Eovaldi is being asked to lead this rotation….again

If you asked me who has the most pressure going into this Red Sox season it would once again be Nathan Eovaldi. Last year he was the ace of the rotation, after Chris Sale under went Tommy John and ERod got a bad case of the Covid in 2020 and slowly made his return in 2021. Once again we are back to who will carry the load since Chris Sale sneezed and cracked a rib back in February and just got thrown on the 60 day DL. So, can Eovaldi do it again?

In 2021 he pitched his most innings with 182. 1 that was the most he had sine 2014, while pitching for the Marlins he had 199.2 innings pitched and went 6-14 with a 4.37 ERA. So my biggest question is can his body with stand that and what did he do the following season after pitching so many innings. Well he went to the Yankees and pitched 154 innings and went 14-3 with a 4.20 ERA. Though it was 7 years ago and obviously your body goes through some sort of change, it shows that his arm can handle that back to back years.

The batting order this year can rake 1-6 spots. I have no fear in that, the fear once again is this pitching staff and it starts with Eovaldi. If he can pitch like he did last year that saw him go 11-9 with a 3.75 ERA he will be the Ace this team needs and maybe move on from Chris Sale later in the year because he is turning out to be top 5 worst contracts in Red Sox history. The nerds will have their finger print over this rotation once again and put these guys in the best position, not letting them go past 5 innings but with how bad this bullpen is you may see the starters go deeper into games. Either way I hope Rich is right about Eovaldi and he toot toots all over our ass’s come September.