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By Jon Vankin
Contributing Sports Writer
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Just one day after Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow publicly brushed off reports that Boston was in the market for a new, high-leverage bullpen arm this offseason, a new report from longtime baseball insider Ken Rosenthal said that quite the opposite may be the case.
In fact, according to Rosenthal and collaborators Will Sammon, Katie Woo of The Athletic, the Red Sox are now "open" to creating a "super 'pen," looking for an upgrade to a bullpen that posted the lowest ERA in the American League (1.59) and second lowest in baseball behind the San Diego Padres (1.17).
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To complete the potential "super" bullpen, according The Athletic report, the Red Sox have their eyes on former New York Yankees closer Devin Williams. Acquired last offseason in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, the 31-year-old Williams had a rocky single season in the Bronx, saving 18 games but blowing four saves and being tagged with six losses against four wins with a 4.79 ERA — easily the worst of his career and a steep drop from the 1.83 ERA he posted over six seasons with the Brewers.
Williams is now a free agent after completing his one-year, $8.6 million contract with the Yankees and the Yankees have shown little interest in bringing him back. The team did not extend the one-year, $22 million qualifying offer to Williams, meaning that he is now free to sign with any other team without the Yankees receiving any compensation for losing him.
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It was only on Wednesday that Breslow was quoted by MassLive saying, when asked about bullpen additions for the Red Sox this offseason, “We feel good about what Aroldis (Chapman) and (Garrett Whitlock) bring, both the performance and the consistency and stability. When you have two guys that can pitch in the back end and did so in such dominating fashion, you feel really good about what you’re looking for now."
Though careful to say that he was not taking "anything off the table," Breslow went on to say he "would imagine that we’ll spend our significant time elsewhere first, just given the way we want to prioritize things.”
Chapman at age 37 put together perhaps the most dominant season of his career, with 32 saves, a 1.17 ERA and 85 strikeouts in 61 1/3 innings. He placed seventh in AL Cy Young Award voting, the only relief pitcher to receive any votes at all.
Whitlock emerged into a solid setup specialist for Chapman, particularly late in the season when he allowed only one earned run in 26 2/3 innings after the All-Star break. In September as the Red Sox were driving for the AL wild-card berth which they eventually won, Whitlock pitching 9 1/3 shutout innings across eight appearances, striking out 14 and walking none.
If the Red Sox were to add Williams to their bullpen, it would give the team a third high-leverage reliever — all of them ex-Yankees.
Chapman pitched seven seasons in New York, and Whitlock was poached from the Yankees farm system by Boston in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft.
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