Can the 'Red Sox Way' start drawing in even more pitchers?

Zack Littell is living the life. That same one that has become the envy of plenty of big league pitchers.

Littell is currently one of the better starting pitchers in the American League, sitting with a 3.02 ERA in eight starts. Exactly one year after joining the Rays, the 28-year-old has landed in a good place. When you're a pitcher who is trying to revitalize your career, Tampa Bay is always a good place.

"It's the (Rays') staff’s ability to make you believe in all those things. To make you believe that your stuff is plenty good enough to play over the plate, that your stuff is truly going to play up," Littell said while appearing on the 'Baseball Isn't Boring' podcast.

"It’s a little bit of way of how they communicate and build relationships. Obviously, the knowledge they have and whatever formulas they are using to value guys and grade guys is working. It’s truly a combination of everything. At the core of it you have guys who have shifts in career trajectory. It’s wild. They go elsewhere and they end up making a lot of money over the course of their career. Their ability to present with what you do well and the game plan for how you do well play. Regardless of the result of one or two games, over the course of 162 games it truly is going to work. ... Your Stuff is good enough to throw it over the plate, keep everything over the plate and get ahead with Strike one."

And to think, the Red Sox actually had Littell in their uniform for five days last season before he was designated for assignment in favor of keeping Ryan Brasier. It was a perfect example of what seemingly plagued the Sox, an organization that seemingly understood what the Tampa Bay pitching program was doing - with their chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom possessing first-hand knowledge - yet not fully able to crack the code.

Maybe that's changing.

While Kutter Crawford's six-inning, four-run outing in the Red Sox' 5-3 loss to the Rays Monday night didn't exactly push the growing Red Sox reputation to another level, it didn't hurt. Crawford does, after all, still possess a 2.24 ERA with the ninth-best FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) in the majors.

The Red Sox still have a ways to go before defining their cache among big league pitchers, but certainly the early-season results have people paying attention. Not only has Andrew Bailey and Co. managed to finding a breaking ball-heavy strategy that works, but - even more importantly - getting the pitchers to buy into the philosophy.

When you're the Rays, you have that buy-in built-in. It was a reality surfaced by former Red Sox and Rays pitcher Jake Diekman, who said on the 'Baseball Isn't Boring' podcast that while he had heard the messaging before, it hit different coming from pitching coach Kyle Snyder and Co.

But the Red Sox needed some street cred. Fortunately, thanks to pitchers like Crawford, Tanner Houck and former Ray Cooper Criswell they are starting to get some.

Criswell was the rare pitcher who actually got better after leaving Tampa Bay, where he 11 big league games (making one start) over two seasons with Rays, totaling a 5.45 ERA. With the Red Sox, the turnaround has been Rays-esque, with the 27-year-old managing a 1.93 ERA in his five starts (all Red Sox wins).

The lesson is that these sort of reputations not only pay off in the short-term, but in the long run, as well. It can be a tipping point for free agents, the kind that has gone against the Red Sox in recent years. Maybe when a free agent like Jordan Montgomery turns his back on Boston because of the perceived opportunity to win, the narrative can be shifted because of this new 'Red Sox Way'.

It can't hurt. Just ask the Rays.