What Should the Sox Do With Dice-K?

1-5, 8.23 ERA, 2.20 WHIP. The numbers speak for themselves, but I'll say it anyway: Dice-K is pitching miserably at the moment. Under normal circumstances I'd say that there's nothing the Red Sox can do except keep trotting him out there every fifth day and allow him to work through his struggles. But these are not normal circumstances. Aside from Dice-K, the Red Sox have as many as 8 other pitchers capable of starting in a major league rotation. Four are already in the rotation. Of the others, Clay Buchholz and John Smoltz are both making strong cases for a spot in the rotation. Buchholz is dominating the International League (that's AAA for those of you who didn't know) and would be in the rotation already if he was in any other organization. Smoltz is set to come back on Thursday. Keeping him out any longer is unfeasible for many reasons, but I won't get into that here. So with Smoltz pounding on the door, looking for a rotation spot (with Buchholz right behind him), the Red Sox need to find him one. A few weeks ago the best way to do that seemed to be to trade Brad Penny. Since then, Penny has drawn only tepid interest on the trade market and in spite of that is pitching well, leaving Dice-K as the clear weak link in the rotation. The Red Sox would love to hand his spot to Smoltz but then they would need to figure out what to do with Dice-K. Throwing him in the bullpen is not an option because: a) the Red Sox already have a very good long reliever in Justin Masterson, b) Daniel Bard would have to be sent back to AAA, something the Red Sox would prefer not to do, and c) Dice-K takes at least 45 minutes to warm up, an unfeasible amount of time for a reliever. They could invent an injury for him and place him on the DL, but that wouldn't help Dice-K unless he simply needs to rest his arm (unlikely). They could go with a 6-man rotation, but that would ultimately lead to fewer games started by Josh Beckett and Jon Lester (that probably means fewer wins) and unreasonable rest periods for everyone in between starts. That problem only gets worse if you keep Beckett and Lester on normal rest and rotate the other four pitchers. The rest period for those four could jump to over a week in the right circumstances. Many fans undoubtedly want the Red Sox to trade Dice-K. That is completely out of the question for a number of reasons. (I'll explain in a later post). Ideally, Dice-K agrees to accept an assignment to AAA to work out is problems so that he can come back strong later in the year. That option appears less and less likely as time goes by. Smoltz was ready a while ago. If Dice-K was headed to AAA Pawtucket he would probably already be down there. If that move is not made by the 25th to clear a roster spot for Smoltz, then it won't happen at all.

So you tell me: what should the Red Sox do with Dice-K?