Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski addressed the Boston media today and discussed a number of offseason-related topics. Some highlights from the session (all links to Twitter unless otherwise indicated)…
- The team’s top priority this winter is finding a front-line starter, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald tweets. He adds that Dombrowski said the team needs to find a “horse” to front the rotation. The Herald’s Scott Lauber tweets that Dombrowski said sorting out the back of the rotation won’t be the difficult part of the team’s offseason pitching puzzle, with Dombrowski citing quality depth.
- The Red Sox view Junichi Tazawa as a setup option, and while Koji Uehara is the current ninth-inning option, the team will look for additional closing options, tweets Mastrodonato.
- Trading Allen Craig would be an “ideal” scenario, Dombrowski said (via the Providence Journal’s Tim Britton), but the president recognized that it’ll be difficult to find a taker for the first baseman/corner outfielder/DH. Craig is owed $21MM through the 2017 season (including the buyout on his 2018 club option).
- Boston’s payroll will not go backwards in 2016, Dombrowski said (via Mastrodonato). As Mastrodonato points out, the team is shedding the contracts of Shane Victorino, Justin Masterson, Mike Napoli and others, giving the Sox a good deal of payroll flexibility this winter.
- The Sox are still firmly committed to Hanley Ramirez playing first base in 2016, said Dombrowski (via MLB.com’s Ian Browne). Ramirez is owed $66MM over the next three seasons, and while the Sox will undoubtedly be open to moving him this winter, that would be a difficult task. Via Mastrodonato, Dombrowski said Travis Shaw and Sam Travis are both still valuable depth pieces at first base.
- Regarding the outfield, Mastrodonato tweets that Dombrowski implied that the starters will be Jackie Bradley, Mookie Betts and Rusney Castillo, although Britton adds that Dombrowski seemed to express more confidence in Bradley than Castillo. The Sox will be looking for bench options for the outfield, Mastrodonato adds. I’d imagine that Brock Holt will see some time out there, although that certainly doesn’t rule out further additions, of course.
- John Tomase of WEEI.com has a full-length post recapping some comments from Dombrowski and GM Mike Hazen, including the announcement of some front office promotions. Eddie Romero has been promoted to VP of international scouting, and replay coordinator Adrian Lorenzo will step up to the position of international scouting director.
Am I missing something but since when is Hanley Ramirez a preferable option at first over Shaw or Holt?
Since he’s being paid $22 million dollars next season. He’s Ryan Howard. There are more desirable options, but not playing him isn’t realistic.
Except for the fact that HanRam is a lot better hitter than Howard. Rameriz has a career batting line of .296/.367/.494 with a .861 OPS. He has a swing for Fenway Park’s Green Monster and I expect him bounce back offensively and be mediocre defensively.
Get used to seeing him in the field everyday cause there is no way they spend 22 million and have him ride the bench. With big sloppy in the DH spot the only place Hanley can play is 1st with his horrible fielding. He may not even be good at first but unless you can come up with a second DH spot then that is where he will sit.
Shaw isn’t a dependable enough solution yet (poor AAA track record) and Holt is better in a super-utility role. Combine that with Hanley’s salary, and it makes a lot of sense to give him the job starting off.
Not sold on Shaw yet either. He could easily be Middlebrooks part deux, particularly considering his minor league record and lack of a prospect pedigree. Only like Holt at first base in the event of emergency. I do however like the idea of Shaw playing winter ball at third base to increase his versatility. He could be a nice backup plan if/when they give up on Sandoval and/or Hanley.
Holt’s biggest value is his super utility. It doesn’t make sense to give him a singular position. He’s a decent hitter with no power but is best served in a utility role for a first division team.
* I do, however;
Gosh thanks. Another day keeping the internet safe for punctuation. I think you may have missed a few million cases of people using apostrophes to make plurals. You should probably get right on that. And investigate the concept of prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar. And you wouldn’t use a semi-colon in that sentence.
No, he’s no Middlebrooks. Am not saying his MLB numbers are legit, but anyone can look at his career MiLB BB-K numbers and see that he isn’t.
Middlebrooks was and is a hacker. he always swung at anything thrown by the pitcher in the minors and it continued in the majors, Shaw was never like that… His K numbers a bit more out of whack his 1st partial season of MLB duty, but he always had a knack for grinding AB’s and laying off pitches.
You don’t stick up a career .365 minor league OBP without having a decent eye at the plate playing in non offensive leagues.
With Sam Travis and Shaw available, both with good power and average potential, I’m afraid Brock Holt may become expendable next year, and there would be plenty of interested teams for Holt. Travis made himself very noticed last year in AA and he’s ready to move up. Shaw would be good to back up 1st base, and Shaw plays a pretty good third base. Holt may be the piece that would tip the scales in a trade for a #1 or #2 starter.
… Sox need two frontline starters.
20/20 hindsight, you spend the Panda and Hanley money on Lester, a known quantity. Best guess-they thought they were assembling a younger top tier rotation by indentifying better values, like Porcello. Time will tell, I suppose.
Lester turned their offer down…
Lester turned their early, way below market offer down. There’s a difference. From a monetary perspective, he was wise to do so.
There offer was a low ball offer for much less money and years. They only made the offer to make it look like they had interest in him returning as not to upset there fan base. He already said he would have excepted less money from the Sox but they never made a reasonable offer to him after there first slap to his face offer.
They offered him a deal in the 130-135 range. Not unreasonable. just not good enough.
If they offered him that money at the time and instead of offering like $70M/4 yrs (or whatever it was), he’d likely have never left…via trade or free agency.
True. They certainly messed up the initial negotiations, They could have had him for 5/110 had they made that offer at the beginning, but they didn’t. They tried to make an honest offer at the end, but were outbid. The second offer wasn’t bad but they should have apologized and reopened negotiations in spring training of 2014. Then Lester would still be in Boston.
“better values, like Porcello”
I see what you did there…
Allen Craig and a B Rated Prospect for Jonathan Papelbon. Done deal for both ends
No one wants Papelbon. He is a cancer. Theres no way a B prospect is being moved in a deal for Pap.
Farrell is familiar with how Pap functions, plus the Sox need the bullpen help. If the Nats pick up an option vs LHP in exchange rather than nothing, I don’t see the issue. As the Sox I’d def take one year of Pap over 2 years of Craig, and the Nats feel the opposite (2 years of Craig rather than 1 year of Pap) I only suggested the prospect to perhaps make the Nationals taking on more salary more justifiable
They’d be taking on about triple Pap’s salary counting the money that Philly kicked in when they sent him over. Not a good deal for the Nats. Releasing him would be better than trading him for Craig.
Craig is making 19m (1m buyout) over 2 years, while Pap is making 11m for one. That’s not even double. The Nats save 2m on this years payroll, and add 11m to next years. Yes in theory that sounds poor, but with Tyler Moore’s awful performance, why not give a former all star a shot in the dark. At the worst, Craig is a second or third pinch hitter option occasionally playing against starting against lefties. At the best, he finds his swing again and becomes a staple in a lineup that has weak 1B production (sorry Zim, you’re on a downwards trend). Either way, I don’t reckon Craig will strangle a future HOF player
The perception though is that Papelbon, rightly or wrongly, was the driving force for the collapse of one of the league’s most talented teams on paper. Not sure a different team who underachieved last year (until September at least) would want to try that experiment again.
My bet is the Nats say no to that deal first. They’d be better off straight up releasing Paps then what would basically be paying $10M for a B-prospect. Even Boston kicking in $10M wouldn’t really make this deal worth it.
Paps may be a headache and the Nats are at a disadvantage dealing him, but they’ll get something for him even if it’s only a couple of million and a lower tier prospect.
The Nats won’t get anything for Papelbon. The Phillies couldn’t get anything before him and he didn’t choke anyone in Philly (in fact, no players or coaches said one bad word about him that I recall). They will either release him (60% chance) or he’ll be in their bullpen in April (40% chance in my opinion). $11M is a lot to pay for nothing when the guy, jerk or not, can still pitch.
Papelbon would not be welcome in Boston, he burned his bridges with all his sniping about the organization after he went to Philly, or don’t you remember? People have also seen first hand how volatile he is now, and MLB should go after him in the off season, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Harper doesn’t press charges.
As bruinsfan94 said, he is a cancer.
There is no better closer that the Red Sox can get for cheaper than Jonathan Papelbon. I do believe that all of Papelbon’s past issues have come from the lack of winning. Going to a Boston team that looks to be ready for contention in 2016 (assuming a top-shelf starter is acquired), I don’t see it as a major issue. He never really had any major issues in Boston and was generally well-liked by the fans. Not to mention John Farrell was his pitching coach. I think it’d be a great move to bring Pap back to Boston.
So you thing they are just one top shelf starter away from contending next year? Sounds like what every one was saying last year LOL
Who’s to say that the 2015 team couldn’t have contended with a top-shelf starter? We’ll never know because it didn’t happen. Which makes it all the more likely that it will happen this offseason to avoid repeating storylines. But yes, I think you take the 2015 offense, add a top shelf starter and rebuild the bullpen (starting with Papelbon, O’Day, and a lefty specialist), and this team could very well contend in 2016, especially when/if David Price leaves Toronto.
The 2015 squad could have competed if out prospects were ready for the beginning of the season. We don’t need too many additions as we had strong play from Shaw, Mookie, Bradley, and flashes of Rusney. Not saying we’re going to contend in 2016 for sure, but we’re a hell of a lot closer than people think we are. Not to mention the salary shredded (Napoli, Victorino, Breslow, Buchholz if we take that route)
They did a pretty decent job of winning after they got rid of old veterans, named Masterson, Napoli, Victorino and all of a sudden Kelly, Porcello played well and the youngster’s began playing instead of those old and washed up veterans.
Not saying the 2016 team is a PO team as it is, but it’s better right now than it was last year with how it began minus those guys and a healthy (for now) Bucholz.
All they need is BP pieces, the achilles heel nearly the entire season.
It doesn’t seem like anyone remembers the krap that Papelbon said about the Sox after he went to Philly, not only the team and it’s players, but the Boston fans. I remember, and I’m sure John Henry and company do to. I don’t see the Sox going after him, but I do see them going after Aroldis Chapman real hard. I also see Dombrowski making a big multi player trade, using a couple of our blue chip young players like Owens and even Jackie Bradley Jr. to get a frontline starter or two. I don’t think we’ll see Pablo Sandoval next year, I think he may be part of one of those packages.
Sam Travis had a monster year last year, he’ll be in AAA this year maybe for a heartbeat, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Sox make a spot for him backing up 1st base next year, and use Shaw to back up 3rd and OF. Rodriguez is a shoe in for a spot in the starting roster, and we should see Johnson coming up from Pawtucket also. Rich Hill made everyone sit up and take notice, and everyone is forgetting that Steven Wright will most likely be back also. Those two could be good coming out of the bullpen, with Hill making spot starts til he proves last year wasn’t a fluke.