Red Sox GM Ben Cherington said completing this year’s managerial search relatively early should provide the team with some amount of additional flexibility this coming offseason. The GM can focus on the roster now that John Farrell’s in place as Boston’s new manager. Here are more details from Cherington’s conversation with MLBTR at the 2012 GM Meetings…
- The Red Sox are talking to free agent outfielders while discussing possible trades to address their needs in the outfield, Cherington said.
- Cherington expressed confidence that Jose Iglesias can be an MLB shortstop on a good team. “He has a chance to be an elite defender and his development path has probably made his offensive performance look worse than the hitter he actually is,” the GM said. However, nothing will be given to Iglesias and the Red Sox could go with another option if an appealing alternative emerges.
- “We’ve got some work to do this winter,” Cherington acknowledged.
Iglesias’ numbers aren’t even good in AAA. He might end up as another Brendan Ryan.
To be fair. Injuries really slowed him down in the minors. Before he was called up last season he’d ONLY had 1000 minor league At Bats.
That’s not alot.
But he made it to AAA (and the majors) at just 21 years old, and was one of the youngest players in every league he has played in. Nobody is saying he’s ever going to be a good hitter, simply that he isn’t necessarily as bad as he has looked because he has been at a very advanced level given his age and experience (he was thrown right into AA in his first season in the states, and was put in AAA with only ~300 pro at bats under his belt).
Brendan Ryan is a best case scenario for him right now.
Brendan Ryan’s career line is fairly realistic for Iglesias (.244/.306/.327), but as good as Ryan is defensively, Iglesias is better. 2011 Brendan Ryan with even 2012 Brendan Ryan’s UZR is a 3.5-4.0 WAR player over 150 games.
cherry is trying to sugar up the bitter pill.
2 things:
1: Where is Notsureifsrs?
2: Anyone else getting tired of seeing so much hyperbole and ridiculous arguments from commenters? I used to see thought out, well written, fact based statements. Seems it is all gone now-a-days. Pretty much all day yesterday it was “my team is better than yours bc we are good and you suck”.
rant over!
1. Not sure, was curious myself.
2. It’s always like that around the trade deadline and when free-agency first begins. It will come back around.
The MLBTradeRumors Pink Hat crowd! I seriously get frustrated reading through some of this garbage and it makes me not want to chat! Thus the reason for my intial post.
I agree. It’s so much better around here when people discuss things maturely and intelligently.
You guys have really made me feel much better. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest, lol!
Ya we need him back, and a couple of other good posters are missing.
What the heck happened to SPANDemonium?
The Sox could go with Iggy if they had a lineup like:
Ichiro, Pedroia, Laroche, BJ Upton, Ortiz, Middlebrooks, Hunter, Salty and Iggy.
In addition if you had that lineup you could go with Ciriaco or Bogaerts at SS and not be hurt because you are going to score a lot of runs.
If you had that lineup you would attract some top of the line starters or Buch, Lester and Lackey would all be double digit winners.
Dont like the upton. Maybe its carl crawford redux. But always seemed to be a nefative presence about him. Purely conjecture on my part im sure but just a bad feeling. Plus who did we trade ells for in thid theory of yours?
Most of that will simply not happen, If the Sox are adamant about waiting it out until the flurry of minor leaguers we have coming up within the next couple of years, Upton won’t happen, as he is looking for a 5 year deal, Ichiro has said he wants to stay with NYY, and i think he’ll end up back there, Hunter is a possibility, but i would prefer to sign another deal similar to that of Ross last year…Melky on a 1/4 deal with incentives? Plus we still have Ellsbury in the outfield, which i think will ultimately happen atleast until the trade deadline…I am leery of Napoli but would love to have Laroche on a 3 year deal, seeing the Sox don’t have anyone at 1b in the foreseeable future…At short, i’m down on Iggy, and believe we should sign a stephen drew type, i think that could work with a platoon with Ciriaco. As for the rotation, they have so many options to go with, but none are exactly ideal situations…signing Marcum or Haren (if healthy) to slot in as a number 3 would be great. Another player i’m interested in is Jason Bay…a Fenway masher that is only looking for a 1 year, rebuild value type of deal…a 1/3 deal with him could be the steal of free agency if he pans out…that would make the sox look something like this:
Ellsbury, Pedroia, Ortiz, Middlebrooks, Laroche/Youkilis???, Melky, Bay, Salty, Drew
Lester, Buccholz, Haren/Marcum, doubrant, Lackey *honorable mentions to Morales, RDLR, and possibly Webster midseason***
Any thoughts?
Is Iglesias just a one-year stopgap until Bogaerts is ready? Seems like yesterday, Jose was being touted as the next Ozzie Smith and now it’s like “gee….look at the new kid. Oh, sorry, Jose”
He’s still an 80 defender; he just hasn’t shown any offensive promise since 2010. But the answer to your question is probably yes.