The Blue Jays can advance to the ALCS for the second straight year if they can defeat the Rangers in Game Three of their series tonight, while the Red Sox will be eliminated if they don’t win their own Game Three with the Indians this afternoon. The Sox could live to play another day, however, without ever taking the field — there is a lot of rain in the forecast in Boston and MLB officials are already meeting to discuss a possible postponement. Here’s the latest from around the AL East…
- The Rays may have to trade some salary in order to add needed parts to their roster while still keeping a payroll in the $65-$70MM range, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. Drew Smyly, Erasmo Ramirez and Brad Boxberger could all be potential trade chips, Topkin speculates, since the three hurlers are all becoming increasingly expensive through arbitration.
- In his latest Boston Globe notes column, Nick Cafardo wonders if the Red Sox could eventually move Xander Bogaerts to third base given Bogaerts’ subpar defensive metrics. Bogaerts’ glovework accounted for minus-10 Defensive Runs Saved and -1.6 UZR/150 in 2016, a significant drop from his generally average numbers in 2015. A move to the hot corner doesn’t seem imminent, given that the Sox already have Travis Shaw as the incumbent, Pablo Sandoval still owed a lot of money and top prospects Yoan Moncada and Rafael Devers also lined up for third base. It could be that the Red Sox can live with Bogaerts’ defense as long as he keeps producing at the plate. If not, other shortstop options include slick-fielding but light-hitting Deven Marrero, as well as prospects C.J. Chatham and Mauricio Dubon still a couple of years away.
- Also from Cafardo’s column, he opines that Jose Bautista’s time with the Blue Jays could be coming to an end. The Jays may not even extend Bautista a one-year, $16.7MM qualifying offer for fear that the slugger could accept it. Bautista had a down year by his standards, hitting .234/.366/.452 with 22 homers over 517 plate appearances in a season interrupted by two DL stints. These are still pretty solid numbers, however, plus Bautista is enhancing his stock with another big postseason performance, so I would be pretty surprised if the Blue Jays declined to even issue a QO. Unless the club is simply ready to move on from the slugger, I would also imagine that the Jays wouldn’t mind having Bautista back on a one-year deal, given his outstanding track record.
- The Blue Jays could make Edwin Encarnacion another offer in the wake of his excellent season, Cafardo writes, though Encarnacion is expected to be a top Red Sox target to replace David Ortiz.
- Encarnacion has long been linked to Boston on the rumor mill, though ESPN’s Buster Olney (subscription required) feels Encarnacion isn’t really a fit since the Red Sox are already overflowing with position players. The Sox could also use a left-handed bat rather than a righty-swinger like Encarnacion, plus there are several other first base/DH types on the market this winter that could be obtained for a much cheaper price.
Didn’t Red Sox ownership say they still want Sandoval playing ? If that is the case, then where does Encarnacion fit in ?
Hanley is at 1B, and unless Sandoval takes over 3B for Holt/Shaw, he would be DH, no? If Sandoval is DH and Hanley is at 1B, then where would Encarnacion fit in ?
Shaw is expendable and probably in demand. A 2.3WAR player only costing 500K who can play both hot corners? He should bring back a great piece. Sandoval just turned 30, players don’t just forget how to play at that age.
It’s politics and game-playing. Saying publicly that they still want Sandoval could very well be part of a strategy to make him seem valuable so that they can trade him. If they say negative things about him, it’ll hurt his trade value and/or make other teams think they can offer the Sox little in return for a player they want to get rid of. As for Buster Olney thinking Encarnacion isn’t a fit because the Sox are overflowing with position players, that makes zero sense. Departure of Ortiz leaves a gaping hole. Encarnacion and Ramirez could take turns playing 1st/DH-ing. Sox need help in the bullpen. I don’t care how many saves Kimbrel has – he’s far from lights out. Every outing is an adventure. They should go hard after Chapman in the offseason.
I think the idea is he retakes the third base job with Holt and Shaw struggling this year. No idea how that plays out especially with Moncada likely being ready by May or June.
Monacda ready by may or june?!?!?!? Dude can’t hit a breaking ball to save his life. He needs to stay in triple a next year.
Oh god cafardo if Bautista accepted a qualifying offer Shapiro and Atkins would be hysterical. He’s easily worth 16 million for one year, it’s years 3 or 4 that are scary. His numbers are still well above average, unless you’re a dinosaur who looks strictly at batting average. He should Stick to writing about Boston, he’s clueless when it comes to the rest of the league
Bautista’s QO isn’t the no brainer it once was during Spring Training. His injuries are more pronounced as he gets older.
I think he’d still get offered it and still would turn it down.
Why not? You don’t think the Jays would be happy to have him back on a 1 year $18MM deal?
I think the Jays are going to be very cautious about how they spend their money this off season in order to field a competitive team. Moreover, if push comes to shove between dollars for Bautista or dollars for Encarnacion, the latter is clearly the winner.
I’m not saying it won’t happen – I’m just saying that it’s not as clear cut as it once was in spring training.
“The Rays may have to trade some salary in order to add needed parts to their roster while still keeping a payroll in the $65-$70MM range.”
Pathetic. I wish I wasn’t a fan of this team sometimes. It’s so infuriating to have our GM saying the team is “hellbent on being competitive”, but when it comes time to improve the team it becomes so obvious that’s nothing but lip service because they never make an effort to add payroll. To put things in perspective, the Rays payroll wouldn’t be a Top 10 payroll in the NHL, a league with a salary cap of $73MM. Even raising the payroll to $100MM gives the team a chance to compete, and that would still be the 4th lowest payroll in baseball. This team’s ceiling is a wild card game until something changes financially.
Agreed. As a fellow Rays fan, it pains me to see them trade so much “affordable talent” simply because they can’t afford it. I understand them trading aces like Shields, Price etc since they cost upwards of $20 million, but when you can’t afford a guy like Erasmo making $4 million, its time to reevaluate your position as an owner. If Sternberg truly can’t afford to field a competitive roster, its time to start looking into selling the team. And it’s only going to get worse, as relievers and platoon player’s contracts are at an all time high. You hit the nail on the head of this team’s ceiling. Even if everything went right this year, they still would only be a wild card team, if that. The team needs to do some serious work this offseason to revamp the pen, fix the never-ending void behind the dish, and they CANNOT afford to miss on the 4th pick in the draft next year.
Rays need a new ownership and relocate to Charlotte or Las Vegas.
MLB just needs to implement a salary floor. Start there to weed out cheap owners. The market has shifted and wheeling and deeling isn’t going to fly anymore. The cat’s out of the bag on who is truly good and who isn’t. Small market teams/teams with cheap owners will just get crushed year in and year out with maybe one or two good years sprinkled in there.
It would make more sense if the Lightning ownership partnered with someone and put a stadium in Channelside. There is a huge baked in TV market for the Rays; aka big revenue stream. Dumb to start over again.
As a Yankees fan, but someone who admires what the Rays have managed, I agree with you. All the jury-rigging MLB does for competitive balance misses the mark. They need to re-think how to keep the truly smaller market teams competitive–and just charging the big spenders more penalties really isn’t getting it done. Maybe change the competitive balance picks–make it bottom five instead of bottom ten, and give the five an extra pick between the next round. Maybe pool the money on luxury tax/revenue sharing and allow smaller market teams to supplement their offers to home grown players with some money out of the pool.
I’m sick of fixing the rules for competitive balance. There are many small market teams that are doing fine. It’s all about location in Tamps, there are more people there rooting for the opposing team.
You and I are basically in agreement–the competitive balance rules are too Byzantine. I’d cut most of them, and replace them with something simple–let low-market teams sell one asset they possess to larger market teams–cap space below the luxury tax threshold. The trade would be $ for actual players.
Nothing will change effectively until MLB starts losing money overall. There is zero incentive for them until that happens. That’s why we will continue seeing only window dressing measures.
Fix the bullpen….. we have the hitters
No chance the Jays “fear” of Bautista accepting the QO. As JFisnasty mentioned, it’s the multi year commitment that scares the Jays and rightfully so. Bautista on a 1 year deal offers little risk and huge reward based on his past performance. Actually, if the Jays and Bautista could work out one year deals going forward, that could be best.
The only real question mark in terms of who receives a QO is with Saunders.
Unfortunately for Saunders I think he has played himself out of a QO with his abysmal second half performance. When you have lost your place in lineup as an everyday player to Zeke Carerra you have a lot of soul searching to do.
I think it is a no-brainer that the Jays will extend the QO to Bautista and Encarnacion, and I would expect both will decline it. From a Jays perspective it would be ideal to have them back on one-year and three-year deals, respectively; and I’m just as sure that both will look for more term this off-season.
As for Boston, I realize that Panda was not a DD signing, but the three years and $53m he has left on his deal is still a lot of money to swallow. Given that the Panda is lefty bat (perhaps almost exclusively now), wouldn’t it make more sense for Boston to have Panda and Hanley split 1B and DH, and allocate the Ortiz dollars to pitching rather than adding another right-handed thumper?
I watched every Red Sox game this year, Bogaerts is not a subpar defender. I dont care what the metrics say. He is above average on his worst day.
Maybe if you watched other games and other SS you would see what above average really is. Not saying he is bad but he is not one of the best in the game like you make him out to be. Anyone can make plays that are routine. How do you do on plays that are not routine is what separates you from the boys. .
I agree, Bogerts sub par?Thats a joke. He struggled with the bat coming down the stretch when he stopped using the whole field, and he did not have many days off at all. Kid looked and was tired many nights!
Iggy was “above avg”….they should have kept him at short and brought Bogarts up as a third baseman to begin with, Jake Peavy did not do that much for the team as a return for Iggy….I do think Bogarts Will grow into his offense, but he’s an awfully big kid to play shortstop in another year or two, just my opinion of course
And can Moncada play SS?
Sorry about the triple post I don’t know what I did wrong
I see the Red Sox picking up a guy like Ryan Howard on a short deal to DH rather than spend big on a guy like EE.
I doubt if anyone is going to sign Ryan Howard.
Still think the answer is bring up the kid Sam Travis and platoon him at first with Travis Shaw, bullpen is the big mess on this team, fix that train wreck first, DD is not known for his expertise in that area, big time flop in Detroit with there pen…
Shaw is a very good defensive third baseman, I’d keep him there, put Panda at first and Hanley at DH. Bullpens always seem to be a big mess, with teams carrying so many pitchers these days the likelihood of more than one getting injured or having an off year has increased. I don’t know what sort of timetable there is for Carson Smith to return, and Ziegler, Koji and Tazawa are all free agents.
What do you suppose the likelihood, and radical-sounding possibility, of Bette returning to the infield and playing 3B? This frees up a spot in the OF. They could actually make a run at both Bautista and Encarcion.
I know – wishful at best.