The Boston Red Sox are waiting patiently prior to the Major League Baseball trade deadline Tuesday and they are watching some potential targets fly off the board.
One of the biggest areas of need for the Red Sox is in the bullpen. The ailing Sox have more blown saves than saves, the only team in MLB that can say that. One of the prime closers on the market reportedly agreed to a new extension and now is expected to remain with his current organization.
“Daniel Bard’s extension with the (Colorado) Rockies is expected to be for two years and about $19 million, per source,” MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweeted Saturday.
Bard played for the Red Sox from 2009 to 2013 before taking a six-year hiatus in an attempt to regain his command. It’s safe to say the 37-year-old hurler has done that and more.
The former Red Sox has 21 saves in 23 opportunities with a 1.91 ERA in 37 2/3 innings for the Rockies and was considered to be a top arm on the market. He would have been a perfect fit to come back to the Red Sox. Now Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom will be forced to look elsewhere.
The Rockies’ extension of Bard is one of the more illogical moves in recent memory. Colorado sits 23 games back of the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West and 8 1/2 games back of a wild card spot. With the Dodgers, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants considered to be perennial threats inside the division, the Rockies elected to extend a 37-year-old closer who they could have gotten notable prospect compensation for at the deadline to build for the future.
The Rockies appear intent on being a middling team, as they are far from being contenders in the window of Bard’s new deal, even if he can sustain excellence through his age 39 season.
