Bailout plan? by Jared Carrabis
Jon Heyman reporting Red Sox "will make an attempt" to acquire A's closer Andrew Bailey


In a market full of free agent closers, I'm going to try to make sense of attempting to trade for closer Andrew Bailey.

In scenario number one, a trade for Bailey will help keep the Red Sox' payroll under the luxury tax threshold, whereas signing someone like Ryan Madson to a four-year deal north of $40 million would bump the Red Sox' payroll up significantly more than Bailey would. This winter, Bailey will be eligible for arbitration for the first time, and won't become a free agent until 2015.

Scenario number two could be that, while Daniel Bard prefers to be a starter, Bailey could be brought in to replace Bard's innings in the bullpen. The Red Sox could go out and sign a closer like Francisco Rodriguez for less money than Madson, and the two relievers would essentially be interchangeable in the eighth and ninth innings.

If you think about it, both scenarios could be some of the logic that's going on behind the scenes. Of course, Bailey would be an affordable option for Boston, who still hopes to re-sign David Ortiz this winter. If the Red Sox were to acquire Bailey, Bard transitioning to the starting rotation regardless is also a very realistic option.

Why? Because if you go out and sign Ortiz to what he wants, then you're not left with much money to sign to starting pitchers to fill out the rest of your rotation. Bard to the rotation saves the Red Sox from having to go out and dump starting pitcher money on a back-end guy.

To me, I still think that if you acquire Bailey and Bard goes to the rotation, you need to go out and get another reliever that can get outs. Bailey, the 2009 Rookie of the Year, hurled 41.2 innings last season in a year with injuries. Even with his injuries, Bailey still punched out 41 batters in his 41.2 innings of work, saving 24 games along the way.

Follow @Jared_Carrabis


Published on December 06, 2011

---

Tweet