In today’s blog post at ESPN.com, Peter Gammons slips in a couple of trade tidbits.
While discussing the Boston bullpen, Gammons remarks:
"They’ll keep looking at relievers on other teams — like Houston’s Chad Qualls — and figure they’ll get a mess of innings out of the starting rotation."
Gammons may be speaking in the hypothetical, but he may be implying that the Red Sox are looking into Qualls’ availability. The 28 year-old righty has been tough to hit the last two seasons, but a K/9 below 6 isn’t closer material.
Another Gammons bullet point regarding the Red Sox:
"The Red Sox were told that Jon Garland is not available. Period."
That suggests they called on him, though I’m not sure at what point. There’s something to be said for a 210 inning, 4.50 ERA guy to add some stability to the rotation. The Astros seemed inches from acquiring Garland in December, but got Jason Jennings instead.
