Red Sox Rumors: Rookie ‘Expected’ To Start After Rotation Shuffle

The Red Sox were forced to shuffle things around in the rotation this weekend, but things broke their way.

Walker Buehler won’t make his scheduled start Friday, as he “hasn’t bounced back” the way the organization hoped he would following his latest start. Boston doesn’t have a backup plan already in place, though.

Hunter Dobbins is expected to start Saturday, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.

Brayan Bello will start a series-opening matchup with the Minnesota Twins on Friday, with the expected promotion of Dobbins keeping the rest of the rotation on schedule as they wait for more news on Buehler.

Dobbins has been great in this role throughout the season, allowing just three total earned runs across two spot starts in April. The Red Sox have been impressed with his underlying metrics, as well, with the rookie ranking in the 85th percentile in expected earned run average, 98th percentile in chase percentage, 60th percentile in strikeout percentage and 91st percentile in barrel percentage.

Boston and Minnesota will kick things off Friday at 7:10 p.m. ET. NESN has full coverage, including extended pregame coverage, starting at 5:30 p.m. ET.