I never shut games off. It doesn’t matter if the Sox are down by seven in the fifth inning or up by five in the seventh inning. It doesn’t matter if they’re playing the Yankees or the Royals. If I sit down to watch a game, I always watch the whole thing. That’s the allure of baseball, things can swing at any moment. Leaving a game halfway through is like neglecting to read the last two stanzas of a poem. Something feels off, incomplete.
That night, down 7-0 to the Tampa Bay Rays after the sixth inning, with the season all but over, I shut the game off. I felt the chilly October winds biting at my skin even in the security of my warm basement. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t watch the team go out, not like this. So I left. I went to my room and I pretended like game 5 of the 2008 ALCS wasn’t on. But it was. I thought of the long winter ahead, the months without baseball I would have to endure. I couldn’t miss the last innings of the year. So I trekked back down, and suddenly it was 7-1. Then it was 7-4. Then it was 7-6. Then 7-7. Then it was the ninth inning and Papelbon had already pitched two innings. I remember thinking, “we don’t have anyone left who can get Upton out.” I ended up being right because Justin Masterson didn’t get Justin Upton out, but that didn’t matter.
With Papelbon done, and seemingly no real options for the ninth, out trotted twenty-three year old Justin Masterson. In dire need of three outs, Masterson got them. It wasn’t an easy inning, he put two men on base. But with power threat Carlos Pena at the plate with the game on line, Masterson got the double play. He pumped his fist violently as he walked off the mound, pounding his hand into his glove. Ten minutes later, he was part of the group rushing to home plate to greet Kevin Youkilis at the plate. It was one of those moments where you think, “This kid has it.”
Selected in the second round of the 2006 amateur draft, Masterson whizzed through Boston’s minor league system in two years. Although he never pitched spectacularly in the minors, scouts raved about his intangibles, his dedication to the game, and his attitude. Masterson spent the early part of the 2008 season busing between Pawtucket and Fenway Park. He was called up and demoted three different times before he was brought up for good on July 20th. He worked the rest of the year as a reliever, and finished with a solid 3.16 ERA. Working out of the bullpen throughout the playoffs, most notably in game 5 of the ALCS., Masterson proved he had the makeup to succeed in Boston.
Masterson was given a chance to start in 2009, and he went 3-3 with a 4.50 ERA before that fateful day in July. With Jason Varitek falling off a cliff offensively, and Masterson moved to the bullpen, General Manager Theo Epstein pulled the trigger on a trade that sent Masterson and prospects Nick Hagadone and Bryan Price to the Cleveland Indians for all-star catcher Victor Martinez.
Martinez was an instant hit in Boston, batting .336 and jacking eight home runs. Although the Sox were swept out of the playoffs by Anaheim, they may not have even made it there were it not for V-Mart. Masterson on the other hand struggled to a 1-7 record the rest of the year with Cleveland. He didn’t fare much better in 2010, posting a 6-13 record and a 4.70 ERA. It was looking like Boston had won the trade outright, acquiring one of the best catchers in the game for what was starting to look like a perennial back end of the rotation pitcher. Then last year happened.
His breakout year should not have come as a surprise. His FIP in 2010 was 3.93, close to a run lower than his ERA. Always a groundball pitcher, Masterson had a brutal defense playing behind him in Cleveland, and this affected most of his numbers negatively. Last year, Masterson finally found some control posting a 2.71 BB/9, by far the lowest of his career. He had always been prone to home runs and he limited those well last year (0.46 HR/9 compared to a .7 mark the year before and a 0.84 mark the year before that). He finished with a mediocre 12-10 record, but his 3.21 ERA and 4.9 WAR speak to his value. It wasn’t luck either, his FIP was 3.28, only 0.07 higher than his ERA. Like the Cleveland team as a whole, he faded out in the second half after lighting up the majors in the first half, but the future looks bright for Masterson.
Meanwhile, Victor Martinez (with a torn ACL no less) is on the Tigers, and the Red Sox have nothing to show for the trade. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but for a team that desperately needs quality starting pitching, Justin Masterson would look real nice in the fifth or fourth spot right now. Martinez was great for Boston, a leader in the clubhouse, a gamer on the field, and an overall great presence, but one has to wonder why Theo Epstein traded for him in the first place if he was just going to let him walk in free agency just a year and a half later. Epstein expressed concerns about Martinez’s catching ability over time, but with David Ortiz nearing the end of his time with the team, Martinez would have been the ideal fit to take over as DH.
More than one player cried when Justin Masterson was traded. His presence in the clubhouse was undeniable. The Red Sox got a great clubhouse leader in return with Victor Martinez, but it seems moot now that both are gone. After a disastrous ending to the 2011 season, when it seems the two things the club needed most was quality starting pitching and leadership, Justin Masterson probably could have made a difference.