The Orioles should strongly consider signing free agent slugger Pedro Alvarez, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com opines. However, adding Alvarez could complicate things for the O’s should Chris Davis come back in the picture. If Davis is re-signed and Alvarez is slotted in at DH, that would put Mark Trumbo in right field, and that’s a defensive liability that manager Buck Showalter might not be comfortable with.
If the O’s do not re-sign Davis, then Alvarez would make plenty of sense. The 28-year-old would help restore the power in Baltimore’s lineup and his bat would be a good fit for the AL East since Camden Yards and Yankee Stadium are two of the best parks for left-handed home runs.
While we wait to see how things progress with the Orioles and Alvarez (and Davis), here’s more out of the AL East:
- The Orioles showed Davis some loyalty by giving him his first chance to consistently play every day. He, of course, repaid that by turning into one of the league’s top home run hitters. Now, Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com wonders if loyalty will play into Davis’ ongoing free agency. Davis, 30 in March, is coming off a 47-homer season in which he batted .262/.361/.562 and is also the Major League leader in home runs dating back to 2012.
- In today’s mailbag, a reader asked Ian Browne of MLB.com about his thoughts on when Yoan Moncada might make his MLB debut for the Red Sox. Browne anticipates that Moncada will get to Double-A before the end of 2016 and reach Fenway Park at some point in 2017. In the long term, third base could be a good fit for Moncada, but he has the athleticism to play elsewhere if needed.
- Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald has three ideas to improve the Red Sox’s roster. Among them: trading Rusney Castillo and signing Alex Gordon.
Zach- what do you think in terms of length and money in order to land Alverez AND still sign Davis at $150/7 yrs?
Alvarez has almost no market now he’s being seen as a strict DH, it’s kinda just Baltimore. So they could wait til ST to sign him because he’s probably going to still be around.
Tampa Bay is always an out of the box thinker. I could see a ST invite for Alvarez if Baltimore waits too long.
tampa could be a nice fit for alvarez
I used to think that, but they were pretty adamant about using LoMo there next year in some recent q+a’s.
not even close rays already have 3 first basemen, shaffer loney and morrison……
Tampa won’t pay good money (alvarez is a boras client) for anyone let alone strictly a DH. Alvarez seems like a fit for Baltimore, Cleveland or a sneaky fit for the Angels if they can get him relatively cheap.
Well as the saying goes “in for a penny, in for a pound”. The Red Sox have already paid $217MM for Price and picked up the roughly $25MM remaining on Kinbrel’s last 2 guaranteed years.. Trading Castillo would save the Sox about $10MM annually against MLB AAV for Luxury Tax Purposes. Jon Heyman projected Gordon to get a deal in the $20MM AAV range. If that’s close to accurate and the Sox move Castillo their 2016 team payroll for their 40 man roster for LTP would be in the neighborhood of $215 to $220MM. They certainly have the resources to handle that.
The only caveat is would the Sox be willing to give up their 12th overall pick in the draft to sign Gordon. I’m sure they could get a decent prospect be it not an elite one for Castillo in a trade.
Problem is, I don’t think anyone takes Castillo and his salary even if he’s free. Sox would have to attach a pretty good prospect to him to make it work.
To me, if the Sox feel like they need another big lefty hitter in the lineup to make them a real championship threat, and they’re not interested in just signing Gordon and using Castillo as a 4th OF, they will have to trade Bradley.
I agree with you about Castillo. You would have to find a team willing to commit to Castillo for the next 5 years / $60MM assuming he doesn’t opt-out after the 2019 season. Not sure he’s worth that kind of money or years.without getting something else as part of the package.
Knowing the RS and the hype any of their prospects get, you have to know that 12th pick is a potential hall of famer before they ever pick him. How can you give that up?
I understand what you are talking about with the hype around any Sox prospect. They talk about Moncada as if he is next Mike Schmidt or Rogers Hornsby. Moncada hasn’t even made it up to “A” ball yet.
What? He spent the entire year in A ball last year at Greenville….
Greenville is “Low A” I should have been clearer I was referring to High A Salem.
To be fair that was the hype around him before the Red Soxs signed him.
The hype train on their prospects is out of hand. Same with the cubs. I don’t really see that with the other 28 teams.
I can understand why they didn’t mention the third idea Jason Mastro had. No one is going to take Ramirez off the Sox’s hands, especially not Baltimore, knowing that Davis may well sign with their competition because of such a move. I love that after matter of factly stating that trade proposal, he then talks of how difficult it would be to trade Rusney. Hilarious! No wonder Boston fans have a skewed sense of reality.
So you don’t think anyone would consider taking Ramirez off of the Sox hands if they ate enough of his salary? Maybe it’s you who has the skewed sense of reality. Defensive atrocity, yes….still a great hitter though. Could be a DH for someone.
Not with his baggage. Castillo still has upside and is more tradeable, with less contract needed to be eaten. Until Ramirez actually produces without being a distraction, he is untradeable. No team knows whether Ramirez will “want” to DH. They only know what happened when he didn’t want to learn LF.
That’s rather unfair to Ramirez. He’s never been known as a bad teammate, and if he were under a fairer contract would be a quite decent asset. It’s the contract that kills his value.
I wonder if the White Sox would take him and some cash in exchange for LaRoche, who could play 1b in Boston for a year while Travis gets more seasoning.
Seems like a great idea for the White Sox but would the Red Sox want any part of LaRoche though?
As an outsider looking in I wonder why people in Boston hate on Hanley when Pablo Sandoval’s contract is the one that will hurt most
Didnt a team just trade 4 of their top prospects for a $15m wifeel beating closet?
If you are referring to the Yankees, none of those players were top prospects. Cashman is too smart to trade that kind of package for a reliever.
None of them were top prospects. And Innocent until proven guilty
Please… Nobody wants him. Not even the team that threw all that money at Ramirez!
Nonsense. If contract sitting, excuse making, pouting, non hustling BJ Upton can be given away? Anybody can.
Why wouldn’t Baltimore simply put Davis in RF, Trumbo at 1B, and Alvarez to DH. Davis has been shopped as an Of to other teams. Why not in Baltimore?
Exactly!! You hear boris talk about how he is so versatile. But when you also hear about the orioles in the same breath its that he wants to play first base and not outfield.. Whateverrrr
Good point. I was wondering about that too. It would only need to be for a year, then Davis could move back to 1B when one or both of Trumbo and Alvarez left. Seems like an ideal situation.
Great point. Think the Orioles should start a rebuild but if they still want to go in why not use all three and try to contend with a “powerful” line up.
Because no team can afford three 140-175 strikeout seasons from their 4-5-6 hitters.
Hey the Astros were close to that last year and did okay so who knows?
Davis played RF 253.1 innings last season without an error. Though he is better at first (probably an under-rated defensive player) RF isn’t a bad option. Maybe Boras will “toss in” Alvarez after a favorable Davis contract. Of course, this does nothing to provide that key arm in the rotation,
If the Blue Jays were smart, they would trade Encarnacion who will be a FA after this year and get some pitching or prospects and then sign Davis to get some LH power more dependable than Smoak
If they didn’t have the money to sign pitching, they won’t have the money for Davis.
Totally agree! I think Jays are going with mediocre pitching, let’s keep loading up on offense!! Davis is younger and better defense too. You can’t keep both Bautista and EE.
Skewed sense? Hmm Havent we won 3 WS recently. Seems like we have a good sense of reality.
Yes the Sox have. but more recently they have finished dead last in the AL East in 3 of the last 4 years. Failing to win even 80 games in any of those 3 last place seasons. And they have missed the postseason in 5 of their last 6 seasons.
What the team does has nothing to do with the beliefs of the fans. As you show, fans only see the best, and forget (to mention) the worst. Do you really think Ramirez would still be on the team if they could have traded him? They moved Cespedes because he didn’t want to play RF. DD was able to move Fielder after he had a bad season (for him), terrible playoff, and then criticized the Detroit fans, and his contract was more substantial than Ramirez’s. If he could have been traded… well, he’s still a Red Sox. Need I say more.
No one’s going to take Castillo, Ramirez, Pablo this year — unless Sox severly contribute cash to the deal. Give HanRam and Pablo a chance. Find a stud AAA outfielder in case Rusney and (or) JBJ can’t hit. I’d back a JBJ lesser pitcher for Soler, as much as I love Jackie.
I would really like to see the Red Sox sign Alex Gordon. Great glove, and would be a great bat at Fenway. I could honestly see him as a .320 hitter due to some off the Monster doubles he would produce. The only way I see it though, is along with trading Castillo, the Sox need to trade Hanley Ramirez and/or Pablo Sandoval to clear up money for Gordon’s contract. Even wit the trade, Boston would still have to eat the contracts of Ramirez or Sandoval. So overall, Gordon seems unlikely at the moment. If Boston dumps Hanley and/or Pablo, possibly a different story.
Signing Alex Gordon to play LF in Fenway is forcing Picasso to paint by numbers.
A complete waste of his talent in a left field that is only 5 strides deep. His arm would be useless in Fenway.
Actually most opposing outfielders have been known to say left field in Fenway is notoriously difficult. Sure it’s much shallower but the ball doesn’t always bounce off the wall the way you’d expect it to and a fly ball right next to wall is hard to read.
People always called Manny Ramirez a joke in the outfield but in left in Fenway he had some of the best outfield assist numbers in the league in his last few years.
This is with the “new” wall put up several years back also, not with the old one which had rivet heads protruding from it, which Williams and Yaz had to deal with and some balls would hit one, then the ball would go flying off in some other direction.
That wall used to be much trickier than it currently is. I’d like to see a video on some of the wacky misdirections on balls hit off of it.. Like balls that would hit the old ladder which used to be permanently mounted up the length of it, the rivets.. It was wild, yet Yaz won 7 GG’s playing it like that.
Why are most people consider Ramirez and Sandoval finished already? I am pretty sure both will be much better – if healthy – in 2016.
They better be or Bostons stuck with two guys who can’t hit nor defend.
I think Ramirez is a lost cause. He has the attitude history of a player who’s mostly just there for the paycheck. Sandoval however I think will come back looking to prove something.
I guess for a player to get a fat paycheck he needs to show some skills on the field not just show up to get the money.
Both have put up declining numbers for several years and are on the wrong side of 30. That is the best indication of being finished.
And both just started multi-year expensive deals
Alvarez should have more of a market. I mean youre essentially getting 25 home runs for MAYBE $3,000,000 and that’s being generous. Same with Carter ( and Carter brings some years of control with him)
If i were Philly, Im signing Alvarez as a bench bat in case Howard is suspended and then using him as a trade chip in July. I dont want to hear Darin Ruf, I’d rather have Alvarez as a proven power bat.
Well it’s not like the Phillies are trying to contend now right?
If I were the Phillies I’d maybe trade for a firstbase prospect like
Sam Travis
Jon Singleton
Dan Vogelbach
Christian Walker
D.J. Peterson
Matt Olson
Brandon Drury
Richie Shaffer
See if any of these guys can be big league bats.
For the next five years or so.
I think if anyone can figure out a way to move Hanley it’s Dombrowski!
If he can move Fielder’s gargantuan contract from Detroit to Texas I think he maybe able to figure something out!
It may involve sox moving a controllable young arm like Kelly/Elias/Johnson/Owens ( my guess Kelly) but we’ll see
There doesn’t seem to be many teams out there with a lot of money left. If he could find a way to find a buyer who’d take on half or a third of his salary I’d call him a genius.
Also depending on how Davis market shakes out/ ability to move Hanley wouldn’t surprise me to see sox take a look at Justin Morneau
Wishful thinking that loyalty to the O,s may help persuade Davis to sign with them . Did the author of this piece consider who his agent is?
Well there are the likes of Cano and Danks who fired the guy so the chances maybe slim but the possibility is not 0.
why would the rays consider a trade for richie shaafer they are trying to get better at offense…