The Red Sox certainly aren’t strangers to dishing out lucrative free-agent deals, but don’t expect Boston to fill a potential area of need with heaps of money.
The Sox are as well-positioned as can be coming off their World Series championship, with the majority of last season’s squad returning for the 2019 campaign. But with the departure of Joe Kelly and likely exit of Craig Kimbrel, Boston’s bullpen effectively is the only question mark surrounding Alex Cora’s club as spring training nears.
But despite losing two key relief arms all while the Red Sox’s nemesis bolstered its already strong bullpen, Cora doesn’t seem too worried about where his team stands in that department.
Cora: ‘we do feel we have guys who can get outs in the ninth inning, and in the seventh and eighth… (The Yankees) have a great bullpen, but we have a great rotation. It balances out.’
— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) January 17, 2019
With trusted arms like Chris Sale, David Price and Rick Porcello, it’s not uncommon for the Red Sox to only need an inning or two out of their bullpen. That said, those innings typically are the two most important, and Boston does not possess a bonafide closer at the moment. But given recent remarks from president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, it sounds like the Red Sox won’t be resistant to filling the void in-house.
Dombrowski mentioned four internal candidates at closer: Ryan Brasier, Matt Barnes, Steven Wright and Tyler Thornburg. Brasier and Barnes the clear frontrunners, but Thornburg (on non-guaranteed deal in ST) has closed before.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) January 17, 2019
Could one of those four become the next Koji Uehara? We’ll have to wait and see.
