| 27 March 2009
John Farrell told the Globe that Justin Masterson's fate depends largely on Brad Penny's health and progression.
[Penny's] next outing is "to be announced," according to Farrell. Masterson will throw a bullpen in two days, then "large in part because of how Brad gets through his start on Saturday against Minnesota, provided there's no health issues there, I think once we gather that additional information we'll have a better read on what we do with Justin in the final week of spring training."
If Penny isn't ready for his projected start on April 12, I expected Clay Buchholz to get the call, but it appears that the Red Sox are leaning towards keeping Masterson stretched out until Penny is ready.
Farrell said that Clay Buchholz is still in the mix for the fifth starter spot, though Masterson looks to be the favorite right now, despite Buchholz's impressive spring performance. Farrell did say the spring has also gone well for Masterson.
"As we had hoped, particularly bringing him in under the situation of providing an option as a starting pitcher for us, which he still clearly is an option for us," Farrell said. "Part of that is to get him out to this level of pitch count and potentially beyond. A number of things factor in to that, certainly the performance of others and the health of others. He's doing everything we could have anticipated."
Bottom Line: Having too many capable starters to choose from is a good problem to have.
I don't know the details of Buchholz' contract status, but if Masterson was set to make the 25-man roster either way, perhaps the Red Sox are thinking like the Tampa Bay Rays... keeping Buchholz in AAA, like the Rays are doing with phenom David Price, make economical sense, despite both pitchers proven abilities.
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