The Red Sox just traded C Josh Bard, minor league RP Cla Meredith, and either cash or a Player To Be Named Later for C Doug Mirabelli, who I’m sure we all are familiar with.
Josh Bard was hitting .278/.381/.333, which I really liked, in 18 AB. Mirabelli was hitting .182/.308/.227 in 22 AB, and last year for the Sox hit .228/.309/.412. We made this move because Doug Mirabelli can catch Wakefield better than Josh Bard.
However, Mirabelli had the EXACT same troubles with Wakefield initially that Bard was going through. In addition, Bard is 28 years old, while Mirabelli is eight years older. We now have no young catcher hanging around.
We also trade Cla Meredith, a young reliever who can do some good. Sure, it doesn’t hurt a lot because we have a lot of young pitchers, but I don’t care. It still doesn’t help.
Basically we trade a young catcher who was doing pretty good with the stick save for his power outage, and a young reliever, plus cash or a PTBNL, all because he was doing exactly what Doug Mirabelli did when he first caught Tim Wakefield.
It’s a desperation move. It helps now, sure, but it’s a desperation move which leaves us less options for the future. I love Doug Mirabelli, and I’m going to cheer him on the rest of the season, but I won’t forget what he cost.
[UPDATE] Forgot to mention, but real nice message this sends to young newcomers to Boston who struggle. Or for that matter, everyone. Produce. Produce now. Produce without being given a shot to improve. Or it’s goodbye. It’s farewell. It’s no more Boston Red Sox for you.
