Nathan Eovaldi is already throwing 100 mph and is ready to go deeper into games than most pitchers are expected to when baseball returns.
Starting pitching won’t be the same in 2020.
While Nathan Eovaldi tickled 100 mph and revealed he’d been throwing six-inning sessions during the coronavirus break after Day 2 of the Red Sox’ workouts on Saturday, starters across the majors were telling a different story.
In Cincinnati, the Reds are looking at a four-man rotation where starters piggy-back off each other with three- or four-inning outings.
In San Francisco, Giants’ Manager Gabe Kapler said he doesn’t expect his starters to throw more than three innings the first time through the rotation.
In Tampa Bay, it was reported that Rays’ righty Charlie Morton is expecting to throw four innings when the season starts.
It’s the new age of baseball – starters are being pushed not in length, but to maximize power over shorter durations. The 60-game season will allow teams to experiment with a four-man staff and shorter-burst outings.
But the Red Sox aren’t looking at doing that.
They’ve prepared for nothing unusual, treating the 2020 season like it was any other, expecting a five-man rotation despite having only three proven big league starters, one, Martin Perez, who has been among the worst in the game at striking people out, and another (Eduardo Rodriguez) who has yet to report to camp while he awaits coronavirus testing after coming in contact with someone who had it.
