McAdam: Nathan Eovaldi's first bullpen appearance is a shaky one

Since they announced their intention to re-introduce Nathan Eovaldi back into the pitching staff via the bullpen, there's been great anticipation around his return.

When Dave Dombrowski announced the trade for Andrew Cashner nine days ago and the subject of acquiring bullpen help came up, the Red Sox president of baseball operations seemed almost offended that people were minimizing the potential impact Eovaldi would bring.

"For some reason, people don't seem to grasp on to the fact that he'll be a big addition for us (in the bullpen),'' said Dombrowski.

That narrative conveniently ignored a couple of factors.



One, Eovaldi ended up missing almost exactly three months with bone chips in his elbow and biceps tendinitis, and for someone who has undergone two surgeries in the last year and two Tommy John surgeries in his career, durability has not exactly been a strong point.

Secondly, despite a heroic six-inning stint in Game 3 of the World Series last October, Eovaldi didn't have a ton of experience (eight appearances) pitching in relief in the big leagues and critically, had never recorded a single save.

So while Eovaldi was far from a sure thing for the bullpen, the Red Sox have been acting as though his arrival is tantamount to acquiring a proven closer.

That's not the case and if you needed further evidence, we direct your attention to the eighth inning at Tropicana Field on Monday night.

The Sox were comfortably ahead, 8-0, at the time and it seemed the perfect opportunity to get Eovaldi's accustomed to the role: come in, throw strikes and get the routine down.

But it didn't work out that way. First came a slow roller that Rafael Devers couldn't nab with his bare hand. Next, Eovaldi yanked a wild pitch, sending Guillermo Heredia to scoring position. Then came a hard-hit double into the left-field corner by Travis D'Arnaud, scoring Heredia. Then, before a strikeout of Tommy Pham, came another wild pitch, allowing D'Arnaud to take third. Austin Meadows smoked another double, this one to right, scoring D'Arnaud.

Two more singles sandwiched around a strikeout delivered another run and left two baserunners for Matt Barnes to clean up.

The damage: five hits allowed, three runs scored and two wild pitches.

It was far from a shutdown performance.

"Just one (appearance),'' shrugged Cora. "It happens.''

Indeed it does, and it's far too early to suggest that Eovaldi isn't suited for the role based on one outing. He deserves more time and an opportunity to learn about the role and make adjustments. If you were expecting the second coming of Goose Gossage from the get-go, the expectations weren't very realistic.

There were, to be fair, some positives. Eovaldi consistently hit 98-99 mph with his fastball and did record strikeouts.

But simply flashing high 90s heat isn't enough to get big outs at the end of games. Eovaldi won't need to mix in four or five different pitches the way he did when he was starting games, but he'll need to offer something more than a premium fastball to succeed in this role.

"I felt fine out there,'' he said, "but I've got to do a better job of locating my secondary pitches. I felt like everything was missing (over the) middle and late in the game, they're trying to get hits and they were able to do that.''

Eovaldi needs time to figure out a routine, how to prepare and adjust to the new role. The problem is, the Red Sox don't have much time to offer. They're in the middle of a critical stretch of games in which they face only the Rays and the New York Yankees for the next 14 games, and while the Rays don't intimidate you with their lineup, the Yanks surely do.

Again, this is not the same as acquiring someone who's already comfortable with the role and familiar with what's expected of him. This is a case of a major league pitcher who's made 95 percent of his major league appearances at the beginning of games, not the end.

There's an urgency here. A blown lead late in a game could make the difference between the Red Sox going out and getting more relief help or deciding that this isn't their year and shifting into sell mode.

That's a lot of pressure to put on someone new to the job. And yet, that's what Eovaldi is facing.

It's not his fault. It's the fault of the Red Sox, who believed they had all the answers for the bullpen last offseason, only to find out, upon further review, that they did not.

And now it's Eovaldi's job to bail them out. In a hurry.

"It didn't go as I planned,'' conceded Eovaldi of his first crack at the new job, "but the most important thing is, I feel really good and excited to be out there. ... It's just something I've got to get used to and do better next time when I get out there.''