The Red Sox will be without their closer for the next three to six weeks as Craig Kimbrel will undergo surgery.
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The Arizona Diamondbacks announced after Friday’s game that they traded closer Brad Ziegler to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for pitcher Jose Almonte and infielder Luis Alejandro Basabe. In mid-November, he sent an impressive package of prospects to the Padres for Kimbrel, who had $25 million remaining on his contract for this season and next. “I’m kind of glad it’s nothing too serious”.
Rays’ manager Kevin Cash agreed: “We have to find a way to get those shutdown innings”.
“They’re saying three to six weeks”.
Kimbrel, named to his fifth All-Star team this week, was unavailable Friday in the ninth inning of a 6-5 victory over the Rays.
The Red Sox already had setup reliever Junichi Tazawa shut down for a few days with a sore shoulder. “At the same time I appreciate if they felt like it was something they needed do right away and help out right now then I’m more than happy to a part of it”. However, the Red Sox are going with their former closer who lost his job when Kimbrel was signed this offseason.
Kimbrel is 1-3 with a 3.55 ERA and 17 saves in 19 chances.
With Kimbel out, Farrel said Koji Uehara and newly acquired Brad Ziegler will serve as the closers.
“I think I made a comment to our own people that it’d be nice to get this done today because, with the Kimbrel situation, the timing would work out”.
“It’s hard. He’s been so good for us in that role and he’s been a good Diamondback for a long time”, Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale said of Ziegler.
His diverse pitch arsenal will be useful in Boston’s pen. He went for an MRI exam that revealed the torn cartilage. He held the Red Sox scoreless on three hits over seven innings in his last start against them, at home on June 29. Kimbrel is largely a two-pitch pitcher and Uehara relies exclusively on his splitter, with the velocity of his fastball failing. “It’s got good color, but the swelling has gone down”, he said. What it is, it’s something that I wouldn’t say is structural. “We can live with a miss in, but that was just another mistake”. Left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez also injured his knee during a spring-training incident. “It’s going to be tough on me and my family”, Ziegler said after the game.
For the Rays, third baseman Evan Longoria, who was voted out of the All-Star game earlier in the day, went four-for-five with two RBI and a home run. “This is anomaly. You can’t put guys in bubbles”. “You always wonder on visiting side what it’s like over here and being able to get a taste of it is pretty neat”.
“Hopefully a little different look”, Ziegler said when asked what he was looking to add to the bullpen.
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Reliever Noe Ramirez was recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket to take Kimbrel’s roster spot….
