Although the Red Sox didn’t add to their bullpen prior to Tuesday’s non-waiver trade deadline, they were connected to several relievers in recent rumors. Add the Nationals’ Kelvin Herrera to the group of relievers who landed on the Red Sox’s radar, as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe and Rob Bradford of WEEI tweet that the team had been after the right-hander.
Herrera would have been a significant pickup for Boston and a major loss for Washington, the latter of which has disappointed this year but still didn’t make any huge moves leading up to the deadline. The Nationals did deal reliever Brandon Kintzler to the Cubs, though they otherwise kept their 52-53 team intact and will continue trying to make up a 5 1/2-game deficit in the NL East. Herrera will be part of that group, but the 28-year-old hasn’t performed as well as hoped since the Nats acquired him in a headline-grabbing trade with the Royals on June 18.
When the Nationals picked up Herrera, he had worked to a near-spotless 1.05 ERA with 22 strikeouts against a mere two walks in 25 2/3 innings. Since then, the 28-year-old has logged a still-solid 3.29 ERA with 12 punchouts and six walks in 13 2/3 frames. Given that Washington’s general manager, Mike Rizzo, continues to hold out hope the club will rally this year, he wasn’t willing to flip Herrera for anything other than a compelling return.
Despite their subpar season thus far, the Nats didn’t view dealing Herrera as a must. However, they could now lose the pending free agent for nothing in the offseason. Because he was already part of a trade this season, Herrera won’t be eligible to receive a qualifying offer over the winter. Perhaps the Nationals will try to deal Herrera in August if they continue to stumble, then, but his track record and reasonable salary (the rest of a ~$7.93MM commitment) mean he may not clear waivers. If a team does claim Herrera, the Nationals would only be able to work out a trade with that club.
The Red Sox, meanwhile, may keep seeking bullpen upgrades over the next month, and it should help that they’re unafraid to incur the penalties that come with exceeding a $237MM payroll. Whether they truly need help is up for debate, though. Boston owns the majors’ best record (75-33) and a six-game lead in the AL East, thanks in part to a relief corps that ranks fourth in the majors in fWAR, sixth in ERA and 10th in K/BB ratio.
They won’t trade Harper but they’ll trade this guy? Ok…
trading Harper lessens their chances of resigning him.
You are 100% correct. Makes more sense. Personally, I think his “down” year increases their chances of re-signing, if not, ever so slightly.
No it doesn’t.
Yes it does. You must be a la la fantasize fan thinking he go to your team lol.
They are correct that it does help to resign them. Plus Boras has a good relationship with Wash.
Wait. So let me get this straight. You are saying that if the Nats trade Harper than offer him the most money in the offseason, he will take a pay-cut to play elsewhere? And you are saying that trading Harper and giving him a chance to shine in the postseason and making him ineligible to receive a QO this offseason would ruin their good relationship with Boras? Yeah, makes tons of sense just like everything else you say michaelw LOL!
Even if hat were true, I’d still be okay with that. They haven’t won with him, and I don’t think they ever will. Despite his productive seasons, I just think he’s part of a culture that will never bring winning. The future is to build around Scherzer, Rendon, Turner, and Soto. Harper and Zimmerman need to be put in the past.
Like trading Chapman hurt the Yankees odds of signing him? Harper is going to take the money. Plus, he played with the Nats his entire career…he knows what is there. Pretty sure he knows what makes sense from a baseball standpoint. It’s not like the Nats are in complete sell mode. They still go into the next few years with guys like Scherzer, Strasburg, Rendon, Turner, Soto, and Eaton with Robles waiting. They still have a bright future.
If anything hurt Harper’s chances of resigning with the Nats, it’s the emergence of Soto. They just realized they might not need to pay someone $35M+ when they have someone more productive that’s way cheaper already. They could easily go in into ’19 with an outfield of Eaton, Robles, and Soto.
That because the Yanks were the only stupid team to pay a reliever 88 million dollars. Lol. Big difference. Big difference.
No michaelw. You’re wrong. The Marlins actually offered him more money than the Yankees and he took a pay-cut to go back to NY.
Anyway, holding onto Harper isn’t going to stop the Nats from having to pay through the nose to keep him.
He’s a Boras guy anyway. Boras will take forever and snake out every last dime before he signs, just like always, unless the PLAYER requests signing an extension before hitting FA and haven’t heard anything about that before from him.
Hopefully this last offseason taught him that waiting forever isn’t the answer
So Boras will do the job he is paid for?
him and machado are Yankees next year anyway. Bostons declaration of going up over 240 will only fuel ny’s fire more. $ wins games
That’s ridiculous. Yankees would be stuck with 3 mammoth contracts earning 30M/yr with Machado, Harper & Stanton(look at his numbers, no way he’s opting out of 192M)
Almost right. Stanton would be opting out of 218M, not 192M. Stanton contract was heavily backloaded. You could argue, with Marlins’ 30M make Stanton’s annual luxury tax hit, 22M not 30 AAV
“They won’t trade Harper but they’ll trade this guy?”
What’s so difficult to understand, xabial? They are completely different players who represent vastly different things to both ownership and management. Both Rizzo and Mark Lerner sit in the stands during Nats home games. Trading Harper would make it difficult for them to continue doing so. Herrera, not so much.
Well it’s gonna be difficult for them to do that next year anyway cuz Harper is gone.
And before you say “They can re-sign him,” trading him wouldn’t bar them from doing that.
I dont know if you noticed, but they didnt trade that guy
They’ll = they will / willing to. I thought it was strange they would consider trading Herrera, but not Harper
Xabial kind of reminds me of the 2001 Mariners. They lost Griffey and A-Rod in consecutive years…..and they got better!? Sometimes subtraction is addition.
Huge mistake by DD with not addressing the pen. It will be the downfall of the Sox in the postseason.
Scary part of the Sox pen is they have multiple guys that simply walk too many batters to be considered dependable.
DD had nothing to entice anybody to engage him in meaningful talks to bolster his pen. He has no prospects left that are interesting enough and he wasn’t going to trade off his major league roster either.
This is the end result of going for it with a sky high payroll, and an empty farm!
They have enough in their system for guys like Zach Duke, Adam Warren, and Brad Brach though.
Hope the Nats enjoy that draft pick!
Herrera was traded mid season so he isn’t QO eligible. They get nothing if/when he walks.
Was referring to Bryce Harper. But I probably should have specified that considering this thread isn’t directly about him.
Ah. I see. The wise move would probably have been to trade both of them.
Sox put Sale on DL!
I think DD wanted to address the bullpen but it sounds like prices were just to high and the Red Sox just didn’t have the prospects that were needed to pull off a meaningful upgrade.
Every team will now try and sneak everyone through waivers so it’s not over yet DD will still try and upgrade right up till the August trade deadline.
I’m also thinking Durbin Feltman will probably go to AA after tonight’s game and see what he does there if he handles that move he will probably be in the Sox pen in September.
Highly doubt the pen will be the Red Sox Downfall.
All good relievers will be blocked by the few AL contending teams. The only players that will slip through are underperforming or relievers with horrible contracts. The time to grab someone was today. You overpay when you have the best record in baseball and it is your biggest area of need. Can’t wait until the season is on the line and Barnes has to pitch through Judge/Gregorius/Stanton or Springer/Altuve/Correa.
Who was available better then Barnes? That would be no one. The Red Sox relievers will be fine. They were really in the market for a situational lefty it didn’t happen not the end of the world. I think you will be surprised how many players slip through waivers. It happens every year.
I get the Nationals roster is young enough to compete even if Harper leaves but I have a feeling this deadline fiasco by rizzo will cost them. I mean it’s one thing to say you believe in your team, it’s another to watch multiple teams get better and push their chips in when you sit on your hands and do nothing.
Not doing anything could cost him his job. Even a wholesale would have been something.
Bad non-move by the Sox. Herrera would have been the last ingredient in the championship pie.
Even the trades they don’t make are important. Because, you know, it’s the Red Sox.
The Red Sox need one more move, fire CORA. Worst manager since Don Zimmer. Swihart after all these years does one good thing and they bat him 2nd as a pat on the back? Was today’s game not as important as the one we weaseled out yesterday? How many series have Cora presented a non-maximized line-up one game in the series? The answer is nearly every series this year!! Swihart belongs at the bottom where the other catchers hit. Not up for discussion. He has no history of performing well. We are facing an excellent pitcher and we are throwing a guy who hasn’t performed all year. If this was a throw away game someone should have told Red Sox nation.
We haven’t hit since the all-star break with the top of the order so we are struggling but with allot of luck winning. Part of the luck is we play really bad teams but the Phillies aren’t one of them so we need to bring our best. We get Kinsler and bat the guy 6th which makes sense if you bat Betts, Benintendi, Martinez, Moreland, Bogaerts but we sat Betts so he can get his head together for the Yankee series which is fine but that means 1-5 is our normal 2-6. Instead, we drop in a guy who doesn’t belong in the two hole and swap our normal 3 hitter to 4th just to throw things off even more. Bad baseball. Bad line-up and most of all bad manager. I still say we should inquire about Girardi because he made some horrible Yankee teams successful. We can look at our win total and give Cora credit but if we analyze the situation we find out we probably could have 80 wins now if it wasn’t for him giving away a game a series.
Cora needs to go. One of his bonehead line-ups is going to cost us a playoff series. Mark my words.
What’s this “we” garbage you speak of? I didn’t see your name on the roster.
Analyze the fact that you sound like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the toy store. The top of the order is struggling so they changed it up. Big deal. Pomeranz has made 10 starts all year and just returned from the DL. You can’t sit the guy until he gets back in a rhythm that’s plain stupid.
Get a grip
Everyone says we I hate it when people make that comment, but he’s still wrong.
You are probably the biggest moron i have ever seen on this sight.