Pivetta debuts as Red Sox attempt to avoid basement

BOSTON --- Nick Pivetta became the 28th player to make his Red Sox debut this season when he threw the first pitch of Tuesday night’s game against the Orioles.

No Boston team since 2006 has featured that many fresh faces. Those Red Sox sent 32 new players onto the field in a 162-game schedule, let alone through their first 55. Boston closed in third place at 86-76 – this current club, by losing two games to Baltimore, will clinch the basement of the American League East. [...]

BOSTON --- Nick Pivetta became the 28th player to make his Red Sox debut this season when he threw the first pitch of Tuesday night’s game against the Orioles.

No Boston team since 2006 has featured that many fresh faces. Those Red Sox sent 32 new players onto the field in a 162-game schedule, let alone through their first 55. Boston closed in third place at 86-76 – this current club, by losing two games to Baltimore, will clinch the basement of the American League East.

That’s left something of a revolving door at the Red Sox alternate site in Pawtucket. Boston will wrap up action at its satellite location on Friday and segue into a fall instructional format at its spring training home in Florida. The Red Sox expect to welcome approximately 60 players to JetBlue Park for what should be a six-week camp.

"We’re excited to get some guys down there," said Ben Crockett, Boston’s vice president of player development. "Obviously quite a few hoops to jump through like there were at the alternate site. But if we can do it safely we’re excited to have a number of players there."

There’s an obvious need for Boston to build toward 2021 and beyond. It’s worth wondering just how many of the club’s 40-man roster spots could turn over at the close of this October. Success stories like Tanner Houck and Bobby Dalbec give Crockett and members of the Red Sox system a reason for optimism.

"Any time a young player comes up and makes his debut I’d say the development staff as a whole is on pins and needles and watching very closely," Crockett said. "I think any time you get a chance to see what Tanner has done and what Bobby Dalbec has done as well it’s a big positive and it’s a boost."

Pivetta and Houck should be candidates to fill out a rotation that also could include Chris Sale, Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Eovaldi and Martin Perez. Sale will miss time while recovering from Tommy John surgery and Rodriguez has yet to firm up plans for an offseason program while recovering from myocarditis. Eovaldi has made 30 starts in a season just once since debuting with the Dodgers in 2011.

"Hopefully next year we’ll piece together what we need and what we feel is important to put this team back to where we’re competitive," Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said. "Disappointing season, obviously, for everybody. But I’m thankful that we got through this.

"We’ve stayed healthy with all the COVID – we’ve worked hard on it. The people upstairs worked very hard on trying to keep these guys safe."

Boston came into Tuesday night 20-34, sitting three games behind the Orioles with six to play. The Red Sox are on the verge of finishing last for the fourth time since 2012, and the standings hung on the Green Monster provide Roenicke a nightly reminder of his club’s fate. It’s a far different picture than just two short years ago when Boston bulldozed its way to a franchise-record 108 victories.

"Unless this team is going to the playoffs I think anything else is a disappointment," Roenicke said. "Whether it’s last, third, fourth or fifth – whatever it is – it’s a disappointment. So I don’t really look at it that way.

"But I’ve told you before I don’t like looking at that board and seeing us in last place. Hopefully we’ll finish up good with these six games."

bkoch@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7054

On Twitter: @BillKoch25