Surely they should. They’re all recent bullpen pickups by the Red Sox, and they’re all low-risk acquisitions that could pay off in the sixth and seventh innings next season. For Bonser, the Red Sox gave up just a player to be named later, later revealed to be minor-leaguer Chris Province. The other three arrived via basic one-year contracts.
The Red Sox front office has quickly put together a stockpile of middle-relief help for Terry Francona to put to good use next season. A month ago, the Red Sox were armed with just five legit bullpen arms — Jonathan Papelbon, Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima, Ramon Ramirez and Manny Delcarmen. They may have added four more.
Not all of them are guaranteed to pan out, of course. But under the Theo Epstein business model, that’s precisely the point — some of them are going to fail, inevitably, and that’s why you keep backup plans in reserve. The Red Sox will enter the 2010 season armed with nine qualified bullpen arms. So even if a third of them are complete busts, that means they’re left with six guys to hold down the fort.
This is bargain-bin shopping at its finest. No longer is Theo making his low-risk investments in big names like former All-Star starters Brad Penny and John Smoltz — he’s making smaller purchases, and more of them. Why spend $10 million on two arms when you can spend $2 million on four?
There’s not much pressure on any of these guys to work out in Boston. And maybe they won’t. Bonser has a 5.12 career ERA in three seasons with the Twins; Atchison hasn’t been seen stateside since he fled the Giants for Japan after 2007. Castro and Ramirez are promising but raw. None of them are sure things — but when you’re paying them next to nothing, they don’t have to be.
All the Sox are looking for is one or two arms that can add depth to their middle-relief corps, filling the void left when Takashi Saito and Billy Wagner skipped town last month for Atlanta. Saito and Wagner were former All-Stars, and these guys sure aren’t. But that doesn’t mean one or two can’t catch on. Theo is throwing relievers at the wall and hoping a couple stick. As long as a couple do, he ends up looking like a genius.
The Sox don’t need much help. We all know what they already have: Papelbon is rock-solid as the closer, regardless of how his postseason ended last October. Bard is a rising star as the Red Sox’ setup man, and Okajima, Delcarmen and the original Ramirez form a nice skeleton of a bullpen.
The ‘pen looks pretty close to complete. And with four more guys headed to Boston to compete for innings, things should only get better from here.
The Sox are filling out their roster on the cheap. And it makes sense — middle relievers are rarely worth big money, even for big-budget teams like the Red Sox. The Sox saw no need to overpay for the next Wagner or Saito — they’re saving money and still getting quality arms.
Really, any decent pitcher can thrive in a one-inning role. And Boston now has nine of them.
Will the bullpen be as good as it was last season? It’s quite likely, yes. They’ve lost seven All-Star selections, but they’ve gained a stockpile of arms that should serve them well next season. One way or another, this pitching staff is going to be just fine.
