Koji Uehara by Kelly O’Connor
Hashtag regret.
I have no idea what hashtag means. I do know that it is the ‘pound’ symbol, but beyond that and using it to tag things, I couldnt tell you any more.
Any way, that’s not important to this article. regret, however, is. I think most people have probably heard the mantra “sometimes the best deals are the ones you don’t make.” Fair enough, and I’d probably be writing that article in a different world, a world in which Koji Uehara didn’t combust down the stretch for the Boston Red Sox. Obviously, the word stretch is a bit of a stretch, since the Sox aren’t exactly in contention, but the idea is the same: Uehara hasn’t been very good.
Look, the guy is still better at baseball than I will literally ever be. And considering he was never ‘expected’ to be closer when he was signed pre-2013, I’m not really sure that I have any right to complain, especially when you consider all that “regression to the mean” jazz.
Koji shut down the Royals two days ago, but struggled up to that point, with his low point coming in 2/3 of an inning against the Mariners at the end of August. Edward Mujica has proved and effective replacement for the time being though and is a sure bet to be with club next year barring a trade. Uehara though, could walk come free agency, provided the Sox don’t offer him the ~$15 million Qualifying Offer.
And so, given his struggles, I asked myself, should the Red Sox have traded Uehara? My answer: Probably.
The Sox made an absolute killing at the deadline as it was, but look no further than within their own division to find the most telling deal they made. Sure, Andrew Miller has been good for Baltimore, but Eduardo Rodriguez has been tormenting the Eastern League since moving from Baltimore’s Bowie Baysox to Boston’s own Portland Sea Dogs. WEEI’s Alex Speier chatted with one talent evaluator who said that Rodriguez was the “Steal of the trade deadline…I know Miller is doing great in Baltimore, but this kid will make that trade look real bad.”
Not only was there that ringing endorsement, but other teams got huge hauls for their back-of-the-bullpen relievers too. The Tigers and Angels also gave up top prospects to acquire relievers as well.
I don’t have a trade to propose, and it is possible that the Sox never got an offer that they thought was fair. That would be easy to understand considering Uehara will be 40 at the start of next season. Even so, the king’s ransom that other teams got for their relievers should have pushed to Sox to make a deal.
Having not traded Uehara, the Sox can re-sign him, extend him a qualifying offer or let him go unhindered into free agency. I think in any case, Boston stands to gain less than they might other wise have if they had dealt Koji in July