Strength in numbers: New Red Sox righty Walker Buehler sees club joining trend of Dodgers
Strength in numbers: New Red Sox righty Walker Buehler sees club joining trend of Dodgers
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Walker Buehler won a World Series last year with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that’s stocked with starting pitching.
He left as a free agent for a $21.05 million, one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox, a team also trying to loading up on starting arms.
“I think that’s a big driver in this game now, and the way starting pitching is kind of managed and looked at,” he said this week, sitting at his locker at the team’s spring training complex. “You have to have real depth and you look at LA and all the guys coming back, they have 13 starting pitchers that are at or are major league quality.”
Before agreeing to terms with infielder Alex Bregman on Wednesday, most of Boston’s offseason was spent bolstering its staff.
“I think you’re going to see a lot of teams start doing that,” Buehler said. “I think that’s why the starting pitching market has kind of grown the way it has. I don’t think 30 teams are wrong in approaching the game that you need starting pitching, and a lot of ’em.”
In addition to 30-year-old right-hander Buehler, the Red Sox acquired 25-year-old left-hander Garrett Crochet in a trade with the Chicago White Sox during the winter meetings, and signed 28-year-old lefty Patrick Sandoval, who hopes to return from Tommy John surgery this summer.
The trio join returnees that include All-Star right-hander Tanner Houck and right-handers Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford and Garrett Whitlock. Also, 30-year-old righty Lucas Giolito is throwing well after missing last season after tearing his UCL in spring training.
“Obviously, we’ve got some really talented arms, so I’m really pumped about that,” said Whitlock, who is likely to start the season in the bullpen. “I feel like we’ve got some really, really good depth. Shoot, you look across the room and it’s just like: ‘That’s major league talent right there.’ All-Star talent all throughout all up and down this clubhouse.”
The depth will bring a challenge for some trying to win a starting job when they break camp.
“You’re going to love the competitiveness it brings, and I think that’s going to breed a lot of success here,” Whitlock said.
The added depth has the club considering using a six-man rotation to start the season.
Pitching and defense need improvement
The Red Sox committed a major league-high 217 errors over the last two seasons, including 115 last year when they trailed only Miami’s 117.
At the beginning of last season, Boston’s starters followed a philosophy of pitching coach Andrew Bailey and threw a large amount of breaking pitches. The approach changed during the season.
Manager Alex Cora thinks that having hard throwers on the staff this year and an emphasis on throwing fastballs more often will help decrease errors — along with better work habits by the fielder’s.
“We talk about how we can improve the defense, well, swing and miss is something we have to be better at. We need more punch outs,” he said. “We spun the ball a lot (last year) and teams made adjustments. Velocity-wise we’re in a good spot.”
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
BY KEN POWTAK
Associated Press
