When Davis Martin returned from seven days' rest last month to shut out the Braves for six innings in what still registers as his best work since the start of June, he struck a note of gratitude that pitchers rarely extend to the idea of being made to pitch less.
For a team where the workload management goals might be extending from get to October to get through October, it seemed like a response worth filing away.
"Physically I was exhausted, and I think the seventh or the eighth day I guess now, I just realized how much maybe the body was tired," Martin said postgame June 10. "It's a long season. We've been throwing well, so it means we have been going deep in games, we have a lot more of a workload than last year. So, what comes along with that is taking care of your body to the best your ability."
Even after getting knocked out in the fourth on Thursday in the withering July heat of Cleveland this weekend, Martin is on pace for over 180 innings this season, a threshold that neither he nor any current member of the Sox starting rotation has ever breached in their professional careers. So the topic of finding ways to rest starting pitchers -- or just acquiring new ones -- was bound to re-emerge at some point this summer, even if the team's presumptive All-Star right-hander hadn't walked five, sat below his normal velocity range and failed to strike out a batter for the first time in his 61 career starts.
With Noah Schultz back off the injured list, David Sandlin available in Triple-A (albeit with some restrictions given he was optioned just Saturday) and Shane Smith beginning rehab starts, there are some viable in-house options developing for spelling a rotation that had to sacrifice extra days of rest in order to dance around a vacant slot for much of June. But since Will Venable often talks about the folly of trying to set rotation plans farther out than week-to-week, or even series-to-series, even with or maybe especially because of the objective workload data that wearable trackers offers, extra rest does not get planned out ahead of time.
"We’re trying to get these guys through the season," said Will Venable. "To get through this season, we have to get through today and the next couple days. There’s going to be challenges doing that. What’s great about the front office, my mindset, the players’ mindset is that we’re focused on the present here, and certainly understand the challenges of getting through one day, knowing you do have to have considerations for the future but not too far down the road."
The Sox are anticipating more skipped starts, or shortened outings for fatigued starters as the year wears on simply by way of being realistic, and probably have at least thought about who would be the best candidates to get extra rest after the All-Star break. But they're responding to warning lights as they pop up on the dashboard, not planning stops on the trip.
"Each guy's a little different," said pitching coach Zach Bove. "You can have a plan, but you gauge it on how they feel."
It's also something the coaching and training staff, and the organization at large is really tasked with managing. Because the mentality, and simply pain tolerance necessary to make it as a major league starting pitcher is such that the perspective Martin expressed at the top is really only available from the players in hindsight, including from Martin himself.
"You could feel something one pitch and not feel it for the next 100, or you can feel something the first pitch, the second pitch, the 12th pitch, and the 40th pitch, but it's four out of 100 and otherwise I'm fine," said Martin, speaking figuratively. "Anybody would be lying [if they said] they played a full 162 and they feel phenomenal. Every body is banged up, every body is hurting in some aspect. It's just figuring out how to sustain that and manage it throughout the course of the year."
Martin, who now seems especially clear-eyed for declaring the team had "solved the culture issue" back at SoxFest in January, says that making players comfortable with speaking up about soreness and fatigue was part of those efforts. But even with that, the biggest gulf between players and the public is the former's understanding that soreness and fatigue are being fought through to some degree in every game. Pitchers try to limit their concerns to dealing with the hitter in front of them, and being tied for first place in July isn't going to spur a sudden outburst of long-term thinking.
"If I take starts off and we lose five games in a row, and then you're not in the playoffs, what's the point of taking time off?" said Erick Fedde. "From an organization standpoint, they give guys blows here and there if they haven't done it before. But I'm looking at it as every five days, just get ready for one at a time. Can't think much farther than that."
Right now, the Sox can't think much father than trying to salvage their weekend in Cleveland, and trying to piece things together with their bullpen after using both Sean Newcomb and Grant Taylor in a losing effort, when both bring their own season-long workload considerations. But our comment section regularly shows the ability to worry about things far in the future, and the more glimpses we all get of Sox pitchers who have powered their surprising first half performing at less than their best, will only reiterate that the Sox front office thinking about 2026 means supplying the rest and reinforcements to sustain what's been started.
