Justin Masterson to be converted to a reliever

Posted on July 7, 2008
Filed Under 2008 Season, Prospects | 2 Comments

Terry Francona announced today that there would be a bit of a change in the Red Sox pitching staff. Justin Masterson, who has spent his season as a starting pitcher, will be converted to a reliever. The reasoning is most likely to keep his inning total low for the rest of the season in hopes that he will still be of use to the club in September. Masterson has been sent down to Pawtucket to get acclimated to the change in his role and IF Jeff Bailey has been called up to take the newly created roster spot.

Taking Masterson’s place in the rotation will be Clay Buchholz. Buchholz struggled during the beginning of the year with Boston (5.53 ERA in 42.1 IP) but has put up good numbers since being sent back down to Triple-A Pawtucket (2.47 ERA in 43.2 IP.) The club demoted him so that he could get a chance to work on his fastball and it seems that he has gotten a handle on the pitch. Clay won’t be called up for a few more days until Justin Masterson’s spot in the rotation comes around again.

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2 Responses to “Justin Masterson to be converted to a reliever”

  1. David Aardsma placed on the DL | Sox Addict - There's no 12-step program for this.. on July 20th, 2008 3:00 pm

    [...] Aardsma’s place on the roster. Masterson was sent back down to Pawtucket a few weeks ago (link) so that he could become accustomed to working out of the bullpen. His numbers as a reliever in [...]

  2. Justin Masterson shows up big | Sox Addict - There's no 12-step program for this.. on July 24th, 2008 9:30 am

    [...] mentioned a while ago that Justin Masterson was being converted into a reliever (link) and last night was his first relief appearance in a major league game. He definitely didn’t [...]

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