Dombrowski neglects relief help yet again with deal for Nunez

Red Sox's latest addition Eduardo Nunez

If you haven’t heard by now, the Red Sox traded minor leaguers Shaun Anderson and Gregory Santos for Eduardo Nunez. It’s not that I don’t like this deal. The prospects don’t mean anything in this deal and Nunez’s bat is better than anything the Red Sox have gotten all year. What I don’t like is that Dombrowski has watched another three relievers get traded (Brandon Maurer and Ryan Buchter to the Royals and Anthony Swarzak to the Padres) and Dombrowski decides he will go get a third baseman. It just doesn’t make sense. The bullpen blew the game twice on Tuesday night. They’re giving valuable innings to Brandon Workman and Ben Taylor out of the bullpen. Heath Hembree has been terrible this month, allowing 10 hits and four walks in 8.2 innings this month. I mean, what is Dombrowski waiting for. Shaun Anderson is the equivalent to Ryan Cordell, the prospect the White Sox got in return from the Brewers for Swarzak. He’s just what the Red Sox need too. He would fit right into the 8th inning role for the Red Sox. Barnes could go back to the middle of the bullpen, that 6th, 7th inning guy and the bullpen could finally stop losing games for this ball club. It almost makes too much sense for the team. He’s cheap, he’s good and he fills a need. Dombrowski has had a history of building incomplete bullpens full of misfits and anybody that can throw partially hit the side of a barn. The bullpen has always been his weakness on his team. The way that he has treated this trade deadline makes sense for his personality. He gets the bat over the pitcher. Always has, always will. He got Ivan Rodriguez in 2008. He got Jhonny Peralta in 2010. He got Jose Iglesias in 2013. Dombrowski has always elected to go for the bat over the pitcher. So this type of neglection doesn’t surprise me. But it’s tormenting to see such an apparent need be neglected. And it’s worse to see it neglected for Eduardo Nunez. They have three other guys that can play better defense than Nunez and Rafael Devers who will probably hit better than him too, not to mention he just smashed a home run to center field in today’s game. Devers is going to be a huge power threat for this team. The move to get Nunez is not a terrible one. It’s the moves that Dombrowski neglects to make is what makes this vexing. Your biggest problem is relief help. Worry about that before you add another infielder to this team.