The former Red Sox pitcher continues to spend his days building a house from scratch in Vermont, only sporadically checking in on the goings-on in the world lived in for 12 major league seasons.
"I have been following from a distance," the 32-year-old former American League Cy Young Award winner told WEEI.com. "I haven’t watched a lot of the games from start to finish, but I have been looking at the standings and seeing the scores every night. I know in the second half there was a little bit of slide and they bounced back. It has been really cool to see what they have done over the last couple of weeks."
And, as Porcello pointed out, what he has been seeing looks pretty similar to the wave he rode three years before during the Red Sox' 2018 run.
When it comes to Red Sox manager Alex Cora bobbing and weaving his way through the postseason by using starting pitchers in somewhat unorthodox scenarios, nobody understands that dynamic more than Porcello.
He was the first.
Game 1. American League Division Series. Steven Wright, the supposed bridge to closer Craig Kimbrel, had experienced an injury and would be available. The next thing you knew, Porcello was coming out of the Red Sox' bullpen in the eighth inning with the Sox clinging to a one-run lead over the Yankees.
"I remember during batting practice him coming up and saying Steven Wright was able to go and him asking if I could be ready to come out of the bullpen. Of course, I said, ‘Hell yeah.’ From there on I just kind of stopped doing my batting practice routine and changed mentally," Porcello remembered.
It was the first of many outside-the-box maneuvers that Cora executed, with Porcello going on to pitch another lock-down eighth inning in the American League Championship Series while also turning in three solid starts (giving up just one run in his outings against the Yankees and Dodgers).
There would also be key relief appearances by both Nathan Eovaldi, Eduardo Rodriguez and Chris Sale, who threw the final pitch of the 2018 World Series.
But it was the Porcello move in the ALDS opener, however, that seemed to set the tone for Cora's mindset, which has seemingly carried over this postseason.
"Just his willingness to go to any one of us in any situation and really his ability to read how each guy was throwing the ball at that particular time in the postseason," Porcello said of Cora. "His moves to bring in Nate at certain times, myself and Sale. He did a great job as a manager to utilize that and we were all willing to do it.
"I think it was just kind of something that really was going on that entire year. That’s what made the season so special. It felt like every game we played or every tight ballgame somebody would come up with a big hit and the right guy was up at the right time. I think it carried over to the postseason. The best part of it was completely that kind of year from start to finish because it was such a special year. That doesn’t happen very often in baseball where all of those things go right for you. I think it was really just a domino effect from what was going on the entire season."
Porcello didn't pitch this season after spending 2020 with the Mets. His focus for the time being is finishing off this construction project. But the righty's presence undeniably continues to be felt, with the likes of Rodriguez and Sale making numerous references to the legacy Porcello left behind.
Three years later, the pitcher's influence (and manager's strategy) has carried over.
"I definitely appreciate that, and those guys are my boys," said Porcello regarding the kind words said by his former teammates. "We spent a lot of time together and saw each other succeed and struggle and were there to celebrate and support. For them to say that it definitely means a lot. But watching them now, they have their own thing going on and they have some really good momentum to build off of. Hopefully, they can get that magic again. I think they have it. Just take that magic that they experienced in 2018 and run with it."
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