Once the Boston Red Sox acquired David Price to lead their rotation they were left with an abundance of starting pitching. Rosenthal also mentioned right-hander Clay Buchholz as a possible trade target earlier Monday morning, but clarified he wasn’t sure who the Mariners were after Buchholz or Miley. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
Advertisement
The trade is interesting in that the Mariners, who had needs in both starting and relief pitching, traded a starter and reliever for a starter and reliever.
Miley will enter a rotation headlined by Felix Hernandez, with younger pitchers Taijuan Walker and James Paxton following King Felix and showing the potential to be excellent starters.
And Kelly is only going into his first year of being arbitration-eligible, while possessing the kind of stuff that suggests better things are around the corner for the 27-year-old.
Smith appeared in 70 games with the Mariners in 2015, striking out 92 batters with a 2.31 ERA. Smith was extremely against right-handers, who hit just. Not a bad day’s work for team president Dave Dombrowski. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News also mentioned the Rangers’ interest, but he said Boston’s efforts were “directed elsewhere”. He had the third-highest ground ball rate (65.4 percent) among American League relievers and owns a career strikeout-to-walk ratio of just over 4-to-1.
“He’s really the unique one of the group”, manager John Farrell said of Smith, comparing him to former Mariners and Yankees reliever Jeff Nelson. He is now likely to play setup man to new Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel. They have not only fixed their bullpen issues from last season, the Red Sox have turned it into a major position of strength.
Losing Miley’s consistency will hurt, but now having Price and several other starters, the Sox can afford that loss and it is worth it to get Smith. He’s proved to be durable, making at least 32 starts the past three seasons. This swap of pitchers does not swing the deal much in either direction.
Advertisement
Because of his size and delivery, Aro profiles best out of the bullpen. The four-player deal comes with a downside for Boston – Miley is a lock for close to 200 innings – but the upside was far too appealing for the Red Sox to pass up.
