Eovaldi: Maybe a fresh start
CLEVELAND — Minus the part about winning a lot of baseball games, what’s old is new again for the Red Sox.
The day after the Red Sox yanked Andrew Cashner out of the rotation and put him in the bullpen, the Red Sox yesterday planned to take former starter Nathan Eovaldi from the bullpen and install him as today’s “opener.”
However, Eovaldi threw two-thirds of an inning out of the bullpen last night, throwing the move into doubt. Regardless, the original decision may have been an unofficial warmup for his return to the rotation.
Another way to look at the moves is that they represent an admission of failure that the club’s midseason acquisition of Cashner (1-4, 8.01 ERA in six starts) and transformation of Eovaldi into a reliever (.340 batting average against, 6.75 ERA, 1.875 WHIP in nine appearances) was a bust.
“I mean, we haven’t used him, we haven’t pitched that much,” manager Alex Cora said about the move, representing acknowledgment that Eovaldi just was not that good as a reliever. “Also, It’s one of those, now with the off days we can be creative. This is one of the ways to be creative.”
Asked to describe the impact Eovaldi made as a reliever, Cora said, “He’s been OK. I mean, 0-2 homer, 0-2 single, it’s part of it. The other day it was the seeingeye singles that tied the game against Kansas City. The stuff is playing, I think, the mix of pitches. I don’t want to say he’s in between, but sometimes, as a reliever, you have to simplify it and not do what he usually does. He did it before but it obviously is a different stage.”
Cora did not make a declaration that Eovaldi would only be a starter the rest of the way. But he hinted at it certainly.
“Let’s start with tomorrow and see where it takes us but there’s a pretty good chance,” Cora said.
Price improving
Starter David Price, who is on the IL with a cyst on his left wrist, is moving in a positive direction.
“He played catch today again” at Fenway, Cora said. “Fastball was good, kind of like when he — the cutter, the changeup, OK, he feels better. Soreness better, so we’ll see tomorrow where we’re at and go from there.”
Reliever Heath Hembree, on the shelf for the second time with right elbow issues, is still not ramping up his baseball activities after receiving an injection.
“I mean, nothing yet as far as playing catch, just recovering from the shot,” Cora said. “We don’t know at this point. The goal is for him to pitch again but obviously we have to make sure he’s healthy. That’s the hope.”
Reliever Ryan Brasier is healthy but still in Pawtucket (Triple A).
“As far as the reports, his fastball location is lacking a little bit,” said Cora, who noted that “his velocity’s back.
“He’s getting people out, we’ve seen it, everybody’s seen the box scores and all that, but i think he’s making strides to the right direction as far as location which is the most important thing, Hopefully we can fix that, we can get that, the hope is to have him here and have an impact.”