I think baseball is gaslighting me.
Upon reviewing the barren wasteland that is the list of remaining players in need of recaps, I quickly realized two things. First, that I had forgotten Kyle Kendrick was a baseball player who exists. I think I can be forgiven for that one, considering prior to last season, he hadn’t made a major league start since 2015, and it’s not like Kyle Kendrick was some kind of baseball royalty. His best season in terms of fWAR was 2.0 in 2013, and his ERA that year was 4.70 — I didn’t forget Clayton Kershaw here.
That said, the second, more pressing thing was that I have no memory of Kyle Kendrick ever participating in Red Sox baseball in any form. The information simply does not exist in my brain. He played for Boston? Last year? Are you sure?
This required research. I’m no encyclopedia of obscure Boston athletes — as much as I’d like to be — but I felt like I’d remember if a guy who has over 1,200 major league innings under his belt pitched for my team. I quickly ran a search to find out if Kyle Kendrick was, in fact, a Boston baseball player for some length of time. Sure enough, there he was. Fangraphs, Baseball-Reference, and BP all tell me he had a 12.96 ERA in two starts last year. Wow!
This goes deeper than just my faulty memory, though. This is a conspiracy. “Surely Kyle Kendrick can’t still be a Red Sox pitcher, right?” I asked myself, and for a glorious moment, I felt redeemed. Wikipedia said that he was, in fact, a free agent. To the best of my knowledge, he still is. But I’m not sure if my knowledge can be trusted anymore.
I looked through the Kyle Kendrick Google results a little further, certain in my belief that I am the only human to have Googled Kyle Kendrick’s name in the past six months apart from maybe Kyle Kendrick himself. On the second page, I discover an NBC Sports article: “Kyle Kendrick will end up in Boston’s rotation eventually.” The article was written by Evan Drellich back in March of last year, but the time stamp on Google itself? Seven days ago.
You might think I’m losing my mind. I’m not completely sure on the subject myself, but for this, I have receipts.
Why did it display this way? The Google search was performed on January 31, 2018, so it’s not like the article was seven days ago last year. Is Google trying to say Kyle Kendrick will be back? Is this a threat?
Why seven days? Why that particular article? Why were the other articles fine? Why Kyle Kendrick?
I don’t think I completely know the status of Schrodinger’s Kendrick at this point. I think he started two games for the Red Sox last season, and I think he’s no longer a member of the team. I’ve scrawled “Kyle Kendrick is gone. Don’t believe his lies.” into my hand in the event this is some kind of Memento situation.
I supposed I should talk about Kyle Kendrick’s actual performance during his alleged Red Sox stint last season, despite my mind having been torn in two. Kyle Kendrick started two games last season, gave up 12 runs, and lost them both. He was outrighted off the 40-man roster and ended up with Pawtucket, where he finished with 101.2 innings pitched and an ERA of 5.67.
And that about covers it. That’s all I’ve got on Kyle Kendrick. I’ll be pondering the mystery of his Red Sox career — along with the state of my own sanity — for some time. Was he ever really here? Will he be back? Did he kidnap Rick Porcello and pretend to be him the rest of the season? It’s hard to say.
Please sign J.D. Martinez, Dave. Give me something, anything else to think about.
What Went Right:
I’ll, uhh, get back to you on that one.
What Went Wrong:
He lost his only two games and I lost my sanity.
What to Expect:
That I will forget Kyle Kendrick again mere minutes after I submit this recap.
Photo by Steve Mitchell — USA TODAY Sports