Boston Red Sox rumors: John Farrell considering six-man rotation for remainder of 2014

The Boston Red Sox are officially out of contention in 2014. With that in mind, manager John Farrell might implement a system to get the team a look at more starting pitchers as they assess their options for the future.

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According to Rob Bradford of WEEI.com, Farrell discussed the possibility of a six-man rotation this weekend:

"“There’€™s some talk, because we go into a stretch now, it’€™s about 18 days consecutively, we may look at going to a six-man rotation just to build in an added day of rest,” Farrell said. “How we then factor in the off day that’€™s coming after that, we can adjust again and go back for a turn through and not get too far removed from a previous start. There’€™s quite a bit of possibility we’€™d go to a six-man rotation.”"

With expanded rosters, it makes sense that the Red Sox are going to try to get a sense of what their rotation looks like in the days after Jon Lester. They might try to bring back Lester or sign a free agent like James Shields, but they also know the importance of developing the back end of that rotation for their success.

A disappointing season forced the Red Sox forced them to retool and sell off a number of players at the deadline. That puts them in the process of assessing their options for the future, so it makes sense that they might temporarily implement a six-man rotation to get a look at more pitchers.

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