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.
Daniel Bard Isn’t Leaving The Red Sox’s Rotation (Yet)
So, the Boston Red Sox are 0-3. They chose to begin the season with Daniel Bard in the rotation, but the bullpen was a problem in the season's first series. I'm going to say that part again, to drive the point home: the season's first series. Are the Red Sox already thinking of deviating from their plan? Ben Cherington says, no, that's silly, you're silly.
Red Sox GM Ben Cherington ... said that his team would not reconsider its decision to commit to Daniel Bard in the rotation.
“Right now, he’s starting [Tuesday] for us. We made a decision this winter collectively to give him a chance to get stretched out in spring training and show us what he can do. We feel like he showed enough in spring training, enough development, to carry that into the season,” said Cherington.
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.
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