Boston Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Monday he planned on focusing on the bullpen this offseason. It didn’t take long for him to get to work.
The Red Sox and San Diego Padres on Tuesday agreed to a trade that will send right-handed reliever Colten Brewer to the Red Sox. Boston, meanwhile, agreed to trade minor league infielder Esteban Quiroz to the Padres,the Red Sox announced.
Brewer, 26, made his big league debut with the Padres last season after spending parts of his first seven professional seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees.
Brewer was roughed up in his first taste of the bigs, allowing six runs in 9 2/3 innings, with much of the damage being self-inflicted. Brewer walked seven of the 49 batters he faced.
So, what does Boston like about Brewer, you might be asking? He has shown an ability to miss bats in his last couple of years, striking out 11.8 batters per nine innings in Triple-A with the Padres last season. He also picked up 11 appearances after his call-up.
Brewer is also an extreme groundball pitcher. He induced ground balls 55.8 percent of the time in Triple-A last season. To put that in some sort of perspective, that would have ranked tied for 16th among qualified major league relievers last season.
Obviously, it will come down to whether Brewer can throw strikes. If he can’t, he’ll go the way of Carson Smith for the Red Sox. If he can, and the Red Sox can tap into his potential, who knows, maybe they’ll have another Ryan Brasier on their hands.
