Boston Red Sox: Is a “big splash” in the bullpen via trade coming?
There is no question that the Boston Red Sox still have opportunities to improve their roster once the current Major League Baseball lockout lifts. Among the areas where an upgrade could occur is in the bullpen, and it’s an area where one Red Sox beat writer thinks the franchise could potentially make one of the offseason’s biggest trades.
Could the Boston Red Sox be willing to upgrade the bullpen by trading with the Milwaukee Brewers for Josh Hader?
In a recent article, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com details what he thinks the Boston Red Sox roster will look like once the 2022 regular season actually begins. Among the names on the list? Milwaukee Brewers closer Josh Hader, one of the league’s top late-inning arms.
Granted, Cotillo knows that, for the Red Sox to actually land Hader in a trade, it would take giving up an amount of prospects that Boston chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom has been unwilling to part with during his three-plus years with the team. Hader has not only been one of the most dominant relievers in all of baseball during his five MLB seasons (where he has averaged 15.4 strikeouts per nine innings), but also has two years of team control left on his contract.
Despite Boston’s recent history and Hader’s high price tag, Cotillo predicts a trade will happen, writing the Red Sox will make, “a big splash in the form of Hader.”
Certainly landing Hader would change not only the Boston bullpen but perhaps much of the look at how the American League East might finish in 2022. With the Red Sox falling to the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series, all eyes are on how Boston can advance further in 2022.
Next. Would this Red Sox-A's trade work?. dark
Boosting a bullpen that needs plenty of post-lockout work could be a piece of what pushes Boston into the front of the American League race next season. However, for the Red Sox to make that big splash, Bloom and the rest of Boston’s thought leaders will have to decide if the price of this hypothetical trade would be worth it in real life.