Baltimore Orioles: Andrew Cashner Forced Into New Role

Life hasn’t been easy for Andrew Cashner since he was traded from the Baltimore Orioles to the Boston Red Sox.

Going into the final few weeks of the 2019 regular season, the Boston Red Sox find themselves facing a large uphill battle in their quest to defend their 2018 World Series title. Currently 16.5 games behind the American League East-leading New York Yankees and 7.5 games out of a Wild Card spot, things aren’t going very well in Boston (oh darn). Things have been particularly rough for former Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Andrew Cashner.

As of Monday afternoon, Cashner has been removed from the Red Sox starting rotation and will now work out of the bullpen in short stints as the Sox continue to find anything that works and improves their pitching staff.

Cashner was supposed to help solidify the back end of Alex Cora‘s rotation, however, the 32-year-old has imploded since Mike Elias sent him to Boston in exchange for two teenage prospects out of the Dominican Summer League (who have been playing well since joining the Baltimore Orioles system, per MASN’s Roch Kubatko).

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In six starts for the Red Sox, Cashner is 1-4 with an 8.01 ERA and 1.92 WHIP. Working 30 innings, he’s amassed just 21 strikeouts while walking 17 and allowing seven home runs. Opponents are hitting .339 against him.

These numbers are a far cry from Cashner’s production with the Orioles. With the Birds, Cashner was 9-3 with a 3.83 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, and a home run rate of less than half of his mark in Boston (1.03/9 IP). He limited opponents to a .232 average and was worth 1.8 fWAR after 17 starts, one of the higher fWAR totals of his career.

His last start came on Sunday afternoon against the Los Angeles Angels in which Cashner failed to make it out of the second inning and was removed from the game to the sounds of boos from Red Sox faithful. His final line- 1.2 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 1 K.

At this point, it appears that Cashner’s best bet will be to hit the reset button in 2020 with a different franchise. It’s turning into an unfortunate end to what was shaping up to be the best season of his career.