Kyle Lohse is the next target on the Boston Red Sox's radar as the team continues to hunt down free agents this offseason.
For the Red Sox, getting Lohse is not an urgency, but they will go on the limb and offer a three-year deal.
Lohse, who spent the last five seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals, is searching for a four-year deal as he is one of the top pitchers in the market. He is a World Series champion and provided clutch numbers in a season where the Cardinals found themselves without a true ace.
Chris Carpenter was down for most of the season and Adam Wainwright was recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Lohse posted a 16-3 record in 2012, won the first ever National League Wild Card game against the Braves to get the Nationals into the NLDS and went on to pitch decently in the playoffs until posting an ERA over 7.00 against the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS.
He can be describe as a durable pitcher especially lethal when healthy. In the five seasons spent with the Cardinals, Lohse finished with 10 or more wins on three occasions. In 2009 and 2010, he only pitched 40 games combined. When winning 10-plus in a season, he was healthy pitching an average of 32 games.
The Red Sox are trying to fix their pitching staff. They traded away their longtime ace in Josh Beckett and are now relying on the arms of Jon Lester, John Lackey, Clay Buchholz and Felix Doubront. The Sox would like another quality starter.
Lackey has been a bust after signing a five-year deal. He has two seasons remaining in his contract with a $500,000 option in 2015 that I highly doubt will get picked up.
The Red Sox have made better decisions signing players this off season. They haven't made any ridiculous contracts of six or seven years. They signed Mike Napoli to a three-year, $39 million contract on Monday and then followed up by signing Shane Victorino to another three-year, $39 million contract.
If these guys prove to be chokers, it won't be a deal that the Red Sox will have to live with for too long.
Lohse is a Scott Boras client and as mentioned, he is searching for four years. Boras clients usually get what they want, but as teams are trying to save money, it will be interesting to see if the Red Sox can lure Lohse to play in Boston.
