Red Sox Trade Wade Miley To Seattle Mariners
The Winter Meetings are off to a hot start, I guess.
Dave Dombrowski came to town and said he wanted an ace, a closer, and a fourth outfielder. He got David Price, Craig Kimbrel and Chris Young, arguably the best available options for those needs. You didn’t think he was done, did you? On Monday, the first day of the Winter Meetings, the Red Sox sent left-handed pitcher Wade Miley to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for 26-year-old, right-handed reliever Carson Smith and 27-year-old, hard-throwing left-hander Roenis Elias. Yesterday, I tweeted “Miley’s getting dealt. Take it to the bank,” after hearing plenty of buzz over the weekend that something like this could come together quickly, and it did.
Some fans will be upset that Miley got dealt, as he is greatly underrated. In fact, Miley had a WAR in the same neighborhood as guys like Garrett Richards, Jeff Samardzija and even Felix Hernandez last year. But the old saying that you can never have too much pitching can only go so far. The starting pitching depth that the Red Sox have allowed them to trade a pitcher with value to address an area that desperately needed to be bolstered. In addition to that, I think there was a sense that the Red Sox didn’t want three left-handed starters in their rotation, with David Price and Eduardo Rodriguez both locks for 2016 and beyond.
Dombrowski came to Boston with a reputation of not being able to build a bullpen. Well, he just added one of the best closers in the game in Kimbrel, and used an expendable asset to bring in Carson Smith, who struck out 92 batters in 70 innings last year with a 2.31 ERA and 2.12 FIP. In addition to his impressive strikeout numbers, Smith also recorded the third best ground ball rate among American League relievers last year at 65.4%. It’s not quite Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller, but it’s pretty damn close. Speaking of Betances, only Betances, Joel Zumaya, Francisco Rodriguez and Troy Percival had more strikeouts in their rookie seasons since 1990 as a reliever in the American League.
And that’s not even considering that you still have Koji Uehara, albeit at age-40, who will still likely be a major weapon in the late innings for Boston, if he can remain healthy. Even if he can’t, well, you still have Kimbrel, Smith, and let’s not forget Junichi Tazawa. The addition of Smith will only help Tazawa, considering he won’t need to make 90 appearances by the All-Star break like he usually does, as he notoriously gets burnt out in the second half every year.
And don’t underestimate current Seattle Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto’s roughly one month tenure as an advisor with the Boston Red Sox this past August to September. He got to know the organization, and that most certainly played a role in this deal getting done. This was a hell of a pickup for the Red Sox if Smith comes in here and replicates anything close to what he did in 2015. But Dombrowski’s work is still not done. I fully expect him to bring in a right-handed starting pitcher to round out this Red Sox rotation, because I don’t think they’re sold on Joe Kelly being that guy, you’re presumably stuck with Rick Porcello, and you’ll need someone to pick up the slack when Clay Buchholz hits the disabled list in July. Now, how he adds that starter remains a mystery. Does he package prospects for a starter? Does he move one of his young outfielders? Does he get somebody to bite on Hanley Ramirez with a significant chunk of his contract absorbed by Boston? Stay tuned.
PS – How stupid do the Tigers feel right now for firing Dombrowski? Thanks, guys!