The Boston Red Sox are riding high after finishing off their seventh consecutive win on Thursday. The team is now 50-45 and in sole possession of the final American League Wild Card spot.
In addition, they are only five games back in the AL East. This is all happening after they had traded away Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants.
Craig Breslow has stated he wants to improve the team. Boston's biggest achilles heel is their bullpen.
In The Athletic's latest big board of the Top 40 trade candidates, Colorado Rockies reliever Jake Bird was listed as a fit for Boston.
"It’s too bad the rest of the roster is what it is, because Colorado’s bullpen isn’t half-bad. And Bird’s been the best of that group, with a strikeout rate near 30 percent and a ground-ball rate just under 50 percent. His park-adjusted FIP is in line with that of Emmanuel Clase. Bird’s slider against righties and curveball against lefties are each effective, rendering him platoon-neutral. He’s not even in arbitration yet, so an acquiring team would control him through 2028."
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Bird is 2-1 with a 3.70 ERA in 39 appearances and has also posted a 1.2 WAR. He is even averaging 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
He could be a solid back-end relief option for the Red Sox if they do acquire him. He has performed well as a high-leverage option with the Rockies.
The Rockies will likely demand a haul of prospects in return, but the Red Sox are fortunate to have an elite farm system that should be sufficient to get a deal done.
This could give Boston the push they need to make some more noise in the AL East and possibly climb up the ladder to catch the Toronto Blue Jays. It would certainly give them the edge they need to pull away in the Wild Card race, a race in which all three spots are occupied by AL East teams.
We'll see where the Red Sox land in their search for bullpen help.
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