It’s no guarantee, though, that Super-GM Dave Dombrowski and GM Mike Hazen will opt to not offer Cook a contract for 2016 by the non-tender deadline a month from now. As evaluation goes, ERA doesn’t always offer all of the answers, small samples are almost necessarily misleading, and an ERA from a small sample only has value as, say, a hook for a piece about Ryan Cook. Relievers are weird. But it wasn’t so long ago that Cook was one of the AL’s most dominant relievers for two years running, and at $1.4M for a projected arbitration salary (plus the value of club control for 2017), Cook is not a pricey gamble if a return to dominance seems possible.

2015 looks a lot worse than it should, with just 8.2 innings pitched — Cook pitched 42.2 innings at the Triple-A level this season. There, he looked a lot like the 2014 MLB version of himself, with a 3.16 ERA, a 7.6 K/9, and a 3.4 BB/9. His BABIP was way down: .299 while in the Oakland organization and a laughably low .100 BABIP in his 9.1 innings with Pawtucket.

It’s been a fairly steady decline for Cook, however, with few of his peripheral stats improving in any meaningful way from year to year. Still, if 2015 had never happened and Cook were coming off of his 2014 season, it would be hard to not tender him a contract — even if the $1.4M projection would be too low in that universe.

Players don’t typically get non-tendered due to one team’s particular roster construction: it’s more about a player’s perceived value and his expected cost. If the Red Sox front office believes Cook would command about $1.5M in free agency, then he’s worth something now. If the team believed in Cook more than the average team, the surplus value might be even higher in their book. But going year-to-year with a player (especially a reliever) brings even more value to the table, with the team effectively getting a series of one-year club options. If you think Cook is worth $1.5M instead of $1.4M because of the chance he could return as a dominant reliever, you’re also looking at the opportunity for bringing him back in 2017 for what could look a year from now like a significant bargain.

The main problem: it’s not just command and Cook’s peripheral stats that have looked like they were eroding. Cook’s main secondary pitch has always been a slider, but he’s thrown more changeups than the average reliever, and after being moved from the Diamondbacks to the Athletics in the Trevor Cahill trade, he started throwing sinkers like it was his job.

The main takeaway from this velocity graph is that Cook has seen his velocity sapped, somewhat. In 2012 and in 2013, Cook averaged exactly 96.22 mph release speed with his fourseam fastball, according to Brooks Baseball. In 2014 that had slipped to 95.53 mph, and in his more limited time in 2015, he averaged 94.82 mph on the pitch. That 1.4 mph drop may not seem like a big deal, but it turns out that every precious mile per hour tends to impact relievers (.54 points of ERA) a lot more than starters (.28 points of ERA).

And that may not be Cook’s biggest problem. As time has worn on, Cook has seen his slider movement reduced. There’s still a pretty big difference between his slider and his other pitches, but look how close his slider movement has gotten to the zero/zero point in the middle of this scatter plot, which is where we’d find a theoretical “spinless” pitch.

These things don’t point toward a Cook revival. In particular, the fastball velocity is a pretty big obstacle to getting back to being an above-average reliever; it’s been a pretty big part of his game (even including the last two years, Cook’s average career fastball velocity is tied for 90th among relievers in the PITCHf/x era).

Still, this is the project that the Red Sox acquired at the outset of August. Out of the race, Cook was a value play; the Athletics and Red Sox seemed to agree that Cook still had a little bit of surplus value left, and the Red Sox bought that with cash. That doesn’t seem like it was about 2015; it was about 2016. And so we’re back to that original question: what can 4.1 innings really tell us? Because that’s the only thing that’s changed. A few months ago, it looked to the Red Sox like Cook might be a worthy experiment for 2016, even as his club would be taking him to arbitration for the second time. For that reason alone, Cook is a non-tender candidate and not a non-tender non-brainer.

Moreover: there are still some things that the Red Sox and Cook can try. Check out the slugging percentages against Cook’s four pitches in the last four years (remembering the 2015 sample is just 8.2 innings):

Maybe increased usage of the sinker has helped make the fourseam more effective, but he’s used them similar percentages of the time during that whole span; backing off the sinker might be worth trying (.225 slugging against on Cook’s fourseam during a shaky 2014 is extremely low for a fastball). It’s also unclear that somewhat increased usage of the changeup has worked out, and that’s all in the context of Cook’s slider going from one of the best pitches in the majors to being merely good. There’s also Cook’s struggles against lefties, which have only gotten more severe as he’s relied on the changeup against them more and more.

It looks like Cook has some physical issues to overcome, too: a strained elbow in 2014 is one possible culprit and the ravages reserved for relievers from aging curves the other suspect. Only the Red Sox know how Cook is doing physically, and whether he’ll be able to salvage his young career. Still, it does look like there are some adjustments Cook can try that have little to do with those physical limitations. Whether the Red Sox tender Cook a contract will depend partly on what they know that we don’t — and yet it may be a close call.

Photo by Greg M. Cooper/USA Today Sports Images

As I detailed earlier in the season, Boston’s in a rather stable position going into the 2015-2016 arbitration window. With most of the team’s most critical players either still playing out the string on league-minimum deals (Mookie! Xander! Hooray!) or in the midst of pricey open-market deals and extensions (Porcello! Pablo! Boo!), the Sox are a team without a whole lot of uncertainty going into the arb process.

Recently, Matt Swartz came out with his offseason arbitration projections over at MLB Trade Rumors. Predicting things is a terrible business, but just like the old BP Annuals, Matt’s projections are deadly accurate. Using these arbitration projections as a guide to what a player will end up with is almost always a safe bet, and a great way to manage expectations.

Today, I thought it might be fun to take a look at the team’s current arb-eligible players, and find out what tact the team may take when it comes to the offseason. Knowing what we know now — that the team will likely be looking to build a fresh bullpen and hopefully reload to leap back into contention — I think we can make a reasonable guess as to which players will return, barring a trade or three. And that’s especially true given that all seven players for which the Sox need to make an arbitration decision come from the team’s sketchy bullpen.

The Definites: Junichi Tazawa, Joe Kelly and Robbie Ross

These three relievers (well, two relievers and a should be reliever) are, perhaps, the team’s best relievers under the age of 40, and for that reason it is extraordinarily unlikely that the team would non-tender any of them. In addition, none of these players has the counting stats that become overvalued in the arbitration process: namely saves and innings pitched. Let’s try to break them down one-by-one.

Junichi Tazawa — Projected 2016 Salary: $3.3 million

Unlike most of the pitchers on this list, I think there’s a pretty solid consensus that Tazawa is both an above-average reliever and under-valued compared to the open market. Junichi is heading into his final arbitration season, and for a player with both his pedigree and time in the league, this is a great value.

More than any other pitcher in the Boston bullpen, Tazawa has a proven “true talent” ability. cFIP, which measures this, posits that Tazawa has a score of 84 for his big league career, which is solidly above-average. While his seasonal ERA and DRA were down in ‘15, he got BABIPed to death (.349) and had tough luck with his strand rate (71%). He should be a keeper, and be a fine late-relief option, if not a dominant relief ace.

Joe Kelly — Projected 2016 Salary: $3.2 million

Here’s the thing: if Kelly does somehow transform into a relief ace, then his arbitration cost is just fine. If Kelly continues to be used in the rotation, pretty much at any non-disaster level of performance, then his arbitration cost is fine. But if he’s a bullpen JAG (just another guy), then while 2016 may be an okay term, the team will almost certainly have to trade or non-tender him after next season.

As a swingman, well, you’re probably not very excited about Kelly. Neither am I. I’d love to see if his already-nice fastball picks up a few ticks in short work, and maybe he can mothball his not-so-nice curveball. We already know that Dombrowski has come out in favor of Kelly as a starter, which is fine, I suppose, but on a team that could use bullpen weapons and has good-ish starters galore, I’d like to see them consider converting him.

He’ll be fine. And either way, he’s likely worth the money.

Robbie Ross — Projected 2016 Salary: $1.1 million

Robbie Ross may have been the team’s closer and best reliever near the end of the season, but there’s no circumstance where the team wishes for him to be the ninth-inning guy in 2016. Ross is left-handed and okay, which is great, since no one else currently in the bullpen is both left-handed and okay. His overall numbers for 2015 are pretty average: a cFIP of 99 says that he’s about league-average in terms of true talent, and a DRA of 4.07 says that he about got what he deserved in terms of runs against. Of course, Ross seemed to improve in the second half of the season, and it’s possible that he’ll beat his 2015 numbers rather than fall apart.

Ross’s salary projection is $1.1 million, which is chump change for a slightly above-average reliever. Boston should end up paying this in a heartbeat, if they don’t figure out some sort of short-term extension instead. Going year-to-year on Ross is fine, but extending him on a value contract is great too, as the stability of having a solid ‘pen lefty is a nice thing to have. He’ll be back.

The Maybes: Anthony Varvaro, Jean Machi, and Ryan Cook

Anthony Varvaro — Projected 2016 Salary: $700k

I’m inclined to dump off Varvaro, but mainly because of his injury issue. To put a fine point on it, Varvaro’s flexor tendon tear, which took him out of the bullpen in May after just 11 innings, caused Varvaro to be waived, claimed by the Cubs, and then returned to the Sox after his injury was found to be more serious than anticipated.

Varvaro had been pretty good in the two seasons before coming to Boston, where he saw his walk rate and BABIP get much, much worse. But given his injury issues, I’m not certain that the Red Sox would need to offer him anything above the league minimum to retain him. Varvaro’s reverse platoon split is nice to have when your bullpen isn’t exactly stacked with lefty-killers, but there’s already been a lot of performance variance, and the injury issues are a red flag. I’d think the team could let him fly, and perhaps bring him back on a minor-league show-me deal instead.

Jean Machi — Projected 2016 Salary: $900k

Machi’s ERA in his two seasons prior to this most recent one is immaculate, but his 2015 performance was … not. It’s a long walk from his ERA from being in the mid-twos to five-plus, but Machi’s underlying peripherals didn’t change all that much. You saw how his Boston run was damaged by giving up lots of hits and homers, something that perhaps an improved Boston defense could help mitigate in 2016. At the same time, Machi has never had dominant stuff, and his career cFIP of 100 basically screams league-average.

Though Machi hasn’t looked sharp in his short time with Boston, his 1.3 WARP in each of the two previous seasons shows he’s got the potential to be better than just an okay bullpen piece — those are really good numbers. I’d expect somewhere between half a win and three quarters next season and, on a cost of less than a million, I’d keep that.

Ryan Cook — Projected 2016 Salary: $1.4 million

This is the toughest decision, for me at least. Even though Cook looked pretty good as recently as 2014, his 2015 was a hot mess. You can forgive his terrible eight-and-two-thirds innings at the big league level as a small sample size, but his run at Nashville before coming over to the Sox was pretty shoddy as well. However, his time in Pawtucket was very, very strong in a limited sample.

Cook has potential, sure, but I have to think a non-tender is the right move here. Yeah, a million and a half is chump change for this team, but it’s also an unnecessary risk for a squad that needs a complete overhaul. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if a non-tendered Cook finds his way onto a roster only as a minor-league contract guy, so the team should save the money and perhaps put it toward a less risky bullpen option. But I’m not a scout, I’m looking at the stats. The real questions are: (1) are there better options out on the market somewhere and (2) is Cook going to stay healthy AND effective?

My best estimate is that the team rolls the dice on the dicey Machi, lets Varvaro fly, and Cook is a bit of a wild card. The team’s internal scouts and talent evaluators are going to make judgement calls here, and either way they probably can’t go wrong on Machi and Varvaro. When you’re talking about $700k-$900k, arbitration doesn’t drag a player too much up from the league minimum, so risk is low.

Cook’s a different issue. The team acquired him from Oakland despite an awful run there, so they must see something in his work that makes them want to take the risk. Both his bad run in Boston and his good run in Pawtucket are small samples, so I have to imagine there’s something the team likes here, and they keep him, even though I’d personally be more skeptical. Get a guy like this on a minor-league deal, and save a million.

The No: Alexi Ogando

Alexi Ogando — Projected 2016 Salary: $2.4 million

Ogando’s 3.99 ERA belies just how bad his peripherals were last year. Alexi gave up 12 homers in about 65 innings (not good) and walked too many hitters (3.9 BB/9). In fact, FanGraphs’ FIP-based wins above replacement pegged him at -0.9 fWAR, which is only the second-worst career mark of any Red Sox pitcher … in the team’s history. DRA is slightly kinder, as Ogando’s DRA-based WARP put him at 0.1, or right around replacement level.

But whether’s he’s the FIP-centered disaster or the DRA-based replacement-level pitcher, it seems as if investing more money in Ogando isn’t the best option. It’s not like this was an exceptionally down season; his cFIP in each of the last three seasons has been over 100, meaning his true talent level is less than league-average by this metric. There’s little reason to invest money in a low-upside option in the bullpen when low-upside options are in no short supply. The difference between a Jonathan Aro and Ogando is probably only $2 million. He should be non-tendered as well.

Hrm.

So with my guesses on who gets non-tendered, paired with Matt Swartz’s projections, it looks like the Sox will have to drop about $8.5 million in arbitration salaries on four bullpen pieces … and Cook is a $1.5 million wild card, barring trades. Investing in this team’s bullpen is a necessary evil, and all three of Tazawa, Kelly, and Ross could very well be above-replacement options. They’re locks. From a context-free perspective, spending $10 million of five bullpen pieces is great! Look at all the money they’re saving!

However, with all these pieces ranging from uninspiring to shruggie-guy-emoticon, saving a couple million here and leaving Cook / Varvaro / Machi off the roster is less about saving the money, and more about freeing up roster spots that could go to higher-upside or lower-risk options from trade or free agency.

In the end, that’s what Boston’s bullpen arbitration decisions are all about. There are some no-brainers here, but Boston’s choices will be keeping around a good chunk of the existing bullpen at a discount price, or opening up cash and spots for some new faces.

Photo by Bob DeChiara/USA Today Sports Images

Top Play (WPA): The action started early in this contest with Greg Bird giving the Yankees a lead that they would hang on to for the remainder of the game.  With Chase Headley on base in the second inning, Bird cleaned out an inside fastball from Owens and deposited it into the right field box for the game’s top play (.193).  Bird has yet to show a ton of power since coming up and came into the game with an ISO of just .136, but his third big league home run left no doubt.  The pop is legit here with Bird and although it may take a few years for it to play up, make no doubt about it: the power will play.

Boston’s top play came in the first inning when David Ortiz laced a hard-hit double that looked like it had a chance of leaving the park. Mookie Betts would score and give the Sox their lone lead of the game and the second best play by WPA. (.105)

Bottom Play (WPA): The bottom play of the game also comes to us from early on in the contest and was delivered by Pablo Sandoval.  With Betts on second in the first inning and the game knotted at 0-0, Sandoval grounded to short and was put away by Didi Gregorius for the game’s first out (-.041).

Key Moment: The key moment of the game really did belong to Bird with his go ahead two-run shot in the second. However, it was Owens totally unravelling in the second inning that truly did the Sox in.  Following the Bird homer the next batter, John Ryan Murphy, took Owens deep again.  Owens walked two batters and allowed several more hits before turning the ball over to Ryan Cook.

Cook looked every bit the reclamation project that the A’s couldn’t fix and promptly allowed a two-run-shot to Carlos Beltran.  Even though the Sox made a bit of a run late in the game against the weak underbelly of the Yankees bullpen, the result of the game was never in doubt.  Owens and Cook were charged for 11 combined runs, which was more than the Yankees needed to secure the victory.

Trend to Watch: Aside from the awful pitching performance that plagued the Sox this Wednesday afternoon, the eight runs that they put up helped build my confidence in the strides being made by the offense.  Jackie Bradley Jr. continues to hit well and Xander Bogaerts smashed his fifth home run of the year, off of Tanaka in the sixth inning.

There were also no errors by either side and I enjoyed watching the “BBC” outfield in action.  Bradley even spent some time in center field later in the game as Allen Craig came in to take over right field and Betts went to the bench.  The Sox should have one of the best defensive outfields in the game going forward.

Coming Next: The Sox will have much needed day off today before welcoming the lowly Philadelphia Phillies to historic Fenway Park.  After dropping two of three from the Yankees, the Sox will be expected to take care of business against a depleted Philly team. It’s never too late to go for the late-season meaningless sweep.  There is no better time to start experimenting with their lineup changes than in these games that have very little meaning.

Photo by Greg M. Cooper/USA Today Sports Images 

Top Play (WPA): J.T. Realmuto smacked an RBI single in the bottom of the 6th inning to break a 4-4 tie and rack up a .173 WPA. Eddie Rodriguez lasted one more batter and two more earned runs, and then came the Dumpster Fire Duo™ of Ryan Cook and Robbie Ross. Seven more runs scored in the inning alone, and that’s really all she wrote for the Red Sox in this one.

Bottom Play (WPA): Amazingly, the Red Sox pulled off this honor despite scoring on the play. Rusney Castillo grounded into a double play with runners on the corners and no outs, so a run scored despite the twin killing. The play was worth -.090 WPA, which was 13 points worse than another double play that resulted in zero runs and two outs in the inning. I’m not really sure how the Sox managed such a feat, but then again, it’s the 2015 Red Sox, and they continue to find new and inventive ways to chip away at rock bottom. The second-worst team in the majors hung 14 runs on the Red Sox. I guess that qualifies.

Key Moment: Yeah, it’s Realmuto’s grand slam. For what it’s worth, Realmuto came into this game with a 81 wRC+ and a .254 TAv. Robbie Ross gave up the blast, in the most unsurprising development in recent memory.

Talk about a swan song.

Trend To Watch: Other than David Ortiz blasting nearly every single baseball to the moon, there really isn’t anything good to see here. The pitching sucks, the hitting is inconsistent, the sky is blue, and water is wet. Same as it ever was.

Coming Next: The Red Sox come home to face the Seattle Mariners, and Cy Young frontrunner Joe Kelly will take the mound Friday night to kick off the three-game set. Oh, and Felix Hernandez pitches for Seattle on Saturday. So there’s that too.

Photo by Steve Mitchell/USA Today Sports Images

But you know him, too, because this is what the Red Sox do. Long before Cook, there was Andrew Miller, and Rich Hill, and all manner of once-promising pitchers who had tools that did not match their results (or health). It’s hard to say the strategy hasn’t worked, and that might have been true even if all the team had to show for it was Miller and Eduardo Rodriguez.

This is the organization flexing some financial muscles; Cook may be due a few million in arbitration for 2016 — more than a budget footnote for a team like the Athletics, but occupying nothing more than a consistent “experiment” place on Boston’s 40-man. Large-market teams are taking advantage of these chances. After Andrew Friedman watched Boston sign the Erik Bedards of the world year in and year out, he turned around and snagged Brandon Beachy this offseason, as he rehabbed his way back from a second Tommy John surgery. Just like money spent in the draft, the return is potentially significant, even if these projects rarely come with more than a couple years of club control.

This isn’t anything you don’t already know, but we must think about the “why” of it all. It’s not hard to spend fringy talent or meaningless dollars on an Alejandro De Aza if one is needed. If a team can afford the pick of the litter for bench players, that team can target the mediocre players with the largest discrepancies between what they can and can’t do, assuming one can set up Jonny Gomes against lefties. The Red Sox need not spend wildly to plug holes; they will always be able to do that. All that really matters is plugging holes well.

Which brings us back to the bullpen. The class of Chances Boston Can Afford are all priced where they can be afforded. Part of plugging holes well is making sure holes don’t get plugged badly. If they’re unlikely to be kept with merely below-average results, maybe they don’t get signed in the first place.

Not only are struggling relievers with options fungible, they can easily be sent down with at least 10 days to try to fix whatever it is that needs fixing.

It may be that the best bullpen possible is an expensive bullpen. But it may also be true that the worst bullpen possible is an expensive one, as well. With all of the volatility that plagues relief crews across the league, having the option of replacing a reliever is worth value just on its own. Adding a Ryan Cook is a great way to add a potentially plus option — but the best options may be actual options, the ability to assign a pitcher to the minors without losing club control. Depth is crucial.

Relievers rarely get the same opportunities to fix things that other players do. A hitter can work on something in the cage, get a day to do extra work when a backup player might need a start anyway. A starter has side sessions, which can focused on command of a particular pitch, etc. But relievers are either tapped out or one of the freshest arms in the ‘pen, more likely than not, and there just isn’t an opportunity to do side work. That’s where options can become doubly helpful.

It may be time, then, to start thinking about the draft and the minors a bit differently. While the team got sometimes-elite pitching out of Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, it’s been a long time since the Red Sox developed an ace, and, Tankapalooza 2015 notwithstanding, it may be a long time yet. While no strategy other than “best player available” will ever be popular in the draft, there may be opportunities to draft pitchers with two strong pitches and only distant hope of a third, over and above a three-pitch guy with a similar ceiling as a starter.

The real swerve, though, could be in pulling the ripcord earlier with the players the Red Sox develop. The value of three option years with a learning but potentially dominant reliever is worth a ton, and with options possibly more valuable in that part of the roster, spending money on Bobby Jenks and those of his ilk may be even less attractive to the Red Sox than to many other teams in the league. We’re taught to be allergic to the idea of “wasting” a Matt Barnes in the bullpen if he could be even a number-four starter, but the Red Sox don’t need number-four starters. It’s much better, maybe, to have Barnes in the bullpen and Justin Masterson in the rotation. As Allen Webster continues to struggle in the Arizona organization, is it worth wondering whether he could have become a four-pitch reliever in the Eric Gagne vein?

As the organization reviews the way that it has spent money in recent seasons, the bullpen could end up being the thing that gets changed the most. And that’s okay — even if entrusting the late innings to young, homegrown pitchers doesn’t always work, it should always be fairly easy to fix.

Going Deep

With meaningful games out of the question and a quiet trade deadline over, the biggest Red Sox story of the weekend was the news that Larry Lucchino is stepping down as team president at the end of the season. The news wasn’t much of a surprise given the rumors during spring training, but it’s certainly significant. Lucchino was part of John Henry’s original group that purchased the team in 2002, and played an integral role in the three World Series championships since. He’s had a say in a number of roster moves that were made in that time. He was also the driving force in the many renovations made throughout Fenway Park. However, as Lucchino mentioned in his statement Sunday, it was time for a change. The Sox are on their way to a last-place finish for the third time in the last four years and reports suggest Lucchino had been less involved in the organization. Lucchino will be succeeded by Sam Kennedy, who, as WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford writes, will be more invested in the business side of the organization and less involved in baseball operations.The Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman writes that this move is just the beginning of a slew of changes that could take place between now and Opening Day. Two changes Silverman doesn’t expect to be made are at manager and general manager, despite the notable failures of both John Farrell and Ben Cherington over the last two seasons.

The biggest shakeup that should take place for the Red Sox this offseason is in the starting rotation. Their pitching struggles are no secret to anyone who follows baseball. Boston owns the fourth-worst team ERA in baseball at 4.52 and only a marginally better team DRA at 4.12. The Sox should feel lucky it’s not worse given the disasters that Rick Porcello, Joe Kelly and Justin Masterson have represented this season. The most obvious issue is the Red Sox’s lack of a true ace (or respectable No. 1 starter for that matter). With that in mind, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal tried to determine where the Sox can find that coveted ace. Possible trade targets MacPherson suggested were Carlos Carrasco, Jacob DeGrom and Sonny Gray. All three starters are still young and in many ways up-and-coming, but all three are also putting up ace-quality numbers, ranking in the top 15 in FIP. DeGrom and Gray are both in the top 10 in baseball in DRA. Acquiring any of those three seems like a longshot, but nonetheless any of those moves would requiring parting ways with top-tier prospects. The Sox could also pursue free agents to-be such as Johnny Cueto, David Price, Jeff Samardzija and Jordan Zimmermann. But if the Jon Lester negotiations taught us anything it’s that we shouldn’t expect them to spend top-dollar and award long-term deals to proven No. 1’s.

Quick Hits

Watching a last-place team isn’t fun. Yet for some reason we do it anyways. Owning the worst record in the American League does have its benefits, however. As Alex Speier of The Boston Globe points out, that distinction would give the Sox first dibs at claiming players off waivers. That could put Boston in position to make a push for that quality starter it desperately needs.

If you were hoping Hanley Ramirez would never play left field again after this season, you may be disappointed once you read this. Despite ranking statistically as the worst left fielder in baseball, Ramirez told MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith that he wants to play there again next season, especially over any spot in the infield. Ramirez explained that he’s been healthier this season as a left fielder than he had been over the past few years as a shortstop, giving him more reason to take his lumps in left for another year.

The trade deadline was far from eventful for the Red Sox. They did, however, acquire reliever Ryan Cook from Oakland. Sox fans may not care much for the deal, but Cook told the Boston media he’s excited to join the team. Whether or not Cook earns a spot in the Sox’s 2016 bullpen could hinge on how he performs down the stretch. The righty’s 10.38 ERA in four major league appearances this season is discouraging, but he does have a history of success, posting a 2.89 FIP in 73.1 innings in 2012 and a 2.74 FIP over 67.1 frames in 2013.

Now for some injury news. Rick Porcello is heading to the disabled list for the first time in his career with what is being called a right triceps strain. In a perfect world, the Sox won’t see him pitch for the rest of the season. Joining Porcello on the DL is Brian Johnson, who is dealing with elbow tightness. Mookie Betts, on the other hand, is making progress. Betts, who was diagnosed with a concussion after toppling over the right-field wall and into the Red Sox bullpen last week, is expected to join the team in Detroit this weekend.

Three Good Game Stories

Wade Miley was strong on Sunday, as CSNNE.com’s Jimmy Toscano writes, even if it wasn’t enough to earn a win over the Rays.

Travis Shaw hit his first two major league home runs and scored five times in the Sox’s win on Saturday. WEEI.com’s Ryan Hannable explains how Shaw’s modest demeanor after the game comes from having seen his father, Jeff, play in the majors as well.

Many were surprised to see Mike Napoli still in Boston after Friday’s trade deadline passed. But, as the Boston Herald’s Jason Mastrodonato writes, Napoli led the Sox to a comeback win over the Rays that night.

Photo by Bob DeChiara/USA Today Sports Images