Two aggressive general managers in new places can make odd deals.
There is an old baseball saying that "you don't trade a starter for a relief pitcher." That seems obvious: relievers are failed starters. It is harder to find quality starters.
So this Winter Meeting trade is a little odd. Per CSNNE:
Dave Dombrowski's breakneck reconstruction of the Boston
Red Sox continued Monday on the first day of baseball's Winter
Meetings, as he dealt some of the team's starting pitching depth for
more relief help.
The Red Sox traded left-hander Wade Miley (11-11 with a 4.46 ERA for
the Sox in 2015) and reliever Jonathan Aro (0-1, 6.97) to the Mariners
on Monday for hard-throwing right-handed reliever Carson Smith and
left-handed starter Roenis Elias.
In the last three weeks, Dombrowski, the team's new director of
baseball operations, has signed a rotation ace (David Price) as a free
agent and traded for a closer (Craig Kimbrel). With Price on board,
Dombrowski took the opportunity to use the team's excess starting
pitching to continue to rebuilt the bullpen.
Carson, 26, is a big (6-foot-6) power bullpen arm, with 92 strikeouts
in 70 IP last year and an ERA of 2.31. Elias is 27, from Cuba, and has
made 49 starts in the last two years. He was 10-12 with a 3.85 ERA in
2014 and 5-8 with a 4.14 ERA last year.
Miley spent one season with the Red Sox after being traded over by
the Diamondbacks for right-handers Rubby De La Rosa and Allen Webster.
The Red Sox trade a veteran starter for a veteran relief pitcher, but then get a young starter for a young reliever so some may think this is a positional wash.
