The Red Sox announced that they have claimed right-handed reliever Jean Machi off waivers from the Giants. In order to clear room on the 40-man roster, right-hander Clay Buchholz has been transferred from the 15-day DL to the 60-day DL, meaning he can’t be activated until at least Sept. 9 (h/t: Tim Britton of the Providence Journal, on Twitter).
The 33-year-old Machi had a somewhat surprising breakout season in San Francisco’s bullpen in 2013, and over the ’13-’14 seasons he totaled a 2.49 ERA with 7.7 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9 in 119 1/3 innings of relief. However, he’s struggled a good deal in 2015, with an ERA of 5.14 in addition to K/9 and BB/9 rates that have taken significant steps backwards. He’s also missed about three weeks due to a groin strain.
On the plus side for Machi, his velocity (92.6 mph) is still about the same as it was in previous seasons. His ground-ball rate, while down a bit, is still an above-average 49.6 percent. The Red Sox will hope that the strong 119 1/3 innings he displayed from 2013-14 are more indicative of his talent level than the 35 poor innings he’s delivered in 2015. Machi figures to be a Super Two player this winter, as he’ll finish the year with two years, 154 days of big league service if he remains on Boston’s big league roster all year. The Sox will have the ability to control him through the 2019 season if he can rediscover the successful form he showed in recent seasons.
This is the biggest deal of the day!
Honestly coming from a Giants fan, if he pitches pretty bad you know already Boston fans will jump & chew him out
Considering how bad the bullpen is aside from Tazawa and Uehera, any signing like is a welcome one.
This is one way to go. Another would be to make a trade for an actually descent reliever with some control left.
Good pick up by the Sox.
The Red Sox banking on a player to have a bounceback season based off of previous success has worked out so well so far…
They went from interest in Hamels or Cueto to this?
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Machi is lights out
machi says, Thanks Pablo for putting in the good word lol