It’s simple: trade Clay Buchholz

Look at this Boston Red Sox rotation. Keep looking. Keep looking. And stop.

There’s seven starters and five spots: Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, Eddie Rodriguez, Drew Pomeranz, Clay Buchholz and Steven Wright. Pick five.

At least one of those guys is going to have to be traded and if you look at the list, Clay Buchholz makes the most sense.

Buchholz has been wildly inconsistent for the bulk of his Red Sox career, so it’s really tough to know what they should expect from him at this point. It’s crazy to think the guy has been in the league for a decade and we simply don’t know how he is going to do on any given day.

The guy was booted from the rotation last year (but came back into it and was strong in the second half), which shows he cannot be depended upon for 32 starts/200 innings and all that. Oh, and he’s never given the Sox that in his big league career. Not once.

Here are some facts on Buchholz worth noting:

The guy is 23-28 with a 4.60 ERA in the past three seasons.

He has never made 20 starts (or more) in back-to-back seasons.

He’s made 28-29 starts thrice in nine full big league seasons.

When he makes at least 20 starts in a season, he owns a 4.22 ERA.

In odd numbered years, he has averaged 16 starts per year — which means he’s probably going to miss more than half of 2017.

Oh and the Miami Marlins had interest in him at the deadline last season.

OK. With those facts in mind, where do you stand on this. He’s on a one-year club option making $13 mil and all signs point to him getting hurt and missing half the year anyways. And the Sox have three of the best pitchers in the game plus two other guys who were All-Stars last year and Rodriguez, who could be one of the better young pitchers in the game. Think about it… It’s pretty simple, man.