Boston Red Sox: Collin McHugh signed as an insurance policy
The Boston Red Sox have reached an agreement with pitch Collin McHugh as a potential insurance policy for the Chris Sale injury.
The Boston Red Sox have signed free agent pitcher Collin McHugh to a one-year major league contract. Having pitching depth is always a good idea, especially when your staff ace has lingering shoulder issues.
Chris Sale was diagnosed with a flexor strain and will be shut down from any throwing programs. The term Tommy John surgery has been tossed around, though at this point the Sox do not think Sale will have to go under the knife.
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McHugh is coming off a disappointing season working out of the Houston Astros bullpen. He finished the campaign 4-5 with a 4.70 earned run average. He has battled arm issues too and missed the final month of the season with an elbow injury. In a three-year span from 2014-2016, McHugh won 43 games including 19 in 2015 when the Astros were the wild card team.
As a reliever, Collin McHugh had his best season in 2018 when he recorded a 1.99 ERA and 0.91 WHIP. He was in the bullpen again last year though made a few spot starts as well. With the Red Sox, he may join the bullpen and then be available for a time in the rotation, or he may join the rotation out of camp. The severity of Sale’s injury may shine a light on this later.
McHugh’s contract has a base salary of $600,000 and he has the ability to earn an extra $3.625 million more through incentives. These incentives revolve around innings pitched and days on the active roster. Regardless of how many of these incentives are reached, the hit to the Red Sox bottom line will hardly be noticed.
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This is a great low-risk signing for the Boston Red Sox. If McHugh can stay healthy he can provide some quality innings for this team. He may even represent a trade piece once the trade deadline comes around and the Red Sox are out of the race.