Lost in the speculation about how long Daniel Bard’s demotion to Triple-A will last is the fact that the Red Sox right-hander wanted nothing to do with being sent to the minors.
Bard is scheduled to make his Pawtucket debut tonight, so he spoke to the local media and made it clear to Mike Scandura of the Boston Globe that he wasn’t on board with the decision:
Bard then went on to question the changes he was asked to make moving from the bullpen to the rotation, saying “we probably did a little too much” with his mechanics and “it just wasn’t the same as it used to be.”
As a reliever Bard had a 2.87 ERA, .190 oppponents’ batting average, and 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings in 193 appearances. As a starter he had a 5.30 ERA, .261 opponents’ batting average, and 5.6 strikeouts per nine innings in 10 outings, all while losing 4-5 miles per hour on his fastball.
He forced the Red Sox’s hand a bit by performing so poorly in the rotation, but it sounds like Bard is among the many people questioning how the entire situation was handled. For now the Red Sox have insisted that he remains in the rotation plans whenever he returns from the minors, but something will clearly have to change (or change back) for Bard to find success there.
