Felix

Doubront

Doubront spent the 2021 season with the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League, registering a 3.42 ERA and 67/23 K/BB ratio in 14 starts covering 84 1/3 innings. The 34-year-old left-hander last pitched in the majors back in 2015 with the Athletics.

The Red Sox still lost the first game in the best-of-three series. Doubront, 18, had a 2.52 ERA in 11 regular-season starts. A left-hander with two solid offspeed pitches, he seems on his way to establishing himself as one of Boston’s top pitching prospects.

Since he’s out of options, Doubront is likely to have a spot on the Red Sox, though whether he’ll be a starter or a reliever is still up in the air. Alfredo Aceves is definitely outperforming the rest of the fifth-starter candidates at the moment, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll get the job.

Not great, but certainly not bad. Bard allowed four hits, with only Justin Morneau’s double going for extra bases, and walked three. The Red Sox will probably announce their decision on their two rotation openings within the next couple of days. It’s probably going to come down to Bard and Alfredo Aceves for one spot. Felix Doubront isn’t necessarily the better option, but the pen would look quite a bit better with either Bard or Aceves in it.

It was assumed that Bard would be given every chance to win the No. 4 spot in the rotation this spring, but the tide seems to be turning in the other direction after he has walked seven batters and allowed 10 hits across 7 2/3 innings over his past two starts. The Red Sox have yet to make an official announcement on their rotation, but manager Bobby Valentine wondered out loud following Tuesday’s game whether Bard has what it takes to stick as a starter. Stay tuned.

Doubront struck out two and walked three on the night. He improves to 1-0 on the season and sports a 4.09 ERA and 22 strikeouts in 22 innings of work. He was in line to pick up his first victory last time out against the Yankees before the epic meltdown from the Red Sox bullpen. He’ll look to keep the ball rolling when he takes on the Athletics next week.

Doubront struck out five and walked two in the game. With the victory, he improves to 3-1 on the season and lowers his ERA to 4.70. He also owns a solid 37/17 K/BB ratio through his first 38 1/3 innings. The left-hander will look to carry over the momentum from this strong outing when he faces the Rays in Tampa Bay on Thursday.

Doubront had some injury issues last year but pitched well in the minors when healthy, posting a 3.96 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 8.6 K/9 rate. Since he’s out of options, the lefty will make the team as a reliever if he doesn’t win a spot in the rotation. Though he does have some upside, he’s got a few ahead of him in the pecking order for a rotation spot, so Doubront will have to pitch really well in spring training to break camp as a starter.

Cook threw batting practice Tuesday without incident and said Thursday that he expects to pitch in a game within 3-4 days. He’s running short on time, but he’s currently in the mix with Alfredo Aceves, Andrew Miller, Felix Doubront and Vicente Padilla for the fifth spot in the starting rotation.

As expected. The left-hander has posted a 2.70 ERA over 16 2/3 innings this spring to win a spot, striking out 10 batters while walking six. Doubront has been injury-prone at times, but he can touch the mid-90s with his heater and has posted decent strikeout rates in the minors. There’s AL-only league appeal here.