Dateline Tampa: Excuse me while I throw up . Okay sorry people, but the Tampa gag reflex kicked in. As Spring training continues to get pushed back and now the possibility of losing regular season games grows and grows (I wonder who predicted this months ago), it’s time to take a hard look at how this will impact the readiness of your favorite players. Especially the pitchers.
Five days before the deadline MLB says will postpone regular-season games, here's the gap between the sides in their latest proposals: CBT: $31M Pre-arb bonus pool: $95M Minimum salary: $135K/player Draft lottery: 3 picks That's a lot to cover in less than a week. Like, a lot. — Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 23, 2022
Don’t even Need The Wayback Machine
All we need to do is look back to 2020 and the shortened covid season as to how pitchers fared with not enough time to ramp up for the season. Fewer games in the grapefruit and cactus leagues directly correlated into pitchers hitting the DL (it’s DL people this is my hill to die on). This will be a season- long issue if the staff is not given the time to get ready to pitch and all the bullpens you throw on your own will not help. As I have said, all we need to look at is 2020
Josh Taylor, Colton Brewer, Nathan Eovaldi, Darwinzon Hernandez, Kyle Hart, Austin Brice and Zack Godley all suffered in-season injuries. This isn’t even including the loss of Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodriguez.
#RedSox rotation depth: Chris Sale Nate Eovaldi (Acquisition) Nick Pivetta Michael Wacha Tanner Houck Garrett Whitlock Kutter Crawford Josh Winckowski Connor Seabold Brayan Bello, Jay Groome, and Chris Murphy are also in AA, with Bryan Mata returning from TJ.#DirtyWater pic.twitter.com/LOMRA2zCTc — Tyler Milliken ⚾️ (@tylermilliken_) November 27, 2021
Now add in the fact that team personnel have been unable to contact anyone on the roster since the lockout began way back on December 2nd. While contact is important between coaches and medical staff at every position, when it comes to the pitching staff it’s paramount. I could have put that in all caps.
Reap what you Sow
We all know that Chris Sale was not himself last year when he came back from Tommy John and Nathan Eovaldi has had issues staying healthy in the past. Nick Pivetta dealt with Covid twice last season – how will his body respond? Matt Barnes broke down after the all star break. I could go on and on and on. But I don’t want to. The bottom line is this isn’t enough time to get starters up and ready to go when the season starts. Pitchers need six to eight weeks to prepare their bodies for what’s to come, for the abuse they are about to put on their shoulders, arms and legs.
Chris Sale live bullpen session on Barnes’s IG; pic.twitter.com/ZSUSjcNLYg — Boston Strong (@BostonStrong_34) February 24, 2022
Hopefully before the lockout began both the starters and relievers were given a diagram to follow to manage their workouts. But this does not, in any way shape or form, replace the need to communicate with coaches and medical staff. And we could end up in the same sinking boat when it comes to the Sox pitching as we all had to witness in 2020
As always you can follow/give me grief on Twitter @Tmurph207