this week that Price won’t pitch in a game until at least May. Manager John Farrell told the media that Price isn’t ready to begin a throwing program for a few more days and he isn’t ready to make any starts.
Boston Red Sox
Price was experiencing elbow pain at the beginning of Spring Training and has been sidelined with the injury since Feb. 28. He visited Dr. James Andrews who concluded that Price would not need Tommy John surgery.
General manager Dave Dombrowski is optimistic that Price will recover from the injury with no real issues. He spoke with CSNNE.com about the Red Sox pitcher.
“I think he’ll be fine based upon what the doctors have told me, what David feels,” said Red Sox president of baseball operations Dombrowski. “We got to take our time. You don’t ever want to rush that. I’m sure that we could have pushed him a little bit further at this point even quicker. I think he’ll be fine. And I think that he’ll be a good pitcher.”
Price pitched well, especially in the second-half of the 2016 season, but failed to impress in his one playoff start that the Red Sox dropped to the Cleveland Indians on their run to a World Series appearance. Price has been borderline bullied on social media from Red Sox Nation about winning in the playoffs, but his regular season numbers are overlooked.
The southpaw led the league in games started, innings pitched and batters faced. He compiled a 17-9 record with a 3.99 ERA. Per usual, Price struck out a ton of batters, good enough for fourth most in the American League. Concerns came from the amount of hits he allowed, the most in the MLB and his high ERA. But, to cut the guy some slack, he did face more batters than anyone in the league.
Yes, the Sox still have Sale and Porcello, which is much more than most teams can say. But losing out on starts from Price isn’t going to be easy to overcome. The Red Sox are also dealing with consistent injuries from Drew Pomeranz, Steven Wright hasn’t pitched in a big league game since late August and it’s unclear which Eduardo Rodriguez takes the mound every start.
Next: Pablo Sandoval is proving to be a starter once again
The Boston Red Sox should be able to get by with a winning record in the absence of a guy who pitches every five days, and they should be thankful that the injury isn’t more serious, but nonetheless it is disappointing that the super rotation is being put on the back burner for now.