Boston Red Sox Sign Takashi Saito

After the New York Yankees made big splashes by signing CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and AJ Burnett, fans of the Boston Red Sox got anxious for their team to counter the moves made by New York. Although the Red Sox haven’t made headline worthy moves, they’ve quietly added a lot of talent. On Saturday, Boston signed free agent reliever Takashi Saito, formerly of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The signing of Saito follows the same pattern as the signing of John Smoltz, Rocco Baldelli and Brad Penny. Each of these four signings are of the buy low variety. Each was valued much more in the recent past and the Red Sox are banking on the players bouncing back and performing at a high level.

Although Saito battled an arm injury last season with the Dodgers, he was still quite effective. He had a 2.49 ERA to go along with 18 saves. In his three-year Major League Baseball career since coming to the United States, Sato has a 1.95 ERA to go along with 81 saves. He also has 245 strikeouts in less than 190 innings pitched.

Besides the injury risk, the 38-year-old Saito might not have much gas left in his right arm. But as with other recent Red Sox signings, Boston is willing to take the chance that he has at least another year left in him.