Boston Red Sox: Should’ve Signed Dallas Keuchel Over Nathan Eovaldi

The Boston Red Sox made an emotional decision by signing Nathan Eovaldi when they should have signed Dallas Keuchel instead.

Nathan Eovaldi was arguably the Boston Red Sox‘s World Series MVP in last years win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. He posted a 1.13 ERA during the 2018 postseason.

You might remember his 107 pitch performance in the 18-inning Game 3 loss.

Of course, he pitched great during October, but the Red Sox made an emotional decision when they signed him to a 4-year extension worth $60 million in the off-season.

Eovaldi has had some injury history, as he has undergone not one but two Tommy John surgeries. Boston had to have seen another arm injury coming from Eovaldi after he threw north of 100 pitches out of the bullpen.

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Eovaldi helped them win a World Series, so the Red Sox wanted to compensate him along with Steve Pearce who is now on the trade block.

Since the World Series, Eovaldi has only pitched in 4 regular season games, earning a 6.00 ERA.

Nathan Eovaldi is not even going to be in the rotation when he comes back from another elbow injury, as NESN’s Tom Caron. He will be the team’s closer.

This comes after the Boston bullpen has been atrocious. They have a 4.37 ERA with 8 blown saves in the month of June.

Dave Dombrowski should have made another move that would’ve been much smarter like going out and adding a Cy Young winner in Dallas Keuchel.

Keuchel has shown he is more consistent than Eovaldi in his career and hasn’t been consistently plagued with arm injuries.

Keuchel is currently on a 1-year deal with the Atlanta Braves so I am sure that the Red Sox could have lured in Keuchel to a multi-year deal, and probably would have paid him less than Eovaldi.

Then, that would’ve given the front office more money to spend on bullpen help.

Keuchel is now the ace of the Atlanta Braves, who are probably going to make it deep into the postseason while the Red Sox won’t.

I think the Boston Red Sox may be regretting this signing because they could’ve gotten Dallas Keuchel and at the same time saved money to upgrade their bullpen.