The Pirates are going to trade left-hander Joe La Sorsa to the Red Sox, reports Ari Alexander of 7News Boston. The Bucs will get cash in return, per Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. It was reported a few days ago that the southpaw was triggering an upward mobility clause in his minor league deal. Alexander says that La Sorsa will be with the Sox in New York tomorrow as they kick off a series against the Yankees. Boston will need to open a 40-man roster spot for La Sorsa.
La Sorsa, 28, will be appearing in his fourth straight major league season once he gets into a game with the Sox. From 2023 to 2025, he pitched for the Rays, Nationals and Reds, posting a 5.21 earned run average in 57 innings.
He signed a minor league deal with the Pirates in the offseason and has been pitching for Triple-A Indianapolis. He has thrown 26 innings with a 3.46 ERA. His 21.2% strikeout rate is around average while his 5.8% walk rate and 47.9% ground ball rate a few ticks better than par.
The lefty triggered an upward mobility clause in his deal at the end of spring training. The way such clauses work is that the player must be offered to the 29 others teams in the league. If any of them want to give the player a roster spot, the signing team has to either trade him or give him a roster spot themselves. If they all pass, he will stay with the signing team. La Sorsa stayed with the Bucs in late March, suggesting all clubs passed on him at that time. In this case, the Sox have signed up.
Boston has three lefties in the bullpen, though Aroldis Chapman is the closer. That leaves Jovani Morán and Danny Coulombe as the lefty options for situations before the ninth inning. Coulombe spent about three weeks on the injured list due to cervical spasms and has a 6.55 ERA around that IL stint. Morán has a much better 3.19 ERA but has gotten some help from a fortunate .197 batting average on balls in play and 85.2% strand rate. La Sorsa will give the Sox another option in the southpaw relief corps.
The Sox don’t have a lot of flexibility in their current bullpen mix. Of their eight relief arms, only Justin Slaten and Greg Weissert are optionable, but those are two of their two setup arms. La Sorsa himself is optionable but, as mentioned, he is expected to be with the big league club in the Bronx tomorrow. Perhaps Coulombe will be designated for assignment, as that would open up a spot on both the active and 40-man rosters for La Sorsa. Other options for that kind of move would be Tyron Guerrero and Ryan Watson, who both have ERAs north of 5.00 at the moment.
Photo courtesy of Thomas Shea, Imagn Images
Give them Bello
Bello is fine as long as they use an opener.
If he can’t start a game, he’s not a starting pitcher. And it makes no difference if he throws a perfect game in relief if they are already behind. When is the last time Sox won a game that Bello started or came in after an opener. Not in the last month for sure.
If Bello can pitch 6 scoreless innings after an opener starts the game, you just need to find the right pitcher to open. When he has an opener he has been one of the better pitchers.
They’re 2-10 in his appearances, including 1-3 with an opener; your assertion that it’s fine confuses me
Bello is fine when they use an opener, but the reliever they try to stick in that role hasn’t been. Red Sox don’t have the bullpen depth necessary to do openers.
I’ll take Whitlock please?
I see our big bat has arrived
Management misunderstood when the cry was for the Sox to bring in guys resulting in runs crossing the plate.
Breslow putting the league on notice with all these garbage relievers he’s accumulating
LaSorsa may be an improvement over Coulombe, Guerrero, Weissert, Watson and Kahnle. If he improves one of those spots, the team is better for cash.
Bravo Brez!!! Season salvaged!!!
I wonder if they’re finally going to cut Columbe. They have a hard time looking at reality with some of these veteran guys and doing what needs to be done. Goes back before Breslow (Brasier).
Not sure how much better the guy they just got is going to be. They are throwing anything they can find against the wall and see if any stick.
True, but you still should throw out the trash, even if it ends up being for next year.
I keep hearing people complain about Coulombe. So, I look at his stats and 4 of his last 5 appearances he didn’t allow any runs. The appearance he did, he allowed 3 runs. So, Coulombe is actually pitching pretty well lately.
I looked little closer and Coulombe has allowed runs in 4 of his 16 appearances. In 2 of those appearances he gave up 3 runs which drove up his ERA. Here are his game logs:
baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=couloda0…
Not sure I even know what to say!?!?!
Im sure he’ll go through Bellinger, Rice, Chisholm and Grisham like a hot knife through butter….
I get reminded daily that Vaughn Grissom has more RBIs than Mayer or Durbin and is now batting 3rd in Angels lineup behind Trout. And a RH bat. We blew it giving up on him too soon.
One cannot have enough clowns in any circus 🎪 … 🤡
Stove is on but not quite a simmer
Who are we saying goodbye to; Coulombe or Guerrero?
Maybe Kahnle. He was lucky to get through his inning today. He walked a couple and had two balls hit hard, but right at people.
Just like Pivetta, as long as someone else opens, Bello is good. Can it be something as minimal as one inning (three batters)? So, today was a deliberate waste just to get him “back on schedule”?
This is the big bat the Sox have been needing!
Wait what…