{"id":5691,"date":"2024-11-29T02:55:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T02:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691"},"modified":"2024-11-29T02:55:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T02:55:31","slug":"breaking-red-sox-free-agent-target-16-million-lefty-reliever-would-shore-up-leaky-pen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Red Sox Free Agent Target: $16 Million Lefty Reliever Would Shore Up Leaky Pen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Red-Sox-Free-Agent-Target-16-million-lefty-reliever.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" alt=\"A.J. Minter pitches\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"c-content entry-content\">\n<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\" class=\"wp-caption\">\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A.J. Minter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Boston Red Sox fielded one of the worst bullpens in baseball last season,\u00a0placing 24th of the 30\u00a0Major League teams in ERA, at 4.39. The Boston\u00a0bullpen blew 31 saves, second most in MLB behind only the hapless Chicago White Sox, while overall the staff\u00a0gave up 39 leads\u00a0\u2014 tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for third-most overall.<\/p>\n<p>The Boston bullpen\u00a0allowed 79 percent\u00a0of inherited runners to score, 11th-worst of the 30 teams.<\/p>\n<p>Those numbers would have likely been worse if not for\u00a0closer Kenley Jansen who blew only four saves in 31 opportunities. But Jansen completed his two-year contract with the Red Sox and at age 37 has shown no interest in returning to Boston.<\/p>\n<h2>Red Sox Need Bullpen Help, Badly<\/h2>\n<p>So it appears that the Red Sox will target bullpen help in the free agent market as the current offseason progresses. In fact, the team\u2019s lone free agent signing as of Thanksgiving Day, 2024, has been\u00a0a left-handed relief\u00a0pitcher. The Red Sox signed 37-year-old former Cincinnati Reds hurler Justin Wilson on November 14.<\/p>\n<p>Lefty relief was a particular problem for the Red Sox in 2024. Of the\u00a0four left-handed relief pitchers\u00a0who appeared in at least 10 games for the club, only Cam Booser \u2014 who had retired from professional baseball in 2017 and had\u00a0never made a big league appearance before last season, posted an ERA under 4.00.<\/p>\n<p>But baseball observers believe that the Red Sox are not finished yet with their quest to add more bullpen help, and especially help from the left side \u2014 and that they could target the Atlanta Braves\u00a0veteran lefty A.J. Minter.<\/p>\n<h2>Minter\u2019s Price Could be as Low as $5.4 Million Over 2 Years<\/h2>\n<p>Minter suffered an injury-plagued season in 2024, finally shutting down in August to undergo hip surgery. But when he was on the mound, he put up some of the best numbers of his eight-year career, all with the Braves who picked the native Texan\u00a0in the second round of the 2015\u00a0draft out of Texas A&amp;M University.<\/p>\n<p>In just 34 1\/3 innings, mostly in a middle relief role, Minter struck out 35 batters and allowed just a 2.62 ERA. That was the second-best ERA of his career for the six seasons in which he has pitched more than 25 innings. His\u00a026.1 percent strikeout rate is above the Major League average of 22 percent, and his 28.4 percent swing-and-miss percentage is the best among available left free agent relievers.<\/p>\n<p>Red Sox pitchers have struggled to miss bats. The staff\u2019s 21.9 percent K percentage ranked 23rd overall last season. Boston head of baseball operations Craig Breslow has stated that getting more swings and misses is a priority in assembling the Red Sox staff going forward.<\/p>\n<p>But how much would Minter cost the Red Sox as a free agent acquisition? He avoided arbitration last year, signing a $6.2 million contract with the Braves. The 31-year-old has also made public his desire to stay in Alanta. Nonetheless, the sports business site SpoTrac assigned him a suprisingly low market value. According to the site, Minter \u2014 due to his injury history \u2014 is worth no more than a two-year contract\u00a0at a total price tag of $5.4 million.<\/p>\n<p>Other\u00a0baseball experts consider the SpoTrac valuation unreasonably low, and project Minter to cost around $16 million over a two-year contract.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A.J. Minter The Boston Red Sox fielded one of the worst bullpens in baseball last season,\u00a0placing 24th of the 30\u00a0Major League teams in ERA, at 4.39. The&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING: Red Sox Free Agent Target: $16 Million Lefty Reliever Would Shore Up Leaky Pen - 24\/7 News America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: Red Sox Free Agent Target: $16 Million Lefty Reliever Would Shore Up Leaky Pen - 24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A.J. Minter The Boston Red Sox fielded one of the worst bullpens in baseball last season,\u00a0placing 24th of the 30\u00a0Major League teams in ERA, at 4.39. The...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"24\/7 News America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-29T02:55:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/278112112_481550100422714_8337790814677432117_n.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691\",\"name\":\"BREAKING: Red Sox Free Agent Target: $16 Million Lefty Reliever Would Shore Up Leaky Pen - 24\/7 News America\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/278112112_481550100422714_8337790814677432117_n.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-11-29T02:55:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-29T02:55:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/278112112_481550100422714_8337790814677432117_n.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/278112112_481550100422714_8337790814677432117_n.jpg\",\"width\":1440,\"height\":1440},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"BREAKING: Red Sox Free Agent Target: $16 Million Lefty Reliever Would Shore Up Leaky Pen\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/\",\"name\":\"24\/7 News America\",\"description\":\"Breaking Stories, Real Insights&quot;\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914\",\"name\":\"Admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"BREAKING: Red Sox Free Agent Target: $16 Million Lefty Reliever Would Shore Up Leaky Pen - 24\/7 News America","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"BREAKING: Red Sox Free Agent Target: $16 Million Lefty Reliever Would Shore Up Leaky Pen - 24\/7 News America","og_description":"A.J. Minter The Boston Red Sox fielded one of the worst bullpens in baseball last season,\u00a0placing 24th of the 30\u00a0Major League teams in ERA, at 4.39. The...","og_url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691","og_site_name":"24\/7 News America","article_published_time":"2024-11-29T02:55:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1440,"height":1440,"url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/278112112_481550100422714_8337790814677432117_n.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691","url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691","name":"BREAKING: Red Sox Free Agent Target: $16 Million Lefty Reliever Would Shore Up Leaky Pen - 24\/7 News America","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/278112112_481550100422714_8337790814677432117_n.jpg","datePublished":"2024-11-29T02:55:31+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-29T02:55:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/278112112_481550100422714_8337790814677432117_n.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/278112112_481550100422714_8337790814677432117_n.jpg","width":1440,"height":1440},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?p=5691#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"BREAKING: Red Sox Free Agent Target: $16 Million Lefty Reliever Would Shore Up Leaky Pen"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/","name":"24\/7 News America","description":"Breaking Stories, Real Insights&quot;","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4fd584257b8aaef08c4e2bc73ee6a914","name":"Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ab07af1f129ef9c67f3a58e6273eac4d8eb51a1cb066ea995eb6d5f03eceb61b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Admin"},"url":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/?author=2"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5693,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5691\/revisions\/5693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatoday.azontree.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}