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The move couldn’t have come at a better time for the Red Sox.
Boston Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel will miss three-to-six weeks as he will undergo surgery to fix a meniscus tear in his left knee.
Fortuitous isn’t quite the right word to describe that confluence of events.
Kimbrel felt discomfort in his left knee Friday during batting practice while he was shagging fly balls. The arrival of Ziegler does a decent job of mitigating the impact of Kimbrel’s injury.
Boston acquired Ziegler for minor-league RHP Jose Almonte and INF Luis Alejandro Basabe.
The Tampa Bay Rays can’t win anywhere lately. The Red Sox have completed three trades just in the last three days, with the biggest being directly influenced by Kimbrel’s injury status.
For Kimbrel, it has been an up and down season, and his numbers do not reflect an All-Star. It’s the most RBIs ever at the break by a player 40 or older. Boston will also be looking for any starting pitching help behind David Price, who has been shaky himself, so a blockbuster for Sonny Gray or Julio Teheran could be in the works.
Rays: RHP Chris Archer (4-12, 4.61 ERA) is slated to start Friday when they host the Orioles and RHP Yovani Gallardo (3-1, 5.82). Uehara has performed well in the role the last three seasons but has had some problems this year coming out of the bullpen with a 4.81 ERA and two blown saves. Arizona is 10 behind the New York Mets for the NL’s second wild card.
The rotation is the larger concern. Pitching has been nothing short of a head ache for Boston, despite their efforts last off-season.
Ziegler should be able to slip right into a bullpen role and help provide a nice stop gap until the Kraken returns to his rightful place in the ninth inning.
“I took a step for a groundball, heard a pop and didn’t really think it was anything serious”, Kimbrel said in the dugout about 75 minutes before Boston’s game against Tampa Bay according to the Associated Press. 224 off Ziegler, but his changeup is notoriously hard to make contact with. Over his nine-year career, Ziegler has a 32-24 record with a 2.49 ERA while shifting between righty-specialist to setup man to eventually closing.
Red Sox: IF Travis Shaw remains day-to-day with a bruised left foot.
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Let’s take a look at some of the prospects that the Red Sox might be dealing away before August 1. The 19-year-old has a 155 wRC+ in 271 plate appearances in A-Ball this year and has posted gaudy walk rates throughout his career per FanGraphs. The two played ball against each other in the Cape Cod league and were teammates in Arizona.
