Boston Red Sox: Can Zack Godley help the pitching staff?
The Boston Red Sox are reportedly nearing an agreement with RHP Zack Godley. Can he help the depleted Boston rotation?
The Boston Red Sox are currently in a tough situation regarding the pitching staff entering the shortened 2020 season. The team certainly has a great need for pitching depth at the moment. Zack Godley can at least help with that.
At the beginning of Spring Training, the Red Sox expected to have a healthy Chris Sale and he is now out for 2020 after having Tommy John Surgery. LHP Eduardo Rodriguez was to take over at the top of the rotation and he has tested positive for COVID-19 and it is not known when he will return.
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Zack Godley has a 4.68 career ERA and posted a very rough 5.97 ERA in 2019 with the Diamondbacks and Blue Jays. That is not very pretty and it’s tough to see Godley doing much better if he winds up with the Sox.
Godley doesn’t have amazing stuff, but he at least has a fairly good curveball which he’ll rely on heavily. He throws the curveball 42% of the time and in 2019 had fairly good results. Batters hit .240 against the curve with just a .308 wOBA.
On the other hand, his sinker was absolutely mashed last year. Batters had a .326 AVG and .430 wOBA against the pitch. To put that into perspective, Christian Yelich had a .442 wOBA and Mike Trout had a .436 wOBA in 2019. No other qualified hitters were over .430.
Essentially every hitter performed at the level Trout and Yelich does against Godley’s sinker. Given that the sinker struggled so much, maybe Boston would try to use the curve even more as the team loves to heavily lean on curveballs.
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Red Sox relievers Matt Barnes and Brandon Workman ranked 1st and 2nd in curveball usage among all MLB pitchers with at least 50 IP. Zack Godley ranked 4th in curveball usage.
The Red Sox might also see if Zack Godley can incorporate his cutter some more as well. He only threw it 16.3% of the time last year but batters only hit .236 with a .318 wOBA against the pitch. This would at least be something worth trying out.
He certainly won’t be anything special for Boston but with some pitch usage adjustments and improvement with the sinker he could at least help give some depth.
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Whether Zack Godley would potentially be used as a starter or bulk reliever could go either way, but he’s at least someone that can possibly give the Red Sox innings and they can’t ask for much more at this point.