It’s been a strange few weeks for the Boston Red Sox, who currently sit at 10-10 overall and in third place in the AL East. The Red Sox trail the New York Yankees by 2.5 games in the division, but it’s far too early to be even looking at the standings. However, the Red Sox’s play hasn’t exactly been promising, and there are certainly ways this team can improve. One of them is by adding to the bullpen. The Red Sox currently have a 3.96 ERA in their bullpen, which ranks in the bottom half of MLB. For a team looking to win a World Series, or at least make the postseason, that won’t fly as the campaign gets tighter. Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report proposed an interesting name for teams to trade for in the form of Anthony Bender, and when considering it, he makes perfect sense for the Red Sox. “Bender utilizes a sinker, slider, changeup combination, while occasionally mixing in a mid-90s four-seam fastball. He missed all of 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery, and then posted a 4.08 ERA across 59 games a season ago. However, Bender’s 2.92 FIP in 2024 suggests he was unlucky, and he’s gotten positive results so far in 2025. “What makes Bender particularly attractive for teams in need of set-up help is that he’s under team control through the 2027 season. With two additional years of arbitration control after 2025, Bender will draw widespread interest this summer,” he wrote. The Red Sox might not want to part ways with any of their top prospects during the middle of the campaign, unless a star becomes available, and Bender wouldn’t require them to do so. After being selected in the 20th round of the 2016 MLB Draft, he’s continued to improve each season. He posted a 4.08 ERA last season, which wasn’t great, but his 2.92 FIP suggested he got a bit unlucky. If he can continue throwing the baseball how he has this season, earning a 1.23 ERA, the Red Sox bullpen would be in a great spot if they added him.<\/p>\n
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It’s been a strange few weeks for the Boston Red Sox, who currently sit at 10-10 overall and in third place in the AL East. The Red… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":49486,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n