Boston Red Sox: Three Starting Pitchers They Could Sign
The Boston Red Sox need to address their rotation and they have many options to explore.
The 2020 season was not a pretty one for the Boston Red Sox. After trading away All-Star phenom Mookie Betts and veteran All-Star starting pitcher David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team suffered the repercussions, finishing 24-36 and in fifth place in the American League East.
Their main offensive pieces, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, and J.D. Martinez all underperformed. However, the lineup was barely a problem compared to how much their rotation struggled.
In the 60-game season, the Red Sox only had two starters start more than nine games, Nathan Eovaldi and Martin Perez. The rest of the rotation was basically by committee and consisted of new faces and players who would not normally be on the roster if it was not due to injury.
Eovaldi will return to the rotation and Boston hopes that Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodriguez will be healthy and back to pitching a high level. Bryan Mata, the Red Sox’s top pitching prospect, is fighting for a spot in their rotation. Besides him, they need to trade for a pitcher, or the more likely option; sign a free agent starter or two.
They are not going out of their way to spend crazy money on Trevor Bauer, but there are plenty of arms that they have their eyes on. Here are three starting pitchers the Boston Red Sox could sign before 2021 season.
Corey Kluber
The Boston Red Sox were impressed by the two-time AL Cy Young Award winner in his workout that he did last week for teams. He has sky-high potential but has been battling injuries the past two seasons. Corey Kluber did not hit free agency at the ideal time for him. He got hurt in his only start with the Texas Rangers in 2020.
Kluber would not be that expensive and would not seek a long-term deal. He would get three years at the very most. He will turn 35 in April.
Kluber was a three-time All-Star from 2016-2018. He debuted for the Cleveland Indians in 2011. His prime was from 2014-2018, a five-season span. Over 160 starts, he went 83-45 with a 2.85 ERA, striking out 1,228 batters in 1,091.1 innings with 17 complete games.
Adding Kluber to the rotation would give it much more depth, and it would be depth at a higher tier. Sale is the ace of this team, but if healthy; Kluber would be right behind him.
Over his 10-season career with both Cleveland and the Texas Rangers, he is 98-59 with a 3.16 ERA. When healthy, Kluber has the potential to be a high-quality right-hander and would be a huge improvement to Boston’s rotation.
Jake Odorizzi
Jake Odorizzi is another pitcher that has the Red Sox’s interest. Like Kluber, Odorizzi is coming off an injury-ridden season and has lower value than he should.
Odorizzi, who will be 31 by the start of the season, was an All-Star for the Minnesota Twins in 2019, when he went 15-7 with a 3.51 ERA through 30 starts, striking out 178 batters over 159.0 innings.
His career ERA is fairly high, being a 3.92. Over nine seasons with the Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays, and Twins, he is 62-56 over 195 games, striking out 995 batter over 1,042.1 innings.
Chaim Bloom, the General Manager of the Boston Red Sox, has connections with Odorizzi because Bloom was one of the executives that acquired Odorizzi.
This would be more of a depth move than a higher-potential move. Odorizzi would be behind Sale and probably be behind Rodriguez in the rotation as well.
The Red Sox are going to want sign Kluber over Odorizzi, but he would be a solid backup if Kluber sign to go elsewhere. It is most likely that the mid-tier of pitchers is going to wait for Kluber to sign first before signing, which puts the Red Sox in an interesting situation.
Martin Perez
The Boston Red Sox signing Martin Perez is a realistic and logical move. Perez is not going to carry a rotation, which is a given. However, he would be a crafty left-hander that would make a great fifth starter.
Perez, who will turn 30 in April, ate innings for Boston in 2020 and has proven to be capable of eating a lot of innings and being durable, having three seasons in which he threw at least 165 innings since 2016. He has pitched for the Rangers, Twins, and Red Sox. Teams are intrigued by pitchers who can stay healthy and toss a bunch of innings at a major league level.
In 2020, he went 3-5 for the Red Sox with a 4.50. That does not seem impressive, but he was their only starter to start double-digit games, starting 12 games. Perez would not be expensive and would want a short-term deal, which would be appealing to Boston.
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The Boston Red Sox are going to address their rotation, that is just a given fact. They need pitching and there is plenty on the market. It is just a matter of who they sign, and when they sign them. The free agent market is as slow as molasses and it might be weeks until the dominoes start to fall and free agents find their homes.