The Boston Red Sox have greatly benefitted from adding Ex-New York Yankees relievers to their bullpen in recent years, and should be prepared to do the same after a questionable move by their biggest rivals.
The Yankees designated left-handed reliever Lucas Luetge for assignment Wednesday following the addition of right-handed reliever Tommy Kahnle -- who was close to signing with Boston before re-joining the Evil Empire.
Luetge went 4-4 with a 2.67 ERA, 60-to-17 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 1.40 WHIP in 57 1/3 innings last season.
The 35-year-old has a career 3.38 ERA and could become the third proven commodity added to the Red Sox's bullpen -- alongside Chris Martin and Kenley Jansen.
Despite Luetge's fastest pitch being an 87.6 mph cutter, he ranked in the 97th percentile for average exit velocity and in the 100th percentile for hard hit percentage. In other words, he limits the damage as well as any reliever in Major League Baseball.
The southpaw is in just the third percentile for fastball velocity but in the 99th percentile for fastball spin rate, resulting in a unique challenge opposing hitters are not used to seeing.
Luetge is nowhere near a perfect reliever, but he's far better than the majority of the options currently in-house.
A dominant lefty would be a massive addition to the Red Sox's bullpen, which currently rosters newly-acquired project arm Joely Rodriguez, Josh Taylor -- who missed all of 2022 with a back injury -- and Darwinzon Hernandez, who allowed 16 earned runs in seven appearances last season.
Luetge would be the best option from the left side by a mile, and a waiver claim would steal him away from the Yankees, who could harbor the veteran in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre should he go unclaimed.
A move for Luetge improves the major-league roster, hurts the Yankees' depth, and softens the blow of being outbid for Kahnle. He's also likely going to cost less than a million dollars following his arbitration hearing.
Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom should be chomping at the bit to get Luetge to Boston.
More must-reads: