23 to go.

As it happens, I agree with the Red Sox hive mind – Mike Timlin does not have much time left in his pitching career. And more to the point, his usefulness is already pretty shot (the back to back homeruns given up last night? Were a fairly convincing indicator.)

But…

Per the Red Sox website, he’s pitched in 977 games. That leaves 23 to go for him to get to 1000 appearances, which is his stated goal. The Red Sox have played 75 games, with 87 left to play. We’re 10 games up on our nearest competitor, Toronto, who have been as badly hit with injuries this year as we were last year (in fact, I still owe my Blue Jays friend a sympathy call.) The Angels are at our level. No one else is – the tops of the other divisions are all around 44 wins or so. Which is immaterial anyway because the likelihood of our needing to compete with them for a post-season spot is slim, at best (or they’re in the NL.)

My longwinded point is that we have breathing room. With 87 games left, there are going to be blowouts where we’re ahead by 10 or behind by 10. There will probably be at least 23 of them. Letting Mike Timlin, a good Red Sox citizen, reach the personal goal that is important to him is not going to cost the team. We’re not burning new options, we’ll bring Breslow & Corey up in Sept (assuming that no one else gets hurt; never a safe assumption,) we won’t nickel-and-dime the guy regarding his career. Because it’s not going to matter in 4 months, and the goodwill will remain even when Timlin leaves.