Dusty Brown, Kevin Cash and Robert Manuel have all been removed from Boston's 40-man roster, reports WEEI's Alex Speier. The three players will all be eligible for free agency five days after the last game of the World Series.
Brown has played in a total of 13 career major league games (all over the last two seasons) and has been in Boston's minor league system for the past decade. The catcher has a .729 OPS in 2759 minor league plate appearances.
Cash was acquired from Houston in July to give the injury-plagued Sox some catching depth. Though he managed just a .374 OPS in 68 plate appearances, Cash "received raves from the Sox for his clubhouse impact," according to Speier. It was Cash's second stint in Boston and the eight-year major league veteran is likely to get a minor-league deal from another club looking for an experienced backup option.
Manuel posted a 4.26 ERA in 10 relief appearances for the Red Sox in 2010. Originally signed by the Mets in 2005, the right-hander has also pitched in the Cincinnati and Seattle systems, getting a three-game big league cup of coffee with the Reds in 2009. Given Manuel's impressive minor league numbers (2.70 ERA, 4.90 K/BB ratio, 8.1 K/9 rate in 214 appearances, 23 of them starts), you'd have to think the 27-year-old Houston native will get a look from another club.
Mark can you please clarify. 5 days before the last world series game, or 5 days after the last game?
Conclusion… after the last game. MLB tends to hate to have major announcements during the world series. Of course Arod’s ego got in the way of that a while back.
Thanks man.
Good, I won’t miss them…
It’d be nice to keep Brown for Pawtucket. But, Cash? Yeah, I’m really going to miss his .133 average. Why any big league team would want Cash in their organization is beyond me: he can’t hit, he can’t call a game and he can’t throw runners out. Hell, I wouldn’t even want him if I was the manager of a team in the Mexican Independent League…
Cash has 2 World Series rings dufus…did you read about how he impacts others players in the locker room? There are a lot of catchers in MLB that aren’t good hitters, but his presence on the team was integral.
oh man,you’d think they’d wait until they have more than one catcher signed for the MLB club that isn’t coming off surgery.
Do you honestly think Cash or Brown would ever be consider to be one of the Sox’ 2 catchers?
Let me put it this way… what is it about Cash or Brown you’d want as your team’s regular starting catcher?
Why am I hearing Crickets after reading this!
My guess would be neither Tek/Vmart (much more importantly) will be back. Who they will get to team with Salty I don’t know but I think a trade is more likely than a FA signing. I’ll have to check if Buck is a type-A or not?
oops
Brown was fair at best on defense in his AAA career from what have read, though kind of slow on release with his throws, but does have a good arm. Lousy hitter however.
It was another of Francona’s persistent “go with the veterans at all times” once again even when the Sox were out of it in September when Brown was not called up, Salty was out for the season with the thumb surgery later on and Cash was getting AB’s and nobody outside of probably Cash himself figured he had a chance of being on the roster 1 day longer than he had to be. Point? Brown probably should have been given a couple week window, or even Mark Wagner even over the retread to grab some AB’s in garbage time, but Francona does this all the time. Same with short timer Hall over Reddick.
Eh, I preferred Hall over Reddick. I don’t think Reddick has a bright future here in Boston…the one guy I wanted to see get some playing time was Kalish, and he sure got it. Nava got his time too, partly because of his big first at-bat, but he’s also got a lot of good things in his swing and demeanor, and was being given a chance to prove himself. I really didn’t think Cash got that much playing time…And why would you bring someone like Wagner up? The time you are talking about is September: I seem to remember that we had this guy named Victor Martinez playing catcher at that time. Why would you bring up a catching prospect who still needs seasoning, like Wagner, just to play once every week or so? It would have a been a step back for his progress.
It was pretty simple.. Boston was not going to get to the PO regardless, not without core players Youk and pedey missing and Hall, VMart almost certainly leaving via FA, so why not give the youngsters a look?
Sure Kalish got a good look, nobody else could play as good a defensive CF they had on the roster was why, but to continue playing Hall virtually every game when there is -0- chance he is returning, cash and even Varitek to get the catching duties when VMart was not playing was a mistake IMO.
Brown ran out of ML options after this season anyway and might as well have gotten a little bit of a look at Wagner over Tek and Cash. Reddick they might have taken a longer look at also, just always the veteran 1st if possible is only thing dislike about Francona and his sometimes go to far loyalty to them.
Well, part of that is that I think Boston felt, whether it was realistic or not, they truly felt that they had a chance for the PO all the way down to the wire. Also, its my personal opinion, but I think that after Kalish, there weren’t many prospects ready for major league time that would have been worth looking at. Reddick was the best, and he’s got some major holes in his swing. He’s really starting to look like a 4A player, who can mash at AAA but can’t do squat in the majors. Brown is a minimal improvement over Cash, and not much of a prospect, so I didn’t care who they played out of those two. And Wagner is at the point of development where if he’s gonna be a decent player, he needs to really get a lot of playing time, which he wouldn’t have gotten in the majors this year. The only time he might have made sense was the two-week period or so where V-Mart and Varitek were both on the DL.
I still think they have high hopes for Reddick to be ‘something’ not great but something. I think Hall got way too much playing time this season regardless of being a defensive swiss army knife.
Would you rather risk Hall getting hurt in the last 6 games of the season or Reddick? I realize you have the whole offseason but if something happened that required surgery he could be out for the start of 2011.
September and when a team is pretty much out of it is when a team generally looks at it’s prospects, not worrying about freak injuries and if it does, would be protecting regulars and playing prospects.
I was glad when Francona finally started allowing Lowrie to hit from BOTH sides of the plate late in September and he didn’t do real bad. hopefully it was not just showcasing him for a possible trade either, but with him as the SS for 2011 and valuable Scutaro as a most valuable backup IF for 2011 and could be swung himself as a decent trade piece perhaps at the deadline next year if the opportunity came along, or just keep him. he would be something on the bench they have not had for awhile and Lowrie could still backup 3B next year.
Reddick did so well at AAA from mid July on that it is a real shame he didn’t get more consistent AB’s when he was called up. Once again, Patterson and Hall got the lions share that IMO he should have been getting and pretty good odds neither will be nowhere near fenway next season in the Home team dugout.
Dusty Brown = professional prospect…
He will probably end up as a back up on some last place team,possibly in the NL or another career AAA depth guy.
I agree. The Red Sox have far too many of these “professional prospects”; at least another 5/6 on their 40-man roster, another 4-5 on Pawtucket’s roster and a similar number up in Portland.
I find it hard to accept the notion that Theo has built a solid minor league base to develop MLB talent in Boston’s farm system. Last time I looked not a single player from the Sea Dogs or P-Red Sox ranked within the top 20 performer listings posted for the leagues these teams participate in. Yet, many of these players have 4-5-6 years of professional grooming in the Red Sox developmental system.. These guys should be packaged in trades intended to bring MLB quality players to Boston. Let the Pittsburghs, the Seattles, the KC Royals, etc…have these players 3/4 at a time to get 1 or 2 needed additions to build a contending roster for 2011 and beyond.
Sox fans will know the last name Wagner very soon.