The Red Sox Are Prioritizing Trading Clay Buchholz, And Apparently Want To Keep Drew Pomeranz
As it stands today, the Red Sox are in a really good position with seven starting pitchers to fill five spots in their rotation.
Coming into the offseason, we all knew how shitty the free agent market was going to be for starting pitching, and now a month into it, it’s even worse with names like Rich Hill, Jeremy Hellickson, Edinson Volquez, Andrew Cashner, Bartolo Colon, and RA Dickey all off the market. That makes Boston’s surplus of starting pitching even more valuable to teams in need of starters, especially of the low cost variety.
The trio of Chris Sale, David Price and Rick Porcello are obviously exempt from any trades, but names like Eduardo Rodriguez, Drew Pomeranz, Clay Buchholz and Steven Wright could all be up for grabs. I was under the impression that the Red Sox would trade a left-handed starter, due to the fact that they now have four of them — Sale, Price, Pomeranz and Rodriguez — but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
To me, all signs would point to Pomeranz, because any deal involving Rodriguez would be a trade of a larger magnitude, and I don’t foresee another big deal by Boston this offseason, especially after the Sale trade. If you’re looking for the best return between Pomeranz, Wright and Buchholz, Pomeranz is the youngest of the three, has two years of control left, both arbitration eligible years, while Buchholz has one year at $13.5 million, and knuckleball pitchers are always hit or miss year-to-year. You can also point to Pomeranz’s success as a starter in the National League last year as more perceived value in a trade. He had the fourth lowest ERA in the majors when he was acquired by Boston. However, the Red Sox don’t seem too interested in moving the left-hander.
Dave Dombrowski noted Wednesday night that the Red Sox had spent the day fielding calls from teams interested in some of their starting pitchers. Specifically, the president of baseball operations noted, the focus from other clubs were on Eduardo Rodriguez, Drew Pomeranz, Steven Wright and Clay Buchholz.
But, according to teams talking with the Red Sox, Dombrowski has seemingly prioritized dealing Buchholz over Pomeranz. In fact, one source suggested the Sox aren’t currently showing any inclination that they want to move Pomeranz.
I don’t know what Dave Dombrowski’s obsession is with Pomeranz, but it’s extremely confusing to me. First, you have Dombrowski flipping Boston’s top pitching prospect for the guy, which was definitely an overpay to get him here in the first place, and then you have the controversy with the Padres withholding medical information on all their players, including Pomeranz. In September, Pomeranz missed time with a forearm injury, and the Red Sox had the opportunity to reverse the trade to get Anderson Espinoza back, yet they chose to keep Pomeranz. The same Pomeranz who had a 4.68 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP, averaging 5.1 innings per start in his 13 starts with the Red Sox, and also wasn’t even considered for a spot in their postseason rotation.
Me personally, I think that, in this starting pitching-starved market, Pomeranz has more value to the Red Sox as a trade piece this winter than he will have as a starting pitcher for Boston in 2017. I’m more than fine with a rotation of Sale, Porcello, Price, Rodriguez, Buchholz, and you have Wright as a sixth starter/bullpen option. But if you trade Buchholz, then I’d want Wright to be that fifth starter over Pomeranz, too.
So, it kind of sounds like I’m saying, well, then put Pomeranz in the bullpen. No. How awful would the Red Sox look if they traded their top fucking pitching prospect for a lefty specialist? Unless Pomeranz magically becomes Andrew Miller, which, Andrew Miller, he is not, then that trade is going to keep looking worse and worse for Dombrowski. Avoid the embarrassment of that whole scenario by trading Pomeranz and taking advantage of the weak market.