The Boston Red Sox have been playing better baseball recently. However, one glaring weakness has started to emerge and if it isn’t fixed soon, Boston has no chance of contending. They really need to work on their bullpen. It had been hidden for most of the season because of the starting rotation struggling and then the offense going in an extended slump. But they can’t hide anymore, that bullpen needs help.

Outside of Koji Uehara and Junichi Tazawa, there isn’t really a reliever who John Farrell can trust in high leverage situations. Alexi Ogando has been good, but lately he has been snakebitten by the home run and perhaps it is very possible that he has hit some sort of wall. There is a good quality reliever who is available and that is Jason Frasor. However, Frasor just signed with the Atlanta Braves, so that possibility has now faded away.

Frasor was released by the Kansas City Royals and it really didn’t have much to do with performance. He has a 1.54 earned run average which would have been great for Boston if he could keep it up. It just seemed that the Royals didn’t have room for him. This would have been a really good opportunity for Boston to improve their bullpen and probably not have to give up much to get him.

Boston needs to stop thinking that Matt Barnes is the answer. Right now the Red Sox are wasting time trying out guys like Barnes and Jonathan Aro in pressure situations. They need veteran relievers who can get some people out and Frasor would have fit that bill.

They missed out on Neftali Feliz and now Frasor. Boston needs to show that they want to improve in the second half. I am sure Ben Cherington has a plan. It would just be nice to know what that is concerning the bullpen.

Carter Roane is a Boston Red Sox writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter@CarterGRoane, “Like”him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.