Thursday, 24-year-old Red Sox lefty Jalen Beeks made an impressively bad major league debut, giving up six earned runs and lasting just four innings before he was pulled from the game.
The unfortunate result of the game highlighted a somewhat glaring need for the Red Sox if they wish to continue the success that they have found early in the 2018 season: with Pomeranz on the DL, the Red Sox are extremely thin on the back end of their starting rotation. To correct this, I believe that the Red Sox will target an arm at the trade deadline––possibly even a big-name player.
Among those who could be acquired is one name that I am really intrigued by: three-time World Series champion Madison Bumgarner, who has been hurt for the entire season but has proven himself to be a legitimate ace and, perhaps more importantly, an incredible postseason performer over his 10 major league seasons. It’s no secret that the Red Sox are short on postseason pitching. Chris Sale and David Price are both notorious chokers in October and beyond, and the Red Sox really don’t have any positional playoff experience that’s worth anything outside of Xander Bogaerts and Dustin Pedroia.
You may think Mad Bum is an unrealistic target for the Red Sox, but consider that Dave Dombrowski has proven himself to be an extremely aggressive general manager at the trading deadline. When he was in Detroit, he shelled off major pieces to help a powerful Tigers team reach two World Series. Just last year, Dombrowski traded the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball for Chris Sale, a move that has panned out beautifully for the BoSox. Dombrowski has already burned his top asset, but there are still strong prospects in the farm system that could be traded away, and don’t forget that the Sox have four starting MLB outfielders, one of which could easily be dealt for Bumgarner.
For the Giants, their motivation seems relatively obvious, as they find themselves at the bottom of the NL West for the second year in a row––even after dealing for two major pieces in the offseason. San Francisco is pretty much hopeless and plays in a diesel division, and the Giants’ four-time All-Star lefthander is in a contract year. The Yankees are also likely to be in on Bumgarner, as they have a treasure trove of prospects, starting pitching problems, and a seemingly infinite budget. Hopefully, the threat of the Yanks upgrading will be enough to push a trigger-happy Dombrowski towards Bumgarner at the July 31st deadline.
The only disadvantage to Bumgarner coming to Beantown? We won’t get to watch him mash home runs regularly.
(Photo by SF Dirk)
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