Abraham On T&R: Miley Made Most Sense For Red Sox To Trade
BOSTON (CBS) -- Dave Dombrowski continues to make major moves as the chief of the Red Sox, and that included a trade on Monday.
The Red Sox sent Wade Miley to Seattle in exchange for a power bullpen arm in Carson Smith and a lefty starter Roenis Elias.
From a Red Sox perspective, even though the Red Sox parted with a known commodity in Miley, The Boston Globe's Peter Abraham said Tuesday on Toucher & Rich that of all the starters on the roster, Miley made the most sense to deal.
"I think of all of their spare starters, he was the guy who made the most sense to trade because he probably had the most value," Abraham said, noting that Miley's contract and reliability made him attractive to other teams. "That was a guy I think who best profiled to be traded, because they weren't going to be able to trade [Rick] Porcello, and [Clay] Buchholz was injured in the whole second half, so his value is pretty low. [Joe] Kelly is not a guy who's been reliable, so he doesn't have as much value. Miley was the guy who made the most sense."
While nobody is questioning the value of Smith, a 6-foot-6 power arm in the bullpen, Jon Wallach expressed some doubt as to what Elias' role will be. Abraham said that Elias will enter spring training as a starter, but the team can fairly easily slide him into a bullpen role if that's what is deemed the best course of action.
"He's dominated lefties in the two years he's been in the big leagues," Abraham said of Elias, "so I think that's a sign that [the bullpen is] where he'll ultimately belong."
Abraham was also asked about the Red Sox' situation at first base. It's a bit messy. Hanley Ramirez has said that he's interested in playing winter ball, but the Red Sox didn't want to grant permission due to fear of injury.
"What [Ramirez] is going to do is he's going to work out with the team down there and take ground balls at first base and that sort of thing, but he's not going to actually play in any games," Abraham said.
The Red Sox have also contacted Mike Napoli, telling him that in the event the team trades Ramirez, Napoli may get a phone call.
"But that's contingent on trading Hanley, and it doesn't look like they're going to be able to trade Hanley," Abraham said.
Listen to the full discussion below, which includes a lot of league-wide talk from the winter meetings, below: