BOSTON - Dave Dombrowski knows he has some work to do with the Red Sox pitching staff.
It's one of the first things he said when questioned by reporters at his introductory press conference.
Later, he'd joke that if they the team threw Eduardo Rodruguez for 162 games, they might be 162-0. That was more of a compliment to Rodriguez than a slight at the rest of the staff.
But the truth is that this Red Sox staff needs a major overhaul somehow. They've got Rodriguez and fellow youngsters Henry Owens and Brian Johnson on the up, and veterans Clay Buchholz, Wade Miley, and Rick Porcello as well.
It would be easy to include any of the pitching prospects in a deal. It would be easy to walk away from Clay Buchholz, or pick up his contract and include him in something. Even Miley's contract isn't that bad. But how does Dombrowski really feel about Porcello?
After all, Dombrowski is the guy who traded Porcello to the Red Sox last offseason. Yes, he drafted him and felt he was good enough to pitch in the rotation for six seasons at a very young age. But when it came time to decide if he was worth a contract extension, Dombrowski said no thanks, and instead traded him for Yoenis Cespedes and Alex Wilson.
That's when Ben Cherington signed Porcello to a four-year, $82.5 million extension. With Cherington now gone and Dombrowski in, he's stuck with the player he traded away not even a year ago. And this time, he's stuck with his big contract, too. It's one thing if Porcello was living up to it - or even remotely close to living up to it - but through his first season with the team, that hasn't been the case. Porcello is 5-11 with a 5.81 ERA and 1.44 WHIP. He's going to have one rehab outing this weekend and then should return to the team after triceps soreness.
Porcello, like the rest of his Red Sox teammates, was surprised to hear that Cherington was out as GM and Dombrowski was the new man in charge. He wanted to give it a day before he made much of a comment, but did say he was looking forward to it.
Trading Porcello again may not be in the cards right now for Dombrowski, not without eating a lot of that money, anyways. Instead, it's on him to figure out what's different this season with Porcello and go from there.
"First of all I think Rick Porcello has the ability to be a very solid major league pitcher," Dombrowski said. "He's a young pitcher that's been through a lot, he was always a tough competitor. I really don't know what's happened to him here this year because I haven't seen him pitch very often. I'm surprised that he hasn't done better. I'm not really sure why. I'll be very interested to find out what people's observations are. When we traded him, we didn't think we were in a position to re-sign him longterm. We liked him. Thought he'd be a real solid guy but we probably weren't going to pay him the terms that were necessary to have him stay. We always thought he'd be a good big league pitcher and still do. I'm very surprised that he hasn't been better and I'm not sure why. I'll be anxious to find out."
