The Boston Red Sox didn’t have many weaknesses on their 2016 roster. However, you could definitely pinpoint the bullpen as one of them.
Craig Kimbrel joined the team as the closer. Robbie Ross Jr. was solid for a majority of the year, but after that the bullpen was extremely inconsistent. Matt Barnes started hot, but ended miserably. Heath Hembree had a great earned run average, but was prone to getting lit up. Junichi Tazawa continued his decline, while Koji Uehara and Carson Smith got hurt. Brad Ziegler was dominant, but was only with the team for the end of the season.
It’s clear that the need to bolster the bullpen heading into the 2016 season was real. It was also pretty obvious that despite that need, the Red Sox shouldn’t be spending top dollar for relief help. That’s where Tyler Thornburg came into play.
On Tuesday, the Red Sox traded Travis Shaw and prospects Mauricio Dubon and Josh Pennington to the Milwaukee Brewers for Thornburg.
Shaw had a decent 2016 season after a breakout performance in 2015. He was loved by the fans and seemed to have a good rapport with his teammates. Meanwhile, Pennington is a raw but promising pitcher, and Dubon is a blue-chip prospect at shortstop.
Dubon immediately breaks the Brewers top-10 prospect list, and lands in a much better situation for himself. I hate saying that a player is blocked from joining the big league club. If they are really that good, the team will find a spot for them. However, Dubon had 24-year-old Xander Bogaerts at shortstop in the MLB. He also had Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Mookie Betts in the outfield, all under 27. Dustin Pedroia is at second, and Yoan Moncada is the third baseman of the future. Now, you tell me where Dubon can play.
Thornburg has a 2.87 career ERA, and enjoyed his best season in 2016. A right-handed reliever, Thornburg posted career-bests in appearances (67), innings pitched (67), strikeouts (90), wins (8), saves (13), holds (20), wins-above-replacement (2.5), and walks-plus-hits-per-inning-pitched (0.94). The 28-year-old also had the second lowest ERA of his career (2.15).
What does this mean for the Red Sox bullpen? Well it should give the fans a reason to breathe. There’s about a 2% chance now that the Red Sox spend absurd money on a free agent reliever like Aroldis Chapman. It also means that the chance of another major trade involving a reliever probably isn’t happening.
Meanwhile, this seems like the end for Tazawa in Boston. The Red Sox resigning him already seemed like a long shot, now it makes very little sense. Ziegler and Uehara also seem like long shots, however, resigning them would make much more sense.
In the end, the Red Sox lost some good pieces, but gave themselves something they were missing last year, an eighth inning guy. The table is now set for Kimbrel, as you can expect Thornburg to be the bridge that gets the Red Sox to their closer.
Hunter Noll is a Staff Writer for Outside Pitch MLB. Follow him on Twitter
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