Diamond Mine

So Theo Epstein went all Ken Williams by trading for a player that he had last year after letting them go. It seems to me that it would have cost less to just sign Doug Mirabelli during the off season than to trade THREE players to get him back!

I'm not saying the Red Sox gave up the world to get Mirabelli, but it cost more in the long run when they could have just re-signed him.

According to the 2005 Defensive ratings, Mirabelli (76) is a step up form Bard (51). Both players are defensive replacement type catchers as neither catcher had even 140 AB's. Mirabelli's value comes almost entirely from the fact that he can catch Tim Wakefield's knuckleball. So far this year, Josh Bard has demonstrated that he cannot. This is something that was readily apparent going into the off season to even the casual fan, let alone the RED SOX FRONT OFFICE. Of course, only a very small percentage of baseball's fan base actually makes a living off of making observations like that.

Now, I can see where the Red Sox were coming from. Doug Mirabelli is set to make $1.5 million. That's a whole bunch of money for a backup catcher that you wouldn't even plan of giving 150 AB's. That is a very narrow view of what Mirabelli does for the team.

Tim Wakefield made it to Boston in 1996. Here is a list of Boston Red Sox catchers since his arrival to the majors (in Chronological order):

Mike Stanley
Bill Haselman
Scott Hatteberg
Jason Varitek
Doug Mirabelli

Three of those five players ARE NOT EVEN ACTIVE AS CATCHERS in the majors right now. WE saw in the 2004 playoffs what happens when the Red Sox tried to bit the bullet on Defense and leave Varitek in at catcher with Tim Wakefield. It's a disaster. Scott Hatteberg has been a full time first baseman since he signed with the A's. Mike Stanley retired after 2000. Bill Haselman came back to the Red Sox in 2003, but that ended up being his final year.

So of that list of five catchers, there are only 3 left that have experience at catching Tim Wakefield's Knuckball. One of those players isn't even a catcher anymore. That leaves two options: 1) The Red Sox could have tried to just have Varitek catch Wakefield anyway, or 2) STAY WITH MIRABELLI for crying out loud!! Instead the Red Sox signed a random back up catcher with a defensive reputation that couldn't hit and hoped he would catch Wakefield. I don't even see that as an option. At Least with Varitek, he's caught Wakefield before (and done a miserable job, but he has at least BEEN THERE before), and he has some offense to offset the defensive miscues. The only other way around the problem would have been to limit Wakefield’s role in the rotation and move him back to the bullpen. Since Wakefield has been the Red Soc most reliable and effective pitcher over the last few years, that would not have really made much sense either.

The Red Sox gave up Josh Bard, Cla Meredith and a Player to be Named in order to get Mirabelli back. Now, Josh Bard simply isn't that good of a player at all. So there's not loss. Cla Meredith is a side armed K machine that gives up homeruns a little mor often than you would like for a relief pitcher. Going in to the 2006, Meredith has a K rate of .934 in the minors. That's almost 1 strikeout per inning. Meredith has clearly demonstrated the ability to get players out with the K. That's a pretty strong indicator for any pitcher, let alone relief pitchers who rely even MORE on K's in high leverage situations.

Now, seeing it from the Red Sox perspective, you could argue that Meredith has never shown anything in the majors and they obviously don't want Bard anymore anyway. I can understand that but you have to consider that they never "needed" to sign Bard if they never let Mirrabelli go to begin with. It is trtue that Meredith has never shown anything in the majors. As a matter of fact, he outright failed at the Major League Level. Of course, he's a 23 year old, right handed, side-armed, K machine relief pitcher. It's possible that the Red Sox end up losing much in this traded, but it's also possible that they lose a good amount of production from Meredith. Who's to say that a pitcher with that kind of profile couldn't beat out a declining, overpriced, Keith Foulke as Palpelbon's set up guy?

Yes, The Red Sox win in this trade by acquiring a player that can help out their team this year and they gave up very little (a relief prospect with some promise and a catcher with very little offensive value). My problem with this trade was that the Red Sox put themselves in a position to have to trade Cla Meredith at all. Why not just re-sign Mirabelli when, as we looked at earlier, he's the only catcher in baseball, that we know of, able to handle Wakefield!