There have been rumors flying round this fall in regards to the Crimson Sox plans for 2026. They vary from buying and selling for a #2 to pair with Garrett Crochet, to signing Pete Alonso, to constructing a “tremendous ‘pen.” With the seemingly ageless Aroldis Chapman and the extremely gifted Garrett Whitlock again within the fold within the ‘pen’s two prime positions, it’s a bit curious how a lot of an excellent bullpen is a even doable. In spite of everything, who needs to signal on because the sixth inning man within the tremendous pen? Fortunately they may find yourself with a good stronger bullpen regardless of which path they select due to a man they have already got on the roster: Justin Slaten.
Justin Slaten held batters to a .171/.233/.232 batting line within the first half of the season. Whereas he solely struck out 16 in 23.1 innings, batters simply weren’t capable of do a lot. One dwelling run and two doubles comprised the one additional based mostly hits he allowed. And whereas he did stroll seven batters, his total efficiency was, principally, encouraging. However he didn’t fairly declare the mantle of Trusted Reliever he seemed to be incomes within the 2024 season.
After a strong begin to the season, Slaten would hit the IL and miss all of June and July and the overwhelming majority of August , returning on the twenty ninth of that month. And it wasn’t fairly. Batters hit .295/.340/.455 in opposition to him
in late August and September, when the Crimson Sox actually, really, wanted some assist.
Nonetheless after giving up 12 hits within the first 5.1 innings again from the IL he did permit simply 1 hit over the ultimate 5.
Whereas probably not his greatest sport, of which the choice is proscribed, his second of kinds got here in Recreation 3 of the Wild Card Sequence. With the Crimson Sox down 4-0 he got here in and tossed 1.1 innings of scoreless aid. They usually weren’t low-cost innings: Cody Bellinger, Aaron Decide, Giancarlo Stanton, Ben Rice, and Amed Rosario. That’s the guts of the order. Positive, a scoreless outing would have mattered extra the day earlier than, probably profitable them that sport, however the level is that Alex Cora needed extra classic Slaten to come back in and take the ball and he received a bit of that.
Is he wholesome? If that’s the case, Andrew Bailey goes to wish to discover a method to get these strikeouts again. After putting out 1 / 4 of the batters he confronted in 2024, Slaten Okay’d slightly below 19% in 2025.
Justin Slaten may be the sixth-seventh inning man for Alex Cora when he’s on. A man who may be turned to when Cora doesn’t need Whitlock and/or Chapman pitching. A key piece of the bridge via the ninth inning in a win. Buying and selling for or signing a reliever would possible push Slaten into the sooner aspect of this vary as hopefully additions would come from the highest of the market. However even a 7-8-9 of Slaten, Whitlock, and Chapman can be very sturdy. And with younger pitchers arising via the system as nicely? There could possibly be depth! Simply not Every Day Bernardino.
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