Poll: Red Sox 2024 pitching projections

We began our Red Sox 2024 season projections yesterday with the lineup and here are the results:

- "Who will lead the Red Sox in batting average?" - 34.5% responded Masataka Yoshida and Rafael Devers, respectively, while 13.8% said Trevor Story.

- "How many Sox hitters will have 30+ HR?" - 50% said two, 40% said one and just 10% said 3-or-more.

- "Rafael Devers will have 35+ HR and 100+ RBI?" - 80% said yes.

- "Trevor Story will have 25+ HR and 75+ RBI?" - 57.9% said yes.

- "Triston Casas will have 30+ HR and 80+ RBI?" - 52.6% said no.

- "Ceddanne Rafaela will finish top-3 in AL Rookie of the Year voting?" - 55.2% said yes.

Now, it's time to turn our attention to the pitching staff - the glaring weakness of this year's team. Boston entered the off-season needing a couple bonafide starting pitchers to round out their staff. What did they do? Traded Chris Sale and acquired Lucas Giolito, who has since been lost for the year with a Tommy John touch-up procedure on his throwing elbow.

I don't know about you, but Bello-Pivetta-Crawford-Whitlock-Houck doesn't inspire a ton of confidence in me, and it appears the Red Sox think simply having Craig Breslow in-house, as well as new pitching coach Andrew Bailey, is going to be the secret sauce in unlocking these guy's potential and turning what appears to be a lacking bunch of arms into the '98 Braves.

Here are my projections for the Sox starters. As was the case with the lineup, these are best-case projections.

1. Brayan Bello, RHP (13-10/4.16/160), 2. Nick Pivetta, RHP (10-12/4.47/180), 3. Kutter Crawford, RHP (9-10/4.29/153), 4. Garrett Whitlock, RHP (7-6/3.83/132), 5. Tanner Houck, RHP (9-8/3.89/127).

Let us know how you think the staff will fare this year!