Boston Red Sox should sign free agent pitcher Dallas Keuchel
Former Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel is still available in free agency. Should the Boston Red Sox swoop in and make the left-hander an offer?
Signing free agent pitcher Dallas Keuchel makes perfect sense for the 2019 Boston Red Sox in a few different ways.
Not only will signing him sure up the Red Sox starting pitching, but his signing will also sure up the bullpen, particularly the closing position, which has been talked about the entire offseason and spring training exhaustively.
Before I get into why I think signing Keuchel would help the bullpen I want to talk about the impact he would make on the starting rotation. Though Keuchel is four seasons removed from winning a Cy Young award in 2015, he is still a valuable player to have on a team. Keuchel is a 2-time American League All-Starr, 4-time Gold Glove winner, and a World Series champion. At the end of the day, it is about winning. Keuchel’s resume is the resume of a winner.
He has played his entire career (2012-2018) up to this point with the Houston Astros. This is a perfect time for the Red Sox to go grab another great left-handed starting pitcher to add to their arsenal of already talented southpaws to their starting rotation
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Not only do I think signing and moving Keuchel into the starting rotation is a perfect move for the starting rotation but I also firmly believe it would benefit the Sox bullpen because as of right now, the Sox do not have a number one closer. Moving starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi to the closer position would greatly benefit a bullpen that is lacking on star talent.
During the 2018 postseason, especially the World Series, Eovaldi was dynamite as a relief pitcher. In Game 3 of the World Series, Eovaldi was called upon in extra innings and he pitched from the 12th-18th innings. Though he did give up a home run, he was throwing gas up to 101 mph late in the game when it mattered the most.
Moving Eovaldi to the bullpen and possibly to the closing position would give the rest of the bullpen insurance and he’d be a great safety net. This is going with the assumption that the Red Sox do not sign a No. 1 closer by the time of 2019 opening day, which is this Thursday against the Seattle Mariners in Seattle.
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I think this would be a great and exciting time to sign Keuchel to sure up that starting rotation into elite status while moving the swiss army knife Eovaldi to the closer role. I think if this were to happen, the Sox would be even heavier favorites to bring World Series title number 10 back to Beantown in 2019, where winning is the only thing that matters.