Red Sox Notebook: Alex Cora expects Matt Barnes to be an American League All-Star

After a remarkable start to the season, Red Sox closer Matt Barnes has come back down to earth.

Since May 16, Barnes has a 3.71 ERA while allowing a .701 OPS, right around league average.

But he’s still struck out 28 batters in 17 innings in that span. And overall this season, Barnes is tied with Craig Kimbrel as the second-most valuable reliever in baseball with 1.7 WAR, according to FanGraphs.

There should be no debate about Barnes when All-Star Game rosters are revealed Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

“I mean, there’s a lot of guys that are having great seasons, right?” manager Alex Cora said Saturday. “I don’t think I’ll be fair if I just name a few and then leave others out. I think pitching-wise, the obvious one will be Barnesy. He’s done an amazing job. I think everybody knows it.

“That’s the thing, this is something that’s out of their hands, but if people notice that you were having a good season early, they follow you. There’s a few guys here that have done an amazing job.”

Adam Ottavino, Josh Taylor and Garrett Whitlock have also been remarkably impressive out of the Sox’ bullpen thus far.

Ottavino’s 1.0 WAR is tied for 14th in MLB and eighth among American League relievers, giving him an outside chance of making the team, though it’s likely that Rays manager Kevin Cash, in charge of the AL roster, diversifies his bullpen with players from other teams.

White Sox closer Liam Hendricks is the only AL closer with more saves (21) than Barnes (18), though both have impressive numbers. Cora said he’s not concerned over Barnes’ recent struggles.

“Not really,” he said. “The Vladdy (Guerrero Jr.) one was an 0-2 breaking ball he hung, (Elvis) Andrus was a fastball that cut in the middle of the zone. Not really, we’re not concerned.

“I think obviously, we’ve been using him a lot. We’re in one of those stretches where we’re winning games and playing close games and that’s the nature of the closer. You want to be a closer, you have to be available. We’ll take care of him.”

Cora said Barnes was unavailable to pitch Saturday after blowing the save Friday, when he left a juicy fastball that Andrus hit for a game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth. The Sox won, 3-2, in the 10th.

“I think he’s still attacking the zone,” Cora said of Barnes. “His fastball is still in the zone and with good velocity, the breaking ball is still playing the same. Just happens that teams are going to make adjustments obviously, they know this is not the same guy as the last three or four years, he’s been more aggressive and probably teams are going to be more aggressive with him.”

Rotation shakeup

The Red Sox will mix up their starting rotation coming out of the All-Star break, Cora said.

The training staff has been monitoring the starters’ workload in order to keep them healthy after the short season in 2020.

Sox starters rank fifth in MLB while averaging 88 pitches per game.

“We do a good job start by start, knowing if it was a stressful one, if it was an easy one,” Cora said. “We monitor everything, from pitches to effort to the quality of the pitches, and then we decide what’s next. There’s certain starts that, going into them, I know they’re probably going to be 85 pitches or five innings, just because we’re playing the 162-game season.”

The Sox haven’t lost a single starting pitcher to an injury this season, though it seems like a house of cards given the injury histories of Nathan Eovaldi and Garrett Richards, and the fact that Eduardo Rodriguez missed the entire season last year.

“Obviously, injuries have hit our minor league depth, but we’re getting healthy,” Cora said. “That’s important. That’s why I say the most important thing right now for us is obviously stay healthy and be patient. If we do that, we should be OK.”

Duran left off Olympic roster

Jarren Duran was not listed on the USA Olympic roster for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Duran has been hitting the cover off the ball in Triple-A Worcester, fueling speculation that he’ll be called up to the big leagues soon. The team will begin play in Tokyo on July 30 and continue playing until Aug. 7 at the latest, depending how far they go. According to The Boston Globe, Team USA didn’t want to include Duran on the roster if there was a good chance the Red Sox would want to call him up while he was in Japan.

Yankees dropping fast

The Yankees lost to the Mets on Saturday afternoon, which temporarily put them 10 games back of the first-place Red Sox in the American League East. It’s the earliest in the season the Yankees have been 10 games back of the Red Sox since May 18, 2007.

Hernandez back in the infield

After making a game-saving throw from center field on Friday, Kiké Hernandez was in the lineup at second base on Saturday. He’s made 48 starts in center and 16 at second base.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2SKczVx