The Boston Red Sox made a move on Saturday afternoon to bolster their pitching staff. They traded a couple of minor league players to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for Andrew Cashner.
Cashner, a 10-year veteran, has posted a more-than-solid 9-3 record and 3.83 ERA while pitching for the woeful Orioles. He should fix the issues the team has had with the fifth starter since Nathan Eovaldi went down with an elbow injury in mid-April.
However, it's possible that the addition of Cashner may be the only move that the Red Sox make this year. The team's president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, said as much in a press conference before Saturday's loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“We might (stand pat),” Dombrowski said per MassLive.com's Chris Cotillo. “I think it’s one of those where we’ll analyze and see what takes place. I know a couple of our (relievers) worked a lot before the break. We weren’t getting a lot of innings from our starters. We think the rest, perhaps, will help some of them. When you look out there, there’s a good core of guys we like.”
This is hardly a definitive statement from Dombrowski, but it does seem that he continues to have faith in the team's bullpen. He was also quick to point out the return of Eovaldi in a bullpen role as being a big addition for the team.
"We are going to add Nathan Eovaldi," Dombrowski said per The Eagle-Tribune's Chris Mason. "For some reason, people seem to, not, like, grasp on to that. He’s a big addition for us coming and we feel he’ll be ready to go within about a week to join us on a full-time basis out there."
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Eovaldi has mostly worked as a starter during his career, but he did pitch 9 2/3 innings of relief last postseason and allowed just a single run. If he can return in a week, the Red Sox will have a chance to evaluate him in his new role before deciding whether or not to make any additional moves.
It's also worth noting that Dombrowski has expressed a lot of confidence in Steven Wright, who left Saturday night's game after taking a line drive off the foot. So, depending on how severe Wright's injury -- a foot contusion -- is, that could prompt more action for the Red Sox, especially considering that Wright isn't eligible to pitch in the postseason anyway after serving an 80-game ban for using performance-enhancing substances.
Right now, it's unclear exactly what the Red Sox will do before the deadline. Either way, the move to get Cashner was a good one, but over the course of the next two weeks, Dombrowski and the Red Sox will have to take a long, hard look at their roster and decide whether or not they want to make any other moves.
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