Robbie Ross

Ross had an up-and-down season in 2015 – both in terms of performance and location. His poor pitching led to several trips between Boston and Triple-A Pawtucket as he looked like a sub-par reliever for the first half of the season. There was rarely a clean inning for Ross, but he was able to string together stretches of consistently good pitching and turn his season around in the second half. And that was good timing because he eventually served as the team’s closer in September after Koji Uehara went down for the season with a forearm injury. Ross finished with six saves and a 3.86 ERA, but he won't be in line for too many save opportunities in 2016. The Red Sox traded a lot of prospect wealth to get Craig Kimbrel out of the San Diego, and Koji Uehara is still in the fold. Ross is expected to open the season as a left-hander out of the bullpen, one who can pitch to both sides of the plate.

Ross was a productive reliever from 2012 to 2013 with a 2.62 ERA in 127 innings despite some odd struggles against lefties in 2013. However, the injury-ravaged Rangers wound up needing him as a starter to open 2014. Predictably, things went awry. Ross flourishes in the 25-30 pitch range and unsurprisingly had issues getting through a lineup multiple times with just two pitches. He allowed a .937 OPS from pitch 26 and on in 2014. While he did rid himself of those issues against lefties, righties turned up against him with an .892 OPS -- a 369-point jump from 2013. The Red Sox, who acquired Ross from Texas in January for Anthony Ranaudo, hope not to need him in the rotation in 2015. If Ross returns to the bullpen, he's unlikely to find a role that will give him fantasy relevance even if his numbers are more in line with 2012-13.

Ross' mid-season struggles resulted in him being passed by Neal Cotts as the primary lefty out of the Texas bullpen down the stretch, though Ross saw a nice uptick in his strikeout rate from his rookie season. The real issue is that he was tasked with getting lefties out and he simply didn't, as they smacked him around to the tune of a .344/.416/.544 line for the year. He was far more effective against righties (.209/.271/.248), and his 2012 campaign showed solid numbers against both so there's some value here in deeper leagues, if he can re-discover his effectiveness against lefties. A starter throughout his minor-league career, there's been no talk of returning him to that role in the majors.

Ross earned a spot in the Texas bullpen with a solid spring, proceeded to rack up four wins in his first seven appearances and then struggled as the season wore on. His post-break numbers (17.2 innings, 22 hits, 18:12 K:BB, 5.60 ERA) were impacted by a forearm injury that required a stint on the DL, but were also indicative of less-than-stellar peripherals catching up with him. A starter throughout his minor league career, Ross is expected to compete for a rotation spot this spring.