Red Sox Acquire Nathan Eovaldi From The Rays For Jalen Beeks

Dave Dombrowski is wheelin’ and dealin’ once again. The Red Sox needed a starting pitcher, so Dombrowski went out and got his team a starting pitcher. Nathan Eovaldi is headed to Boston in exchange for Jalen Beeks, who Red Sox fans watched allow nine earned runs in 6.1 innings over two appearances in the big leagues. We’re dealing with a small sample size here, but he obviously wasn’t very impressive. Can’t imagine very many folks were sad to see his name appear as the piece that was used to acquire Eovaldi.

On the surface, you look at Eovaldi’s numbers and you see a mediocre 4.26 ERA, but that ERA was ballooned a couple of starts ago when the Twins hung eight earned runs on him in 2.2 innings. Prior to that, Eovaldi had a 3.35 ERA with 44 strikeouts in 48.1 innings. ERA aside, you have to like this move for a few other reasons — the main one being that he can give you six or seven innings more often than not. After Chris Sale, David Price and Rick Porcello, you’ve got a bunch of guys (when healthy) who aren’t going very deep into their starts. In ten starts this year, Eovaldi has pitched at least six innings seven times.

He’s also right-handed, which seems necessary when you consider that Chris Sale, Drew Pomeranz, David Price, and Eduardo Rodriguez are all left-handed. Right-handed? Check. Innings-eater? Check. Rotation depth when you’ve got a bunch of injured starters? Check. Did the Red Sox add a frontline starter here? No, but they didn’t need to. They needed to add a right-handed starter who they could depend on to give them quality innings and, at the very least, give the Red Sox a chance to win the game. Eovaldi does that for you. Oh, and he throws over a hundred miles an hour. That’s pretty dope, too.