Rob Bradford of WEEI is reporting that the Red Sox are planning on promoting Aaron Cook to the majors. The decision is today, he’d actually arrive in the next few days. The key here is that if he wasn’t on the big league roster today -- or if he didn’t have an agreement in place with the Red Sox to make that happen as of today -- Cook could opt-out.
Cook has been killing ‘em in Pawtucket, going 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA in five starts. His success down there has led to some trade rumors of late, but the Sox have apparently decided that he can help them more in Boston for now.
But how does he help? Who does he replace in the rotation? The two who were most expected to have trouble this year and thus require relief from Cook were Felix Doubront and Daniel Bard, but they’re doing fine. Beckett and Lester aren’t going anyplace. I suppose Clay Buchholz is the most vulnerable right now, but really, one bad stretch won’t cost him his job, will it?
Bobby V. could go six-man rotation here. Or he could skip Bard once or twice, giving Cook starts and allowing Bard to be a true swingman. Or he could just use Cook out of the pen, though his low strikeout rate seems problematic for that.
But it’s better to have too many arms than not enough, yes?
