Red Sox Notes: Danny Coulombe's Belated Signing, Romy Gonzalez's Disastrous Injury

Opening Day is less than two weeks away, and the Boston Red Sox's plans for the regular season are coming into focus. As players return from the World Baseball Classic, the team will be able to continue cutting players from major-league camp and fine tuning the roster.

Of course, baseball junkie Craig Breslow wasn't finished tinkering just because spring training is well underway. After months of offseason rumors connected both parties, the Red Sox have signed left-handed reliever Danny Coulombe. He crucially adds a third southpaw to the bullpen, joining Jovani Moran and closer Aroldis Chapman. Unfortunately, in order to make room for the 36-year-old on the 40-man roster, the team sent Romy Gonzalez to the 60-day injured list, knocking him out until at least May.

Red Sox Answer Bullpen's Biggest Question With Danny Coulombe Signing

Once the front office cleaned house of all the fringe left-handed relievers on the roster, there was a question if they'd convert one of their many pitching prospects to relief. Then, Kyle Harrison and practically everyone else was traded away, leaving the big-league bullpen short on matchup arms. There was hope of an 11th-hour reunion with Justin Wilson, but the veteran reliever is reportedly leaning toward retirement.

Coulombe thankfully resolves that concern, even if he isn't flawless. He shredded the competition with the Minnesota Twins during the first half of last season, pitching to a 1.16 ERA (2.01 FIP) over 31 frames. Benefitting from an abundance of weakly hit fly balls, the veteran reliever showed off an enviable mastery of the strike zone, punching out more than a quarter of the hitters he faced while walking just 7.4% of them.

Things came a bit undone once he was traded to the Texas Rangers (5.25 ERA, 6.64 FIP), but he still finished the season as one of the league's best at getting batters to chase pitches outside the zone. Naturally, that's what makes him so good at forcing weak contact, despite a fastball that barely averages more than 90 mph. He's got a movement-dependent, spin-heavy arsenal that should play nicely off the gas that Chapman throws.

In terms of matchups, lefties technically posted a higher batting average against him last year, but their impact was minimal (.238 wOBA). For his career, he's held left-handed batters to a scant .596 OPS, compared to a .694 mark against right-handers. When he's right, he can get anyone out, as he proved in Minnesota. Truthfully, health may be his biggest hurdle — Coulombe has had six injured list stints since the start of 2022.

Chapman is a known quantity as the closer, even if he's unable to deliver an encore on his sterling 2025 campaign. And Moran, despite some warts, is a whiff-generating machine with some untapped upside. This trio of left-handed relievers should be capable of shepherding the bullpen to great heights, assuming they can all stay healthy.

Romy Gonzalez's Shoulder Injury Compounds Loss of Rob Refsnyder

Unfortunately, Coulombe's arrival can only generate so much goodwill and hype. Losing Gonzalez for an extended period of time is a blow to the team's bench infrastructure, and also a reminder of why acquiring Caleb Durbin was so important.

More than anything, Gonzalez is perhaps the team's single-best hitter against southpaws now that Rob Refsnyder and Alex Bregman are playing elsewhere. He hammered them last to the tune of a .331/.378/.600 slash line, producing a .978 OPS and 162 wRC+ when he had the handedness advantage. Opposing teams will be able to exploit his absence by bringing in high-leverage left-handed relievers in late games, knowing Alex Cora has limited options to work with.

However, it's worth noting that Gonzalez's placement on the IL opens up an Opening Day roster spot for Andruw Monasterio, who has been really impressive this spring. He's got a versatile glove and some upside at the plate, and perhaps he could play well enough over the season's opening weeks to stave off a demotion when Gonzalez returns (though, in turn, that would probably get Isiah Kiner-Falefa kicked off the team).

With Gonzalez out and Triston Casas also expected to need more time to recuperate, the Red Sox are down two of their best power hitters. They'll need some breakouts from their youth contingent in order to produce runs in the early going.