Today in Red Sox History: February 18

Today in Red Sox history, the team traded away one of the game’s all-time greats, we said good-bye to a fan favorite, and they signed a closer.

Today in OTM History

2021: John Schreiber was claimed off waivers; There was some optimism here due to Schreiber’s success in the minors, but he didn’t appear to be more than a Quad-A player. He does remain in the organization, though off the 40-man.

2020: Brock Holt signs with the Brewers; From a baseball perspective this ended up being the right move to let Holt walk, but sometimes it’s about more than baseball, dammit.

2014: David Ortiz has some words for those criticizing his negotiations; Ortiz has always ruled.

2013: Alfredo Aceves is already in trouble with John Farrell; lol.

Today in Red Sox History

1909: Red Sox trade Cy Young to Cleveland; Young was at the end of his career and over 40 years of age at this point, but given how important he’d been to Boston’s franchise this was a big deal. Young pitched three more seasons after the trade that sent him back to where his career got started. In return Boston got Charlie Chench and Jack Ryan, both of whom pitched one year each in Boston. They also got cash back.

1993: Red Sox sign Jeff Russell to a two-year deal; Russell was a two-time closer by this point in his career and had a good year in the ninth inning for Boston in ‘93. He struggled a bit more in ‘94, though, and before the strike was traded to Cleveland for Chris Nabholz and Steve Farr.

2018: Red Sox sign Eduardo Núñez to a two-year deal; While he couldn’t recapture that 2017 magic, he did help them win a championship and seemingly hurt himself like five separate times in that legendary Game Three of the World Series.

Today in Red Sox Birthdays

Happy 55th birthday to John Valentin, who was yours truly’s first favorite player and one of the team’s most underrated players from my lifetime.

Many thanks to Baseball-Reference, NationalPastime.com and Today in Baseball History for assistance here. Also thanks again to Talking Chop for the inspiration for these posts.