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Sox Acquire Byrd (An Admitted HGH User) From Cleveland
By Administrator | August 12, 2008
The Red Sox have acquired pitcher Paul Byrd, 37, from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for a player to be named later, or cash… according to General Manager Theo Epstein it would be “a small amount of cash, or an organizational player”.
Byrd will be a free agent at the end of the season.
About the trade, Epstein said: “We think Byrd can add a veteran presence and some stability to our starting rotation. He’s been on a roll lately… He’s someone we think can be dependable for us and we know what we’re going to get every fifth day. It just seemed like the right time to have this kind of stabililzer. You never want to get caught short on starting pitching in August and September… this was an opportunity to add a veteran that we feel we can trust without dipping into our farm system”.
The Sox rotation has been hampered by Clay Buchholz’ sophomore struggles and suffered a setback with Tim Wakefield’s recent injury… those developments caused Epstein to swing the deal for Byrd, who is 4-0 since the All-Star break, with a 1.24 ERA.
Epstein said Byrd would likely start Friday against Toronto… Friday was supposed to be Buchholz’ day to pitch, so it appears his struggles have cost him his rotation spot for the pennant race — although Epstein insisted that is not the case: “By no means are we giving up on Clay Buchholz, far from it. We still think he’s going to be a huge part of our future and may well be an important part of our present. That said, we think this move gives us the freedom to do the right thing in our rotation rather than forcing people into roles because of injuries”.
Francona said he delayed the press conference so he could tell Buchholz about the move before it was made public: “We told Buck what we’re doing and that we’ll have some more defninite plans in the next day. Give us a day to shake this thing out a bit”.
Byrd is 104-91, 4.37, in a career that has included stops with Atlanta, Cleveland, Kansas City, Los Angeles (Angels), New York (Mets) and Philadelphia.
Topics: SoxTransactions |
