It won’t grab many headlines, but the Red Sox and Diamondbacks have made an interesting swap with left-handed reliever Craig Breslow going to Boston and outfielder Scott Podsednik and right-handed reliever Matt Albers going to Arizona.
Breslow, who was acquired by Arizona from Oakland this offseason in the Trevor Cahill/Jarrod Parker/Ryan Cook swap, has a 2.70 ERA and 42/13 K/BB ratio in 43 innings. He’s had similarly strong numbers in past year, with a 3.02 ERA in 322 career innings, and is much more than a situational left-handed because his splits are nearly equal versus righties and lefties.
Podsednik has been playing at Triple-A for the past three weeks, is a spare part at this point in his career, and was available for basically nothing to any team that wanted him last month. Albers found some success in Boston’s bullpen after bouncing around early in his career, throwing 104 innings with a 3.81 ERA since the beginning of last season, but his 93/46 K/BB ratio is significantly less impressive.
This sure seems like a nice move by the Red Sox.