David Wells, a long-time enemy of the Boston Red Sox, agreed to a two-year deal worth about $8 million.
The addition of Wells strengthens the rotation in that the Red Sox finally have a left-handed pitcher in their rotation as opposed to last year, when they had five right-handed starters. Despite having only right-handed starters, the Red Sox still managed to win 98 games, and having a veteran left-hander in there can only make things better.
Though David Wells has a career record of 10-10 and a 4.87 ERA at Fenway Park, those numbers were against the Red Sox, which was an offense that was supposed to be good in Fenway. In fact, even though the Sox line-up has been better these past few seasons, David Wells has not been beaten at Fenway Park over that time span, which tells you that he turned in some pretty nice starts. Wells' performance at Fenway should be better against other offenses in the AL than his already decent performance against the Sox, since the Sox have arguably had the best offense in the American League over the past two seasons.
Wells is a great big-game pitcher and is 10-3 with a 3.18 ERA in 25 post-season starts.
It looks as if the signing of David Wells will go down as another key signing made by the genius that is Theo Epstein.
By Billy Hawkins
