Red Sox Trade for Lucas Sims, Yankees Add Mark Leiter Jr. to Bolster Their Bullpens

A common refrain in baseball is that you can never have enough pitching, and that doesn’t apply solely to starters. A well-stocked bullpen can be just as important to a club, which is why a lot of contenders dealt for relievers as the trade deadline approached. Two such clubs were the Boston Red Sox, who acquired Lucas Sims from the Cincinnati Reds and Luis Garcia from the Los Angeles Angels, and the New York Yankees, who acquired Mark Leiter Jr. from the Chicago Cubs and Enyel De Los Santos from the San Diego Padres.

Let’s look at two of those deals — the trades for Garcia and De Los Santos will be covered in another post — beginning with Boston getting Sims in exchange for 19-year-old pitching prospect Ovis Portes.

With setup men Chris Martin and Justin Slaten both on the injured list — their return dates are uncertain — the Red Sox have been badly in need of proven bullpen arms. Late-inning implosions contributed heavily to the team’s losing seven of 10 games coming out of the All-Star break, with Chase Anderson, Bailey Horn, and Greg Weissert among the pitchers of record in the defeats. When you’re battling for a Wild Card berth, those aren’t ideal options for high-leverage situations.

Since the start of last season, the 30-year-old Sims has made 110 appearances — 20th most in the majors — and allowed just 63 hits while logging a 3.27 ERA over 96 1/3 innings. This season, the righty has posted a 3.57 ERA in 43 games (35 1/3 innings), but his underlying numbers are not as encouraging; he has a 4.11 xERA, a 4.88 FIP, and a 4.79 xFIP. Command has been an issue for Sims; his 13.0% walk rate this season is down from last year’s 15.1% mark, though it’s still not good. His strikeout rate, on the other hand, is a healthy 26.0%, and all in all he represents an upgrade to what has been a bullpen in distress. As Boston manager Alex Cora put it, “Good slider. Good cutter. We need arms. He’ll be part of the late-innings mix.”

With Kenley Jansen serving as closer, Martin and Slaten on tap to return, Liam Hendriks a possibility to make his Red Sox debut sometime before the season ends, Brennan Bernardino providing quality innings from the left side, plus Sims and Garcia joining the mix, Boston’s bullpen could very well be a strength over the final two months of the campaign.

As for what the Red Sox gave up to acquire Sims, here is our lead prospect analyst Eric Longenhagen on the 35+ FV Portes, the newest addition to the Cincinnati Reds organization:

Portes was one of the harder-throwing youngsters in the Red Sox system. He’s been up to 98 mph and is sitting 93-96 for entire starts. That was too hot for the FCL to handle and Portes was promoted to Salem, where he was recently sitting 95-97 for the bulk of starts. He’s been working about three innings per outing, using his fastball and slider almost exclusively and struggling with walks. Portes has a very short arm action but is still having trouble finding a consistent release, as his heater scatters all over the place and his slider’s quality is inconsistent. When he’s operating at his best, he creates rise/run angle in on the hands of righties and then bends his two-planed upper-70s slurve away from them. His delivery lacks the fluidity you want in order to project changeup progress, and that, plus his raw feel for location, pushes Portes toward the relief bucket. He slots in toward the bottom of the Reds’ prospect list as an exciting developmental reliever.

The Yankees’ acquisition of Leiter Jr. from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Ben Cowles, a 35+ FV middle infielder, and 40 FV righty reliever Jack Neely was based on a similar need. The Aaron Boone-managed club also has relievers on the injured list, while others, such as the just-traded Caleb Ferguson, have underperformed expectations. Outside of Clay Holmes, Luke Weaver, and Tommy Kahnle, the Yankees have lacked reliable relief arms. More depth was needed.

The most concerning part of their bullpen has been its inability to generate swings-and-misses. This is where Leiter really shines, with a 34.9% strikeout rate that ranked fifth among NL relievers at the time of the trade. Yankees relievers entered play Tuesday with a 23.0% strikeout rate, which ranked 17th in the majors. Leiter had a 4.21 ERA across 39 games (36 1/3 innings) with the Cubs this season, but his peripherals were much better: 2.61 xERA, 2.11 FIP, 2.43 xFIP.

The Yankees wasted no time getting Leiter acclimated. Yesterday, not long after getting traded, the 33-year-old righty flew from Cincinnati, where the Cubs were playing, to meet his new team in Philadelphia. Then, he was brought into a 6-6 game in the 10th inning, and although the Phillies loaded the bases, Leiter escaped without allowing a run. The Yankees won, 7-6, in 12 innings.

Also of note is that Leiter Jr. is the third member of his family to pitch for the Yankees, joining his father, Mark Leiter Sr., and uncle, Al Leiter.

Here’s what Eric had to say about the two prospects heading to the Cubs:

Jack Neely is a gigantic guy who hopped around to a several schools (Texas, San Jacinto, Iowa Western, Ohio State) before pro ball. He has been deployed entirely as a reliever in pro ball and has posted double-digit strikeouts per 9 IP up the entire minor league ladder, culminating in a 2024 in which he reached Triple-A and led full-season Yankees pitchers in swinging strike rate at a whopping 20.2%. He’s sitting 94-98 with plus vertical break with nearly perfect backspinning shape even though he releases from more of a three-quarters slot. He also has an 84-88 mph bullet-style slider that is generating an elite rate of swing-and-miss. Per Synergy, Neely’s slider has a 54% miss rate and 42% chase rate as of the trade. He’s kept his walks under control for most of the last two seasons and projects as a standard middle-inning option.

Cowles’ Double-A numbers are great, but his underlying data is more average and feel a little worse than that when viewed with his age in mind (he’s 24). All of Cowles’ offensive tools are hovering in the 40- or 45-grade range but he’s a fair shortstop defender (his arm is a little short, but the rest of his skills are a fit all over the infield) and well-built athlete. His 140 wRC+ is a caricature created by the offensive environment at the Yankees’ Somerset affiliate, but Cowles is still going to be a suitable bench infielder.