David Price returned, and the Red Sox rotation is finally whole

Listen, we know it’s tough to catch up on everything happening in the baseball world each morning. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, game coverage, and Vines of dudes getting hit in the beans every day. Trying to find all of it while on your way to work or sitting at your desk just isn’t easy. It’s OK, though. We’re going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network, as well as from elsewhere. Please hold your applause until the end, or at least until after you subscribe to the newsletter.

The Red Sox rotation has not been whole at any point in 2017. That’s how Brian Johnson, Kyle Kendrick, and Hector Velazquez all ended up making starts, and also how Boston’s bullpen has cycled through quite a few relievers already, too. David Price returned to make his season debut on Monday, though, finally putting Price, Chris Sale, and Rick Porcello in the rotation all at once. So long as that trio — as well as Eduardo Rodriguez and Drew Pomeranz — can stay healthy, then the Red Sox rotation should be the weapon it was planned to be in a post-David Ortiz world.

Porcello has had some problems with allowing hits, but everything else has looked good from the reigning AL Cy Young winner, and a combination of adjustments and time should fix the batting average on balls in play problem. In some ways, he’s already there, as he has a 3.14 ERA and over 6-1/3 innings per start through his last eight. Sale has been phenomenal in his inaugural Boston campaign, seeing improvements across the board that have allowed him to average over seven innings per start, basically all of them dominant. Price wasn’t perfect in his return, but three runs in five innings with his swing-and-miss stuff is better than what his replacements have been able to manage.

Then there’s Rodriguez, who has quietly been a key piece of Boston’s rotation since returning to it last July: In that span, he’s thrown 133 innings with a 3.05 ERA and over a strikeout per inning. Pomeranz still seems to be a work in progress after arm fatigue in 2016 and some triceps tightness this spring, but with Price back, Rodriguez rolling, Sale doing exactly what he was acquired for (if not more), and Porcello back to being Porcello, Boston can afford to see how he pans out.

Things aren’t perfect for the Sox rotation, especially not with Steven Wright injured and until Johnson proves he’s as good of a depth piece as his early season returns show, but it’s hard to complain given what is here with Price back. Now what’s left is to see if this pitching, pitching, pitching plan of moving on from Ortiz does the job.