McAdam: Red Sox begin to sort out the inner workings of using an 'opener'

LAKELAND, Fla.  -- Already short an established No. 5 starter and with the knowledge that Chris Sale will not be ready to start the season, the Red Sox are contemplating the use of an opener in the rotation.

Manager Ron Roenicke and the rest of the coaching staff got a tutorial on the opener concept from chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom Sunday. While with the Tampa Bay Rays, Bloom helped to introduce the notion of the opener two years ago. By now, if it's not exactly commonplace throughout the game, it's at least a little more prevalent.

As the spring unfolds, the Sox are operating a parallel evaluation track: looking at candidates for the fifth spot, while at the same time, trying to envision how the opener concept could best be applied.

Roenicke confirmed that there's a great deal of overlap between the No. 5 candidates and the pitchers who would serve as the "bulk'' pitcher -- that is, the pitcher who takes over after the opener takes care of an inning or two and supplies the team with four or more innings.


On Monday, Ryan Weber drew the start against the Detroit Tigers. He, along with Brian Johnson and one or two others, are in competition for the fifth spot. But if that doesn't work, Weber and others could be part of the opener experiment, handling the middle innings that bridge the opener with the late-inning bullpen options.

"There were some ups and downs (last season for Weber),'' said Roenicke. "The 'ups' are what we like, because when he's on, he's got his command. He throws strikes -- here it is, this is what I have -- and he could get you through some quick innings. I think anytime we have somebody who we think can consistently get us through a lot of innings, it becomes huge.

"But maybe he's a guy who can fit into that (bulk) spot where he goes four or five. And then maybe you're in the sixth and you decide, whether you're up or down, where you go from there. He probably is a good fit for that, too, because he can come out of the bullpen, he gets loose fast and he's very durable. So, I don't really know yet.''

The plan now is to extend a number of the candidates and build up arm strength. The team will use some in a minor league game in Fort Myers Tuesday while a group heads to Tampa to face the Yankees.

While the Sox sort through a number of candidates for the "bulk" spot, they also must identify pitchers who can serve in the titular opener spot. Recent history suggests that not every reliever is built for that role.

"Durability is important,'' noted Roenicke. "Chaim mentioned that (with the Rays), they had two guys who were coming up in the minor leagues that they liked (for the opener role). One they thought would have a hard time adjusting to starting one day and relieving the next time. It ended up just the opposite. The other guy, who they thought wouldn't have a problem with it, ended up having more of a problem with it.

"So until you do it, you really don't know. Darwinzon (Hernandez) is one probably of those guys. Down the road, this guy could end up a starter. You don't know. And yet, his personality, he's got a lot of emotion. Is that what you want to maybe start off? Because there's going to more emotions when you start a game. So that's a guy we're thinking about and what's best for him to do well. Maybe he does it for a while and then proves that he does the other for a while. We don't know.''

In all likelihood, the Sox won't use any of their high-leverage relievers (Brandon Workman, Matt Barnes) as the opener because that would leave the team short late in games with the lead.

It makes more sense for the Sox to take a look at, say, someone like Heath Hembree or Marcus Walden, preserving the likes of Workman and Barnes to preserve leads in the eighth and ninth.

"You would try to save those guys,'' confirmed Roenicke. "That part at the beginning, with an inning or two from the guy who starts, you're trying to delay that so you can get to those (high-leverage) guys. If you start with (a No. 5 guy) who's only going to give you four or five (innings) and you're up by two runs after the fourth, you're like, 'Man, do we go to our (high-leverage) guys to close this off?' When you're trying to cover five innings (every fifth day), you're going to be in trouble.''