Impending Free-Agent Michael Wacha: 'No Better Place' Than Fenway Park

'It would be a cool place to pitch again next year but time will tell'

Impending Free-Agent Michael Wacha: 'No Better Place' Than Fenway Park

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Would Red Sox impending free-agent pitcher Michael Wacha return to Boston next season? It certainly appears so after his final press conference of the season.

The 31-year-old was asked about his future after Sunday's 6-3 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, where he allowed five earned runs in four innings.

"Like I said before, I love the guys here, the staff here, pitching at Fenway," Wacha said, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "There’s no better place to pitch, I feel like. It would be a cool place to pitch again next year but time will tell.”

Wacha was one of the best signings of the offseason a year ago, inking a one-year $7 million deal last winter. He went on to post an 11-2 record with a 3.32 ERA, 104-to-31 strikeout-to-walk ratio and .233 batting average against in 127 1/3 innings across 23 starts.

His season-long performance warrants a sizeable raise, though his poor underlying metrics paired with two stints on the injured list could make for a more reasonable investment.

Wacha has said all of the right things but he'll likely value a combination of wanting to contend and maximizing his income.

Despite the last-place finish, Boston has all the pieces to compete in 2023 and the money to fortify some weakened areas. Adding Wacha to next season's rotation at the right price would be a strong step forward to building a pitching staff in desperate need of a boost.

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Published Oct 3, 2022

Scott Neville

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu

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