FORT MYERS, Fla – And then there was one.
Decision, that is.
The Red Sox have one more determination to make regarding their roster, and that will likely be announced Monday morning.
Following the Red Sox’ 6-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins, manager Alex Cora revealed the team is “probably’’ going to start the season with 12 pitchers. There had been some thought that, with three days off in the first 12 days of the season, the Sox would take the opportunity to open with 11 pitchers, giving them an extra position player which could be valuable in a two-game interleague series in a National League park.
But the Sox also want to protect their starters over the stretch of the first six games in six days, so the team is all but certain to take a dozen pitchers.
That means a traditional seven-man bullpen (Craig Kimbrel, Carson Smith, Joe Kelly, Matt Barnes, Brandon Workman, Heath Hembree and rookie lefty Bobby Poyner), three catchers (Christian Vazquez, Sandy Leon, Blake Swihart), four outfielders (J.D. Martinez, Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr., Mookie Betts), six infielders (Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, Eduardo Nunez, Mitch Moreland, Hanley Ramirez) and, for now, four starters (Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, Brian Johnson).
All that’s left is the identity of the fifth starter, with Hector Velazquez the favorite over both Justin Haley and Marcus Walden.
The Sox were planning to meet Sunday afternoon and evening to go over the final spot, which is expected to be announced Monday.
Velazquez (6.75 ERA) hasn’t exactly wowed anybody with his performance this spring, but the Sox thought he pitched better more recently. He’ll make his final start of the spring Tuesday afternoon against the Cubs.
One clear edge Velazquez has over both Haley and Walden is that Velazquez is already on the 40-man roster, while the other two are not. With one roster spot available, the Sox could use that to add Poyner. But adding either Haley or Walden would require removing someone else from the 40-man roster, and that seems a lot of trouble to go through for a spot starter expected to make no more than two starts.
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Three things we learned from the 6-1 victory over the Twins
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