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A series of somewhat disturbing reports suggest the Red Sox
may "wait out" the reliever market—to see how the
Craig Kimbrel and other deals shake out. At that point, they could wade in to grab a 'bargain-basement' closer like
Kelvin Herrera. The former Nationals closer will be entering his age 29 season (not that much younger than Kimbrel), and was pretty lousy after his trade to DC from Kansas City last year (4.34 ERA). Part of the reason for his poor performance was a serious foot injury that sidelined him from August until the end of the season. It was a Lisfranc ligament injury in his left foot—that required
surgery. It's the same problem (sans the surgery part) suffered in 2017 by current Red Sox superstar
J.D. Martinez. Herrera has never had more than 26 saves in any given season—and has averaged 8.9 strikeouts per nine innings over his 8-year MLB career (for comparison, Kimbrel has averaged 14.7 strikeouts per nine innings over his 9-year MLB career). So, do we want to place our end-of-the-game duties on an injured guy who is nowhere near as good as our old guy—just because he comes cheap? I don't think so. As agonizing as Kimbrel was last year, he's still the best closing option on the market. If they can get him back for four years and $70 (or so) million—take it! The only other reasonable alternative is to steal away
both David Robertson and Zach Britton from
The Evil Ones. Not Herrera, though,
please!
