Red Sox lose Justin Haley and Aneury Tavarez, reclaim Josh Rutledge in Rule 5 draft

The Red Sox have lost pitcher Justin Haley to the Angels and outfielder Aneury Tavarez in the Rule 5 draft, taking Josh Rutledge back from the Colorado Rockies with their pick.

The loss of Haley kind of stings, even though it was pretty obviously coming from the second he was left off the 40-man roster. Haley isn't necessarily a star, but he put up a strong performance in Portland last season, making it easier to see him making his way into the back-end of a rotation somewhere in the near future. Given how rough Los Angeles' pitching staff was last year, there's a decent chance that near future is April 2017, which would keep him in Los Angeles.

Tavarez is less noteworthy, though he too took off in Portland last year. The most annoying part about this is probably that the Red Sox are currently relying on Bryce Brentz as outfield depth, which is obviously not great. Still, that sort of depth issue can be taken care of through minor league deals and small trades if necessary.

Speaking of Bryce Brentz, his presence on the 40-man makes losing Justin Haley pretty damn irksome. It's kind of tough to see anyone bothering to pick up the former first-round pick if the Sox were to expose him to waivers, while we can obviously see that someone is willing to give Haley a chance. And really, if the Red Sox did lose Brentz (or, say, Deven Marrero) to waivers, who would mind? Roster demands might eventually push him back off the 40-man, but the order of priorities here feels strange, if nothing else.

Coming back in their direction is Josh Rutledge, who can never escape Boston's grasp for long. He was just signed by Colorado having elected free agency after being left off Boston's 40-man roster, and now he's right back in Fenway. Or at least he'll hope to be, since that would mean he broke camp with the team. The acquisition is yet another sign that the Red Sox are done with adding to their major league roster for the year, with Rutledge likely brought in to fight for the final bench spot with Marco Hernandez and, I suppose, the aforementioned Marrero. With Pablo Sandoval now pretty firmly entrenched at third base, Rutledge has a pretty significant advantage as a right-handed hitter who was at least once put a bat on a baseball before.