The bus from Pawtucket to Boston may only take fifty-four minutes, but for Michael Bowden it must seem much longer. It has become almost an annual rite to see him called up in September as a mop up man, a relief to a bullpen that has worked since the first day of April. Since 2008, he has pitched a mere 41.1 innings in the major leagues, but that too must seem longer than it has been.
In those major league innings, he has posted a 6.19 ERA, with a 2-2 record. Hardly anything to write home about, or even anything to get genuinely excited about, but when he was drafted in 2005, he was heralded as the next piece in Boston’s rotation.
Obviously, those predictions have not panned out so far, as Bowden has pitched almost exclusively in the Minor Leagues. Positioned as a starter since he was drafted, this year Bowden was moved to the bullpen to test his skill as a reliever. He was inserted into the closer’s role in Pawtucket, and to many’s surprise, he exceeded. He pitched 52 and 2/3 innings in this role, posting a 2.73 ERA.
So, with Jonathan Papelbon set to hit free agency at the end of this year, and with Daniel Bard facing more scrutiny with every inning he pitches, is Bard ready to inherit the role of a key late inning reliever?
The simple answer is: probably not. Bowden’s 3.20 FIP proves that he is not quite the pitcher that has thrown so many scoreless innings this year. Although his .284 BABIP is way down from his .357 career mark, his 78.2 LOB% is much higher than a career rate of 67.7%, meaning he’s getting good luck nonetheless. Although nit as many balls are falling in for hits against him, he’s getting lucky with the number of men he’s leaving on base, luck that will inevitably fall through on him.
Bowden’s biggest stride this season has been in his strikeout rate, which has escalated to 10.42, from a career mark of 7.05. His walks are down as well, with his BB/9 down to a 3.08 rate, an improvement on the career rate of a 3.44 rate.
So with such improvement this year, why hasn’t Bowden stepped into a more prominent role with the major league team? One reason is that at twenty-five, he’s still young, in need of development and conditioning before becoming a staple of the big league club. The other, perhaps more realistic reasoning, is that he may just not be a talented player, certainly nowhere near what the front office was projecting when they spent a first round pick on him. With a career FIP of 4.64, and 3.44 BB/9 rate, the fact of the matter is that Bowden may never pan out to be a quality player.
With Daniel Bard struggling, and with Boston’s lack of a solidified seventh inning man, Bowden has pitched decent enough down at Pawtucket to at least deserve a shot in a more meaningful role. The fact that he has not been promoted to anything besides mop up man may indicate just how much faith the Sox hold in him: little to none.
With no options left, the Red Sox have no choice but to leave Bowden in the bullpen for now. He is a valuable player to have for mop up situations and as a long reliever. But as he continues to grow older, one has to wonder if he will ever develop into the player the Sox originally saw when they picked him in the first round of the 2005 draft. A player’s prime year usually comes in his twenty-seventh, and if Bowden doesn’t improve soon, he’s in danger of spending that year like he has every other of his career, merely a convenience for the Sox when their bullpen is gassed, a mop up man always available to ride the bus up from Pawtucket. But, such is the life of a minor leaguer, willing to take every shot that is given to him, even if it means pitching three innings of a game in which his team is down by six runs. Because, at the end of the day, Michael Bowden will pitch whatever inning he needs to, whether the team is up by ten runs or down by eight. The most valuable thing to him right now is the thing every other player takes for granted: an inning.