Inside Baseball: Red Sox Can't 'Steal From Future' This Year
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Red Sox didn't lose on Monday night, but that's just because Mother Nature rained out their opener of a four-game series against the Twins at Fenway.
The Red Sox return home following a 1-6 road trip, which included some embarrassing losses in Texas over the weekend. That made WBZ-TV's Dan Roche and 98.5 The Sports Hub's Tony Massarotti wonder how to fix this floundering club on this week's edition of Inside Baseball.
"I would add Brian Johnson to this rotation to go along with Eduardo Rodriguez, and send [Steven] Wright and Joe Kelly to the bullpen," suggested Rochie. "Go from there and see if you can get that infused youth [onto the roster]. Maybe Rodriguez was an example of that."
Johnson is currently 6-3 with a 2.60 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in Pawtucket, with a complete game shutout and 57 strikeouts in 55.1 innings pitched. Rochie is hoping he can follow in the footsteps of Rodriguez, who tossed 7.2 shutout innings in his Major League debut last week earning the Sox their only win in Texas.
Rochie saw a rejuvenated team for that one game, and points to having a rookie making his debut as providing that extra push for the club.
"They need that infusion of, 'get out of the shoot early.' That game, everyone seemed alert and ready to go, and they played good baseball," noted Rochie.
"That was the good part of the trip; the only good part," Mazz said of Rodriguez's debut. "Ball is down in the zone for the most part and [he worked] both sides of the plate… You don't typically see that in a young guy."
Mazz is open to any kind of shakeup with the roster, especially in the rotation. But he isn't very confident the team will be able to put together any long winning streaks due to the inconsistency that still plagues their starting five.
"They have to find a way to carry it over. When you have this kind of team it's hard to build a winning streak because the pitchers get in the way," said Mazz. "Anything that would give them consistency in the rotation, I'm all for."
One thing Mazz does not want to see this season is Boston trading away young talent for high-priced veterans -- unless it's a must-make deal.
"I don't want to see Mookie Betts, Blake Swihart, Rodriguez or Xander Bogaerts go. You need to hang on to these guys. The worst thing you can do now is compound the problem by stealing from the future too and trading some of those young guys for a Cole Hamels or someone of the like," he said. "If there is a good deal to be made, make it. Otherwise, bite the bullet."
Tune in to Inside Baseball every Monday night on the WBZ-TV News at 10 on myTV38! Send in your questions to Rochie (@RochieWBZ) and Mazz (@TonyMassarotti) on Twitter.
