How Will Boston Red Sox Handle Rookie Starters Increased Workloads?
The Red Sox have relied heavily on a trio of rookie left-handers; as a result, they're all on pace to pitch more than ever before.
Video Transcript
What's up everyone?
Zach Coe here for Roundtable.
Wanted to take a minute to talk about a little bit of a developing situation that the Boston Red Sox pitching staff and their infrastructure is gonna have to keep an eye on as the season progresses, and that is the workload of their trio of rookie lefties, Peyton Tully, Jake Bennett, and Connelly Early.
All three of whom are on pace to soar over their career highs in innings pitched.
Of course, we've already seen Early land on the injured list with an elbow injury that seemingly cropped up out of nowhere.
It came as he was just 12 innings away from reaching his career high of 103 and two-third innings, which he set in 2024.
Now, Early wasn't showing signs of wear leading up to this injury, but Peyton Tully is starting to show a little bit of signs of wear, including seeing his fastball velocity tick down.
Now it's only half a mile an hour, but he's also struggled to compete on regular four-day rest, posting a 5.23 ERA in four starts compared to the 2.68 ERA he's posted in nine starts with five or six days between starts.
Now, Tully, like Early, is inching closer to that career high limits.
He's just 17 and a third innings behind the 91 and two-thirds he threw in 2025.
And while Bennett has a little bit more wear on his arm, he has a career high of 117 innings during his time at the University of Oklahoma.
Since becoming a professional, his career high is 95 and a third, and he hasn't shown the same signs of wear that Tully has shown.
But as Early just showed us, these types of injuries can seemingly crop up out of nowhere.
Now, Red Sox Senior Director of Player Development, Brian Abraham, was on the Baseball Isn't Boring show, and was asked about the organization's philosophy on innings increases and gave us a look at how the Red Sox could manage that trio of rookie lefties, saying that there's a lot of things that come into play, like whether or not the team is in the pennant race or in the playoff race, and that could determine the way that they handle things.
At 39 and 48, the Red Sox are on the outskirts of the American League playoff picture, four games behind that final wildcard spot.
So if they continue to fall further down the standings, could Tully, Bennett, and potentially Early, health provided, find themselves shut down?
Well, it gets a little complicated there.
Prior to Early's injury, the thought was that Patrick Sandoval would be activated off the injured list and shift the Red Sox rotation to a six-man unit to provide some relief to those rookies.
However, now that Early's injured, Sandoval figures to take that spot in the rotation, and now Ranger Surez' injury status is up in the air after leaving Sunday night's start.
They may not be afforded that luxury.
This is a Red Sox rotation that is already without Garrett Crochet, Johan Oviedo, and Cutter Crawford.
If they don't get at least two of those guys back, it may be up to Bryan Bello and then a patchwork of bullpen games to claw your way through the end of this 2026 season.
With Sandoval seeming to be a prime trade candidate, if he can get a couple solid starts in upon his activation, it seems like the Red Sox might not have any choice other than to ride these rookies well beyond their career high, but it certainly comes at a risk of their future health and long-term success, something that Abraham said that they really didn't wanna do.
Depending on how things shake out as the season progresses, the Red Sox may be put between a rock and a hard place.
