4 risk/reward options for the Red Sox in homage to Chaim Bloom
Chaim Bloom is gone, and Craig Breslow is now steering the good ship Boston Red Sox. Is management pivoting on pitching and opening the coffers to start signing?
Chaim Bloom is gone, and Craig Breslow is now steering the good ship Boston Red Sox. Is management pivoting on pitching and opening the coffers to start signing some supposedly impact arms?
Will there be a string of slurpy press greetings to introduce Aaron Nola, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and a few others as they and their agents fawn over the glories of playing for the Red Sox -- a team undoubtedly they all wanted to play for? Money had nothing to do with it! Nothing.
Why break the mold? Let's do it the Bloom way as a remembrance of the past. Garrett Richards, Corey Kluber, Michael Wacha, James Paxton, and, in honor of possibly Yamamoto, another Hirokazu Sawamaura. Pitching on the cheap. Look for the scraps for your rotation.
Rich Hill
How can I miss you if you won't go away? I lost count, but lefty Rich Hill has been on the Red Sox roster three times. Sometimes people remarry their ex, but three times? I have nothing against Hill as he has a local connection, suffered personal and professional hardship, and is a lefty.
Hill has mentioned a return to somewhere, anywhere, for 2024. The 2023 season was not the best time for Hill as he managed to negotiate his Pittsburg days into a trade with the contending Padres. Hill went 1-4 and tossed to an 8.23 ERA with the Friars. Batters beat him like a spring cleaning rug.
Hill can give you innings, but the idea behind those innings is to keep the score sensible, and the soon-to-be 44-year-old had a wee bit of difficulty in that aspect of the game. If you are adventurous, look at his 22 Pirates starts and a semi-shabby 4.76 ERA.
The Pirates coughed up $8 million for Hill, and in today's financial baseball world, that is pitching chump change. Hill will get similar money somewhere in 2024 as rotations fall apart and some shoring up is needed. Maybe Bloom will surface somewhere and sign him? But if not, there is always fellow lefty and former teammate Breslow.
Dallas Keuchel
There is a former 20-game winner and Cy Young Award winner just waiting for that phone call. How did Bloom ever miss out on Dallas Keuchel?
The lefty is or was a ground ball machine in his pitching salad days that vanished somewhere during the early days of the Trump administration. Keuchel has been hanging around getting his shots, and in 2023, it was with the Twins after a brief sojourn to the minors.
The Twins were actually in the hunt, and Keuchel turned out to be the hunted, but the ground ball magic (53.5%) was still there. Even the Hard Hit (34.6%) was still relatively low, but that H/9 has been in double digits for a few years.
Keuchel does protect his territory with four Gold Glove Awards, but the downside is that and always has been his heater that tracks in the high 80s. Stealth with diminishing control (4.3 BB/9) does not bode well.
Keuchel will hook up somewhere and be on the low-rent type contract for a risk taker. Boston could be an option on a minor league prove-yourself deals if they have a few bucks left in the budget.
Zack Greinke
Did Zack Greinke retire? Should he retire? Not when you are getting $8.5 million. You can never go home again, but Greinke did when the righty signed a deal to hurl for the Royals in 2022. Last season, the former Cy Young Award winner made 27 starts for the Royals and went 2-15, but, hey, this was the Royals.
Greinke did have a 5.08 ERA/4.74 FIP but allowed a career-high 1.6 HR/9, and the 4.22 SO/W was a tad above career norms. If you go with a 1.1 fWAR, then Greinke was slightly underpaid.
Greinke has lost some zip over the years on his heater, but at 39 years old, that is no shock. The rest of the pitching package is just about everything but a knuckleball, all tuned to control. At Fenway Park (0-2, 10.22), his career has not shined.
If Greinke stays around for another year, it may be a return to the Royals, but there will be a market for a pitcher who can still give some innings and provide depth. Amazingly, this potential Hall of Fame pitcher has no 20-win season embedded in his 225 career wins.
If Bloom were still around, this would be his shiny keys, but for Breslow, it may be a different story. Be interesting to see if Greinke hangs around to pad potential HOF numbers.
Johnny Cueto
Last season, the Miami Marlins plucked free agent Johnny Cueto to be part of their rotation. The part they were looking for was Cueto of 2022, when the righty made 24 starts (8-10, 3.35) for the White Sox, but they got 1-4, 6.02, and a physical breakdown.
Cueto has an expensive option; the assumption was the Marlins would risk it -- they did not. Cueto's fastball is down slightly (91.1) over his prime years, but control is still there (2.6 BB/9), as is his variety of pitches. In 2023, Cueto went to IL a few times, which is noteworthy at 37 years old.
Cueto is typically an accomplished veteran on the back nine of an excellent MLB career. Cueto will land somewhere now that the Marlins will look elsewhere, and he would provide what the Marlins anticipated - a solid veteran who could provide depth and leadership.
As with the previously mentioned players, Cueto is the typical risk/reward that failed with Kluber. If I had to pick one of the four, I would go with Cueto and possibly think DFA somewhere during 2024.
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