Catching up with Michael Wacha
A rough week for the Red Sox just got rougher with two news items that dropped late Friday.
Michael Wacha and Nathan Eovaldi, two pitchers who were with the team in 2022 (and Eovaldi for much longer) were allowed to walk in free agency. Each won their respective league’s Pitcher of the Month award for May 2023. Eovaldi, now with the Texas Rangers,went 4-0 with a 0.96 ERA in five starts, while Wacha, now with Xander Bogaerts’ San Diego Padres, went 3-0 with a 0.84 ERA over five starts as well.
Cue local sportscasting legend Bob Lobel saying, “Hey, how come we can’t get guys like that?”
Wacha pitched only one season, 2022, for the Red Sox, but was incredibly effective when healthy in what was a massive comeback season, going 11-2 with a 3.32 ERA over 23 starts. He was not offered a deal by the Sox and left for the west coast, signing a very affordable four year $26 million deal with the Padres. After a bumpy April he's settled in nicely now in the rotation for the underperforming Padres team that has a massive budget and significant postseason dreams.
Eovaldi, a staple on the Sox rotation the last half decade and a World Series hero from 2018, was offered a deal to remain but not good enough to retain the hard throwing righty. He did have but one completely healthy season, 2021, where he made 32 starts, which may have factored into their unpopular decision to let him walk. He signed a two year $34 million deal with the Rangers to pitch in a hitter friendly atmosphere in Arlington, TX where the Rangers are off to a white hot 36-20 first place start. He’s responded quite well, going 7-2 with a 2.42 ERA and two complete games to start the season, not to mention the distinction for May in the AL.
In choosing to not offer either pitcher a deal the Sox have leaned on the likes of the oft-injured Sale, James Paxton (who’s been good since returning), Garrett Whitlock who himself has been injured, promising young righty Bryan Bello, Tanner Houck and others. They currently sit 24th out of 30 MLB teams with a staff ERA of 4.65. Hard to imagine how Wacha and Eovaldi, who both enjoyed their time in Boston and wanted to remain with the team, could have contributed on a team in transition/flux/rebuild mode/bridge year.
That was sarcasm.
The Red Sox, 29-27 on the year and fifth in the AL East, lost a home series to the Cincinnati Reds, then saw starter Chris Sale exit a game Thursday and find himself on the IL, again, with an inflamed shoulder. Then they see two starters who could have been with the team get rewarded for their excellence of late. Not a great week in what’s been an uneven season to date.