Lucas Sims was acquired by the Red Sox on Tuesday from the Cincinnati Reds, strengthening an already-weakened bullpen. Robert Murray took up the case first.
To complete the trade, the Sox are sending minor league righty Ovis Portes to the Reds.
Sims offers a slider and a four-seam fastball in addition to a cutter, which is a new pitch this year. Eno Sarris of Fangraphs compiled this list on Monday night, which is really hopeful in terms of pure substance.
With the Reds, Sims has not had a well-defined role; he has entered games in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth innings only this season. His most persistent problems have been going on too many walks and having periods of difficulty keeping the ball in the yard. Still, he has demonstrated the ability to come into difficult situations in the midst of innings and put out fires with strikeouts.
Strangely, throughout his career, Sims has performed far better at home than on the road, even though Cincinnati features a hitter-friendly ballpark. This has been particularly evident this year as he has allowed opponents to only muster a.534 OPS in Cincinnati while also giving up a 1.006 OPS when on the road. Fenway has only thrown two innings here, one of which was an unsuccessful one last year and the other a productive, scoreless one in 2018.
His clubs have only advanced to the postseason once, and even that occasion carries an asterisk because it was during the 2020 Covid season. Though it was clear that Sims wasn’t pitching in front of large audiences, he did finish two scoreless bullpen appearances this fall with five strikeouts and no hits allowed. It remains to be seen how well he will handle a real high pressure setting.
This transfer will be a rental until the 30-year-old reliever signs a new deal with Boston, as he becomes a free agent at the end of the 2024 campaign.
Ovis Portes is heading in the opposite way. a 19-year-old right-handed pitcher from St. Johns, Antigua and Barbuda in the Leeward Islands. This season, he was pitching in Salem, where he was ranked 29th on Soxprospects.com with a 3.43 ERA. He may be an arm we miss in the future, but even with his easy velocity, he is still years away from, if he ever makes it to, the majors.
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