Red Sox Reportedly Swing Trade For Right-Hander To Bolster Pitching Depth

Boston swapped right-handers with the White Sox

Scott Neville | Feb 3, 2023

Red Sox Reportedly Swing Trade For Right-Hander To Bolster Pitching Depth /

In this story:

The Boston Red Sox have made it a habit to designate pitchers for assignment and then trade them days later.

The Red Sox traded right-hander Franklin German to the Chicago White Sox for fellow right-hander Theo Denlinger according to MassLive's Chris Cotillo.

German was designated for assignment Monday to make room for left-handed reliever Richard Bleier on the roster.

The 26-year-old allowed eight earned runs in his four innings with Boston last season but had a great season on the whole, showing high-leverage reliever potential.

German logged seven saves in eight opportunities with a 2.58 ERA, 46-to-16 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .154 batting average against and 0.94 WHIP in 38 1/3 innings with Triple-A Worcester last season.

Now, he'll be replaced by Denlinger, a 26-year-old who will not be on the 40-man roster.

The right-hander went 2-2 with a 4.47 ERA, 66-to-21 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .231 batting average against and 1.32 WHIP in 48 1/3 innings between High-A Winston-Salem and Double-A Birmingham last season.

The good for Denlinger:
The newest member of the Red Sox's organization can dial up some high heat, registering in the upper 90s. The high strikeout rate and low batting average against are quite encouraging.

The bad for Denlinger:
At 26 years old, Denlinger is quite old to be just coming off his first taste of Double-A. The only level he truly excelled at was in Single-A during the 2021 season. Outside of that, his ERA has been high and his most-promising metrics have not yielded much production.

German appears to have a much more promising outlook of the two players in this trade but Boston could not retain him after designating him for assignment -- so they chose to get something instead of nothing.

This offseason alone the Red Sox have designated and then traded Darwinzon Hernandez, Connor Seabold, Matt Barnes and now German.

Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom added strike throwers in a completely revitalized big-league bullpen but shed a lot of depth along the way.

More MLB: All-Star Pitcher Felt 'Blindsided' When Red Sox Designated Him For Assignment

Published Feb 3, 2023

SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer. His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu