Koji Uehara shut down by Boston Red Sox
By Hayden Kane
Boston Red Sox closer Koji Uehara will be 40 years old at the end of the season. His contract will also be up at that point, though the Red Sox reportedly plan to look at re-signing him.
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If that is indeed the plan that the Red Sox plan to follow when the season ends, it only makes sense that they would shut down Uehara now to save some miles on his arm and allow him to rest so that he is fresh and ready to go when 2015 spring training rolls around.
Manager John Farrell and the rest of the Red Sox organization were not initially planning to stop using Uehara during the final month of the season, but they have changed course on that plan: on Thursday night they talked to Uehara and let him know that his off-season starts early.
Unfortunately the timing of the decision made it seem like a punishment, as it came after a blown save against the Yankees on Thursday.
Koji blows another save. Teixeira homers. The struggle continues for him.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) September 5, 2014
Farrell said he needed to speak to Koji first. But sounds like #RedSox will finally shut their beleaguered closer down.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) September 5, 2014
Uehara spoke only briefly to the Japanese writers. "This is my fault. Everything was my fault," he said.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) September 5, 2014
Uehara has no reason to be so hard on himself, as this decision should have been handed down a while ago and it shouldn’t have taken a bad stretch from the All-Star to make it. Even with some bad outings lately, Uehara has a 2.64 ERA with 26 saves this season. Now he will rest up and get ready to resume his work as Boston closer, pending a new contract, next season.
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