What Rick Porcello needs is an injury
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| (Winslow Townson, USA TODAY Sports) |
Contributing Writer
No need to
sugarcoat it, Rick Porcello stinks this year.
You don’t
need to know that he is 0-7 with an 8.18 ERA in his last eight starts or that
his 6.08 ERA is 97th out of 98 qualified starters in all of Major League
Baseball to see that the pitcher is lost.
All you had
to do was watch the first inning in Toronto Wednesday. Porcello is a horrible
pitcher right now.
Compounding
the matters is that because of a contract extension that might seem pretty silly in hindsight, Porcello is due to make more than $20 million per season for the next four
years starting next season.
Wow. Ben
Cherington must be having some really big buyers’ remorse over that one.
In defense
of the Red Sox general manager, though, locking up Porcello long term seemed
like a really good idea after the Red Sox traded Yoenis Céspedes for in the offseason. Of
course, the Red Sox got Céspedes in the Jon Lester trade, so Porcello is
basically the direct replacement for Lester and his two World Series rings.
Bottom line, the Red
Sox need Porcello to live up to his contract. He has to. If not this year, then
next year. Dumping him right now isn’t an option, so they must to fix him.
What he needs is an injury.
No, I’m not saying we
need to give this guy the Nancy Kerrigan treatment. We’ll save that option for
Pablo Sandoval if he doesn’t start to at least pretend to try to field his
position.
Porcello needs an
injury like the Durham Bulls needed a rainout.
I don’t know, call it a
brain cloud, just put this guy on the 15-day disabled list. Give him the full
two weeks off, then give him a bunch of rehab starts in the minors. Start in
Class A, too.
Among other things, Porcello
clearly needs to work on reestablishing confidence in his fastball. Right now
his ground-ball-inducing two-seam fastball isn’t working, and his four-seam fastball
needs a flight attendant. One of those good-attitude Southwest flight
attendants, too, because the flights have been long ones.
Porcello says he isn’t
hurt, and he appears to be physically fine. Unlike other players, he seems to
give an honest effort every time out, too.
The guy also has a
pretty good track record. He logged 200 innings with a 3.43 ERA last year for
the Tigers, and his “stuff” definitely passes the eye test.
As crazy as it sounds
right now, Porcello has the ability to live up to the contract. He has the ability
to contribute in a big way for the Red Sox down the stretch this season.
First, though, he needs
a good month or so to get over his brain cloud.
