With news of Doug Mirabelli’s recent release by the Red Sox, let’s take “a look back” at what happened the last time the Red Sox thought they could move on without the knuckleball catching specialist.

The Red Sox began the 2006 season with 28-year-old Josh Bard as Jason Varitek’s backup catcher.  Mirabelli had recently been dealt to San Diego for second baseman Mark Loretta.  Bard, incidentally, was acquired with Coco Crisp and David Riske from Cleveland for Andy Marte, Kelly Shoppach and Guillermo Mota that January.  Bard was given the unenviable task of learning to catch the knuckle-ball in just three months so that the Red Sox could keep their catching strategy in tact.  That strategy is to have a personal catcher for Tim Wakefield and to provide a built in weekly day off for Jason Varitek at the same time.

In short, it didn’t work out so well.  Bard started seven games for the Red Sox with five of those games coming with Wakefield as the starter.  And although he hit .278 with a .381 OBP in those seven games, the catcher allowed an alarming 10 passed balls during that time.  Simply put, he just couldn’t handle the knuckle.  It was bad…real bad.  Although in Bard’s defense, he wasn’t given much of a chance to succeed and it was certainly possible he could have learned the trait of catching a knuckle-ball in due time.  But the Red Sox thought they didn’t have time to wait for Bard to learn how to catch the knuckle-ball.  After all, Epstein must have thought, the team was already locked in an early A.L. East battle with the New York Yankees and had a series with the Yankees coming up soon in Boston.  General Manager Theo Epstein knew he had to find an answer to his catching problem.  And he had to find that answer quickly. 

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, San Diego Padres GM Kevin Towers sat down with some sewing needles and began constructing a fleece.

And so on May 1st, 2006, the Red Sox reacquired knuckle-ball specialist Doug Mirabelli from San Diego in exchange for Josh Bard and minor league reliever Cla Meredith.  The Red Sox certainly welcomed Mirabelli back in style.  They gave him a police escort from the airport (fleecing the taxpayers) to Fenway park so he could suit up for a game that day against New York where Tim Wakefield was scheduled to start.  The Red Sox won the game, 7-3. 

But although Mirabelli solved the knuckleball problem, his lack of any type of offense for the next two years and his aging body created another problem for Boston.  He hit .193/.261/.342 for Boston for the remainder fo 2006 (the Red Sox finished 3rd in the A.L. East that year, by the way), and followed it up with a .202/.278/.360 line in 2007.  While Mirabelli was injured in 2007, the Red Sox found 30 year-old defensive minded catcher Kevin Cash and discovered that Cash could also handle the knuckle.  Cash’s discovery (though he also can’t hit for a lick) enabled the Red Sox to try again to part ways with Mirabelli this season.

Meanwhile, in San Diego, Kevin Towers is smiling pretty.  Since the trade, Josh Bard has emerged as a quality starting catcher.  In 2006, emboldened by his rescue from the land of passed balls, he MASHED .338/.406/.537 with 9 homeruns in 231 at-bats for the Padres.  If Theo Epstein was furious to see those numbers in ‘06, he must have been even more furious to see that Bard’s 2007 season proved he was not a fluke.  In that year, Bard hit .285/.364/.404, although with just 5 homeruns in 389 at-bats.  (Keep in mind - this is Petco Park.)  As his defense has also been adequate, Bard seems poised to be San Diego’s starting catcher for the next few years at reasonable prices.  Meanwhile, the aging Jason Varitek’s contract expires after this season and the Red Sox do not have an obvious replacement in their system.  Do you smell yet another fleece?

And how about Cla Meredith?  The right-handed specialist turned out to be one of the NL’s best relievers in 2006 (a season when the Red Sox middle relief crew was less than stellar).  He appeared in 45 games, holding 16, and posting a miniscule 1.50 ERA in 50.2 innings.  Batters hit just .170 against him.  In 2007, Meredith did struggle a bit in the beginning but finished with a very respectable 3.50 ERA in 79.2 innings for the Padres despite a high BABIP of .344.  Meredith seems poised to become an inexpensive staple in the San Diego pen for the next few years in a market where fleeces from free agent relievers are the norm.

So, yea, I’d say the Padres won this deal.  The Red Sox did not do their homework when they dealt Mirabelli in the first place and, thus, found themselves in a desperate position.  And as we often see in baseball, desperate teams end up wearing fleeces.  For this one, it’s just a matter of what size fleece the Padres fit the Red Sox with.  So vote in the poll and let us know!

By the way, check out this memorable quote from Epstein after the trade was made:  “We just didn’t necessarily have the luxury of time waiting to find out if things would get better so we made this move now while Doug was available at a reasonable cost.”  A reasonable cost, eh?  Care to re-think that one?

Filed under: Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres, _A Look Back