Patrick Sandoval has been playing with fire baserunners all season since returning from Tommy John surgery this year, and it finally blew up on the Red Sox over the weekend. Now we’re hearing that an injury may be playing a role in his performance, even if it’s a small one. Sandoval apparently has been battling a blister on his left foot (the foot he uses to push off the rubber) for most of the year. (Jon Conahan, NESN)
If Sandoval does go on the IL — or if he’s just bumped from the rotation for underperformance — the Sox do have another experienced starter on the roster who could take his rotation spot in Brayan Bello. The problem is that Bello, for whatever reason, is thriving in his long relief role after struggling in the first inning all season long. “Does this mean Brayan can’t start anymore? That’s not the case,” Chad Tracy said. “It’s difficult to ignore how very, very effective he has been coming out of the bullpen in a bulk relief role and taking down innings. So I don’t think that we’ve closed the book on that by any means. It just feels like that’s the way to do it right now.” (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)
Bello is pitching so well in his long relief role that it’s hard not to think about what the narrative of his season would be if he was able to perform this way as a conventional starter. He has an ERA of 0.85 in over 50 relief innings, and if he were performing anywhere close to that while starting games, we’d be talking about him having a career year and thrusting himself into the Cy Young conversation. As it stands, Cam Schlittler of the Yankees seems to have that award locked up, though Sonny Gray is currently projected to finish fifth. (Jason Foster, MLB.com)
Sonny Gray is rightly heralded as one of the best offseason acquisitions any big league team has made this year. But, so far, the Red Sox trade deadline acquisitions aren’t faring nearly as well. (Rob Bradford, WEEI)
Bello isn’t the only Red Sox veteran who went missing from this team for most of the middle of the season, of course. Trevor Story has been out since mid-May recovering from sports hernia surgery, after struggling through the first weeks of the season. But he now hopes to return as early as Friday. It’s fair to ask whether he still should get the nod at shortstop given his poor performance before hitting the IL, but Chad Tracy says the goal is for him to be the everyday shortstop again. (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)
If he does make it back to the big leagues this week, Story won’t be the first one to make the trip East from Worcester. Reliever Wyatt Olds made the drive yesterday, after being called up to make his MLB debut in place of Raymond Burgos. But before he headed to Boston, he got pranked by the Woo Sox coaching staff. (Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald)