Boston Red Sox: Four moves the team can make to avoid losing Blake Swihart

DFA or trade Eduardo Nunez.

Yeah, I know, he was just signed to a two-year deal. Okay, fine, a one year deal with a player option. But here’s the thing; he’s not hitting and he’s never been a good defender. He’s a lesser version of Brock Holt in just about every way. That makes him redundant and expendable. His 62 wRC+ is the worst we’ve ever seen from him at the major league level. So it’s a fair bet that he’ll improve going forward. But how much?

The 112 wRC+ in 2017 was inflated by an unsustainably hot run after being traded to the Red Sox in late July. In his previous two seasons, he posted wRC+’s of 105 and 101. For his career, he has a 94. Basically, he’s a league average bat who can give you not horrendous defense at a bunch of positions. And that’s a nice piece to have when you don’t already have one that does almost everything better.

It was worth a try but…

The terms of Eduardo Nunez’s contract were such that I didn’t mind the signing. But I had been hoping to see the team give Swihart that role to start the year. Now that we’re faced with Dustin Pedroia’s return from the DL, I’d much prefer to see them make that decision late as opposed to never.

The only thing Nunez has done better than Holt historically has been stealing bases. He swiped 24 in 2017 and 40 the year before that. Unfortunately, he’s not even doing that anymore. And that leaves us with a reason to wonder if his late-season knee injury is lingering a bit and sapping his speed. If he can no longer steal bases at an elite level, he probably doesn’t have a place on a championship hopeful team.

This might be less likely than DFAing Jackie Bradley, but I’d prefer it over that scenario given the surrounding pieces on the roster right now.