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The Red Sox have signed reliever Edward Mujica to a two-year/$9.5 million deal pending a physical on Thursday, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports.
The 29-year old Muijica served as the Cardinals closer for the majority of the 2013 season, pitching 64 2/3 innings and posting a 2.78 ERA. In late September, he lost the closing job to Trevor Rosenthal after blowing two of his final four save attempts while suffering through a groin injury. That injury and the accompanying ineffectiveness limited him to just two postseason appearances and kept him from taking the ball in the World Series.
The Venezuelan native is one of the great control pitchers in the game today. Over his 65 appearances last season he issued just five walks. His career 5.15 strikeout-to-walk ratio is the third highest among active relievers with at least 100 innings pitched, trailing only Red Sox closer Koji Uehara and Giants closer Sergio Romo. He has, however, struggled with home runs at times, allowing 1.2 per nine innings over his career. While his new home is rightly considered a hitter-friendly environment, Fenway should help him out in that respect. The Red Sox park suppress home runs just slightly overall (by fangraphs park factor calculations).
Much like the Red Sox signing of Uehara last season, this deal looks like a good value for Boston. Itl gives the Red Sox strong bullpen roster even more depth for the late innings at a reasonable price.
