The Red Sox announced this morning that the club has activated the right-hander Brian Bellew From the injured list for 15 days. Right-hander Josh Winkowski He was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move. Bellew is scheduled to start this afternoon’s game against the Nationals at Fenway Park.
Bellew, who will celebrate his 25th birthday later this week, has been on the shelf since late April due to a bout of malaise. Before the injury, the right-hander had pitched hard over five starts for the Red Sox this year with a 3.04 ERA and 4.06 FIP in 26 2/3 innings of work. He’s struck out a respectable 23.6% of batters faced and produced ground balls at a rate of 51.3% during that time, though the impressive 19% of his fly balls that have left the yard for home runs stands out as a potential red flag early. Season performance.
That success on the mound has been par for the course among Red Sox players this year, as the club’s 2.42 ERA is the best number in the majors to this point in the season thanks to excellent starts from the likes of Cotter Crawford And Tanner Hawk. With the right Nick Pivetta Having also been activated from the injured list in recent days, the club’s rotation is once again close to full strength. While the right Garrett Whitlock He remains on the shelf due to an oblique, right-handed strain Cooper Cresswell He has performed admirably in his absence with a 2.10 ERA and 3.94 FIP in 25 2/3 innings of work.
Making room for Bellew on the active roster is Winckowski, who turns 26 next month. It’s a somewhat surprising move given his success over the past two seasons. The righty was among the best multi-inning relief arms in all of baseball last year as he posted a 2.88 ERA with a 3.91 FIP in 84 1/3 innings of work across 60 appearances. He hasn’t quite maintained that performance this year, though he still has solid results with a 3.33 ERA and 4.27 FIP in 24 1/3 innings of work.
While this kind of performance seems to warrant a place in the club’s playing field over other optional levers such as Cam Boozer, it’s worth noting that Winckowski’s peripherals have taken a major turn for the worse this year. The right-hander has struggled to miss bats this year as his strikeout rate has dropped from 22.3% last year to just 16.8% this season. Meanwhile, his walk rate rose from 8.4% to 9.7% and his ground ball rate dropped by more than five points from 51.2% last season. These shaky peripheral numbers suggest that regression may have been on the horizon for Winckowski had he stayed in the majors, a possibility supported by his 4.53 xFIP and high 5.43 xERA.
Moving forward, Winckowski will head to the Triple-A level and look to recapture what made him such an effective savior for the club last season while serving as an optional depth arm for the club to rely on alongside the former NPB outfielder. Naoyuki Awasawa. Meanwhile, the Red Sox appear ready to lean on the right-hander Justin Slatten To fill the kind of high-leverage, multi-role role they turned to Winckowski last year. Slaten has pitched in 13 contests this year with a 1.74 ERA and 2.34 FIP in 20 2/3 innings of work.
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