John Kruk

ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk joined Mut & Merloni Tuesday afternoon to discuss the winners and losers of the trade deadline and determine which team has the upper hand in the home stretch of the regular season. To hear the full conversation, check out the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page.

The Red Sox made a last-second deal for starting pitcher Erik Bedard on July 31, hoping to fill the void left by Clay Buchholz‘ season-ending stress fracture. While more than a few critics have questioned Bedard’s ability to perform on a stage like Fenway Park (he’s 2-3 with a 6.99 lifetime ERA in Boston), Kruk endorsed the trade, and said Bedard should relish the chance to play for a contender.

“Maybe [playing in Boston] is what he needs,” Kruk said. “He’s never had to do it. Maybe this is what he needs. Maybe this is something that will get him going. Look, if you can’t go to Boston and get up to play games, if you can’t go to New York and get up to play games, knowing you’re going to have a chance every night to win … You have to remember the situations he’s been in. Awful. Baltimore, awful. Seattle, awful. He has a chance now to be on a team where if anyone has any sort of heart or any sort of determination at all, he dials it up a notch knowing he has a chance to get a ring and pitch in the World Series. If anyone can’t do that, they shouldn’t play.

“I think with Buchholz possibly being out for the season, they had to have an arm and [Bedard] wasn’t pitching bad for Seattle,” he added. “I know it’s not a great hitters division and Seattle is a pretty good place to pitch, bigger ballpark, but I still like the move. I understand his numbers at Fenway aren’t great. They’re awful. But he’s not pitching against [the Red Sox], he’s pitching against the opponent. So that’s a good thing for him too. Sometimes these under-the-radar-type deals where you don’t give up a whole lot, you take a shot and see what happens. He might come in and be a dominant pitcher like he was a few years ago.”

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The Red Sox barely beat the 4 p.m. deadline to acquire left-hander Erik Bedard from Seattle. (AP)

CHICAGO — So, how close did it come?

The Red Sox have a history of pushing the boundaries of the trade deadline. In eight previous years under Theo Epstein, the Sox had consummated 10 different trades on July 31, including a couple of complex deals — a four-team swap to move Nomar Garciaparra and acquire Orlando Cabrera and Doug Mientkiewicz in 2004 and a three-team deal to send Manny Ramirez packing in favor of Jason Bay — that barely squeezed under the 4 p.m. deadline.

This year, the clock was once again winding down toward the deadline.

“It wasn’t clear we were going to be able to get anything done until the last minute again,” said Epstein. “I don’t know why that always happens to us. … It was a little stressful.”

The Sox and Mariners could not match up precisely based on the prospects in the Red Sox system — there were players whom the Sox didn’t want to sacrifice — and so Boston had to find another party to give the Mariners the return that they needed to move Bedard. Read the rest of this entry »

Erik Bedard

CHICAGO — The Red Sox announced the trade that has them sending four minor leaguers to the Mariners and Dodgers in exchange for left-handed starter Erik Bedard and right-handed minor league reliever Josh Fields. The press release is below.

Of note, the Sox moved Clay Buchholz from the 15-day to the 60-day disabled list in order to clear a roster spot on the 40-man roster for Bedard. However, Buchholz — who is going to see a back specialist in Los Angeles on Monday — was not going to return from the DL before mid-August anyway, so the deal is purely procedural.

For analysis of the players involved — both those whom the Sox acquired as well as the prospects who were dealt — click here.

Here is the release:

The Boston Red Sox today acquired left-handed pitcher Erik Bedard and right-hander Josh Fields from the Seattle Mariners. The club first sent minor league right-handers Stephen Fife and Juan Rodriguez and catcher Tim Federowicz to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for outfielder Trayvon Robinson and then traded Robinson to Seattle with minor league outfielder Chih-Hsien Chiang in exchange for Bedard and Fields. To make room for Bedard on the 40-man roster, the Red Sox transferred right-handed pitcher Clay Buchholz to the 60-day disabled list. Read the rest of this entry »

Erik Bedard

CHICAGO — The Red Sox got their starting pitcher.

Just before the 2011 trade deadline, the Red Sox acquired left-hander Erik Bedard and minor-league reliever Josh Fields from the Mariners as part of a three-team deal that sent Sox prospects Chih-Hsien Chiang and Juan Rodriguez to the Mariners and Tim Federowicz and Stephen Fife to the Dodgers, according to a major league source. News of the Bedard acquisition by the Sox was first reported by Gordon Edes of ESPN.com

Here’s a look at the players the Sox acquired and gave up:

THE RED SOX GOT …

– Eric Bedard had a disastrous return from the disabled list on Friday, allowing seven baserunners and lasting just 1 1/3 innings, the shortest stint of his career. But his fastball still was 91-93 mph, and for the year, he has a 4-7 record and 3.45 ERA. And while he has been oft-injured, he has also been very good at times when on the mound, having struck out 8.8 batters per nine innings in his career. His velocity this year, according to a talent evaluator, had been the same as it had been throughout his career.

Since the start of the 2006 season, among major leaguers who have thrown at least 500 innings, Bedard ranks 15th in ERA with a 3.41 mark, slightly ahead of Matt Cain (3.43), Dan Haren (3.44) and Zack Greinke (3.45), and just behind Cole Hamels (3.40).

Though he has had more than his fair share of struggles staying on the mound, making just 107 starts in the past six years (a low number, albeit 20 starts more than Rich Harden — whom the Sox nearly acquired on Saturday night — made in the same span), he has unquestionably featured excellent stuff when on it. Notably, he has had an ERA of 3.76 or lower in every year since 2006 (with the necessary disclaimer that he missed all of 2010).

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Lars Anderson

For a brief spell on Saturday night, Lars Anderson thought that a remarkable opportunity had opened up for him. The Red Sox and A’s had agreed to a deal (pending a review of medicals and a physical) that would send pitcher Rich Harden to the Red Sox in exchange for the Triple-A first baseman as well as a player to be named. Anderson was pulled in the seventh inning of Pawtucket’s game on Saturday night, and became aware that he was penciled in for a trip to the Bay Area from which he hails.

For the 23-year-old, the prospect was understandably tantalizing. There is no clear path to the majors for him in Boston, given that Adrian Gonzalez will be handling first base for the Sox through 2018. Oakland would have represented not only a big league opportunity, but also a chance to go home, since Anderson grew up in Sacramento (home of the A’s Triple-A affiliate) while rooting for the A’s. With his father, George Anderson, in Pawtucket on Saturday, Lars Anderson told the Providence Journal that there was enthusiasm for the idea of the change.

“There’s more of an opportunity to be in the big leagues there than here obviously at my position,” Anderson said of Oakland. “It was an exciting personal prospect for my own career. Like I said, it’s all fantasy. … Probably got too far ahead of myself as far as the daydreaming goes. It was crazy.”

Mike Adams

Multiple reports are indicating that the Rangers have acquired reliever Mike Adams from San Diego for two minor leaguers, Robert Erlin and Joseph Wieland. Initially, Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com reported the Padres traded closer Heath Bell to the Rangers. Check back for more information as it becomes available.

According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Red Sox showed some interest in outfielder Scott Hairston, but the Mets were not willing to deal the 31-year-old for money or a fringe prospect. Hairston is hitting .250 with an .810 OPS, playing all three outfield positions.