Both Daniel Bard and the Red Sox front office decided -- apparently separately before discussing it -- that a move back to the bullpen would be best for the pitcher.
“Ironically, when I made the call to [general manager] Ben [Cherington] to talk to him about it, they were going to tell me basically the same thing,” Bard said with a smile (bostonherald.com). “He tried to make it sound like it wasn’t permanent in his mind, if I wanted to still go back to starting next year, they’d be open to it, but I told them for now this is where I want to be, in the bullpen.”
Bard, 26, was a valuable reliever for the Red Sox last season, serving as Jonathan Papelbon's setup man. He had a 3.33 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 74 strikeouts in 73 innings pitched. This past offseason, though, the Red Sox made the decision to stretch Bard out as a starter.
The results were pretty bad. Bard was sent down the minors after a disastrous start in Toronto June 3 -- when he walked six and hit two batters. In all as a starter, Bard was 5-6 with a 5.24 ERA, 1.62 WHIP and an MLB-leading eight hit batsman.
Bard will make the transition back to reliever for Triple-A Pawtucket. If he could return to last season's form, the Red Sox would look pretty good at the back-end of the bullpen with Bard and closer Alfredo Aceves.
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