Red Sox Signing Mid-Level Pitchers After Yankees Got Gerrit Cole is Embarrassing
By Michael Luciano
In the ever-lasting battle between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, it's the Bronx Bombers who clearly have the upper hand in the early stages of free agency.
The Yankees broke the bank and signed top free agent Gerrit Cole to a nine-year deal that will pay him $36 million per season, while the Red Sox got ... Martin Perez?
Free-agent left-hander Martin Perez in agreement with #RedSox on one-year contract with club option for 2021, source tells The Athletic.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 13, 2019
While the veteran left-hander signing a cheap one-year deal effectively makes up for the loss of Rick Porcello, this comes off as incredibly weak in the shadow of the Cole signing.
The trade rumors swirling around the likes of Mookie Betts and David Price are certainly major distractions, but that shouldn't stop a championship-caliber team from trying to retool and add to a roster that still has an open World Series window.
Little signings like this here and there are not going to help you keep pace with the Yankees. Bloom needs to start kicking the offseason into second gear and get more aggressive, which likely means trading players to shed payroll and expedite the retool.
Chaim Bloom has the toughest job in baseball right now, taking over after the previous GM-types blew tons of money on nothing and depleted the farm system. He's going to make moves fans don't like, such as letting Porcello walk and signing Martin Perez
— Wally, Not Wally (@NotWallyGM) December 13, 2019
Bloom has a lot of work to do in order to dig the Red Sox out from under some of the expensive contracts handed out by Dave Dombrowski, but the fact pretty much nothing got done at the Winter Meetings isn't a great start.