Despite their outfield logjam, the Red Sox will be in attendance for Yasmani Tomas’ showcase in the Dominican Republic on Sunday, writes Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. Bradford spoke with Boston’s newest outfielder, Rusney Castillo, about his countryman and received strong reviews. “He’s a really high quality baseball player, and a really good person,” said Castillo through an interpreter. “He’s got a ton of power. For his physique, he actually moves pretty well. He’s pretty quick for a big guy.” Castillo agrees with scouting reports that say Tomas isn’t the same athlete that Yasiel Puig or Yoenis Cespedes is, but likened his power to that of Jose Abreu.
More from Bradford and some additional pieces on the Red Sox…
- Red Sox owner John Henry told Bradford, via email, that the team’s near-miss on Abreu fueled the club’s aggressiveness on Castillo. Boston bid just $5MM less than the White Sox did to secure Abreu, prompting Henry to admit: “Yes, the financial aspects were impacted by coming close on Abreu. The White Sox did their homework.”
- GM Ben Cherington appeared on the Dennis & Callahan radio show to discuss a number of Red Sox topics, and WEEI’s Jerry Spar has some highlights. Cherington said that while the team doesn’t consider Castillo to be have one elite tool, they feel he’s very good in a lot of categories and should be a quality Major League outfielder. Cherington stopped short, however, of proclaiming Castillo the team’s center fielder in 2015. (The Arizona Fall League announced today that Castillo will play there this offseason, which should give Boston more time to make that evaluation.) He also addressed the Mookie Betts situation, noting that the team most likely projects Betts as an outfielder moving forward and has not discussed playing him at third base.
- “I think it’s safe to say we would still have interest in keeping him here,” Cherington said in that same appearance when asked about Koji Uehara. Cherington praised Uehara’s accountability during his recent rough patch, and that accountability is an appealing factor when pursuing a new contract. Boston has yet to make an offer or discuss a new contract with Uehara at this time, per Cherington.
- As John Tomase of the Boston Herald points out, the Red Sox, by some metrics, have had the worst production in the league at third base. As such, they’ll be on the hunt for third basemen with power this offseason, preferably ones that hit left-handed or are switch-hitters in order to balance out a right-leaning lineup. Tomase expects Pedro Alvarez to be on the team’s list, as the club tried desperately to sign him as a 14th-round pick out of high school back in 2005. Boston was willing to offer Alvarez $850K and showed a late willingness to push the number closer to Alvarez’s $1MM asking price, but he instead attended Vanderbilt. The decision paid off, as Alvarez was drafted No. 2 overall and received a $6MM signing bonus from the Pirates three years later. Tomase speculates that a swap of underachieving third basemen — Alvarez and Will Middlebrooks — might make sense for both clubs (presumably, other pieces would be required in such a deal).
- The right-leaning nature of Boston’s lineup is the focus of the latest from Tony Massarotti of the Boston Globe, who notes that the Sox currently project to have just one regular lefty bat in the lineup next season — David Ortiz. While others such as Brock Holt, Jackie Bradley and the switch-hitting Daniel Nava could be worked into the mix, the team cannot afford to have such a glaring deficiency, as other clubs will exploit it, writes Massarotti.
Going to take a lot more than Middlebrooks to pry Pedro the the Bucs. Pedro lead the NL in HRs last yr and hit a skid w/ injuries this yr.
Yup, Middlebrooks is no more than a throw-in at this point. At least Alvarez has a healthy amount of major league success under his belt.
I don’t know what’s up with him in the last couple weeks, but Alvarez was riding the pine a lot before that. I’d guess that the Pirates would do that trade.
Uhm, why? Even in this down season, Alvarez has hit 18 HR and has an ok OPS. Meanwhile, Middlebrooks has been one of the worst major leaguers in baseball, and doesn’t exactly have a strong history to fall back on. No one is trading anything more than a signed baseball for Middlebrooks.
Middlebrooks has Jenny Dell and no other talent. I have to laugh when the media comes up with these trade proposals. Who would want the guy at this point. Boston is loaded with guys their own media overvalues but aren’t very good, i.e. Bradley & Vazquez.
If you say Vazquez isn’t very good you obviously haven’t watched him or followed him at all. Yes he is bad at the plate but he is a very good defensive catcher. He calls a pretty good game. To be honest I see Vazquez as the next David Ross. A guy that will go out and catch when the starter needs a break. Or I could see the Sox sticking with him and his bad bat because of good defensive abilities.
WM probably still has some top prospect shine and potential. He’s cheap and controlled as well. I’m watching the Pirates on tv right now and no Alvarez. Playing bad defense and hitting the occasional HR give a player some value, but not a whole lot. He’s getting more expensive as well.
Pedro is injured and is done for the season. He lost his job before that though at third because of Josh Harrison. The pirates need a first baseman, pitching or a catcher if they loose martin. Middlebrook really isn’t a option.
By your logic the fact that we don’t see Paul Goldschmidt playing for Arizona and Giancarlo Stanton playing for Miami means that those teams don’t want those guys anymore and will easily deal them to Boston for Will Middlebrooks.
Pedro Alvarez has fractured foot. Try doing some reading .
Eh, whatever – I’ll take a failing grade on current Pirates news. I don’t think Goldschmidt or Stanton are comparable to Alvarez regardless. What is his job next season – compete with Ike Davis for 1st or part of a platoon?
Alvarez rides the pine.
Yes, but Pedro isn’t that valuable. Aside from huge power he really doesn’t have that much value. His bat is pretty bad because he strikes out so much, and his defense nothing special.
You’re right Pedro isn’t that valuable right now but the Bucs have him under control for the next cple yrs. It wouldn’t make sense to sell low now. They’ll pay him through his arb. yrs and if the intent is to trade Pedro they’ll wait for #’s similiar to last yr. before off-loading him… O and chicks dig the long ball plus it puts butts in the seats, right? haha
What do you mean by “a lot more?” I’m not a Middlebrooks fan, but what exactly do you think Pedro is worth?
see my post below.. wouldn’t trade a has been for a never was, straight up.
I don’t see any post and that wasn’t what I asked.
I would say a grade A prospect and/or SP. The Bucs would have zero interest in Middlebrooks given the emergence of Harrison.
Well Kevin Towers in no longer a GM and he was the only person willing to give up a starter for Mark Trumbo (basically the same player as Alvarez) so I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Welp guess it goes to show Pedro WON’T be moved. Why would you? Sell low? Good business model, especially for another body in a non-area of need. They’ll keep him through his arb yrs. and sell high.
In order to sell high he would actually have play well. Power hitters with no plate discipline and poor defensive skills tend to have short careers.
Pedro’s plate discipline has been getting better yr over yr, displayed it down the stretch and in the playoffs last yr. And when his D wasn’t failing him this yr, you saw it more times than not. If his D continues to be shotty his value will definitely be higher in the AL than the NL. I just wouldn’t be surprised to have another Joey Bats or Aramis situation if they unload him now.
That might be why the article says “presumably, other pieces would be required in such a deal.”
Yea understatement of the year.
You do realize Pedro has posted a negative WAR in two of his 5 MLB seasons, has never been a good defensive player and had a .296 OBP when lead the NL in HR’s, right?
Is Pedro worth more than WMB, sure. Is Pedro a star third baseman, absolutely not.
Did I ever say he was a star? No but a guy who has lead a league in homers is worth a lot more than an always injured player who’s accomplished nothing, esp when power is such a rare commodity these days.
Nobody is suggesting that they should be traded straight up for each other or that WMB is a good third baseman.
I’m not entirely convinced that Middlebrooks is even worth a waiver claim at this point, though. What role would he serve on the 2015 Pirates, that couldn’t be filled by a typical veteran 3B NRI?
Middlebrooks is no more than a throw-in at this point in his career. Sure, Alvarez is struggling but he’s one year removed from an NL Home Run crown and his 18 HR in a “down year” are still more than Middlebrooks’ career high
They can have ARod.
Alvarez has power, but forgot how to throw the ball to first. It’s a change of scenery deal for both players.
Yea except 1 player has had success, the other hasn’t. What’s Middlebrooks need a change of scenery from? Always being bad?
The last three seasons Pedro Alvarez has slashed .236/.308/.452. Over his first two seasons Middlebrooks slashed .254/.294/.462.
The gap isn’t as large as you’re making it out to be.
Except that you’re comparing two completely different things. What Middlebrooks is doing now is far more relevant than whatever he did in the past. And what he’s doing now is a level of bad only rivaled by his teammate Jackey Bradley Jr. But at least JBJ has defensive ability on his side. WMB does not belong in the major leagues.
Well, I left out Middlebrook’s terrible 200+ PA in 2014 just like I left out Alvarez’s terrible 200+ PA in 2011.
Alvarez’s terrible 200+ PA in 2011 was 3 years ago. Not very relevant to the type of player he is today. Meanwhile, Middlebrooks is currently in the midst of his terrible 200+PA, which is the most meaningful numbers we have for him. You gotta compare apples to apples, otherwise you don’t have a point.
Right, but Alvarez is two years older than Middlebrooks. At the end of 2011, Alvarez had 648 plate appearances, at the end of 2013 Middlebrooks had 660.
So if the argument is that Middlebrooks doesn’t have as large of a sample to draw upon as Alvarez, then yes I agree with you.
And I’m not sure why the smallest sample is the most meaningful, especially when dealing with a player in his mid-20s.
When you form a numerical projection for a player, you weight recent performance more heavily than distant performance. Stuff from the most recent season is by far the most important, and stuff from more than three years ago has essentially no predictive value. So Alvarez’s 2011 performance doesn’t matter at all, while Middlebrooks’s 2014 performance matters quite a bit.
Also, if you’re concerned about the sample size on Middlebrooks’s performance, adding in his translated numbers from AAA will help with that. And since he was marginal at AAA in both 2012 and 2013, those numbers support the conclusion suggested by his ML numbers – that he simply isn’t a very good player at this point, and isn’t a good bet to perform well in 2015.
Well, we’ll see. The main crux seems to be that Middlebrooks is worse for having had his offensive rock bottom at age 25 rather than age 24.
No, the crux is that he had it this year, rather than too long ago to tell us anything useful about the player that he is now. It wouldn’t matter if he were 19 or 39 – the same principle would be at work.
Player’s rebound from bad years all the time. When Alvarez hit .191 in 2011, was it a safe bet that he wouldn’t put together a better year in 2012?
Alvarez’s 2011 struggles did have a negative impact on his projections for 2012, yes. For example, if you use ZiPS, his 2011 projection was .262/.337/.479, while his 2012 projection was only .245/.323/.447.
Middlebrooks is hurt even more than Alvarez was because he’s coming off two consecutive bad years, not just one. Projections can be right, and they can be wrong, but in general you’re more likely to make the right decisions by following them and playing the percentages.
It’s always possible for any player to have an unexpected breakout/rebound, but at this point there’s no more reason to expect one from Middlebrooks than from any other player.
Alvarez career ops+ 105
Middlebrooks 89
This year
Alvarez ops+ 101
Middlebrooks 46
Yes its not a typo, his ops+ is 46.
Having said that.. I dont think Pedro has a ton of trade value
Pirates have their third baseman for now, and the foreseeable future, in Josh Harrison (who is in the top three in BA and coming off an all-star year). Pedro will be tried at first base by Pittsburgh. It is inconceivable to me that they would give up that power and hitting potential for a second tier Red Sox prospect. I would suspect that Alvarez might be available at substantial asking price, but instincts tell me that Alvarez will be the Pirates full-time first baseman at this juncture next season.
Calling Middlebrooks a “prospect” of any sort is too generous. He’s already 26, he’s used up almost all of his cheap service time, and he projects to post an OPS in the upper .600s next year.
I’d say at this point the Red Sox best move with WMB is to stick him in AAA, but that would likely take bats away from Cecchini. Find another failed prospect and swap.
Can’t believe they missed on Abreu by just 5 million…
The Middlebrooks-Alvarez debate is kind of interesting, because it demonstrates how fans tend to have a hard time correctly valuing “their” prospects/players. When dealing someone you thought of as a top prospect, you keep thinking that next year’s going to be the breakout year. Middlebrooks will be 27, Alvarez 28 next year, so neither really can be considered prospects anymore–it’s just a question of whether they will develop further or fizzle. I think that often the psychological pain of dealing a prospect who then raises his game is much higher than the value of what you might think you are getting back in the deal.
Middlebrooks turned 26 ten days ago.
Alvarez is eighteen months older. It’s not a gigantic age gap. At some point, neither is a prospect–they are simply players.
I was just correcting the information you were presenting.
I suppose it depends on when you count a year. He will be 27 next September.
B-REF explains where the major league year begins and ends for determining a player’s “season age”: midnight on June 30th of a specified year.
I’m happy to go with B-ref, but it’s a arbitrary division. Alvarez will be 28 in Feb, so, if the sixth month swing transforms into a B-Ref year, and that makes you see Middlebrooks two years younger, that’s certainly your choice.
Well 18 months is the exact midway point between a year and two years, so it’s really your personal preference as to how you want to read it. It’s just that the cut off point is where it is, for arbitrary reasons I suppose, but it’s the cut off that’s been agreed upon.
The Bucs are filled at 3B – J-Hay has that locked down for next season and beyond. The Pirates have little use for Middlebrooks, especially with a bonafide MVP candidate already playing there.
Alvarez had a horrid year but he led the NL in homers last season – that’s certainly worth more than a Quad-A outfielder. Honestly I don’t see the Red Sox as a good match for the Pirates because they really don’t have anything we could want and what we do want they probably wouldn’t want to give up.
The Pirates only need a SP, some bullpen depth and maybe a righty hitting 1B to replace Gaby Sanchez in a platoon. Kelly or Webster straight up for Pedro would be fair but Boston probably wouldn’t do that. Boston could offer Middlebrooks and an okay reliever like Escobar but that is a severe underpay from the Bucs’ perspective. Honestly, I expect Pedro to get traded because Ike > Pedro but to someone with more to offer like the Yankees or Toronto. Definitely a AL team because Pedro really was born to DH.
Pedro still strikes out a lot BUT if you watch him play you can tell his discipline has been getting much better. He doesn’t seem to swing at garbage as much and seems to be seeing more pitches. I don’t have stats to back that up though.. just a perception. He also has deceptive speed. he won’t steal 30 bases a season but once he gets the motor running he can go. Personally i think he has an average+ glove and a cannon arm he just cannot aim for some reason. In the right situation I can see him doing really well long term.. I hope that is Pittsburgh but realistically Hes probably better suited for the AL where he can play 3rd or 1st when needed but mostly used as DH to knock the cover off the ball
Pittsburgh has very little need for Middlebrooks. B+ pitching, first and possibly catcher prospect(s) for proven power is not crazy talk.
Will Middlebrooks? Keep dreaming, Boston.
I heard Walker and Alvarez for Bogaerts and Middlebrooks. This would make sense as Middlebrooks could play 3rd, Harrison would take over for Walker at 2nd and Xander to SS. As much as I feel that would be a complete payroll move by Bob Nutting, I wouldn’t be opposed to it. Plus, Pedro and Papi with short pitch in right could aid him back to his 2013 form.
side note: Josh Harrison didn’t show much in his career stat wise until this year and he wast 26 at the start of the year. Always had a lot of hustle though 🙂