Red Sox president Sam Kennedy spoke to MassLive.com’s Jen McCaffrey about the team’s loss of executives Mike Hazen and Amiel Sawdaye, who signed on the become the new general manager and senior vice president/assistant general manager of the D-backs, respectively, last week. Kennedy acknowledged that both are big losses to the organization but doesn’t feel that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski’s leadership style had anything to do with their exit from the organization. “I think the opportunities that have come up are a real credit to the Boston Red Sox,” Kennedy told McCaffrey. “The Arizona Diamondbacks had a need at general manager and the top baseball operations job was open and they contacted us right away because they know the Red Sox have talented folks.”
Kennedy went on to discuss the decision not to name a new GM, noting that the GM title and president of baseball ops title can be interchangeable, and the most important element is to have one person accountable for baseball operations, which for the Red Sox, is Dombrowski. As McCaffrey notes, both Hazen and Sawdaye were integral parts of the Sox’ player development efforts, with Sawdaye overseeing the 2011 draft that netted Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley, Blake Swihart, Matt Barnes, Travis Shaw and Henry Owens.
More on the BoSox…
- The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier revisits the Andrew Miller for Eduardo Rodriguez swap that the Red Sox made with the Orioles in July 2014. In light of Miller’s emergence as perhaps baseball’s best reliever and the fact that Rodriguez has yet to develop into a consistent rotation piece, Speier spoke to five rival talent evaluators about the deal, and each of them firmly voiced the opinion that it was still a good trade for then-GM Ben Cherington. Two used the term “no-brainer” to describe the Red Sox’ end of the deal, and each expressed confidence that Rodriguez can still be at least a third or fourth starter in the Majors. Speier also spoke to Red Sox special assistant Mark Wasinger, who in 2014 was a special assignment scout that contributed to the decision to target Rodriguez. Wasinger says improvements in Rodriguez’s command and to his breaking ball actually give him a higher ceiling now than when Boston initially acquired him. As Speier points out, the 23-year-old Rodriguez posted a 3.24 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in a vastly improved second half of the season.
- The improbable return of Kyle Schwarber to the Cubs’ World Series roster serves as motivation for his friend and former college teammate Sam Travis, writes WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford. Travis, one of Boston’s more well-regarded prospects, suffered a torn ACL just a month and a half after Schwarber earlier this season, causing him to miss the majority of the year. Travis discussed with Bradford the excitement he feels for his friend as he pursues a World Series ring but also expressed confidence that he’ll be fully healthy and ready to compete for a Major League roster spot in Spring Training. Bradford points out that Travis had a huge Spring Training last year and now with David Ortiz’s retirement, an opening to split time with Hanley Ramirez at first base and DH could present itself. “That’s the stuff you dream about and the stuff you live for,” said Travis. “…It’s definitely a great opportunity coming up and I’m looking forward to take advantage of it.”
Blake Swihart is in the 2011 draft part twice
Apparently I’m really excited about Blake Swihart. Ha. Thanks — fixed that. (And brewed more coffee)
Aren’t we all?! I’d like to see him in LF next yr full time. Flip JBJ for another starter, move Benintendi to CF where he’s spent the majority of his career.
“The Arizona Diamondbacks… contacted us right away because they know the Red Sox have talented folks.”
Let me correct that for you Kennedy. *HAD talented folks. This “aw shucks” mentality under the Dombo Era makes me sick. “Whoops, we just gave up a bunch of top prospects for no reason,” “damn, we just lost some more talented young execs, oh well.” What does it have to take for their to be some sense of urgency in their baseball ops? This is not on-field where there needs to be a loose vibe so that the players aren’t tight… Start acting like it matters that this organization is just bleeding talent away since Dombo took over.
There is little teams can actually do to prevent their execs from moving to another team if a promotion is involved. Teams can technically not allow their guys to interview, but that looks bad unless the team is promoting them or setting them up to take over for another front office spot. Sawdaye got offered the AGM role, same as the D’Backs, but the D’Backs role had more responsibilities than what the Red Sox were offering.
Miller has been arguably the best set up guy in the past decade and the deal was a “no brainier”?
Rodriguez is clearly a talent. And Miller was going to be a FA. But it is possible that one or two of the “rival talent evaluators” might be formerly associated with the Red Sox.
It was two months of Miller, who was set to be a free agent, for six-plus years of E-Rod. Getting a near-MLB ready starter for a rental of a reliever when his team was clearly out of contention was a nice pull for Cherington.
^^^^ absolutely….people forget the biggest factor of these isn’t what you’re getting but for how long…Red Sox wud have been so dumb to not move Miller before he became a FA.
If Miller had been controlled through now, meaning that another team just got these past two seasons to go with the two months from 2014, then yes, the merits of the deal could be argued. But that wasn’t the case. Everything that Miller has done since the end of 2014 has had literally nothing to do with judging this deal. The return for one team (Baltimore) is locked in, and frankly that return isn’t all that high a bar for Rodriguez to surpass. In fact, his 2015 alone was enough to surpass it, so from here on out it’s a question of how much extra surplus value Boston gets on its side of the deal…aka, how much of a win the deal is for Boston.
If even Baltimore had been able to keep Miller, it would be a different story, because trading for him likely would have factored in to the team resigning him. But Baltimore did not, so it got what it got.
Which was little! Why the O’s didn’t even attempt to sign Miller is beyond me. Maybe that why the Sox didn’t keep Dumpster Dan years ago.
You must rrally hate the deal the Yankees did then. Trading 2.5 years of him for 2 lottery tickets
I don’t dislike either deal. Red Sox got good value, Yankees bought potential.
Does anyone really question the Miller-Rodriguez deal from the Red Sox side? A team out of the playoff race exchanging 2 months of a setup man for 6 years of a starting pitcher?
The Sox could (and should) have still signed Miller in the offseason, but that’s a completely separate issue.
Boston had a good chance to sign him long term after the 2014 season when he had broken his foot and finished the season on the DL, but for some reason? They chose to dither away a lot of the off season arguing back and forth over his true worth and threatening arbitration instead.
I always thought THAT was the chance to get him signed to an extension and they blew it big time. he had proved in 2013 and half of 2014 seasons his mechanical issues were fixed, his FB (at the time) sat in mid to upper 90’s and he was heading towards being one of the better setup men around and Cherrington blew it all away.
How does it make any sense to even begin to question the Miller-for-Rodriguez swap? Miller was a pending FA on a losing team, and Boston got a major prospect for him. In fact, the team was eying bringing him back on board over the offseason…so no matter how you slice it, the deal was Rodriguez for 2 months of Miller. Some might argue that holding on to Miller would have made it easier to keep him, but the Yankees would still have offered that same huge contract that he would never have been able to turn down, and Boston was never going to approach it.
I also don’t get this “in light of…Rodriguez has yet to develop into a consistent rotation piece”. I’m sorry…was he SUPPOSED to by now? It’s been just 2 full seasons since this trade, during which time Rodriguez went from a 21 year old LHP with control problems and not an MLB pitch to his name (and likely not a spot on the next year’s top 100 prospects list) to a high-end prospect to a 22 year old left hander with a 3.85 ERA with Fenway Park as a home field. His 2016 was set tremendously back by a preseason injury that kept him completely out of the majors until June, and then he went from having an 8.59 ERA in his first 6 starts to the aforementioned 3.24 ERA for the rest of his 14 starts. It wasn’t a “vastly improved” second half; it was a terrible handful of starts in the first “half” of the season while recovering from injury, with Rodriguez then returning to NORMAL from there.
I don’t know about you, but I’d feel like a fool to minimize the value of a LH SP who is capable of putting up a mid-3s ERA or better in the AL East, and it was a coup for Boston to get that kind of piece in return for a couple of months of a pending FA setup man, no matter how good that setup man has since gone on to be.
I think the most important point you made in that whole post is right at the end…”no matter how good that setup man has gone on to be”. I don’t even think this would be a large discussion if Miller wasn’t in the spot light right now.
I agree that the seal was great, and still is. They lost hardly anything. The more painful part of the deal is being unable to sign him again. The Red Sox really stuck by while Miller went through one of the more major positive transformations I recall a pitcher on that team going through in a long time. It’s too bad they haven’t got to benefit more from it. But alas, that’s how free agency and most professional sports work.
“the Yankees would still have offered that same huge contract that he would never have been able to turn down, and Boston was never going to approach it.”
The Yankees offer of 4/$36 was a below market contract offer. Houston offered him 4/$40.
I’d be open to shipping JBJ and Swihart in a Chris Sale deal. Deal will, obviously, involve more components, but I would not exclude either JBJ or Swihart from such a deal.
JBJ
Sorry, only part of my post went thru. JBJ and Swihart would only be part of the package to get trade discussions started for Sale. Always a risky move to give up a package of talented players for one player in return. Sox may want to hold on to these guys and look elsewhere.
Personally I agree I’d prefer flip it around and give up just jbj for a few aaa type guys that might be an ace or just swihart for an unproven guy like wheeler and add depth in another area namely starting pitching but Idk hm value swihart has after last season and coming off of injury. And for anyone saying you need jbj next year he’d be nice to have but they have 2 maybe 3 guys who can play cf pretty well and they could sign a Bautista or cespedes for a corner.
I agree in reference to Sale. The price tag is at it’s high this offseason with so little starters available. If you wait it out no doubt Sale will act up again sometime during spring and lower his price.
I’d look elsewhere as a Plan A
It seems that the haul that it would take to get Sale is in the silly realm and I hope that DD will just stay away from acquiring Sale. He is a great pitcher but just to expensive let the White Sox keep him.
I’d rather have EROD than Pomerantz any day
Problem is it’s probably not even close to whose worth more which is sad based off of what they gave up for pomeranz. erod will help alot more to get a sale type if that’s the direction they go.
Now we need to add to our pen…..
The Orioles had a deal in place for Jorge de la Rosa of the Rockies, giving Rodriguez in return. After the always prescient Dick Monfort stepped in to block the deal, the O’s moved on to Miller.
Man, the Rox need new ownership.