Boston Red Sox: Should Clay Buchholz or Drew Pomeranz be traded?
With rumors already beginning to swirl, the Boston Red Sox have to make a decision between trading pitchers Clay Buchholz or Drew Pomeranz.
After the Boston Red Sox traded for All-Star pitcher Chris Sale, there are now three pitchers that are definitely in the Opening Day starting rotation: Sale, Rick Porcello, and David Price.
Now I am just assuming that the next two rotation spots would go to 2016 All-Star Steven Wright and young gun Eduardo Rodriguez.
If that were the case, you now have two other starting pitchers missing the cut. Those pitchers being Drew Pomeranz and Clay Buchholz. So what does President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski do with them?
If we are being honest, no matter what Dombrowski decides on doing, Red Sox Nation is going to have a love-hate relationship with either pitcher during the 2017 season.
We all know the story with Buchholz. The man can’t seem to find a steady groove that lasts an entire season. But even if he does find that so called groove, it will probably be cut short due to injury.
Earlier in the offseason, Dombrowski tried to make a deal with the Miami Marlins which included Buchholz, but was declined.
Some say that after a late surge last season from Buchholz will continue into next year, but who are we kidding? We never know until he steps onto the mound.
MLB writer Ian Browne wrote about why the Red Sox should try to trade Buchholz.
“Buchholz is entering the final season of a six-year extension (including two option years) he signed with Boston back in 2011. He is set to earn $13.5 million. If the Red Sox can move that salary, they will be able to have a more realistic chance of achieving their goal of staying below the luxury tax.” Browne said. “Also, Buchholz built some trade value back up with his strong finish last season. By keeping him, Boston risks him getting injured again, or going into another one of his infamous slumps.”
With Pomeranz, his story theme can be the same as Buchholz: inconsistency.
When Pomeranz was traded from the San Diego Padres, he was coming off his first appearance in last years MLB All-Star game. Some thought he was the answer to our starting pitching problems, but those people were wrong.
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After Red Sox Nation watched Pomeranz struggle in Beantown, news leaked that the Padres didn’t tell Boston that Pomeranz was suffering some fatigue in his elbow. Could that have been the reason to his failure? Who knows. But should we really keep him around to find out?
What if Pomeranz only shows success pitching in the National League? You see that with a lot of pitchers. One example being San Francisco Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto. In Cueto’s first few years with the Cincinnati Reds, he was one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Then when we got traded to the Kansas City Royals, he wasn’t the pitcher he was in the National League.
In the first half of the 2015 season with the Cincinnati Reds, Cueto went 7-6 with a 2.62 ERA. Then when he got traded to Royals, he went 4-7 with a 4.76 ERA.
But after deciding to sign with the Giants during the following offseason and head back to the National League, he showed the dominance everyone watched in Cincinnati going 18-5 with a 2.79 ERA.
Pitchers say that it is a lot easier to pitch in the National League and based on the numbers, it seems to be true. And that accusation seems to be true for Drew Pomeranz.
If I were in charge, I would keep Buchholz simply because he showed more success out of the bullpen than Pomeranz. I think that if Buchholz were to stay in the bullpen all season, you will have more production than with him as a starter.
Also, it seems like Dombrowski would have a better case when talking to teams about trading away Pomeranz than Buchholz since he was All Star last season.
Dombrowksi always has the habit in shocking most Red Sox fans, so we are just going to have to wait and see.
