Boston Red Sox 2017 Player Previews: David Price

Despite allowing the most runs and home runs of his career in his first year with the Boston Red Sox, David Price still won seventeen games. The challenge for year two: his health.

David Price is a workhorse. Over his nine year career, Price has averaged 227 innings and 34 starts per season, with career highs of 248.1 innings in 2014 and 35 starts last season. After a dominant 2015 that saw him win 18 games with a 2.45 ERA between Detroit and Toronto, the Boston Red Sox signed Price to a seven-year, $217 million contract with an opt-out after two seasons.

Expectations were high, as they should be when a pitcher is making on average $918,000 per start and $9150 per pitch. Price hit a few bumps in the road in his first year in Boston and drew the ire of many Red Sox fans, but there was generally as much good as there was bad. Price led the American League in starts with 35, innings pitched with 230, and batters faced with 951.

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He also struck out 228 batters, the second highest mark of his career. On the reserve side, he led the AL in hits allowed at 227. Price also allowed a career high 102 runs (he had only ever more than 69 twice in his career) and gave up a career high 30 home runs. He had trouble figuring out Fenway Park, where he allowed seventeen of his home runs and had a 4.11 ERA compared to 3.88 on the road.

Luckily for Price, the Red Sox offense was able to bail him out in most cases. He was 14-2 when his team scored at least three runs. He was a very un-ace-like 1-7 when they scored two or less, though. Another source of frustration for fans was Price’s performance against the New York Yankees. Price faced the Yankees five times last season and went 1-3 with a 7.89 ERA. He allowed New York to score 26 runs (the team with the next most runs against him was the Baltimore Orioles with only 14).

Postseason struggles

Of course, the biggest problem was Price’s continued struggles in the postseason. As a starting pitcher, Price is 0-8 with a 6.21 ERA in nine starts. In his only start last season against the Cleveland Indians, Price allowed five runs and only lasted 3.1 innings. He has only given up less than three runs in one playoff start, but has allowed five or more runs four times. Price’s postseason performance is flat out bad and will be an obstacle the Red Sox need to overcome, but Price’s seemingly carefree attitude about the issue is a little more worrisome.

Moving extra points back has changed the #nfl !! I feel for the kickers but I kinda like it!! Yea yea I know win a playoff game then talk
— David Price (@DAVIDprice24) November 13, 2016

Aloha! Can't lose a playoff game in Hawaii! #thankGod pic.twitter.com/LeBPwnUUH8
— David Price (@DAVIDprice24) November 22, 2016

In a way, it could be a good thing that Price does not let these bad losses get to his head (though perhaps these tweets imply that they are too in his head), but the key to earning the respect of fans is certainly not making jokes about playoff losses on Twitter, especially when they are reminded of the $9500 cost per pitch.

Despite the issues that he had, Price is in it for the long haul and seventeen wins is nothing to complain too heavily about.

Boston has a well documented adjustment period for incoming players (just look at the difference between Hanley Ramirez’s first two seasons), so Price should feel more comfortable on the second go-around. The only issue precluding that could be how much he will actually pitch this season.