The Red Sox announced that they’ve declined their $4MM club option on left-hander Craig Breslow. The 34-year-old Breslow will instead receive a $100K buyout and become a free agent.
Breslow struggled in 2014 but is just one season removed from a 2013 campaign in which he posted a 1.81 ERA in 59 2/3 innings. The 2014 campaign wasn’t as kind to Breslow, however, as he saw his ERA spike to 5.96 despite an increase in strikeouts. Breslow’s command also worsened (his 4.6 BB/9 was the worst full-season mark of his career) and he saw his fastball velocity dip from an average of just under 90 mph to 88.4 mph.
Prior to this season he’d been a fairly reliable relief arm, having pitched to a 2.82 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 373 2/3 innings from 2008-13. That stretch of success will likely generate some interest on a market for lefty relievers that is fronted by Andrew Miller but also includes Zach Duke, Joe Thatcher and Neal Cotts, among others.
Really? Im not a Sox fan, but seems like a bad move IMO. He was a really good reliever for quite some time, expect for this season. If Tim Lincecum got 18 MM after 2 bad seasons, isn’t 4 MM, even for a RP, a good deal after just 1 bad year?
The problem is the bad year came at age 34. You don’t normally “bounce back next year” at that point.
There are much younger arms in the farm that can serve as a LH reliever. Those 4 Mills can go towards starting pitching/3B.
Tommy Layne is a much better option than Breslow at this point.
A velocity drop that large combined with such poor results is generally indicative of impending disaster/DL time and not a bounce back.
The velocity only dropped 1 mph, but I agree he’s declining.
Breslow lost 1.4 MPH on his fastball from 2013 to 2014, that a large single season drop.
An 88mph fastball isn’t bad for a lefty reliever that primarily throws offspeed and sinkers. The problem is he got shelled and missed locations consistently.
I don’t understand why they trade Miller and Lester
That’s a fun question to answer. I’ll share what I’ve gathered from reading a variety of articles about Miller.
For starters, Andrew Miller wasn’t cost controlled going forward after our miserable season. In return, they got Rodriguez. He has the highest ceiling on the team… At least in terms of guys who you believe have a shot at their ceiling…unlike Webster. Rodriguez projects as a possible 1 and a probable 2. And he’s cost controlled. I know Owens is close, but he projects as a 3. Still plenty of value in this, but at the end of the day you need a 1 and a strong 2 (aka Lester Lackey 2013).