Phillies officially trading for Red Sox bullpen haul

The Phillies are trying to fix their bullpen woes in one full swoop

The Phillies have long been in the market for some bullpen help, especially given their league-worst bullpen ERA. Such a statistic rarely ever leads to winning, and Philadelphia found a willing trade participant in the Boston Red Sox, who are in clear rebuilding mode given their awful start to the 2020 shortened season, which has been marred by injuries to their pitching staff to boot.

There’s no real reason for Boston to hang on to the likes of Heath Hembree and Brandon Workman, and Sox GM Chaim Bloom has embraced such a mindset. Why not build for the future when given the opportunity?

So, what did the Red Sox get back for Workman and Hembree?

In return for Workman, who is a potential free agent after this season, and Hembree, the Red Sox have acquired Nick Pivetta and Connor Seabold.

Pivetta has been deemed a so-called analytics favorite, which might bode well for a Red Sox front office which favors such experiments. His best ERA thus far is 4.77, which occurred in 2017. Seabold has yet to make a major-league appearance, completing the deal with two players the Red Sox like, but are far from certain major league contributors.

For the Phillies, this is a significant upgrade. Workman has been a productive closer in limited opportunities for the Sox, and Hembree is reliable on the back end.

Perhaps the largest takeaway from this deal is that the trade market might not be kind to those looking to sell in a shortened season. As much as Bloom and Co. wanted to speed up their rebuild, they were fairly limited in their ability to take advantage of what’s suddenly looking like a buyer’s market.