The Boston Red Sox make MORE moves...

The Boston Red Sox have made even more moves. We are only a few days into this offseason, but Craig Breslow and this Red Sox organization have not taken a day off, completing multiple minor trades as well as DFAing certain players. I'm here to break down the newest trade made by the Red Sox with a very, very familiar team, as well as a new DFA and how this all involves the pitching staff and what this means for that pitching staff going forward. We'll break down all of the moving parts on this episode of Red Sox Digest. But first, before we get to the news and information, please do remember we are so very close to our goal of 8,000 subscribers, and we can't do it without you guys. We do appreciate all the love and support. So again, thank you tremendously for everything. But now, let's get to it and break down the news at hand, and that is the newest trade once again made with the St. Louis Cardinals involving Eduardo Rivera. Let's first break down what this trade actually looked like and then break down who these players are. So this is from the Boston Red Sox. The Boston Red Sox today traded left-handed pitcher Eduardo Rivera to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for minor league right-hander pitcher Juan Garcia. You guys may be saying, well, who the hell is Eduardo Rivera? Well, that's a reasonable question to ask, and the reason being is because he only played in like three games all year. He pitched in 10 games, or excuse me, 10 innings pitched in three games. He posted a 6.3 ERA, and he really was known as a relief pitcher, but he was used as a starter because of the injuries that piled up for this Red Sox pitching staff in the middle of the Major League season. Now, who is he? What does he bring to the team? He was a bigger body pitching from the Southpaw side. If you look at his repertoire, it was legit a three-pitch mix, and that was it. Four-seam fastball, slider, changeup, and he didn't have overwhelming fastball velocity. He sat in that mid-90s, 94-96 mile-per-hour range. Averaging 94.3 on it. He liked the slider a lot. It wasn't the best slider of all time to say the absolute least. And then finally the change up to round out that three pitch mix. So it was straight up a one for one deal for the Boston Red Sox. They give up Rivera and they get an 18 year old Juan Carlos Garcia from the St. Louis Cardinals. Rivera's gone which means there's another open spot in that bullpen. Was he someone that was used down towards the tail end of this season? Absolutely not but he stepped up and was used in time of need for this Red Sox team and who is Juan Garcia? Well he's only 18 years of age. He's down in rookie ball for the St. Louis Cardinals and honestly the numbers aren't going to overwhelm you by any means but there's a few key takeaways. The first one being the fact That he only walked 10 guys to striking out 39 this past season down in rookie ball for the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He went 2-4 in 11 games started, 43 total innings pitched, faced 190 batters, and in those 190 batters, struck out 39, only walked 10, gave up three home runs. And he posted a 4.4 ERA last year in rookie ball again as a 17 year old two and four record in 12 games played 10 in which he started 47 and two thirds innings pitched 192 batters faced. He walked four batters to his 38 strikeouts posting a 3.4 ERA. Leave it to Craig Breslow to go out there and find an 18-year-old from the St. Louis Cardinals out of all organizations going out there and doing business with Heimbloom in order to get the trade done. Goes out and gets a young man who's only now 18 down in rookie ball who is a southpaw pitcher that can absolutely continue, or excuse me, right-handed pitcher who can continue to develop and the Red Sox can hopefully mold and craft into a big-name pitcher in this organization. Last few things I'll point out. posted A .257 batting average against with a .128 whip this past season, as well as a 5.3 walk percentage to a 15.3K to walk percentage. Overall, not too bad. 65.5% strike percentage. He attacks the strike zone, does not walk a lot of batters, and still 17- and 18-year-old seasons that we're looking at here. There's a lot of room for him to continue and grow. So now to the next move. This is the Red Sox DFAing Zach Kelly. If you guys don't remember, Zach Kelly was a member of this Red Sox organization this past season, but due to injuries and really a surplus of talent in the bullpen, we didn't see a lot of him towards the tail end of and really past the midway point of this MLB season. So Chris Colito posted the news. The Red Sox have DFA'd Zach Kelly per Chris. And then the overall numbers, again, not going to jump off the page at you because he only played in 12 games, didn't start any of them as obviously he is a bullpen option. Posted a high 5.71 ERA in 17 and a third's innings pitch. 11 earned runs on 17 hits, two in which came via home run. Nine walks to 14 strikeouts with a 1.50 whip. Overall, not really the production anyone wanted to see from Zach Kelly, especially in a bullpen that is as good and has as much talent. That the Red Sox had this past year, and I know he was moved before Eric Miller was brought in, but you have to remember, you still had Chapman, you had Whitlock, you had Slayton, you had Weiser, you had Guerrero, like these guys are top arms, top leverage arms at the Red Sox, which I'd much rather to go to over someone like Zach Kelly, who simply didn't even qualify for a lot of these stats and categories, but overall did not play to the level in which everyone hoped to see this past season. Which leaves me to leave the question, after we go through his actual arsenal here, five-pitch mix, cutter, sweeper, sinker, four-seam changeup, nothing overwhelming in the sense of velocity. The sinker topped out at roughly 96, maybe 97 miles per hour, along with the four-seam fastball. Had a good changeup, did not throw it a lot. Lived and died by the sweeper and the cutter. And overall, the earned run average just, there was... Moments where he was good, he was able to go in and do his job, get through the innings, collect three, two, three, four outs at a time. But then there was moments when all hell broke loose. And you see some of these ERAs. Like the second appearance, he had a nine. Then he comes back, he posts a zero. That third outing, excuse me, fourth outing, 27 ERA. And again, these are in limited amounts of innings because he's only going in to collect maybe three outs, maybe five to six outs, depending on the situation and how he's throwing the baseball. 4-5 in the following, then you get 3-6 games where you post a 0, then you get another game where you post a 9, then another 0, and then another 27, and then you get 3 consecutive 0s. Overall, 3.31 ERA for Zach Kelly is not the level of production anyone wanted to see from him, especially in a Red Sox bullpen that maintains such a high level of ability all season long. The Red Sox keep the elite bullpen core that they've already had for the last few seasons, involving guys like we mentioned earlier, Aroldis Chapman being the main closer, Garrett Whitlock being the main setup man, obviously Guerrero being right there behind Whitlock. Slayton missed the back end of this past season. He will then return to be another very good high-leverage arm, not to mention Eric Miller will continue to get better. But that leaves the question, with this Boston Red Sox bullpen, Do you think they should continue to go out there and get another name? I know we're currently looking at it with the overall amount of pitches they've thrown and if they're used or rested or taxed, ignore that and just look at it in the sense of this being the top graded bullpen that they could put out, especially if it was in the playoffs. Chapman, Whitlock, Guerrero, Miller, Slayton, Olds, Weissert, Moran, and Bale. Okay, that's a pretty good bullpen, but is there a world where you could go out and get another left-handed arm to pair with Chapman and possibly replace someone like Giovanni Moran? Yeah, there is. This offseason, guys like Morjon are available, and from the San Diego Padres, others that could be available, the Red Sox could go out there and get the job done. Based off all the information right now, again, this is from Chris Colito, adding relievers doesn't appear to be a big priority for the Red Sox, and it makes sense why, because the biggest conversation point is the offense. The pitching, both starting and bullpen-wise, was really, really good. Would I be upset if they went out there and signed Adrian Morzone this offseason? Absolutely not. He'd be the best offseason signing for them because the odds are they only signed one guy like they did last year. Please don't make that be the case. I want to eat my words. I want to be wrong when saying that. But again. Let me know down below, what do you think the Red Sox should do when it comes to their bullpen? Are they good as constructed? Should they go out there, sign one or two veteran relievers, trust the internal depth or make a big bullpen move? Let me know down below your thoughts and opinions on the current state of this Red Sox bullpen. If you think it needs to be addressed or if they're fine as currently constructed, and I will see you guys on the next episode of Red Sox Digest.