Red Sox Acquire Paul Byrd from Cleveland

RED SOX ACQUIRE RIGHTHANDED PITCHER PAUL BYRD

FROM CLEVELAND INDIANS FOR A PLAYER TO BE NAMED LATER

OR CASH CONSIDERATIONS

The announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein.

Byrd, 37, has been added to Boston’s 40-man roster. The Red Sox will make a corresponding move on the active roster once Byrd reports to the club.

Byrd is 7-10 with a 4.53 earned run average in 22 starts with the Indians in 2008. The righthander ranks second on the Indians staff in wins, starts, and innings (131.0) and has issued just 1.6 walks per nine innings, the eighth best ratio in the American League.

He has won all four of his starts since the All-Star break with a 1.24 ERA (4 ER/29.0 IP) to lower his season ERA from 5.47 to 4.53. Byrd is tied for the major league lead in wins since the break and has the second lowest ERA among pitchers with at least 20.0 innings behind Arizona’s Randy Johnson (0.66). He has worked at least 7.0 innings in each of his last three starts, allowing six hits in going the route to win at Toronto, 4-2 in his last appearance on August 9. Byrd has not allowed a home run in his last five starts with a 1.80 ERA (7 ER/25.0 IP) in that span.

Byrd has a career major league record of 104-91 in 330 games/242 starts with the New York Mets (1995-96), Atlanta (1997-98; 2004), Philadelphia (1998-2001), Kansas City (2001-02), Los Angeles Angels (2005), and Cleveland (2006-08). He has won 10 or more games five times, including four of the previous five seasons (2002-07). Byrd has issued just 2.12 walks per nine innings in his career, the sixth lowest figure among active major league pitchers with at least 1,500 innings. He was a member of the 1999 N.L. All-Star Team with the Phillies.

Byrd established career bests for wins (17), starts (33), innings (228.1), and strikeouts (129) with Kansas City in 2002. Last season, he was 15-8 with a 4.59 ERA in 31 starts for the A.L. Central Division champion Indians and led the A.L. with a ratio of 1.31 walks per nine innings. Byrd was 2-0, 3.60 in his two post-season starts,  including a 7-3 victory over the Red Sox in Game 4 of the ALCS on October 16 in Cleveland. He also won the fourth and deciding game of the ALDS on October 8 at New York.

PAUL BYRD—2008 AND MAJOR LEAGUE CAREER

                        W-L    ERA   G         GS       CG      SHO    SV             IP      H       R       ER      BB       SO

2008—CLE    7-10     4.53     22        22          1             0       0       131.1    146     70       66        24       56

ML Career      104-91 4.37   330       242        17             6       0     1614.0  1752    881     783       235      886