Red Sox Will Keep Daniel Bard In Rotation

Let’s think about this. A baseball team is designed based on months or years of information. Then in spring training, there’s another six weeks for roster fine-tuning. When a team begins a year with a plan, a lot of work and a lot of data has gone into that plan. The team will presumably be confident in that plan.

Cherington wouldn’t close the door on the possibility that Bard could return to the bullpen down the road, but that’s down the road. For now, the Red Sox planned on starting Daniel Bard, so they’ll start Daniel Bard and keep from overreacting to what was simply a bad series. If there are more bad series for the bullpen, perhaps the Red Sox will do something about it. Perhaps they’ll even bump Bard back, if he’s having trouble as a starter. But for the time being, no, the Red Sox are staying calm, and they’d probably like it if the fans and media would stay calm, too. Not that they ever will, about anything.

”Could be.“That could mean several things.

Dismissive: “Yeah, I guess. I mean, that’s a pretty stupid theory this early, but I’m not ruling anything out.”

But, wait. Danger approaches:

But that’s a lot of untested pitching on a roster built to win now. Beckett will be checked out by a doctor in San Antonio soon, and we should know more this week.

Doubront is a 24-year-old lefty who pitched in 11 relief appearances for the Red Sox last year, and he won the job with a 2.70 ERA in three Grapefruit League starts. His minor-league numbers have been good-not-great, though he has missed some time in each of the last two years because of injury:

Bard is a converted reliever, and he’s been the Red Sox’s eighth-inning reliever for most of the last two seasons. And, heck, as long as we’re swapping minor-league stats, take a look at these beauties:

The latest, from Alex Speier:

This spring, Bard has ten walks and six strikeouts. Aceves has zero walks and eight strikeouts. Doubront has five walks and eight strikeouts. It’s only spring - Lester, for example, has five walks and three strikeouts - so decisions shouldn’t be based on just the numbers, but the Red Sox also apparently haven’t been thrilled with how Bard has looked, and that matters. Bard isn’t guaranteed to return to the bullpen, but that is a very good possibility.

Cook’s got himself an injury history, hence the kid gloves. Valentine hasn’t shut the door on Cook making the rotation eventually, but it’s not going to happen out of the gate.

Fortunately for the Red Sox, while Cook is out, Andrew Miller is back in. From the same article:

“Little” in cases like this often means the pitcher’s arm is going to wind up in a sling for six months. Miller had thrown in one spring training game so far this year with a walk and three strikeouts in two innings.

Until then, chalk up another possible cross-off-the-list in Miller.

If the full-court press doesn’t work, they could huddle up and go for an end-around, making a power play for him before throwing a Hail Mary if all else fails.

The baseball season is very, very, very long, so it’s a little presumptuous to chide Oswalt for wanting to stay close to his family. And if this is all a negotiating ploy to make the Red Sox overpay, well, that’s sort of brilliant. And risky. It wouldn’t be as risky as the Red Sox going into the season with the back end of their rotation being held together with crossed fingers and sprite kisses, of course. It’s still the best fit for both sides. It’s just up to Oswalt to a) settle or b) figure that out.