Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
There sometimes is not anything worse with a team then when acquires a player with all the promise in the world and then signs them to a big contract only to have that player not work out. That has been the case with the Boston Red Sox and Rick Porcello. Porcello was acquired from the Detroit Tigers and was then signed to a $82 million extension before he had even thrown one pitch for the Red Sox. So far, it hasn’t worked out.
Maybe it is the pressure of signing such a big extension, maybe he has some sort of physical ailment that we don’t know about, but over the last month or so, he has looked terrible. It seems as though every time Boston has been able to score any amount of runs at all, Porcello gives them up just as quickly. The shutdown inning seems completely elusive to him. As it stands at this moment, he has four wins and eight losses and a 5.61 earned run average. Those are not numbers you want to see for a pitcher who you invested a lot of money in.
Porcello seems to have the aura of an ace. Having come from Detroit and been teammates with Justin Verlander, David Price and Max Scherzer, he must have learned quite a bit from them. Unfortunately, we have seen very small glimpses of his potential.
So far, the much better pitcher and the one who has pitched important games when the Red Sox have really needed it is Wade Miley. He is not signed to a big contract, but, so far, he has been much more consistent and a pitcher that can be counted on, outbursts aside.
Porcello needs to get it together. He does not want to be the poster child for all things wrong with the Red Sox in 2015.
Carter Roane is a Boston Red Sox writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter@CarterGRoane, “Like”him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
