As Yankees Loom, the Red Sox Double Down on a Reliable Set of Arms

FORT MEYERS, Fla. — The Boston Red Sox ran away with the American League East last summer, then stormed through the postseason with only one loss in each round. It was one of the most emphatic championship runs in recent history — but only in the retelling.

“People generalize and they’ll say, ‘O.K., the Red Sox won 108 games and went 11-3 in the postseason, look how easy it was,’” said Dave Dombrowski, the president of baseball operations, from his office at JetBlue Park this week. “Well, it wasn’t easy. It really wasn’t. During the regular season, even with 108 wins, the Yankees won 100.

“And I know people say, ‘Oh, that’s an eight-game difference,’ which I understand can be quite a bit. But it sure didn’t feel that way.”

The season essentially hinged on Boston’s four-game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway Park in early August. Had the Yankees won those games instead, both teams would have finished with 104 victories. That is how close the old rivals were.

They diverged this winter, though, with revealing approaches to the off-season. The Red Sox are prepared to rely heavily on their starting rotation, while the Yankees reinvested significantly in their bullpen.

The Yankees gave three-year deals to two free-agent relievers: Zack Britton ($39 million) and Adam Ottavino ($27 million). The Red Sox, who will face the Yankees for the second and final time this spring at Steinbrenner Field on Friday, spent about the same amount to retain starter Nathan Eovaldi for four years and $68 million. But they lost two relievers — Joe Kelly, who signed for three years and $25 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and closer Craig Kimbrel, who is unsigned — without replacing them.

“They wanted me back, I wanted to be back here and we were able to make that work,” Eovaldi said Wednesday, after his first start of the exhibition season. “We kept on that same game plan with that goal in mind to be able to come back and win a World Series. We’re taking the little steps now to be able to do that.”

The Red Sox will again have baseball’s highest payroll, at more than $220 million. But they still had to make choices, especially with several important players facing free agency within the next two years.

They chose to keep their sturdy rotation together — at a cost of about $83.5 million for Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello and Eovaldi. Those four and Eduardo Rodriguez, who earns $4.3 million, went 68-28 for Boston last season, including October.

“In my opinion, it’s just good baseball,” said Porcello, the 2016 A.L. Cy Young Award winner. “Most of the teams that are competing for a World Series year-in and year-out have good starting rotations, and almost all of the teams that have won have had ace-type guys, and guys that fill out the rotation to give them the foundation they need.

“For us as starting pitchers, we want to chew up the most innings as possible and give the team a chance to win as frequently as we can.”

The Boston starters actually did not throw very many innings last season. Porcello led the staff with 191⅓, with Price at 176, Sale at 158, Rodriguez at 129⅔ and Eovaldi at 111 including his time with Tampa Bay. But the Yankees got even fewer innings from their starters, and their newcomer, James Paxton, never threw more than 160⅓ innings in his six seasons with Seattle.

Several teams have shifted to a model that emphasizes quality over bulk from their starters’ outings — fewer innings but more effective ones, a plan that relies on a procession of reliable relievers. The Yankees should have that luxury this season, with Britton and Ottavino to go with Chad Green, Dellin Betances and closer Aroldis Chapman.

The Red Sox bullpen is far less imposing: Matt Barnes, Ryan Brazier, Heath Hembree, Brian Johnson, Tyler Thornburg, Hector Velazquez and another spot to be determined. Dombrowski said he was confident in the group, and in the team’s ability to identify other options if it fails.

“You can find relievers, and relievers have a tendency to come from anywhere,” he said. “History shows you that right now, short of the premium guys, there’s a lot of inconsistency in relievers from year to year. Part of it is they get used so much when they’re pitching well that one season. For me, I just choose to go with the starting pitchers, assuming they’re of quality nature.”

The Red Sox’s trick last fall was in letting their elite starters double as dominant relievers. Manager Alex Cora brought along the starters slowly last spring training — as he is doing again now — and the sweep of the Yankees in August allowed him to carefully manage their workloads down the stretch.

The result was a mostly fresh rotation, as Sale, Price, Porcello, Eovaldi and Rodriguez all appeared as both starters and relievers in the postseason. Eovaldi pitched in a setup role to help win Games 1 and 2 of the World Series in Boston, then threw 97 pitches in relief at Dodger Stadium in Game 3, an 18-inning Red Sox loss.

That was the rare moral victory that also had tangible benefits, galvanizing the Red Sox clubhouse around Eovaldi and crystallizing the starters’ selfless approach — even if they still don’t buy the hoopla.

“Ever since I was watching baseball as a kid, I’m watching Randy Johnson run out of the bullpen and pitch the eighth inning or whatever,” Porcello said. “As far as I’m concerned, I actually don’t understand the big deal around it, because that’s our job, and if we’re not here to sell out when we have the opportunity to win a World Series, then what are we doing?”

Cora absorbed the starters-as-relievers strategy in 2017 as the bench coach for Houston’s championship team. The Astros and Red Sox showed that the bullpen listed on a regular-season lineup card is not always the same as the one a team will use to win a title.

Dombrowski said it was presumptuous, with a long season ahead and the Yankees always looming, to plan on reprising that plan this October. But Cora is eager for an encore — knowing, perhaps, that it represents this roster’s best chance to repeat.

“It was fun to get text messages: ‘Hey, give me the ball tomorrow,’” Cora said. “It’s a testament to who they are, how they felt and what they wanted. I tell you, we get to October this year, I guarantee you it’s going to be the same thing, the same mode: ‘I’m there for you.’”

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