Billy Wagner: Hall of Famer And Red Sox Legend... Sort Of

For a man of many teams, there is always a question of what hat Billy Wagner will wear on his official plaque. Most likely, it will be Houston where he began his career. In his nine seasons in Houston, he racked up 225 saves. There is an argument to be made for a Phillies cap. In Philadelphia, he finished a career-high 70 games in 2005, but He was no slouch in his three-and-a-half season with the Mets either, where he amassed 5.0 WAR with 101 saves. Even at age 38, he closed out his career with the Braves, putting up 2.5 WAR and 37 saves.

While you could make a case for any of those teams, you probably could not make a case for Wagner to wear a Red Sox hat. As a matter of fact, you are excused if you forgot he ever played for Boston. On August 25th, 2009, the Red Sox acquired Wagner from the Mets for Chris Carter and minor leaguer Eddie Lora. Thus began a fairly unremarkable 15-game stop on an otherwise very remarkable career.

Of Wagner’s 422 career saves, zero came with Boston. In 2009, the Red Sox had 28-year-old Jonathan Papelbon closing games for them. Paps had 38 saves that season with a 1.85 ERA. The bullpen featured Ramon Ramirez, who was worth a surprising 1.8 WAR, Hideki Okajima and Takashi Saito, who were both worth 1.6 WAR each, and minor contributions from Boston favorites Manny Delcarmen and Daniel Bard.

With all that firepower, it is no surprise that Wagner only finished two games for the Sox. But like every stop in Wagner’s career, he did add something to Boston. He was worth 0.3 WAR in his 15 games with his 1.98 ERA and 2.58 FIP. You wouldn’t say he led the team to the playoffs that season, but he did help.

The playoffs were never Wagner’s strong suit. In Wagner’s 16-year career, he was only on playoff-bound teams seven times. With the 2006 Mets, Wagner made six playoff appearances; besides that, he mostly was used once or twice per postseason. With Boston in 2009, he was used twice and not to great results. He had an 18.00 ERA and 3.0 WHIP, slightly worse than his career 10.03 playoff ERA and 1.971 playoff WHIP. He did have a 2.10 FIP with Boston during that playoff run, which was better than his career 5.01 playoff FIP.

So while his career in Boston might not be memorable for Red Sox fans, it was memorable for Wagner. Wagner told a story during his time in Boston: the first major league game he ever attended was at Fenway Park. Although Wagner hails from Virginia, he never attended a major league game until he was 20, during his stint in the Cape Cod League. As Peter Abraham notes, “he saw Daryl Irvine pitch for the Sox. Irvine had played at Ferrum College in Virginia, the same school Wagner pitched for.”