The Red Sox plan to explore a new deal for utilityman Eduardo Nunez after the season, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald reports. Nunez is currently out with a knee injury, but when healthy, the impending free agent has been a valuable addition since the Red Sox acquired him from the Giants in July. The 30-year-old has slashed an excellent .319/.351/.534 with eight home runs and six steals across 171 plate appearances as a member of the Red Sox, with whom he has lined up at second base, shortstop and third base. Nunez’s future may affect fellow utilityman Brock Holt’s, as Mastrodonato relays that he could be a non-tender candidate in the offseason. Holt was a key piece for the Red Sox from 2014-15, but injuries have slowed his career since then. The 2015 All-Star has taken 140 trips to the plate this season and batted a meek .175/.286/.208. Holt, 29, is on a $1.95MM salary this year and is scheduled to go through arbitration for the second time in the offseason. He’s controllable through 2019.
More from the American League:
- Right-hander Alex Cobb’s start on Saturday may have been his last at Tropicana Field as a member of the Rays, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. As a member of the Rays since they selected him in the fourth round of the 2006 draft, the soon-to-be free agent isn’t ready to close the door on his tenure with the organization. “If it is, man, it would be sad,” Cobb said. “There’s been a lot of memories in this building and through this organization. I don’t really want to think about it yet. There is too much season left to go down that road yet. But it would be a tough thought if that’s it.” One of the most accomplished starters scheduled to hit the market in the offseason, the 29-year-old Cobb will likely price himself out of Tampa Bay. After undergoing Tommy John surgery that shelved him in 2015 and limited him to 22 innings last season, Cobb has revived his career this year with a 3.63 ERA, 6.44 K/9 against 2.23 BB/9, and a 47.7 percent groundball rate in 173 1/3 frames.
- An ankle injury has kept Indians left fielder Michael Brantley out since Aug. 8, and it doesn’t appear he’s going to return anytime soon. President Chris Antonetti said Sunday that the Indians lack clarity on when Brantley could come back, according to Tom Withers of the Associated Press (Twitter link). That’s an unfortunate development for a historically hot Tribe club that recently lost center fielder Bradley Zimmer for the season. Cleveland started longtime second base Jason Kipnis in Zimmer’s place Sunday, with corner outfielders Jay Bruce and Austin Jackson flanking him.
- The Yankees are optimistic outfielder Aaron Hicks and reliever Adam Warren will return before the regular season, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. Hicks, on the DL since Sept. 3 with a left oblique strain, will begin taking batting practice soon, manager Joe Girardi said. Warren has also been out since Sept. 3, with lower back spasms. Both players have been among New York’s best this year, but the club has piled up wins without them over the past couple weeks and now looks like a playoff lock.
Brock holts gotta have one of the worst all star seasons ever, right?
That honor belongs to Phil Hughes in 2010.
Betances this year and last year. Dude has been awful.
Get another hobby!
Coming from the Cheerios that’s rich. When someone says something negative about your Yankee players god forbid. You sure can dish it out about Red Sox players or other teams can’t take it when it’s given back though.
Sorry I don’t live up to your expectations,but could care less anyway. Stay in your lane then.
Suck it up and quit trolling Red Sox articles then. If ya can’t take what ya dish out………..
Bfh..still waiting on your research. Typical Sox nation!
Mikeyank is that you lol what a clown.
Get the irony why don’t you..
TGCF telling people to get another hobby, that’s rich.
Whatever the cereal guy is on, he should share with others. If the answer is nothing, saying so little never said so much…
They’ve all crawled out from under the Zakim Bridge…
Nope Cheerios just trying to get you to bring something to the table of substance which rarely happens.
I’ll text you a signal…oh it’s “bring something of substance to the table” Pipps
Since I’m not from Boston, I had to check to make sure the.mentioned bridge was in Boston. I dislike personal attacks but your biased posts recently have taken it to an obscene level. Keep things objective please.
That wasn’t aimed at you..sorry. This thing all started by me poking at this guy Death. He and Goblins post whack stuff aimed at the Yanks constantly no matter the articles. Bruin started this sh** and I was sending it back at him and Scott.
Hey Cheerios when you start bringing something to the table I will stop pointing out your moronic posts.
Your posts, almost without exception, are rips on Red Sox guys just a couple of articles before this you rip Devers with absolutely nothing to back it up when you start making intelligent comments then I will stop calling you an idiot.
I am not a Yankee fan but I am not ripping on the young Yankees you seem to love to say that about Red Sox guys with literally no argument whatsoever so my suggestion is if you want to rip someone like Devers say why you think he is going to fail if it makes sense then I won’t say a word but saying he is the next Franco with nothing to back it up just makes you look stupid that’s what I mean by bringing something intelligent to the table and not just attack with nothing to back it up can you do that?
k. Still a little decorum all the way around goes a long way. Do i get kiss up points by constantly pushing for Munson in the HOF (along with Tiant and Evans).
Cereal’s an idiot troll with nothing to say other than unsubstantiated trash talk about the Red Sox. Don’t feed the monkey maybe he’ll go away.
Are you a skater or goalie little girl?
Awful or not up to his standards?
This is the standard Betances. Regression every year in the league. Will be a 4+ ERA pitcher next year.
Betances doesn’t have the closer’s mentality. Last year when Chapman was traded, he had a 10.80 ERA, 2.28WHIP in Sept., after he was great most of the season as Chapman’s set up man. (He didn’t have a month worse than .196 BA, 1.25WHIP) In fact his ERA was 3.21, 1.50, and 0.68 in the 3 months leading to Sept, respectfully.
This year, when he was closer due to Chapman ineffectveness, he blew the save, in Betances fasion, giving up a two run home run to Machado with 2 outs in the 9th for 7-6 loss.
Betances has all the talent in the world, making the all star team the past four years.
In the past four years, Betances is #3 in baseball with 14.56 K/9, he’s has had the most strikeouts out of any Relief Pitcher (83 More than the 2nd most RP 2014-2017) #2 in RP WAR (9.7) #4 xfip (2.29), #1 in IP (302.1IP)
Your regression stats come from Dellin Betances being pressed into the Closer role for whatever reason. I wish they’d end the expirment already. At this point, I’d take Khanle (15BB 91K in 60.1IP) Chad Green (15BB 99K in 64.1IP) David Robertson (20BB 84K, 61IP) for Closer, if Chapman ever needed a day off.
Thank God that Betances Closer experiment lasted only 1 game, after he blew that game agianst the Orioles, giving up a two run home run to Machado with 2 outs in the 9th for 7-6 loss.
The hardest 3 outs to get are the last 3, and some people don’t have the makeup to handle that pressure.
Ellsbury has been playing pretty well since Hicks went down,so they don’t need him as much like before. Don’t get me wrong it definitely sucks to see Hicks hobbled by these injuries when he was having a bit of a breakout season. Still I hope he comes back because Frazier is so raw to take the into the playoffs alone…would be great for Frazier to be the fifth outfield option.
I think Nunez is tailor made for Fenway. BoSox wise to lock him up before season ends.
Fun fact: Nunez hit three homers in his first 7 games for the Red Sox. .469 BA (15-for-32) with 11 RBI.
He had just four home runs through 76 games prior to the trade.
Since coming from the Giants, Nunez is slashing .319/.351/.534 with eight home runs, 27 RBI, 22 runs scored in 37 games.
San Francisco is a brutal place to hit home runs especially for a righty.
I love Nunez’s bat. The problem is his glove needs to hidden. If they do sign him, they should consider Marrero as the other infielder even as another right handed hitter.
SF made many comments about wanting to get him back when he’s a FA. If you were Nunez would you wanna return to SF and hit in that park or play for Boston who are more often than not in the thick of things? The trade to the sox has probably helped Nunez sign for even more $$ than he would have if he had seen the season out in SF.
Don’t knock SF too badly. Rings in ’10, ’12, and ’14 is pretty in the thick of things…
Should say hicks and warren will return before the post season
The sad part for the Sox is they have no open spots to put any free agents this offseason with first base the only option in less the give Sam Travis a shot the DH spot is covered by a bum and they may have found there 3rd basemen so idk what they will do for the power they so desperately need I doubt they cut Ramirez and eat another big contract so unless a trade happens the Sox won’t be able to do anything so signing Nunez shouldn’t be a priority when they need everyday power
They don’t “need” power.
They’re in first place in their division, a lock to make the playoffs, and have the 6th best record in all of baseball.
This is with down power years from Betts, Bradley, Hanley, and Bogearts. Hoping they bounce back in 2018.
Yes they need power they have lost a lot of games this yr because of run support and the reason y all those players power numbers are down is because teams have nobody to fear unlike when they had Ortiz
They need power
Having dynamic batters will likely help the Red Sox in the playoffs where power hitters tend to go cold. However, it would be nice to get some power back into the lineup so the Red Sox could get some more wins in the regular season.
Red Sox nation – where no periods are allowed.
Since when did a baseball forum become English 101? Sometimes it’s the phone and who really cares as long as the comment is understood?
Right it’s just people who have nothing to do
Cobb should on hid Knees thanking God that he’s has escape from Tampa Team. Going from a Cheap Organization that has no Fan Base under 60 to a Real Major League Team , Like NY
Where fans are middle aged but never show up to games.
The new Yankees Stadium is an interesting place. There is so much great food and a lot to do that has nothing to do with the actual game that is going on. That and the fact that many diehards are being priced out. Don’t be fooled by some of the empty seats, they are sometimes elsewhere on the premises. Sox fans will discover this of Fenway is ever torn down. The modern palace that Boston would build would have a similar perplexing situation…