John Kruk

ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk joined Mut & Merloni Tuesday afternoon to shed light on the looming MLB trade deadline. To hear the full conversation, check out the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page. The Red Sox have been mentioned in several trade rumors over the past few weeks, involving players like Carlos Beltran and Hiroki Kuroda. Boston may end up making a move, but Kruk said a major trade isn’t entirely necessary.

“I don’t really know what [the Red Sox] need,” he said. “What would that team need? They could probably use a starting pitcher because they have uncertainty with injuries to certain guys. But do you trade the farm for [Ubaldo] Jimenez who’s been an average pitcher this year? If Felix Hernandez becomes available, you ship whatever you can for him and take him and go. He steps right in and with [Jon] Lester and [Josh] Beckett and with [Clay] Buchholz, you’ve got four guys who can be number one starters. So if the farm gets mortgaged for Hernandez, yes. But I don’t think I’d do it for Jimenez just yet.”

Kruk wasn’t nearly as confident in the Yankees pitching staff, as New York sits two games behind the Red Sox in the American League East entering Tuesday.

“I think the Yankees need a pitcher,” said Kruk. “I don’t know if I would be comfortable going into the postseason if I were the Yankees. CC Sabathia is one of the best pitchers in baseball. We’ll give them that one, but you’re talking about Phil Hughes as your number two or your number three, AJ Burnett‘s your number two or number three. Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia? Look, all good pitchers, I’m not going to take anything away from them. But you go into the postseason with those guys … the thing about the postseason, you don’t see many teams just getting bludgeoned by a powerful offense because the pitching is pretty good they have to face. With all being healthy, with the way Lester can pitch, with the way Buchholz can pitch, and with the way Beckett can pitch, can you match that up if you’re the Yankees with [Sabathia] and [Burnett] and Hughes? The advantage to me is Boston.”

Kruk was so unimpressed with the Yankees rotation that he endorsed the Tigers as a more dangerous playoff opponent, mostly because of ace Justin Verlander. Entering Tuesday, Verlander is 13-5 with a 2.24 ERA and 162 strikeouts for the AL Central leading Tigers.

“There’s not many guys — [Sabathia] is one, Beckett’s been one this year — the game’s over when [Verlander] starts it. If you score two runs, you better hope that you can keep Detroit from scoring because that’s the only way you’re going to beat them when he pitches. In a short series, you go out and play Detroit and Verlander pitches twice in a five game series and even in a seven game series he can pitch three times. That’s no easy task, I don’t care who you’re playing. They can hit. They’re not the fastest team in the world but they can hit and if they score any runs at all for [Max] Scherzer and [Rick] Porcello, Detroit’s a team I think I would have a lot more fear playing against in the postseason than I would any others.”

While Kruk did not endorse a big move for Jimenez, he said the Red Sox could benefit from adding Kuroda to the back of the rotation. However, he expressed concern about the Dodgers pitcher making a transition to the heavy-hitting AL East.

“Everyone keeps talking about [Kuroda] could go to the Red Sox or the Yankees and they supposedly have unlimited funds that they have to go out and get the best guy available. Not the best guy available, the best guy. Like if the Phillies weren’t in it I’m sure everyone would think Roy Halladay is going to the Red Sox or the Yankees or one of those teams,” Kruk said. “But a guy like Kuroda, when you already have guys that are established pitchers like Lester, Buchholz is pretty good, but Beckett, guys who are like number one guys, you can go out and get a Kuroda just to fill out your rotation as a four guy. And he’d be one of the better four guys in baseball.”

“But [Kuroda]‘s pitching against the Giants a lot, he’s pitching against the Padres a lot. It’s not like they’re juggernauts. And that’s the thing you have to concern yourself with. How’s he going to pitch when he has to go through the Yankees lineup two or three times, Toronto’s lineup two or three times, even Baltimore’s lineup two or three times, start after start after start the second half of the season. Is he capable of doing that? I think he has the stuff to do it. What happens though when he gets beat around a little bit?”

Examining this year’s trade deadline as a whole, Kruk acknowledged that there’s been a lot of talk, but not much action. According to Kruk, the lack of moves thus far could be due to teams deciding whether or not they are in contention for a playoff spot.

“What does Minnesota do? Are they in it? Are they not in it? Is [Michael] Cuddyer available? Is he not available? I mean they go on a five-game run and they get back in it and then they lose four or five in a row, now what do you do? Apparently some Mets fans think that if they trade Beltran their chances of getting into the postseason get knocked down a notch, but I didn’t realize they were still in it, but apparently they think so. I got a feeling Beltran’s going to move pretty quick. Why Houston would trade Hunter Pence when that’s the only thing that someone would want to come and watch on that team is beyond me, but I think he’s gone too.”

Speaking of Cuddyer, the Twins potential trade piece was asked to pitch during Monday night’s 20-6 loss to the Rangers, and managed to toss a scoreless eighth inning. Cuddyer became the first Twins position player to pitch since 1990.

“If you watched him pitch, I think he threw one at 88 [miles per hour],” Kruk said. “I mean he has a great arm and it wasn’t like he was trying to snap off hooks and throwing cutters and everything. He was just throwing it and they were popping it up, which was lucky for him. I think when you get to that point in the game, if you saw that game it was just sloppy. At one point, even when Cuddyer was pitching, they let a popup drop and [Twins manager Ron Gardenhire] was in the dugout, he throws his hat down and he’s just standing there. I would imagine that their bigger concern was just how poorly they executed the game of baseball last night than Cuddyer having to pitch in that inning.”

As for players who aren’t likely to be moved at the trade deadline, Kruk had nothing but praise for resurgent Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury.

“How he was questioned last year about the injury and should he be playing and should he try to gut it out and play or whatever, I think those questions were answered this year,” said Kruk. “He’s put himself in as good a position as anyone in baseball as far as cashing in when it becomes available to him. It’s funny because we talked about he’s leading the AL in stolen bases with 28 at the break. When Rickey Henderson stole 130, he had 84 at the break, so it’s a different dynamic the way the game is played. But because he’s hitting leadoff, because he’s hitting both lefties and righties, he’s hitting for power at times, but he’s getting on base and scoring runs and hitting for a high average. Plus he plays a premium position at center field.”