Red Sox most important offseason addition already paying dividends

The 2023 offseason did not go at all how Boston Red Sox fans hoped it would. The team was connected to the high-end free agent starting pitchers all offseason, particularly Jordan Montgomery, and the best pitcher they wound up signing was Lucas Giolito who eventually tore his UCL and will miss the entire 2024 campaign.

Boston had one of the worst starting rotations in baseball last season and with Chris Sale getting traded to the Braves, it looked worse on paper entering this season.

While Boston did not make any major free agency additions to address their rotation, especially after the Giolito injury, they did make a change in their coaching staff hiring the highly-regarded Andrew Bailey to replace Dave Busch as the team's pitching coach.

Just six games into the season we can already see Bailey making an impact.

Andrew Bailey is already making an impact as Red Sox pitching coach

A rough start for Brayan Bello on Monday raised Boston's starting pitching ERA to 2.18 through six starts. Yes, it was sub-2.00 entering play on Monday. They've been pitching that well.

Both Kutter Crawford and Nick Pivetta pitched six scoreless innings in their outings. Nick Pivetta allowed one run in six frames, and Garrett Whitlock allowed one run in five innings. Even Bello in his first start allowed two runs in five innings. That kind of starting pitching gives any team a chance to win any given day, and Boston has gone 4-2 thus far.

Now, the Red Sox facing an underwhelming Mariners offense and the Athletics to begin their season certainly helps their pitching, but it's also clear that Bailey has made an impact already. They're third in starting pitcher ERA and are leading the majors with a 1.79 ERA overall.

With Boston at a severe talent disadvantage on that front, having an elite pitching coach at their disposal has them pitching at an elite level. They almost certainly won't be anywhere near the league leaders in any pitching category, particularly with their starting pitchers, but if Boston can sneak into the middle of the pack, we might have a surprisingly good team on our hands.