BALTIMORE — Some seven months later, David Price can still remember how good he felt when he showed up at Boston’s spring training camp in Fort Myers, Fla., his prized left arm in pristine condition, his second season on a seven-year, $217 million deal with the Red Sox containing all the makings of something special.
But the good vibes lasted all of two weeks. The first twinge of elbow soreness in late February, in hindsight, was the portentous start of a hellish journey that saw insult added to injury, with Price making just 11 starts, clashing with the Boston media and becoming a favorite punching bag for Red Sox fans during a season full of inconsistency and intrigue.
“Going into spring training feeling as good as I did, and then for everything to happen the way it’s happened, has definitely been tough,” Price, 32, said Monday in the visitors’ clubhouse at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, where the Red Sox, now holding a three-game lead over the New York Yankees in the American League East, opened a three-game series against the Orioles with a 10-8 win.
“I’ve dealt with it. I’ve gotten through it,” he said. “Most people would’ve been at the house months ago. I didn’t pack it in. Does it feel good? No. [But] I still pitched. If people don’t appreciate that, or can’t, so be it.”
As the regular season winds down, with the Red Sox mere days away from clinching a playoff spot, Price is in a position he never would have imagined back in February — relegated to the bullpen for the rest of 2017, however far the Red Sox go. The move, which the team made last week, was an acknowledgment that Price’s latest elbow-related layoff, which began July 22, did not afford enough time to build up his stamina in time to start in October.
When management sat him down and told Price of their plans for him, he immediately made it known that he strongly disagreed.
“They knew what I wanted to do. I definitely wanted to start,” he said. The team’s logic, however, was difficult to deny. “It would have been tough to build me back up at that point. I get it.”