A second opinion for Clay Buchholz from Dr. James Andrews confirmed that the right-hander does not need surgery, but he’ll received a platelet-rich plasma injection and won’t throw for five to six weeks, writes Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. As Mastrodonato points out, the Red Sox have a $13MM club option on Buchholz, so avoiding a serious injury is key for the right-hander. Buchholz hopes the option will be exercised — “I’ve definitely been here my whole career,” he said. “I don’t really want to go anywhere.” — and barring a significant injury, that seems like a foregone conclusion, Mastrodonato writes. Buchholz’s injury is a flexor strain, and the right-hander pointed to Royals lefty Jason Vargas as a reason to exercise caution: “I think it’s the exact same thing that [Royals starter Jason Vargas] got hurt the other day. That’s what he went on the DL for was flexor. Seeing that, that’s definitely not what I want to do. I’m going to take the time I need to take off for it to be better.” Vargas, of course, did originally hit the DL with a flexor strain, and he returned quickly, only he end up re-injuring his arm and requiring Tommy John surgery.
More Red Sox notes…
- The team’s second-half woes have halted its pursuit of short-term starting pitching acquisitions, sources tell WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford. The Sox had entertained the thought of a run at Johnny Cueto to give themselves an increased chance to sign him and to make a push in 2015, but that thinking has been tabled. Boston wasn’t involved in talks for Scott Kazmir, Bradford hears, although they had previously had some interest in him.
- In a second piece, Bradford urges Red Sox GM Ben Cherington to send a message to a team that looks to have lost direction by committing to a big-name starting pitcher to front the rotation — even if it means a painful parting of ways with top prospects. The Red Sox in recent years have focused too much on what might be (prospect value) as opposed to what presently is, Bradford opines, and that philosophy has led the team to its current predicament.
- Cherington met with the Boston media recently, and ESPN Boston’s Gordon Edes has a number of highlights from his conversation, including Cherington’s thoughts on the team’s lack of front-line pitching and the possibility of moving Hanley Ramirez out of left field and to a new position. Cherington feels that Ramirez’s defense on the road is beginning to stabilize, though he admits that Ramirez faces challenges playing left field in Boston with the Green Monster. As far as the team’s rotation goes, the quest to add front-line pitching doesn’t end July 31, Cherington says, and the team will explore multiple avenues to try to acquire such an arm. He notes that the front office believes some pitchers currently in the organization could achieve the desired lofty heights. (That quote, in particular, is one that prompted the above-linked column from Bradford.)
- Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald opines that despite all of the questions surrounding Rusney Castillo, Pablo Sandoval, Ramirez and the team’s pitching staff, the biggest question facing the Sox is whether or not Cherington is the right man to lead Boston to a sustainable run of success. Lauber praises Cherington for being accountable and placing the organization’s struggles on his own shoulders, but he also notes that such accountability is easier when owner John Henry recently gave his GM a large vote of confidence.
- Shane Victorino hopes to remain with the Red Sox through the end of his current contract, he tells Bradford. As Bradford notes, even if the Red Sox do sell pieces, Victorino could very well remain in Boston, as he’s been injured for much of the past two seasons and has more than $5MM remaining on his 2015 salary.
I completely disagree with Bradford. The Red Sox are where they are now because of where they spent money; it has nothing to do with over-reliance of prospects. Betts and Bogaerts are arguably the co-Red Sox MVPs this season. The problem is Hanley and Pablo and Porcello — terrible signings. We’ve seen it before in A-Gon, Crawford, even Lackey and Beckett. The problem with the Red Sox is that they don’t know where to spend money. Look at the 2013 year, all free agents that were brought in were mid-level (Vic, Nap, Breslow, Uehara, etc). Look at 2007. Pedroia, Ellsbury, and Youkilis all hit in the top five of the lineup, all young guys. Prospects are where this team has found its success in building a core to build around, free agents and bad extensions are where this team has drowned.
Agreed. I’m not sure Bradford knows what he’s talking about. That, or he hasn’t watched the team closely at all.
Boston fans and front office thought signing Hanley and Pablo were genius moves by Cherington I thought. Seems like everyone on ESPN and MLB networks had them penciled to win the division and world series. But Porcello is young so I guess Boston can be patient with him. Bogaerts and Betts got off to slow starts and hopefully for Boston they can sustain their recent success. But signing Hanley was superfluous.
I think the Sandoval contract is the worse of the two and the one they should’ve backed off of. Hanley’s contract is quite good for a guy with his history of great offensive production. Obviously, they have to get him out of LF ASAP.
Trade Ramirez to the Mets on the Cheap! Accomplishes two things , Saves Money and get’s rid of Malcontent and Clubhouse Cancer !
lol. The Mets ownership is pathetic and have shown a history of pinching pennies. There is no way they take Ramirez w/o BOS paying almost everything and frankly he isn’t worth it.
Hanley’s contract is quite good? LOL, C’mon, have you even looked at the contract? $19,750,000M this yr, $22.750M next yr and all the years after for a glorified DH is AWFUL. Never mind the Red Sox bid against themselves as there really were No other bidders even remotely close to that kind of money. Oh and Hanley is disgusting in the field. To say that Panda is worse in any way to Hanley is absurd. Is Panda struggling at the plate and having an un-panda like year in the field? Yes but Id still take him over a pure DH that has no spot on this team because we still have Ortiz any day.
Nobody had the Sox penciled in to win anything this year. Their rotation and BP was considered too weak by all the media outlets before the season even started.
Well apparently you didn’t listen to the media and projections.
lol That’s not true at all. Most people had them winning the division and felt their rotation was underrated (Porcello off a career year! Joe Kelly has a fastball! Buchholz was an ace for that one time!)
Nobody? Really not one person did? lol You must have just started paying attention to base ball like last week then.
Great post, agree 100%. I just don’t understand why you would dedicate all that money to both Pablo and Hanley, especially with Papi still on the roster. Cherington had to realize it would only be a matter of time until 2 out of those 3 would only be productive as DH’s; that’s a problem when you’re allowed only one spot in the lineup for that position. Combine that with entering the season with a below average starting rotation – especially in the AL East – and this is what you get.
The biggest question the Sox need to answer is: If any team is willing to part with a prospect package or some pitching talent, are they willing to trade Ortiz? The loyal fans would go ape, the iffy fans might say good riddance, but the front office might be really tempted. But he could only stay in the AL, and would not want to play against him in the future.
Ortiz has 10 and 5 rights.. He can block all trades.. Plus, I am pretty sure his contract is up this year..
Ortiz’s contract is Not up this year. He has vesting option(s) based on plate appearances that barring a season ending injury he Will hit and he Will be here next yr
I would have to say that both the Blue Jays and Orioles both have below average rotations.. Personally, I though Ramirez would adjust to LF way better than he has.. Shortstops are supposed to be able to adapt to new positions easier than other position players.. I know Sandoval should be producing better but he hasn’t been exactly known for his bat throughout his career.. Its the post season where he has always shined..
Cherrington traded Lachey for Kelly and Allen Craig. That alone in my opinion is grounds for him being fired,
Really? Sounds like hindsight is 20/20…Kelly just aboutnshut Boston down in the WS and craig was a 300 hitter and their hest hitter in that same WS. All that and Lackey made it clear he really didnt want to be here. Notnsure you want a guy in your clubhouse who pretty much cant stand Boston.
Although I agree some moves are head scratchers, i disagree that was one of them. It was pretty obvious, to me anyway, whay that move was made. It was a good move at the time IMO.
The Sox problems are many. With poor hitting raising it’s head more often than not, I’m wondering why the Boston sports media hasn’t been calling for hitting coach Davis’ head. Seems that’s where any chopping should be done, for starters. Sox hitters need to be more aggressive. Plate discipline and running up the pitch count have never been tops on my list. For what these guys are getting paid, they should be swinging at anything around the strike zone. Looking at called strikes should be a huge “no-no.” Want to get a starter out of the game and get into the oppositions bullpen? Hit the ball.
In style of play the Red Sox are a moneyball team in the same way the A’s, Indians, and Rays are. That’s the way they all approach hitting. Those teams get coaches, managers and rejected players from one another. The Pirates are close to them.
“Get a pitch to hit and put a good swing on it”. If you hit it right at a fielder, quote the BABIP and say the hitter was “unlucky”.
A team with as many prospects as the Red Sox has should be better than this, but one is reminded that prospects are just that, until they prove themselves at the major league level. Reading the pre-season hype, along with the number of “off-limits” types, you would have thought the minors alone were comparable to the Rig Red Machine. What you are seeing right now is reality. Is Ortiz really that surprising at his age? He can still contribute, but he’s not in his prime. Hanley has hit. Sandoval is not all that far from his career norms. The pitching staff was a gamble, no question. Cherington brought in people who would have made him look like a genius if they had panned out. So far, the reality has been less inspiring. But, there’s still time left, in this season, and next. The Red Sox have developed an interesting model–win big, or go home (very) early. Sells tickets, beers, and ad time.
I read the names of Xander Mookie Blake Vaz and Rusney as the off limits players. You HAVE choose a few who you think will be the next core of the team. I think Blake will be traded this winter for a young controllable TOTR pitcher. Vaz is already throwing early and feels good. He should be fine and be our C for the next decade. Hes a much better catcher than Swihart.
Define “much better”. Because Swihart is the better all around hitter and really isnt that far off as a defensive catcher as some people want to think. I would suggest reading scouting reports as Swihart is much higher rated than Vazquez. Sending Blake somewhere for anything short of a long term controlled Ace like a Chris Sale or Sonny Gray would be the biggest mistake the Sox have ever made.
The only last place team with a whole story dedicated to basically nothing.
Sometimes it feels that Cherrington is in a state of denial with this team. Its clear that they still need a complete pitching overhaul, which they should have done this past offseason, instead of just betting on a bunch of mid-tier arms. He really has to step it up this trade deadline/offseason to show he’s the man for the job.
Last off-season I wrote here that having a pitching staff with Buckholtz, Porcello, Miley and Kelly heading it up looked sort of strange for a contender – especially one that played its home games in Fenway Park. I got numerous replies telling me how wrong I was.
I think there is something to be said about being too cautious with prospects; I can fall into this trap as well. But, you need to strike a proper balance. The reality is, every team every year has something that they can improve and it’s tempting to fire off a prospect here and there to get it done. Continuing to do so is a sure way to end up with a dearth of valuable prospects, which in turn forces you more into free agency where you get older, more expensive players on contracts you know are going to be bad the last few years the day you sign them.
The way to consistently win is to strike the balance. You need to be able to reliably bring players up from your minor-league system to fill holes, you need to be willing to move some guys when those solutions aren’t available or are unreasonable in your system or free agency if upgrading makes sense in your current situation, and you need to let prospects who are ready replace your veterans (and hopefully those vets get you a few more prospects in a trade to try out). In all cases you need to remind yourself that prospects fail.
Red Sox are about to sell some and trash the season at the trading deadline for the 3rd time in 4 years.
Wow!
And get another high draft back to pad there loaded or so call loaded farm! The rich get richer.
Bradford doesn’t know what he is talking about.. The Sox have been a team that knows how to draft and develop players.. If they choose to place a certain value on a prospect they have that right and should not be second guessed.. Their track record speaks for itself.. They are a big market team and yet during their last championship year most of their team came from their farm.. They had a legit ace in Lester.. A Legit #2/3 in Buchholz.. #5 Doubront 2nd base, 3rd (granted I think Bradford was thinking Middlebrooks and JBJ when he wrote that article) CF, and the 4th outfielder all came from the farm.. Plus there are so many players that they traded away that became stars like Hanley Ramirez and Anthony Rizzo.. Heck even Masterson came up on their farm.. Just because they overvalued two players the last few years doesn’t mean they have been overdoing it..