Scapegoat is an often-used word when a manager or coach is fired. As the saying goes, “You can’t fire the players,” and the person responsible for putting together the roster is rarely let go during the season. That puts a select few in the cross hairs when things aren’t going as expected. Or, in some cases, what many predicted comes to fruition.

The Red Sox fired their pitching coach today, 28 games into a season where their beleaguered staff is living down to its expectations. Unable to magically turn the likes of Clay Buchholz, Joe Kelly and Justin Masterson into more than what they are, Juan Nieves is now unemployed.

Somewhat surprisingly, Nieves’ replacement is not yet known. According to Ben Cherington, at least one internal candidate and one external candidate is being considered. The Boston GM did say “Nothing happened specifically, recently, that precipitated this.” Cherington said once the decision was reached, the right thing to do was make the move, even without a successor in place.

The degree to which the members of the Red Sox rotation have been underachieving is debatable. Going strictly by what they’re capable of, all should be doing better. But comparing some of their numbers to their projections, the differences aren’t as big as you might think. At the risk of cherry-picking, it’s worth noting that Boston starters have a 3.95 FIP, which is lower than than their depth-chart projected 4.08.

Cherington said he’s not sure which projections I’m looking at – I wasn’t specific when I brought it up during this afternoon’s conference call – adding that “If you look at aggregate performance of our pitching staff, we know it needs to, and can improve.”

Will that happen to any meaningful extent with a new pitching coach? The Red Sox front office, in conjunction with manager John Farrell, seems to think so. Who knows, maybe they’re right and Nieves needed to go. Either way, whomever takes his place has his work cut out for him.