It is time to call Rick Porcello a Cy Young Award contender….really
COMMENTARY
I suppose it’s time to really ask.
Does Rick Porcello deserve the Cy Young Award?
The Red Sox righty is 16-3 following a 16-2 blowout win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, a victory highlighted by a trio of home runs from Mookie Betts that happened to overshadow what is becoming one of the best pitching stories in Boston history.
In 1986, Roger Clemens was 11-3 with a 2.56 ERA at Fenway Park. Pedro Martinez was 13-2 with a 2.22 ERA in 1999.
In 2016, Porcello is a pristine 12-0 with a 2.96 ERA at his beloved Fens.
If the Red Sox maintain their playoff positioning, and are forced to compete in a one-game playoff for the first time in team history, there’s no doubt who gets the ball, particularly if they’re lucky enough to play at home. It won’t be “ace” David Price. Not breakthrough knuckleballer Steven Wright nor Drew Pomeranz, even fresh off his first victory in a Sox uniform Monday afternoon.
Nope. It will be Rick Porcello.
Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello?
“I think if you look around the league, and look at the win-loss record…he’s continued to chip away at an ERA that starts to get him in the conversation,” Boston manager John Farrell said after Porcello’s 16th win. “When we look up towards the end of September, he’ll be in the conversation. We’ve got that much confidence in him, he takes care of himself in such a great fashion and he’s ultra-prepared. To think that these results would all of sudden shift in the other direction, I’d be surprised in that.”
Who would have thought such a thing was a possibility six months ago?
We joked about Porcello winning the Cy back in May, when he took a 5-0 record into the month, but here we are, halfway through August, on the doorstep of Back to School shopping and he’s really in the conversation. He’s tied for the American League lead in wins with the outstanding J.A. Happ of the Toronto Blue Jays. He’s 10th in the league with his 3.30 ERA, sixth with his 1.05 WHIP. Only eight other AL pitchers have a higher WAR than Porcello’s 3.6.
Happ (16-3, 2.96 ERA) may be his closest competition. There’s also teammate Wright (13-5, 3.01), Cole Hamels (12-4, 2.88), Chris Tillman (15-4, 3.46), and Aaron Sanchez (12-2, 2.84) to worry about.
But Porcello’s name being in the conversation was definitely not a likelihood in the wake of his subpar first season in Boston.
“This second year has been great,” Porcello said. “Coming into spring training I felt very confident, very comfortable with my surroundings and everything like that. I was able to just focus on work, going out there and executing pitches and trying to get guys out.”
Porcello doesn’t want to hear the Cy Young talk, but the mentions are only going to grow louder the closer he gets to 20 wins. Happ might be having a better year, but it says something about Porcello’s turnaround that he’s being mentioned in the same breath.
“I don’t know that I’ve been around a pitcher who is as well prepared, the time and effort he puts into his own game plan leading into a start, and how specific he’s able to carry that out on the field,” Farrell said Sunday. “There are situations where it may not always play out, but it’s not because of a lack of preparation on his part. Combined it with a guy who is extremely competitive and it’s not just happenstance he’s standing here with the record he has.”
He’s only 4-3 away from his newfound favorite place, and he was only 5-7 with a 4.23 ERA in the building lat year. He’s given up 18 home runs, seven shy of his total last season, and he has fewer strikeouts than Jake Odorizzi. He’s also 7-1 this season following a Red Sox loss.
Maybe Ben Cherington knew what he was getting. (On Pablo Sandoval, not so much.)
Not that Porcello cares.
“I think he would even mention to you that he’s focused on the game five days from today,” Farrell said. “That’s been his mindset, that’s been his approach over the course of the year. He’s so process-oriented.”
He would be the first Red Sox player to win the award since Martinez 16 years ago. He’s still only 27 years old, the biggest reason why the Sox thought he was worth $82.5 million a little over a year ago. They expected better than 9-15, the mark he managed in 2015.
They didn’t expect him to be the ace of the staff. They had earmarked that status for the guy who signed for $217 million.
Rick Porcello.
Cy Young Award winner.
Really?
Maybe?
Possibly.
“I have no idea and, honestly, I don’t care,” Porcello said recently. “If we win the division and we win a World Series that’s all that I care about.”
Team MVP might have to go to David Ortiz.
But no Red Sox player has pitched better than Rick Porcello.
No kidding.
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