Thursday, December 13, 2018

With Kelly Gone, Red Sox Need Former Northeastern Husky Adam Ottavino

(Getty Images)
UPDATE: Sox talking with Ottavino and Robertson
With the departure of Joe Kelly to La-La Land—and the Red Sox seeming (and justified) unwillingness to give six years to Craig Kimbrel—a bullpen move now is paramount. Former Northeastern University Husky Adam Ottavino is still out there on the market—after turning in a brilliant campaign in (of all places) Colorado last year. The righty pitched in 75 games for the Rockies—holding opposing batters to a .158 average. He also averaged 13 strikeouts per nine innings in 2018. The 32-year-old is probably now in the catbird seat money-wise—since the Red Sox have been sitting on their hands all off-season, while multiple relievers are getting signed (just today Kelly and Jeurys Familia). In fact, in our view, we need two new bullpen arms—unless you want to count on Dave Dombrowski's wishful thinking that Matt Barnes and Ryan Brasier will suddenly morph into Mariano Rivera and Bruce Sutter. Our plan would be to get both Ottavino and David Robertson—anything less is asking for more late-game troubles in 2019.