Pitchers in Pawtucket need to be ready
Boston likely to rely on taxi squad to get through 60-game season
PAWTUCKET – Key takeaways from Day 7 of the Red Sox taxi squad working out at McCoy Stadium:
1). Whether it’s related to COVID-19 or general ineffectiveness on the mound, the Red Sox figure to frequently dip their toes into the pool as it relates to the club’s pitching during this 60-game sprint of a 2020 season.
A roster spot for a pitcher who threw multiple innings the previous night could very well go to a fresh arm who at the moment is biding his time in Pawtucket. A good example of this particular scenario played out earlier this week with Brian Johnson. The lefty threw two innings in Wednesday’s exhibition game against Toronto, hence it would have been unlikely he would have bounced back soon enough to be available for Friday’s season opener against the Orioles.
The Red Sox opted to send Johnson to McCoy Stadium, but don’t expect him to be down here for very long. Other than Nathan Eovaldi and perhaps Martin Perez, Boston’s staff is thin when it comes to starters who can last at least three turns through the batting order.
The need for middle relief figures to be great, hence why pitchers such as Johnson figure to be subjected to roster shuffling where if you’re the freshest arm, the odds of you pitching for the parent club figure to improve greatly.
To that end, PawSox manager Billy McMillon was asked following Friday’s intrasquad scrimmage – one that featured Kyle Hart, Domingo Tapia, and Mike Shawaryn – about the throwing program that enables pitchers to be stretched out while being mindful of the needs in Boston.
“The plan is to look at our pitching depth and look at guys who may be starters [such as Hart] and have them pitch every 3-4 days in an extended roll and have other guys like Domingo go one inning or two innings,” said McMillon. “The goal is not to have all the long guys throw on one day. We’ve got to space it out where every day or couple of days there’s a long guy who’s available for a potential callup.”
2). Hart was one of several new additions to the taxi squad. The list also includes power-hitting infielder Bobby Dalbec, who recently went through his own ordeal with coronavirus, along with infielder Marco Hernandez and outfielder John Andreoli. Johnson was not listed on the roster of players that was distributed to the media.
Right now, the taxi squad that’s training at McCoy features 24 players.
3). With “Dining on the Diamond” starting back up, the Red Sox taxi squad on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday plan to wrap things up by 3 p.m. each day. That includes that day’s intrasquad contest. The other days, the intrasquad scrimmage will begin around 4 p.m.
“The idea behind that is that we don’t want to do it at 10 o’clock in the morning where the guys are conditioned to get up early. But if they get called up to Boston, all of the games [at Fenway Park] will be at 7:30 at night,” said McMillon. “We’re trying to push it back so they can sleep in, but the forecast will also be a factor. If we’re projected to be afternoon showers, we’ll push the workout to earlier in the day to beat the rain.”
It’s not official, but McMillon said if the big-league team has a day off, the same figures to hold true for the taxi squad. If the Red Sox are playing an afternoon game, the group at McCoy could work out earlier in the day.