Should The Red Sox Start The Season With a Six-Man Rotation?

The five-man rotation has been a staple in baseball going as far back as the 1960s, when teams began to move away from the four-man rotation. While its adoption wasn't widespread until the early 1970s, the thought of not using a five-man rotation is a foreign one to most modern baseball fans. And yet, the use of the rotation has been evolving over the years. We’ve seen the implementation of an opener who throws an inning before a bulk reliever goes three to five innings. Likewise, the usage of bullpen games has been rising after being heavily used by the Tampa Bay Rays over this decade and the previous one.

The six-man rotation isn't unheard of, but it's fast becoming more common. At this moment, there are two teams considering the use of a six-man rotation heading into the 2025 season: the Red Sox and the Dodgers. After bringing in Garrett Crochet, Walker Buehler, and Patrick Sandoval, and getting Lucas Giolito and Garrett Whitlock back from injury, Boston's rotation has plenty of depth, but is also packed with pitchers who have had Tommy John surgery in recent years. Giving them an extra day of rest makes a world of sense. The Dodgers used a six-man rotation at times in 2024 and they are considering it once more to protect pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, who pitched in a six-man rotation during their time in Japan.

The six-man rotation is common in the Nippon Professional Baseball league, or NPB, where pitchers will start once a week and are expected to go deeper into games, as a typical NPB week sees each team play six games and get one rest day. This style of schedule is not much different from how Triple A now operates. Since the 2021 season, teams play a six-game series from Tuesday to Sunday resting on Monday. In America, though, many pitchers want to pitch as often as they can, showcasing their how good they truly are.

The newest addition to the Red Sox rotation, Buehler, summed it up well:. “For me, you go to a six-man if you have the talent to do it, if you have six guys that are ready to take the ball every day in the big leagues and I think we certainly do. If that’s something they want to go to, I’m obviously open to it, or kind of accustomed to it. But, there’s also some pride in trying to go and make 32 starts and threw 200 innings. I know given my injury history, that that’s kind of a different deal, but I have done that. And that was something that I’m really proud of and something I would love to do again. So, I think there’s pros and cons to both”.

A six-man rotation may very well prove useful for the Red Sox, at least early on in the season. The projected five-man rotation of Crochet, Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, Giolito, Buehler has pitchers coming off of a career-high in innings, and the other two are coming off injuries. While Giolito and Crochet have both stated that they’re ready to go pitch without limitations, it would still be wise to ramp them up as the season progresses, Houck just shattered his career-high in innings pitched, and Buehler pitched for the first time in 2024 after missing over a year and a half. With plenty of depth available for a sixth member of the rotation, it would make sense for Kutter Crawford or Richard Fitts to fill in as that sixth man, with the possibility of moving into the bullpen if needed.

There’s no need to keep the six-man rotation for the whole season, either. Looking at the start of the season, the Red Sox play five games before they get an off day, the sixth man in the rotation could be skipped that turn through. After that, whoever is the Opening Day starter against Texas would take their usual scheduled turn on April 2 in Baltimore, before the six-man rotation officially is needed, as the team plays 15 straight games before the next off day on April 17. The team then closes out April by playing 12 games over 13 days, and the sixth man in the rotation could help to lighten the load.

After that, the sixth man could return to the bullpen for the first half of May, allowing the team to return to the traditional five-man rotation until May 16, when there's a stretch of 15 games in 16 days. In June, however, the sixth man would not be needed as the Red Sox get four days off in the month, all of them somehow landing on Thursday. The rotation would not need extra help through July as the Red Sox have six days off, providing enough of a rest. If a spot start were needed, it would occur between July 4 and 14, when the Red Sox don't have any days off. After that, the six-man rotation would really only be extremely useful one more time: from August 21 to September 3, when the Red Sox have 14 games in 14 days.

In a sense, a six-man rotation is a luxury, an addition to an already mighty rotation, as this sixth starting pitcher allows the other five to keep their strength for the stretch run of July and August without sacrificing April and May. If the Red Sox didn’t have the depth to provide such an option, it wouldn’t be an interesting idea to contemplate. Kutter Crawford is no stranger to a swingman role, and that comfort switching between the rotation and the bullpen could be aboon. While Crawford has stated publicly that he considers himself a starter, there is no denying that he looks like the odd man out of the rotation, barring a phenomenal spring. But it’s not just Crawford that makes this plan possible. In fact, the Red Sox have ten pitchers who could step in and start for them on the 40-man roster. And that’s not including, Patrick Sandoval, who will return at some point during the second half, or players who have started before in the past like Josh Winckowski or Whitlock. The team has so much starting pitching depth that it would be foolish to not at least consider the possibility of a temporary six-man rotation, at least to open the season.