'Extremely competitive' trio vying for rotation spot

LAKELAND, Fla. -- For the Red Sox to get back to where they want to be, manager Alex Cora has stressed since the end of last season that the theme this spring would be competition -- and perhaps nothing epitomizes that more than the battle for the club's final rotation spot.

Josh Winckowski took the latest crack at landing the gig, allowing one run on two hits (both singles) while striking out two over 2 2/3 innings in Monday afternoon's 2-1 loss to the Tigers at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. With Winckowski attempting to maintain his velocity deeper into games as he transitions from reliever to starter, it was an encouraging sign that the final fastball he threw was his fastest pitch of the day (95.8 mph).

“Felt all right,” Winckowski said afterward. “Wouldn’t say I felt terrible, wouldn’t say I felt my best -- kind of somewhere in the middle.”

Of course, the rotation competition -- one that also features Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck -- isn't going to be decided in one day. In fact, it may very well come to the final days of Spring Training, but that might not be such a bad thing for a Boston club that finished 78-84 in each of the past two seasons.

"There’s a standard here, and for you to make it to October, you have to play a lot better," Cora said. "They’re doing that. They all get along, they all help each other. We know what we’re looking for and what we want them to be in a few weeks, and hopefully, it works out.”

Though the Red Sox finished under .500 and were largely an afterthought in the postseason race down the stretch in both 2022 and '23, they weren't as far off as it may seem.

In 2022, Boston held the top American League Wild Card spot as late as July 11, and it sat only two games back in the AL Wild Card race at the All-Star break. The end result was a last-place finish in the AL East, eight games back of the final AL Wild Card spot.

Last year, the Red Sox were only two games back of the final AL Wild Card berth at the All-Star break. They remained six games over .500 as late as Sept. 4 before a 6-18 finish down the stretch left them with another last-place finish, 11 games away from a postseason bid.

"As a team, the last two years, we were one game, two games back from the Wild Card spot [late in the season]," Cora said. "And we competed, but not at this level."

Boston has gone just 20-33 in September over the past two seasons. Only three teams (the Nats, A's and Rockies) have a worse September record during that stretch.

And that's why Cora wants to raise the level of competition in the clubhouse this spring -- and it all begins in the starting rotation.

A friendly rivalry has the potential to not only help each candidate unlock another level, but also set up the Red Sox to enter 2024 with trusted rotation depth. Regardless of who ultimately wins the job out of camp, it's likely that all three will be called on to start at some point.

Plus, the two pitchers who aren’t in the rotation come Opening Day will likely be asked to handle important innings out of the bullpen, though it is possible that one could head to Triple-A to stay stretched out.

“We're all extremely competitive,” Winckowski said. “Obviously, I have a ton of respect for Whitlock and Houck -- they’re probably two of the guys I've been closest to since I've come up to the big league team. So like I said, ton of respect for them and the pitchers they are on the mound, and I know we're all going to give it our best.”

While the Red Sox would certainly like to cut down on the number of starters they used a season ago -- only two teams used more starting pitchers than Boston's 17 -- no team is going to lean on only five pitchers for the duration of a Major League Baseball season. After all, only three teams used fewer than 10 starters in 2023: the Blue Jays (eight), Nationals (eight) and Orioles (nine).

So no matter who begins the season as the No. 5 starter, the other two are likely to slot in as Nos. 6 and 7 for whenever the Red Sox need to dip into that depth.

“At the end of the day, I know we're all going to help the ballclub,” Winckowski said of the pitching trio. “So as long as I'm helping the team win during the year, that's all that matters to me.”