Sox Acquire Relief Pitcher Aardsma

Extra Bases:

The Red Sox today acquired righthanded pitcher David Aardsma from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for righthanded pitchers Willy Mota and Miguel Socolovich.

The announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.

Aardsma, 26, has been added to Boston's major league roster, putting that list at 39 players.

Eh, what can I say? Aardsma is a former first-round pick of the San Francisco Center Fielder Giants. In 96 ML innings, he's struck out 90 and walked 55.

Mota is a 22 year old pitcher (and converted OF), who struck out 22 in 27 2/3 IP at Lowell last season. Socolovich has struck out 90 in 115 professional innings, to go along with 55 walks. I guess the good news is that neither of these guys would come close to cracking a top 20 prospect list, but it still seems strange (at best) to be giving anything up for a guy who is unable to command the strike zone.

Well, I guess Aardsma was at one point highly-regarded, given that first-round pick status. Maybe the Sox saw a mechanical flaw they believe they can fix. We don't have a whole lot of reason, based upon last season's results, to doubt the abilities of John Farrell as a pitching coach.