E-Rod left well enough alone
FORT MYERS — We’ll see how that $30 million elbow goes. Because if David Price’s arm bends the wrong way, the second best left-hander the Red Sox have behind Chris Sale in 2017 should be Eduardo Rodriguez.
There have been plenty of reasons lately to be down on the Red Sox rotation. Not because of a lack of quality — Sale and Rick Porcello may still dominate — but because of the question marks practically everywhere else.
Depth, health, repeat performances. Or a lack thereof.
Rodriguez yesterday afternoon gave reason for some optimism. So too did his late-season performance in 2016 when he had a 3.27 ERA in September.
Combine that with the progress he’s made with his slider and some seemingly improved knees, maybe Rodriguez is ready for a steady season.
“In the past I just threw the slider to the back foot and not to the outside corner, but now I can throw to both sides,” Rodriguez said after four scoreless innings in a 6-2 loss to the Astros. “So it’s really good with that.” The slider has more depth to it now, a product of Rodriguez pulling on the bull a little more as he throws it.
“It’s more of a defined pitch,” manager John Farrell said. “There’s better shape to it, more consistent shape. He’s been able to get under some righthanded hitters’ swings to finish them off with.
“From the side view, from the dugout, you have a better read that there’s three distinct pitches versus maybe the changeup and the slider having little to no depth. It’s that pitch that has advanced him a little bit more this spring.”
Not everything can go wrong with the rotation, right? Maybe E-Rod is what goes right.
“This is the first time I can throw in spring training regularly and it feels really good,” Rodriguez said.
Last spring, Rodriguez had a right patella subluxation that screwed up the first half of his season, altering his delivery as he catered to the tender knee.
The concern for the right knee as well as the left are not gone. They never will be, leaving a tiny bit of perpetual anxiety about him.
“There’s maintenance that goes on continually with him,” Farrell said. “It’s mostly the strengthening of the quad and the muscles around both top and bottom of the knee that are going to support that as best possible. He does wear a sleeve (on the right knee), the daily wearing of that, so that’s something new that wasn’t there a year ago.
“That patellar tendon rides in a groove. In his case, that groove is a little bit more shallow than quote-unquote the norm would be. The fact that this has happened to both knees over the course of his pro career, this is something we’ve got to maintain.”
But as long as those knee issues are under control, the ceiling for Rodriguez remains high.
The 23-year-old was perfect for the first eight batters yesterday before a call he didn’t like gave way to two walks. He acknowledged he let the call he didn’t like into his mind.
He’s far from a finished product. But the Red Sox made the right decision keeping Rodriguez from joining Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, given the special care his knees need, and the potential importance Rodriguez might hold in a rotation that still has a lot of disastrous scenarios.
“I want to go, but that’s what happened,” Rodriguez said. “We take the decision to stay here because we’ve been working a lot on the knee and everything.”