Red Sox Armchair GM: Conor’s take

Relief Pitching

Oct 11, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Andrew Miller (48) pitches in the seventh inning against the Kansas City Royals in game two of the 2014 ALCS playoff at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: H. Darr Beiser-USA TODAY Sports

As it stands: 

Right now, the Red Sox are looking at a bit of a mass exodus in their bullpen. Their core of five top-notch relievers at the beginning of this season– Craig Breslow, Andrew Miller, Edward Mujica, Junichi Tazawa, and Koji Uehara– could be cut down to as few as three pitchers over the course of the offseason as Breslow and Miller (who they traded to the Orioles at the deadline) are free agents, in addition to low-profile addition Burke Badenhop. This leaves the Red Sox with a relatively empty bullpen, filled with only Tazawa, Mujica, Uehara, Tommy Layne, and a bunch of youngsters yet to establish themselves as bullpen stalwarts, including Matt Barnes, Drake Britton, Edwin Escobar, Heath Hembree, and Alex Wilson.

With so little substance in this prospective bullpen, there’s plenty of work to be done to patch up the late innings and, as armchair GM, let me enlighten you to my plans.

Course of action: 

Tazawa, Uehara, and Mujica are the only relievers that could be entrusted with a late-inning role, so my first priority in the bullpen would be to sign somebody that could serve as closer or, considering the cost of bona fide closers, at least a setup man. In addition to the closer or setup man, I’d like to acquire a strong left-handed reliever as Layne is the only lefty that’s a lock for next year’s bullpen.

1. Still, there’s always the chance that the Red Sox could kill two birds with one stone and bring back a familiar face in Andrew Miller. Miller, whom the Red Sox traded to the Orioles on the trade deadline, had a dominant season between the two AL East squads in 2014. Since the Red Sox converted him to the bullpen in 2012, he has ascended the ranks of left-handed relievers and now ranks among the best in baseball after posting a stingy 2.02 ERA and career-best 14.9 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in a phenomenal 2014 season. He’ll be pricey, likely costing somewhere in the range of 3 years/$24M, but I’d pay up to land such a nasty arm at the back of the bullpen.
2. Sticking with the trend of keeping 2014 relievers in Boston, it wouldn’t hurt to re-sign Burke Badenhop for another season. Acquired from the Brewers in a minor trade last offseason, Badenhop was one of the best arms in the bullpen this season as he posted a career-low 2.29 ERA. He likely can’t be counted on to serve as more than a middle reliever as he struck out just 5.1 per nine this season, which doesn’t play particularly well in high-pressure situations. However, the Red Sox could do a whole lot worse than signing Badenhop to a 1 year/$5M deal and that’s exactly what I’d do to pad the middle innings.

The final product: 

Once the dust settles, the Red Sox will have a bullpen that looks very similar to the ‘pen which started the 2014 season, a bullpen that was very strong before the trade of Miller and collapse of Uehara. Any of Uehara, Miller, Tazawa, or Mujica could serve as closer or the Red Sox could run a closer-by-committee or hot-hand approach in the late innings. Outside of those four, Layne would act as the situational lefty and Badenhop could eat up the middle innings, leaving one more open space. I’d give that open space to Rubby De La Rosa and see if he can make the shift from the rotation to bullpen, where his dominant stuff would play up and his lack of a third pitch would not hurt him as much.

De La Rosa could serve as the long reliever or develop into a late-inning option, but in any case, the Red Sox will have spent $21M on their bullpen, which leaves approximately $19M to fill the rest of the team counting the $30M spent on starting pitching.