Some parting reflections from spring training - The Boston Globe

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The three certainties for the rotation — Eduardo Rodriguez, Nate Eovaldi, and Martin Perez — pitched a total of 436.1 innings last year. Even if all three provide best-case scenario seasons in 2020, that’s still roughly 900 innings that needs to be accounted for by the rest of the rotation (presuming we don’t see Chris Sale for a while) and the bullpen.

With the season opener 17 days from Monday, such uncertainty is not ideal. Roenicke acknowledged Sunday that the calculations don’t quite provide the answers he wants right now.

“Innings without a doubt are important,’’ he said. “[I’m] trying to figure out with our roster where we are. Somebody needs to give us those innings as starters in order to have the bullpen last, unless you can make a lot of changes bringing guys up and down [from the minors]. If you don’t have your starters giving you innings, and not always just five innings, sometimes they need to go a little bit farther.”

Roenicke got a crash-course in how to deploy an opener from chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom and the analytics department earlier this spring, and the Red Sox may even end up using more than one opener on a regular basis. The Rays had success with this approach when Bloom was part of their organization, and it’s been interesting to speculate which members of the current pitching staff might end up being the Red Sox’ version of Ryne Stanek or Ryan Yarborough.

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One pitcher who is clearly going to get a chance, either as a starter or an opener, is Ryan Weber, the 29-year-old righthander who had a 5.09 ERA in 18 appearances (three starts) last season.

“Whether he’s going to be a fourth starter or whether he’s going to be a fifth starter, or an opener depending upon what happens with Chris [Sale], I think he’s a guy that we feel like can do it,’’ said Roenicke. “The other guys we’ve extended out at this point I don’t think anyone has shown us like, hey, they can do it.”

Not exactly high praise there for all the Chris Mazza and Jeffrey Springs types Bloom brought in this offseason. Weber has a 5.08 career ERA for four teams in parts of five seasons, including a brief 2018 stint with the Rays, so whatever the Red Sox see in him now — beyond availability — hasn’t been obvious.

▪ Jerry Narron is a baseball lifer who has seen a lot, but he’s forever best known for getting the start at catcher for the Yankees in the first game after Thurman Munson died in a plane crash in August 1979. Beyond his current duties as the Red Sox bench coach, his more recent recognition comes from his talent for filling out the lineup card in stylish calligraphy. So we regret to note that there was a mistake among Narron’s precise work on Friday’s card. He spelled third base prospect Bobby Dalbec’s name as “Dalbek”. Then again, Dalbec, who is built like a young, presumably pre-androstenedione-and-other-stuff Mark McGwire, struck out 7 times in 22 at-bats. So in one sense, perhaps, the 'K' was fitting.

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▪ Hideki Okajima was a visitor to Red Sox camp Sunday morning. When Jason Varitek spotted him outside the clubhouse, he engulfed him in a bear hug, which when you think about it is probably as close as one can get to knowing what it’s like to get hugged by an actual bear. While all of us were documenting the arrival of Japanese ace Daisuke Matsuzaka (you know, I’m starting to think there never was a gyroball), his countryman Okajima arrived unheralded and emerged as a crucial member of the 2007 World Champions as a Jonathan Papelbon’s primary setup man. His story was one of the great out-of-nowhere ascensions to sustained excellence in recent Red Sox lore. This year’s Red Sox need three or four similar emergences on their staff this year.

▪ As a big-league ballplayer, Roenicke was a journeyman in the young Terry Francona mold, hitting .238 parts of eight seasons with five teams. He did have a pedigree, though. Roenicke was a first-round pick of the Dodgers in the secondary phase of the 1977 draft and put together some superb seasons in the minors. He hit .363 at Single A Lodi in 1978, and in 1981 he hit .316 with a .450 on-base percentage, 15 homers, 25 steals, and 110 walks at Triple A Albuquerque. Toward the end of his playing career in 1987, he played for the Triple A Phillies affiliate in scenic Old Orchard Beach, Maine, where he supplied a moment never forgotten at this address. He was the only player to get a hit off of Mets ace Dwight Gooden during the then-superstar pitcher’s ballyhooed start in Maine while he was working his way back from a stint in drug rehabilitation. The things you remember.

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▪ Weird to me that the Red Sox are planning to give Jackie Bradley Jr. some time in right field this spring. Craving versatility is one thing — it’s pretty clear they’re going to try to turn Michael Chavis into the new Ben Zobrist — but Bradley is as good as it gets in center. Leave him there.

▪ Still half-expected to see Alex Cora come around the corner every time I was in the Red Sox clubhouse, probably because many of his lieutenants, including Roenicke, Tom Goodwin, and Ramon Vazquez, are still part of the staff.

▪ Major League Baseball warned players to be cautious when signing autographs because of the Covid-19 virus. But that didn’t stop Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. from accommodating a conga line of autograph seekers while sitting in a golf cart in the late innings of Friday’s Blue Jays-Red Sox split-squad game. Nice to see a young star being so accessible, even at a time when it might not be wise.

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Chad Finn can be reached at chad.finn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeChadFinn.

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