Welcome back to the Sox, Doug Mirabelli. Theo Esptein today traded Josh Bard, Cla Meredith and either cash or a player to be named to get back Doug Mirabelli to be Wake’s personal catcher. Essentially this means the original trade for Mark Loretta is now Loretta for Bard, Meredith and the other considersations. Not a bad deal at all.
While I am a big fan of Mirabelli, he is not the reason why Wake only has one win this season. The Sox haven’t been scoring runs for Wake like they have in the past. Wakefield was the first person to step up and defend Bard who had never caught a knuckleballer before. He was leading the majors with 10 passed balls at the time of the trade.
This is why Theo is Theo. He makes good trades. He really didnt give up too much. Meredith was a good prospect who the Sox rushed to the big leagues last year and he got lit up like an XMAS tree. The Sox lose Bard who was only playing every 5 days when Wakefield pitched. Reaquiring Mirabelli allows the Sox to rest Varitek if need be and not have to worry about the lack of skills beyond the plate.
UPDATE TO THIS POST:
According to an article on espn.com, Mirabelli was given a police escort to the game from Logan Airport and arrived 13 minutes before the start of the game. Although it was Demon’s return to Boston, Mirabelli actually received the loudest ovation of the night until Big Papi hit a three run homer off of former Sox lefty specialist, Mike Myers, who was probably only acquired to face David Ortiz 19 times this year.
