Red Sox Insider Floats Two Potential Boston Trade Targets

It doesn’t take a baseball savant to figure out what the Red Sox should prioritize heading into the Major League Baseball trade deadline.

If Boston wants to be a buyer, pitching should be the clear target before Aug. 1. The Red Sox boast one of the better offenses in baseball, but the starting rotation has been decimated by injuries and the bullpen could use a reinforcement. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a back-of-the-rotation starter and seventh-inning arm reportedly are Boston’s trade focuses with the deadline fast approaching.

With this in mind, MassLive’s Sean McAdam listed a pair of pitchers who the Red Sox potentially could add before the final two months of the regular season.

“Other names that might fit: Detroit’s Michael Lorenzen and Kansas City’s Zack Greinke,” McAdam wrote in a column published Tuesday. “The latter is well past his prime, but has enough experience and guile to keep his team in most games. That’s precisely what the Red Sox could use.”

Greinke, 39, is a woeful 1-9 this season with a 5.44 ERA. However, that lousy record probably is due in part to the right-hander’s surroundings, as the Royals entered Wednesday with the second-worst record in all of baseball. Greinke theoretically would fare better with a better supporting cast, and as McAdam touched on, his 113 innings of postseason experience could be of great benefit to the Red Sox.

Lorenzen features more appealing numbers than Greinke, including a 3.75 ERA, and also has a ton of relief experience. So when Chris Sale, Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck all return from injury, Boston could try using the 31-year-old out of the ‘pen.

So, while neither potential addition would make Red Sox fans jump out of their seats, both Greinke and Lorenzen possibly could help Boston play October baseball this season.