Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
The Boston Red Sox finished 2014 with a 71-91 record which is unacceptable for a team of their stature. As a result, general manager Ben Cherington used this past offseason to make big waves in free agency and make sure the team wouldn’t have a repeat in 2015. Cherington signed third baseman Pablo Sandoval to a five-year, $95 million contract after Sandoval and the San Francisco Giants won the 2014 World Series. Next, Cherington inked left fielder Hanley Ramirez to a four-year, $88 million deal. These two signings showed that the Red Sox were serious about competing in 2015, but Cherington forgot one thing — a team needs pitching too.
After losing Jon Lester in free agency to the Chicago Cubs, the Red Sox had essentially no rotation. Clay Buchholz and Joe Kelly were the lone holdovers, but Buchholz is the most inconsistent pitcher in MLB and Kelly has yet to prove that he can hold up with the rigors of an entire season. Cherington ended up filling the other positions in the rotation by signing free agent Justin Masterson and trading for Wade Miley and Rick Porcello. Who in their right mind thinks that’s a playoff caliber rotation? Porcello is a decent No. 2 or 3 starter, but besides him, the other four would be nothing better than a No. 5 starter in a playoff caliber rotation. Masterson, Kelly and possibly even Buchholz would likely not even make the majority of teams’ staffs.
It’s not only the starters, as Cherington did nothing of significance to improve the bullpen either. He brought in cheap options like Edward Mujica, who was recently designated for assignment, and Alexi Ogando, but they are just warm bodies to fill out the rest of the bullpen. Cherington also decided it was best to keep an oft-injured and aging closer Koji Uehara in the same role for another season. The rest of the bullpen, Craig Breslow, Robbie Ross Jr., Tommy Layne and Junichi Tazawa, does nothing to scare opponents late in games. Seriously, how did Cherington think with a rotation and bullpen in this shape would lead to a successful season?
This leads me to yesterday’s news that Cherington fired pitching coach Juan Nieves. This is simply a case of a GM needing to find someone to be the scapegoat instead of admitting his own wrongdoings. Nieves could be one the greatest pitching coaches in MLB, but we will never know because he was never given a comprehensive group of pitchers to work with.
In this league, it’s impossible to win without talent, yet Cherington expected Nieves to produce diamonds out of coal. The Red Sox will not be prepared to compete until their general manager gets off his high horse, accepts responsibility for his actions and makes some alterations to the pitching staff.
Jason Fletcher is a MLB writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @JasonFletcher25, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to you network on Google+.
