Red Sox Acquire RHP Brad Ziegler; Dombrowski is Making Moves
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| (June 19, 2016 - Source: Hunter Martin/Getty Images North America) |
Contributing Writer
While most of us were asleep this morning, Dave Dombrowski was wide awake and making moves. At 1:42 a.m. ET, the Red Sox sent Luis Alejandro Basabe and pitcher Jose Almonte in exchange for Arizona Diamondbacks RHP Brad Ziegler.
Ziegler has a 2.82 ERA this season along with 18 saves in 36 appearances. He's an extreme ground ball pitcher thanks to an incredible sinker. Since he's a ground ball pitcher, it will help to have guys like Dustin Pedroia, Xander Bogaerts, Travis Shaw, and Hanley Ramirez behind him.
Last season, Ziegler was even more dominant with his 1.85 ERA and 48 hits and 17 walks in 68 innings.
Since we now know that Craig Kimbrel will miss 3-6 weeks, and need knee surgery, Ziegler and Koji Uehara will split the closer's job.
Kimbrel to miss 3-6 weeks— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) July 9, 2016
In Kimbrel's absence will close with both Koji and Zeigler according to Farrell— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) July 9, 2016
If I had to guess, Ziegler will probably do the majority of the closing while Uehara will mainly pitch in the set-up role. Uehara has an ERA of 4.96 and has had trouble with the long-ball all year.
Dombrowski has now made three moves as of late and is clearly showing his willingness to go win and go all-in. With the three moves, Dombrowski has now addressed 2 of the 3 main problems that the Red Sox have: he's added two bench players to help bench depth and a reliever.
Now he just needs to add some starting pitching. Oh, how fun it will be these next few weeks with the trade rumors flying.
Follow Evan Marinofsky on Twitter for all of his Red Sox thoughts and opinions.
