Ryan Watson won’t be remembered as an A, that’s for sure.
The Boston Red Sox have been successful at building their bullpen through the Rule 5 Draft, so they’re going back to that well this year.
Two of Boston’s top relievers — Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten — were Rule 5 pickups. Two years ago, Boston actually swung a trade to acquire Slaten from the New York Mets, who had just poached him from the Texas Rangers in the major league phase of the Rule 5 proceedings.
On Wednesday, the Red Sox pulled off a very similar trade with the Athletics to acquire a new righty who inherently became a part of their projected bullpen to open the season.
Red Sox pick up Ryan Watson via Athletics
According to Chris Cotillo of MassLive, the Red Sox were in the process of finalizing a trade Wednesday to acquire 28-year-old right-hander Ryan Watson, who the Athletics chose from the San Francisco Giants’ farm system in the Rule 5 Draft.
Watson is 6-foot-5, 225 pounds, and although his ERA in Triple-A was a bit inflated this year (4.26), he struck out 64 batters in just 50 2/3 innings, which could translate well to major league success if he has the command to miss barrels.
Originally a 39th-round pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016, Watson has defied the odds to get to this point in his career. Now, he’s on the precipice of making his major league debut, as Boston will seemingly give him first crack at filling one of the right-handed middle relief roles in its bullpen.
Players selected in the Rule 5 Draft must remain on their new clubs’ active rosters or the injured list for the entire season. Otherwise, they are returned to the organizations they came from, so in this case, Watson would be returned to the Giants if the Red Sox waived him.
Certainly, Red Sox fans were antsy for bigger headlines on Wednesday as free agents continued to fly off the board at the winter meetings. But they’ll have to give Watson a chance, and at this point, it’s fare to trust that Boston knows what it’s looking for from righty relievers in the Rule 5 Draft.
UPDATE: According to Cotillo, the Red Sox sent 23-year-old shortstop Justin Riemer to the Athletics in return for Watson. Riemer was Boston’s 2023 fourth-round compensation pick, which they received as a result of losing Nathan Eovaldi to the Texas Rangers in free agency.
