Red Sox Beat: Brad Penny Granted Release

With Tim Wakefield having a fantastic start Wednesday night and reliever Billy Wagner coming onto the roster Thursday, some roster shuffling was needed. That began late Wednesday night as Boston granted starting pitcher Brad Penny his release, something he had requested.

Penny told Boston Herald writer John Tomase the news following after Boston’s big win over Chicago:

“I asked for my release and I got it. I enjoyed playing with all of the guys. I played for a
great manager on a great team. I had a great time. I enjoyed it. I wish
things had worked out better, but that happens.”

Penny (7-8, 5.61 ERA) will go on waivers Thursday and is expected to clear Monday. He hopes to be a starting pitcher for a playoff contender and that getting this done now will potentially allow him to be added to a team’s postseason roster.

Like John Smoltz before him, he should run back to the National League where it’s entirely possible he could throw a no-hitter in his first start given the offensive disparity between the leagues. Converting to a closer this offseason might not be a bad idea either.

Signed this offseason as a low-risk, high-reward free agent that was coming off an arm injury, the 31-year-old signed a $5 million deal that could have jumped to $8 million with incentives.

After a 6-1 win over Florida on June 17, Penny stood at 6-2 and sported a 4.94 ERA – a number that had been dropping since the start of the season. There was speculation the Red Sox would deal Penny once Smoltz came off the DL, leaving a potential pitching glut. (As we know now, there was really going to be no such thing.)

Things turned south quickly and Penny won just once in 11 starts since that Florida win. After posting a 3.18 ERA in June, July was ugly (1-2, 5.93) and August was worse (0-3, 8.31). The icing on the awful-tasting cake was his last start, allowing eight runs on 10 hits in just four innings of work in last Friday’s 20-11 loss to the Yankees.

So like the Smoltz era before, the Penny era is now over in Boston. I hope we can now all agree to remember the Golden Rule: you can never have enough starting pitching. EVER.

Josh Nason is the main writer for Small White Ball, a New England-based sports and media blog on the MVN Network. Reach him via Twitter or josh [at] smallwhiteball [dot-com].