Red Sox Prospect Chandler Shepherd Has Made A Nice Transition Into A Starting Pitcher This Season
Red Sox prospect Chandler Shepherd has spent the first four seasons of his professional career as a reliever. Coming into the 2018 season, the Red Sox decided to move him into the starting rotation and use him as a starting pitcher. This wasn’t something new to Shepherd as he did start in 2017 while he was playing winter ball in Hermosillo, Mexico.
Shepherd struggled to begin the 2018 season for the Pawtucket Red Sox. In four April starts, Shepherd posted a 7.36 ERA in 18 and 1/3 innings. But since then, he has flourished as a starting pitcher. Earlier on in the season “he wasn’t stretched out” said Paw Sox manager Kevin Boles. “It was 75 pitches early on in the year. Now he’s built up to about 95 to 100”. Shepherd now has the stamina to pitch late into game and face batters several times through the lineup. Something he didn’t have earlier on in the year.
Why The Transition To A Starting Pitcher
In the winter of 2017, Chandler Shepherd played winter ball down in Hermosillo, Mexico, where he was a starting pitcher. This would be the first time since college that Shepherd would be used as a starting pitcher in an organized baseball game, minus one spot start each of the last two years where he maxed out at 56 pitches.
While down in Hermosillo, he made seven starts while posting a 3-2 record in 33 innings of work. In those 33 innings, he posted a 4.09 ERA while striking out 31 batters.
“I think the idea was bounced around a couple of times” says Shepherd, “I actually did start was when I went to winter ball last year, when I was in Mexico, I started down there and things went well for me. I think that conversation after that kind of kick started it again a little bit. Maybe thought it was a good idea to try it out coming into spring training next year” Shepherd adds.
But when you look at the makeup that Shepherd has, it only makes sense that the organization decided to make him a starter. “Looking at what we have, if you look at the right handed relievers. Lot of tall right handed relievers with big power arms. He’s a guy that has four pitches. So fastball, curveball, cutter, changeup. So when you have four pitches, if you’re a 1 to 2 inning guy, you don’t really get to use those too much. He profiled with all the guys that we had, right handed, big power arms. He was a guy that kind of stood out as far as he’s got some pitchability. He’s got a mix. So I think they just wanted to give him a different look. He was excited to do it, and he’s taken to it. He’s done a nice job so far” said Paw Sox manager Kevin Boles when asked why the organization decided to move Shepherd to the starting rotation.
This move essentially gives Chandler Shepherd more of a shot at the big leagues. The Red Sox organization already has a lot of guys who are big right handed pitchers who throw hard out of the bullpen. This move to the starting rotation makes Shepherd more flexible within the organization. If the Red Sox need a long man or a spot starter even in the 2018 season, Shepherd is now a possibility for a call up at any point this season as a spot starter or a call up in September. Chandler Shepherd is currently on the Red Sox 40-man roster.
Jason Schneider/Pawtucket Red Sox
How Has Shepherds Transition Been Going
To begin the 2018 campaign for Shepherd, it looked like he wasn’t meant to be a starting pitcher. In four starts during April, he posted a 7.36 ERA in 18 and 1/3 innings. But in reality, he just wasn’t up to it. Yet. “He wasn’t stretched out then, and that’s the thing” said Kevin Boles.
“I think there’s a fine line going from one to two inning reliever to being a starter where you fall in the traps trying to hold back. Like you’re trying to ration out your effort level. What I think he’s got to do is he’s got to make sure hes going he’s pitching the whole time and just understanding that he’s building up to 100 pitches and that just something that a lot of guys try to reserve. Save something in the tank, they fall into a trap, and maybe they don’t execute as much as far as their pitch-ability. He’s a guy that now that understands what the effort level needs to be, executing his pitches, and he’s going to have something left in the tank in the sixth and seventh inning. He’s built up that stamina now”.
“With (Shepherd), when a guy gets around 30-40 pitches, that’s usually where they’ve been cut off as a reliever. Now, we want to make sure that they’re not trying to ration their effort level. That they have to be going. They have to be pitching the whole time. I think that’s something that he’s built up to. It was 75 pitches early on in the year. Now he’s built up to about 95 to 100. That takes a lot of work” as Boles complements Shepherd on his transformation into a a starting pitcher.
Now that Shepherd has been pitching as a starting pitcher for the entire season, you have started to see his progression as he seems fresher later in his outings. A really improvement, especially since he has shown he can get into the seventh inning and give the Paw Sox length as a starting pitcher. This has helped the bullpen and give them somewhat of a break on the day of his starts. This has been especially nice for the Paw Sox because they have had to deal with a lot of spot starts by different guys who can only give them three to four innings as a starting pitcher. That can tax a bullpen as the season goes on.
How Shepherd Has Improved As A Pitcher
As a starting pitcher, you’re going to be attacking hitters differently compared to how you would be attacking hitters out of the bullpen. “It’s more you’re coming out and attack the hitters with your best bullets that day, out of the bullpen” said Shepherd. “Now you come in to start, you’ve got to face the same guys two, three times in a game. I think it’s a lot of mixing in your pitches up, and being a smarter pitcher, you know understanding the game a little bit better versus coming in and working quickly and getting quick outs” said Shepherd when asked about the difference from pitching as a starter to coming out of the pen.
Shepherd admitted that “getting through that line up a second and third time was something early on I think I was really struggling with”. Once the calendar turned to May, he was able to post a 2.22 ERA in five starts in the month. Those numbers alone have shown that he is building up the stamina that he needs to be able to be a starting pitcher. But Shepherd credits his success since May to “mixing pitches and basically not being predictable is what’s allowing me to get deeper into games and having more success”.
Shepherd’s ability to mixing in his pitches to get hitters out two to three times through the order makes total sense. If you see the same pitches from the same pitcher as a hitter, you will be able to make contact and do damage. Boles and Shepherd have both said that you need to be able to mix your pitches well to achieve success as a starting pitcher, which is true.
For a reliever, you can get away having only two pitches. Since Shepherd has 4 pitches in the fastball, curveball, cutter, and changeup. He already has the ability to mix his pitches. To get ready for his next start, Shepherd did say “that routine in between the starts is something that I really had to adapt to. The planing for the next start. The scouting part or the preparation with the weight room stuff, conditioning or bullpens or whatever it might be”.
That’s when as a pitcher you will figure out how you want to attack certain hitters. As Shepherd continues to develop as a starting pitcher, he will continue to work on his conditioning and his prep in how to make his next start. But so far in the 2018 season, Shepherd has done a really nice job on making that jump from a reliever to a starting pitcher.
Jason Schneider/Pawtucket Red Sox
What Is Shepherd’s Ceiling
Chandler Shepherd is currently the 25th best prospect in the Red Sox organization according to mlb.com. As a starting pitcher and being stretched out to 95-100 pitches, he can provide some length at any level, even out of the bullpen. So far this season, the Red Sox have called up Jalen Beeks and Willliam Cuevas as a long man out of the bullpen when they have needed length. Shepherd is another name you could see called up at one point this season to give the Red Sox length or even a spot start at one point. He currently is on the 40 man roster so seeing him with the Red Sox this September when rosters expand is not out of the question.
In the long term, Shepherd looks like he could be a starting pitcher for the Red Sox at the major league level. Since May however he has labored in several starts while struggling to get batters out. But his assortment of pitches and his ability to give that length in a game does make him a viable option to be able to get batters out and pitch very efficiency which he has shown at the AAA level.
Shepherd does have the talent as a professional baseball player to be given the chance to make his major league debut. Because he is on the 40 man roster, I do think that you will get that at one point this season, but probably not until September. In September, you will probably see him out of the Red Sox bullpen as a long man for any starting pitcher who only goes 4 to 5 innings while they try to limit work for some of their starting pitchers, especially Chris Sale.
