Red Sox SP Acquisitions Fail Key Test

There's been a lot of talk this off-season about how the Red Sox have bolstered their starting rotation—and, to a degree, that's true. But if we look at a key metric of starting pitchers (the differential of hits allowed in innings pitched), the new Boston starters are hardly in the "elite" category.

For perspective, let's take a look at this metric for some true elite starters (subtracting hits allowed from innings pitched): 

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (+60); Tarik Skubal (+54); Paul Skenes (+51); Garrett Crochet (+40)

Now, let's look at the new Sox starters:

Sonny Gray (-35); Ranger Suarez (+3); Johan Oviedo (+12). 

Obviously none of them are even to close to the elite level. One of the tasks of the off-season was—supposedly—to get a legitimate Number 2 starter to slot in behind Crochet. But, interestingly, using this metric, Brayan Bello (+19) outshines all the new guys. And, it remains to be seen whether Bello has achieved true Number 2 status.

The bottom line is that—beyond Crochet—the Red Sox still do not have an elite Number 2 starter for 2026.