Put a nail in Pineiro’s coffin

Someone had to go to make room for the call up of starting pitcher Jon Lester. It wasn’t going to be Julian Tavarez. Old Big Lebowski has been too versatile as a starter and reliever. Too multifaceted an arm to throw on the garbage heap.

Hereeeee’s Jonny!

So, one of the relievers had to go. The logical choice would have been to send left-handed specialist Javier Lopez back to Pawtucket. He still has options, and with his recent hit-and-miss appearances, a second round of ‘07 seasoning might have done him some good.

Evidently Terry Francona like his lefties even more than Sox fans thought he did. He just made a $3 million pledge to keep one who started in AAA this spring.

That’s because Joel Pineiro, the ill-fated closer experiment gone awry, will soon be a former Red Sox. The reliever never truly found a regular role, languishing at the bench with a hefty contract, bridging mediocre performances with clutch strikeouts, then dousing the flames of those optimistic hopes with a game in which he’d toss 2/3 of an inning and give up two long balls.

Evidently, in an era where Theo Epstein is clearly not hamstrung by lack of cash, that’s not good enough to keep you on the staff, even when your salary is north of $3 mill after incentives.

Lester time: It’s finally come.

All of this will probably serve two tangential purposes as well: 1) it will cement the err of promoting Allard Baird, the former Kansas City GM who is now a Boston assistant GM, and is batting a firm 0-for-2 in “players he’s explicitly told the Sox to sign.” But, more significantly still, 2) it will detract from some of the focus and hype surrounding Lester’s first start since his cancer diagnosis. And with the overpowering fastball and curve that Lester has flashed at times this season - for what it’s worth he struggled at times in his last start, yielding three runs - he can dominate a game by just playing it without losing his focus. Perhaps, just perhaps, putting some of the focus on a front office error instead of Lester’s physical and mental fitness will take the strain off his highly-touted left arm.

And if it does dim that spotlight a bit, and if that helps earn a win, then maybe the entire failed Pineiro experiment wasn’t a multi-million dollar mistake. At least, that’s what Theo has to hope for.

– Cameron Smith