The Boston Red Sox have selected the contract of Christian Arroyo ahead of today’s doubleheader, per Chris Cotillo of Masslive.com (via Twitter). Deivy Grullon, recently claimed off waivers from the Phillies, will also join the club at their 29th man. In addition, Matt Hall has been optioned to the team’s alternative site, and Andrew Benintendi was transferred to the 45-day injured list. His season his likely over.
Hall, 27, made the Opening Day roster, and given the way Boston has needed to cycle through pitchers this season, he may not be done at the major league level this year. He needn’t do much to improve on his current numbers, however: Hall made 3 appearances including 1 start, surrendering a woeful 14 earned runs across 6 1/3 innings. Hall has an 11.23 career ERA across parts of three seasons with the Tigers and Red Sox.
Arroyo takes Hall’s place on the active roster, and he’ll get at least one start at second base today. The much-traveled infielder has suited up for the Giants, Rays, and Indians in his career, though he made just one defensive appearance for the Indians earlier this season. His greatest major-league success came with the Rays in 2018 when he slashed .264/.339/.396 over 20 games, but the versatile infielder has not yet demonstrated an ability to slug. Second base has been a bit of a dead zone for the Red Sox this season, however, so he’ll get a chance to compete with Jose Peraza, Michael Chavis, Yairo Muñoz, Tzu-Wei Lin, and Jonathan Araúz for keystone at-bats. Chavis, for his part, will start in left field today for the first time in his career.
Today should be a good day for Grullon, who not only returns to the majors, but does so against the team that recently designated him for assignment. The Triple-A All-Star will start the second game of today’s doubleheader behind the plate against his former team, per Cotillo. Presumably, he’ll be returned to the team’s alternate site at the end of the doubleheader, though he could easily return to the active roster at some point.
Benintendi fans will be less spirited by the news that he will miss the rest of the season. Boston’s left fielder played in just 14 games, slashing .103/.314/.128 without a home run in 52 plate appearances. A strained right rib cage sent Benintendi to the injured list. He has one more year on his current contract worth $6.6MM before facing a third year of arbitration. He is scheduled to be a free agent prior to the 2023 season.
A Deivyous move, indeed.
They must really like something about Arroyo. This was the best season to suck in, as it’s always going to being an asterisk season.
Tampa, Cleveland and Boston
There is a pattern to be found in the post-SF clubs giving him a shot
I don’t think there should be an asterisk season for anything but stats like batting average.
If someone hit over .400 this year.. then yes put an asterisk.
But whoever wins the World Series won it on an even playing field. Everyone will plays the same amount of games with no fans.
Disagree. Contracts for all clubs were mostly inked before the pandemic and teams were primarily built for 162. Add in 7 inning games and having a runner on 2nd at some point a bare gimmicks created by pandemic needs. So was the universal DH. There should be a separate trophy for 2020 with no rings or standard stadium banners. For those still here in 50 years, the best way to talk about it will be if the discussion starts with there was no WS Champion in 2020 due to COVID-19. Just my take.
I would be inclined to agree with petersdylan. I don’t really understand the talk of an asterisk for this season. Should we take individual performances with a grain of salt? Sure. Is it different than normal? Absolutely. But there are still 30 teams giving it their all (as the trade deadline highlighted) to win a World Series. These games are still high quality and highly competitive, and we are just going to disregard the champion’s success because they were forced to adapt to the situation? Just doesn’t make sense to me. Whomever wins it this year will have earned it, just in a smaller sample size.
Baseball is a marathon not a sprint. Would you crown a football champion if the year was based on six games and then added more teams to
the playoff mix?
Yes. The Super Bowl winner would be crowned.
Any other questions?
If the situation called for it, I would have no problem with that. If they had just changed all of the rules for the fun of it, I would agree with you, but the changes are the result of the global pandemic and therefore this is how things need to be done. I don’t understand penalizing the team that wins for that. They will still be the best of the 30 teams when the dust settles, same as they would have been in 162. It’s all about adapting to the situation.
The problem is, MLB isn’t even requiring teams to play the same number of games.
If you, or your opponent, resulted in covid shutdowns, not all those games will be made up.
Aside from fairness issues in some teams playing fewer gamds and being more rested, because MLB will be shifting to using a win percentage format there is opportunity for unfair outcome in postseason selection in the event of standing ties.
Normally, 30-15 and 31-16 teams would be considered “tied’, but this year the 30-15 team WINS while the 31-26 team goes home.
Would you consider it more unfair if one team was 20-18, and another was 30-28? Team that played less, the 20-18, still gets the birth while 30-28 goes home.
I suppose we will cross that bridge when we get to it on that one. But again, it is all about adapting. In a normal season you’re absolutely right, they would be tied. But this isn’t a normal season. I still don’t believe that takes away from the winner.
All about the money. Otherwise it makes no sense. Better in my estimation to have history in all aspects of life show how the pandemic impacted us in 2020. Injuries are part of all sports but here some have illnesses and others chose not to play for fear of the disease. Hopefully once in a lifetime experience and in my view such should not be lost.
Also their still talking about the playoffs in a bubble at a neutral site. Baseball is unique in that you build to have a home field advantage (fans are only a part of that). On addition, the entire playoff format is not like originally thought of and roster size is different. So many changes that the league should give a team trophy but make it unique to remember this weird year by.
I guess my opinion would be it depends on who becomes winner…
If the winner was a team that slogged through the 60 game rush, played them all, and went on to win… good for them.
But if the winner is a team that only played 45 games so their guys aren’t as banged up, snuck into the postseason on a percentage technicality, and went on to win? Not sure that’s legitimate
Meaningless crowning if the season was just six games. Money talks.
This season and its stats will have an asterisk next to them for the simple reason that it is different from a normal season in many ways.
this is why im not overly annoyed about the Grullon DFA in hindsight. its still squandering an asset, but Grullon might not have gotten a chance with how much this team likes Knapp as the backup. let the man play.
A Deivyous move, indeed,
Heard ya the first time Captain 2 Times!
Mutiny if we hear it again…
Sorry. After 10 minutes it still wasn’t showing. Mea culpa. I shall give myself 10 wet noodle lashes.
But it shouldn’t hurt much; each one is only a Planck length long.
Can you give those wet lashes to us Sox fans who are still posting and caring?
Looie- why are you still posting if you do not care! stop post then !
At this point I suspect the Red Sox may call up any of us. The Red Sox suck so much they should be renamed the Red Straws.
Would the red sox trade benintendi for Harrison Bader? Maybe pieces in a bigger trade?
Bader not worth Benintendi
*is not worth
Sorry to ask but who is Harrison Bader?
Went online and no the Sox don’t trade Bennie for another outfielder.
Gonna need a lot more roster moves than that to make any difference.
It’s possible chain gets paid extra for each move made… waiver claim 100k, callup 25k, send down 25k, blah blah blah
What gives with Benitendi?
Benintendi is trash. Too bad we can’t trade him now. Never lived up to the hype and I heard he’s not a nice guy.
Would call his career disappointing but he’s not trash. His catch against the Astros can never be forgotten and most importantly he hasn’t to my knowledge been an embarrassment to MLB, his family or team by on or off the field issues.
Okay maybe I was too harsh, but he’s been nothing great as of late. He’s better off traded. I would have rather kept Pillar.
Can always sign Pillar in the off season. I’ve been wrong so many times but not with Bennie who I was posting should have been traded last off-season. Now the team will either package him with others or keep him, hoping he again produces on a championship contender or can bring back real value in a trade.
Hey, Chaim. Brock Holt is raking for the Nats.
We want Holt, we want Holt…
Dewey belongs in the HOF, but Holt no longer belongs in a Red Sox uniform. He is past his expiration date or (sell by 9/2019).
Just trying to needle Rocky7 and others who have become frustrated by us Holt loyalists.
Pawn – Holt did not take with Milwaukee …. lol
Yankees LOL
Bloom will bring up CJ Chatham rather than resign Holt. I really liked Moreland, but two prospects and 5 home runs from Dalbec later it proved to be a great move as was Hembree and Workman for pitching. I am looking forward to seeing what Bloom got for Pillar and Osich even if it is not much.
Can’t expect all trades to be winners and it’s too early to tell with Dalbec (Chavis began the same way last year) which is why you trade in numbers. Hopefully, two years from now, Bloom’s deals this year will be producing in Fenway or be used to get that missing piece.
I hope Arroyo plays well was such a high prospect got to respect a guy sticking out for another opportunity
Arroyo has played well enough in the Sim games in Pawtucket and in Boston for the Red Sox to send Peraza down. Peraza is almost a sure bet for DFA. Peraza was a younger more controlable player than Holt, but with no guaranteed, high priced, multi-year contract it is much easier to move on to another 2B option.
Arroyo can win 2B for Boston if he continues to hit. He is an ideal Bloom player as he is league minimum salary, under 30, and controlable through 2025. So if he produces the Red Sox have a player that they did not have to give up anything for, and they can trade for more prospects if say Potts or Jeter Downs are even better.
All this means Bloom is the exact opposite of DD. Bloom’s strategy is for a lower cost, sustainably competitive, young team. He will win a WS in Boston without draining the team of all its prospects.