3 Bold Red Sox Trade Deadline Predictions
By Tyler Maher
3. Boston finds a new home for Corey Kluber
Kluber has been arguably the worst free-agent signing of Bloom’s tenure. The Red Sox handed him a one-year, $10 million contract last winter with a player option for 2024, hoping he would help stabilize the rotation following the departures of Eovaldi, Hill and Wacha. Instead, he promptly turned into a pumpkin.
It’s hard to overstate how bad Kluber’s been. In 55 innings, he has a 7.04 ERA and a 1.64 WHIP. He’s been terrible as a starter (6.26 ERA) and even worse as a reliever (9.45 ERA). He’s been worth a grand total of -0.8 WAR, which means Boston would have been better off spending that $10 million on just about anything else.
Kluber hasn’t pitched in over a month and is currently on the injured list with “shoulder inflammation,” which is largely believed to be a phantom injury to get him off the 26-man roster. He needs to go, but trading him would take a minor miracle.
Fortunately, Bloom just pulled off one such miracle with Enrique Hernandez, somehow convincing the Los Angeles Dodgers to give him not one, but two prospects for the pleasure of taking Hernandez off our hands. Bloom has done a good job of usually getting something for players who seemingly have no value, so don’t be surprised if he does it again.
The Red Sox will have to eat the money, of course, but this is already a sunk cost.
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