New Pair of Sox

 Christmas in July didn’t bring the huge splash before the MLB trade deadline Red Sox fans have become accustomed to over the past few seasons, but the moves the Sox were able to pull off will help address the few flaws that remained within this already very good team.

Looking to bolster their infield depth that was lost with the injury to Jed Lowrie, Boston acquired utility specialist Mike Aviles from the Kansas City Royals.  The move was not one of those majorly impactful, ground-shaking transactions, but with all of the injury concerns that have followed Lowrie throughout his brief career with the Sox, the uncertainty of his availability going forward forced Theo Epstein to obtain Aviles’ services as an insurance policy.

The price for that insurance policy was reasonably inexpensive as the Sox swapped utility infielder Yamaico Navarro who had not spent any significant amount of time in the majors and most likely would not have been a part of the Sox plans for the future.  Aviles began the year as an every-day day starter at third base in Kansas City prior to being relegated to a reserve role with the promotion of Mike Moustakas, a top young prospect for the Royals.  

He is a very versatile player with experience at shortstop and second base as well.  While his batting average is less than impressive (.222), he has shown that he possesses a decent combination of power and speed as he has hit five home runs, driven in 31 runs and stolen ten bases in just 185 at bats this season.  For the sake of comparison, Marco Scutaro (.269) has only five home runs, 20 RBIs and one stolen base in 227 at bats. 

 

Over his career, Aviles has a .286 average and has proven he can be a productive player no matter where he plays on the field or wherever he is placed in the lineup.  He seems to be one of those players that managers love to have on their bench.  Francona will be happy to have a player of his quality with that type of flexibility at his disposal and after spending an entire career in Kansas City, Aviles should be eager to finally play on a team with a chance to not only get to the postseason but also play very deep into October.

In a last-second special the Red Sox have become famous for this time of year, the Red Sox landed starting pitcher Erik Bedard from the Seattle Mariners.  This occurred after a strange string of events that started late Saturday night in which the Red Sox had apparently acquired Rich Harden, another starting pitcher from the Oakland A’s, only to then scrap the deal early Sunday morning, citing concerns discovered during a review of his medical records.

At the time, it seemed like a safe decision as Harden has suffered a list of injuries longer than a Barry Bonds Balco receipt.  But, it seemed a little odd after the news leaked of Bedard’s acquisition a few hours later.  Bedard was once considered one of the most talented left-handed pitchers in the game a few years ago, but the amount of injuries he incurred upon his arrival to Seattle is just as alarming.

Since 2008 he has only started a total of 46 games, compiling a record of 15-14 over that time, and has never pitched more than 92 innings in any of those seasons.  While his ERA numbers during those rare, healthy stretches were impressive, it is difficult to imagine that the Red Sox were overwhelmingly more comfortable with his medical status compared to Harden’s.

Perhaps the Red Sox felt they might be able to get a better deal for first base prospect Lars Anderson in the future and did not want to send him to Oakland for Harden, who might break down before the end of the season without getting any production out of him.  The players they included in the deal for Bedard were certainly a lot less substantial names within the organization, so that could have made it easier to pull the trigger to acquire Bedard.

Another factor that could have made Bedard the more attractive option is his familiarity with the American League East.  Spending his first five seasons in the division with Baltimore and experiencing a reasonable amount of success, that experience could be beneficial in his transition to the Red Sox. 

Regardless of the reasoning, there was risk involved in either scenario and the lack of moves is really more a reflection of the quality of players available more than anything else.  A perfect example of this is the New York Yankees.  Normally one of the most active franchises at the trade deadline, the Yankees, despite multiple, glaring deficiencies, failed to make a single move.  It was a strange feeling and one that almost didn’t seem real, but anytime the evil empire misses out on opportunity to improve their team is a victory for the Sox in my book.   

Speaking of those Yankees, Boston will get a chance to show off their newest members as they will meet for a three-game series in Fenway this weekend.  Oh yeah, and the scheduled starter for game one of that series is none other than Erik Bedard.  Talk about baptism by fire!  It should be another fun series as the Red Sox will look to continue their dominance of the Yankees this season and further increase their AL East division lead.