Is David Price Headed to the Bullpen?

The Hype surrounding David Price, the Ray’s number one pick last year, has grown so loud that they have little choice but to promote him. There’s no doubting his ability, he’s absolutely dominated hitters in his brief minor league career (10-0, 2.08 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 86.2 IP) and could be the difference maker that the Rays failed to land at the trading deadline. It just may not be in the capacity that everyone expects.

The Rays didn’t get to where they are by making rash decisions. No, they spent the last decade trolling in the lowest depths of the league, patiently plotting and perfecting a plan for future prosperity. Now that they have finally reached their destination, it’s very unlikely that they’ll abandon their blueprint for one shot at glory. Remember, no one expected this club to take the American League East under siege until at least 2009, and with the average age of their team being 26.9, it looks like they’ll be sticking around for awhile.

Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, Andrew Friedman, knows how he got here. If not due to his knowledge, he has led the team to where it is through patience and he isn’t afraid to make the hard decision. It would have been much easier for him to retain Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes, two of the game’s most talented young players, but he knew that their presence was detrimental to the future of this club so he dumped them.

“We want to call Price up when we feel like, developmentally speaking, he’s at the point where that next challenge is the right thing to do for him, and not just filling a need for the team,” Friedman explained at a recent press conference, with as much enthusiasm as a man can have after fielding the same question ten times a day for the last four months. “That’s obviously something that we battle, being where we are, record wise. We’ve got to fight that temptation.”

So, if you think Friedman is going to rush Price along just to appease the fans’ grumblings, you’re fooling yourself. Yes, he has hinted that Price will jump Triple-A Durham and go right to the show, but that doesn’t mean that he’ll be starting games anytime soon. Instead, it’s much more likely that he’ll star as the Rays’ set-up man as they make their playoff push.

Their desire to limit his innings and ease him into the major league system, along with the lack of a solid left handed option out of the pen, make this the perfect solution for both sides. Remember, Price was taking his reps in a Vanderbilt uniform just a year ago, which is easy to forget when you realize his raw skills. He has a major league ready arsenal that includes a fastball that lives in 92-95 range, and a slider that few big major leaguers could rival, and then there’s his superior command (he’s walked only 19 batters through 86.2 innings). The hang-up? As crazy as this sounds, it’s that he’s never struggled.

Clearly he has the stuff, but what Friedman and many others worry about is Price’s make-up. Can he bounce back after a bad start? Since posting a 0.43 ERA with 151 strikeouts in 65 innings as a high-school senior, there have been few times he’s had to face true adversity. Everything has came so naturally to him that he’s never had to make adjustments on the spot, this is something that is certain to change at the major league level.

Out of the bullpen he’d have the room to go through the growing pains without the pressure that comes along with starting games. If he labor’s through a few at-bats, he can easily be pulled without the worries that would be prevalent if he struggled as a starter. But more importantly, he wouldn’t have to wait five days to try his hand again. A few bad outings in the rotation and his confidence is killed, if he struggles out of the pen he can be back out there to try his hand the next night.

It wasn’t long ago that this same kid threatened to hang-up his mitt for good in favor of a career at McDonalds after getting shelled in his first college scrimmage. So these concerns are legitimate.

“It was definitely kind of out there,” Vanderbilt Coach Tim Corbin told Sports Illustrated, “but I couldn’t laugh because he was so serious. He had to survive that moment to show he could survive as a pitcher.”

Price is destined to be an ace. But for now think Joba Chamberlain circa 2007, just without all the rules.