Red Sox interested in signing former two-time Cy Young award winner

The Red Sox could make a big splash at a low price.

Boston’s pitching is an atrocity, especially if Chris Sale is not healthy enough to lead their rotation. Given the Red Sox new budgetary concerns, that’s not going to suddenly change heading into the 2021 season. However, should Chaim Bloom make the right buy-low additions, they could end up on the path back to respectability in their rotation.

Enter Corey Kluber. The former two-time Cy Young winner hasn’t pitched a healthy season since 2018, in which he also made the American League All-Star team. He’s a classic flyer signing in an offseason that’s expected to be filled with them.

What would Kluber bring to the Red Sox rotation?

On paper, Kluber would slide right into the middle of the Red Sox rotation. Behind Sale, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nathan Eovaldi are solid when right, but all three (including Sale) proved last year it would be false to assume they can make a full season’s worth of starts. It was no fault of their own, but Boston needs to approach their rotation as strength in numbers, especially coming off a shortened season and whacky offseason.

Kluber wouldn’t have to be the horse of the rotation he used to be in Cleveland, and was expected to bring to Texas. On a short-term deal, he’d have a chance to prove himself and perhaps cash in for one last respectable contract, as he’s towards the tail end of his career at age 34.

Kluber suffered a fractured forearm in 2019 and missed the majority of 2020 with shoulder problems. Injury factors have diminished his value significantly, but just enough that Boston should feel comfortable signing him to an affordable deal.