The Red Sox have 53 players that must be on the 40-man roster or else be cut or exposed to selection in the Rule 5 draft, writes Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. That’s quite the roster puzzle to put together, though it’s not so different from the roster quandaries that every team faces this time of year. Cotillo suggests that Connor Wong, Hudson Potts, Jeisson Rosario, Jay Groome, Bryan Mata, and Connor Seabold are the prospects Boston will add to to 40-man roster in the coming weeks. Outfielder Marcus Wilson is also a fair bet to make that list.
Some of the departures are easy to spot, such as free agent to be Jackie Bradley Jr., or DFA candidates like Jose Peraza, , Matt Hall, Zack Godley, Andrew Triggs, Cesar Puello, Tzu-Wei Lin. Dustin Pedroia is also a likely removal, despite the $12.125MM he is owed for 2021.
The fact is, the Red Sox more likely to move on from much more than just 13 players, the number it would take to get their 40-man roster down to 40. They’ll need space to add players, as well. Especially for a team like the Red Sox – given their place in the rebuilding cycle – they are more likely to add a flyer or two, as well as make a selection in the Rule 5 draft.
Of course, arbitration is a particularly tricky process this season, complicating DFA decisions, which the Athletic’s Chad Jennings runs down using projections from MLBTR’s Matt Swartz as a guide. Rafael Devers has an interesting case as he enters his first season of arbitration. His .263/.310/.483 line with 11 home runs in 57 games this season was somewhere between his best and worst campaign, but without knowing how arbitration panels will handle the shortened season, projecting his salary is anyone’s guess. Swartz pegs Devers as being in line for somewhere between $3.4MM and $6.3MM. That’s quite the spread for one player, which only highlights the struggle roster architects have ahead of them this winter.
IK hope they give Raffy what he deserves. He’s the future face of the franchise along with Xman..
Time to move on from Dustin Pedroia, just eat the money and save the roster spot. Sad his career ends this way as he was a fun player to watch, not Hall of Fame but certainly Hall of Very Good.
JBJ will probably get the QO and is likely to accept it. The other players listed did nothing to keep roster spots and if any are brought back should only be on minor league invites to training camp
There is a 0% chance JBJ is getting the Qo –
Yes I think the RS said their good byes to JBJ, sadly so.
They’ll bring JBJ back if they can get him cheap enough.
Exactly! @feverpitchguy
I am sure they have a set number of money they are willing to spend on a centerfielder and if he costs too much then they’ll let him walk. If he’s willing to accept their budgeted amount then they’ll keep him
Pedroia may not be a Hall of Famer, but there’s only a handful of players that were able to ring that type of talent out of a small frame, the man is the ultimate competitor, and it has to be killing him not to be able to play the game he loves, no, Dustin Pedroia is not a Hall of Famer, but that doesn’t detract from his career in Boston….My family grew up a couple houses down from the Eckstein family, and my sister loved David Eckstein, she claims that he was better than Pedroia, and I laugh
They were both good but Peddy was my fave
Pedie would have been enshrined in Cooperstown if not for the Manny Machado play. A couple of NY players fit that bill as well. David Wright and Don’t Mattingly.
*meant to connect the dots. Injuries shortened each player’s career. I realize he stopped playing so young but Bo Jackson could have made the HOF in two separate sports if he could have stayed healthy. Than man was perhaps the greatest athlete I ever saw.
He shouldn’t have played BB. He was good, but not great. In his regular seasons, 1986-1990, he averaged 2.3 bWAR/650. Maybe he’d have done better with a proper spring training.
In FB, he was one of the best RBs I’ve ever seen. I don’t know which site shows leaders over multiple seasons (similar to FG), but I’d bet real money he led the NFL in yards/rush over 1987-1990. Dickerson might have been the best pure running over those 4 years, and he averaged 4.3. Sanders averaged 5.2, for only two seasons. Thurman Thomas averaged 4.4 in three seasons.
Bo averaged 5.4. Marcus Allen might be my favorite Raider of all time, but Bo was a much better pure runner, and Allen is in the HOF.
Bo did amazing things on the field, be it unreal catches, bombs at the plate, speed for a huge guy or a cannon of an arm. To use saberstats when he gave up the sport so young is unfair. Anyone who saw him play understands the gifts he possessed.
Nobody in their right mind would give JBJ a QO. Hes not worth the 11m he was slated to earn last year, let alone 19m that the QO is at this year.
First off Pedroia is a fan favorite and has given so much to the franchise. For a team that is not going to contend next year I highly doubt they will cut him in his last year. Secondly, nobody would give JBJ a QO. Boston couldn’t trade him last year because of the 11 or 12 he was making.
Cutting him doesn’t mean he won’t get paid. He just gets released with full pay due to medical issues. He’s moved on from baseball ready to quality of life issues.
The sox are going to contend next year. Guys had abnormally bad seasons this year in a season that had no spring training and much uncertainty. They will also have their top two starters back.
Nobody on this planet is saying to save a roster spot for Dustin. Zero chance they do.
Maybe Pedey makes HoF if that bum Machado didn’t finish off what was left of his knee.
Wilson already has a 40 man spot
Let Bradley Jr and Pedroia go. Keep Devers happy. Take a chance on some free agents who are under valued. The Sox rebuild certainly won’t be completed this year, but they can take steps forward.
Scratching the surface with the names listed. brice can be left off and offered a chance to come back on a make good contract. Jeff Springs should be a goner, Dylan Covey can be easily replaced. Godley and Hart returned from the 45 day DL and released. Leyer DFA’d and offered a shot once again as a MiLB FA.
Plenty of mostly pitchers they signed on MiLB deals last winter who showed little to nothing and can look for more of the same and last years cast let go, most, other than Valdez, maybe Stock retained.
Non-tender, DFA, FA, cut and offer minor league deal list:
Jackie Bradley – FA
Tzu-Wei Lin – 0 options remaining
Marcus Walden – 0 options
Colton Brewer – 0 options
Jose Peraza – nt
Dylan Covey – 0 options
Zack Godley – 0 options
Mike Kickham 0 options
(All 8 will be gone, but may resign as minor league deal although I hope they do not)
Robert Stock – have options, but may be cut
Andrew Triggs
Robinson Leyer
Matt Hall
Jeffrey Springs
(Have options, but really were not good enough to keep)
Kyle Hart – option to AAA
Yoan Aybar – to A or AA
Chris Mazza – to AAA
Domingo Tapia resigned last year as minor league FA played in Pawtucket 2019 and 2020…would bet he does again
There will be more than enough room to add:
Mata, Seabold, Groome, Wong, Potts, Rosario
and acquitions
Mazza and Tapia are easy enough to pass though if you want to keep them and save a roster spot.
Agreed on Mazza and Tapia passing through waivers…and any of 17 listed should pass through waivers, and if not the Red Sox will have plenty to choose from that are non-tendered by other teams…but IMO only Hart, Mazza, Aybar, and Tapia showed enough to keep (Hart mainly as AAA starter to fill out Pawtucket
I mean Worcester
Excellent summary. I agree with every choice you made.
4w – nice post. I agree with all the players you choose to left go of.
They can sign Rusney Castillo…
They have him already
No they don’t he’s done. Contract over.
That went well didn’t it?
The problem wasn’t that castillo didn’t deserve a major league spot. The problem was that he didn’t prove enough to warrant his salary going against the luxury tax
…..I am sure (bobgibsonfan) is kidding…..
Jaa1968@ wasn’t…
Castillo, are you sure we don’t still have him for one year of control since his contract only allowed him to be in the majors 2 seasons. Shouldn’t he have one year left of control and 3 years of arbitration?
Does anyone know for sure how that works?
Rusney’s guaranteed contract is over. It does not matter whether team control/options still exist. 7 yr / $72.5 million is done.
All teams unfortunately sign players that do not work out. The longer the contract, the greater the risk….
I know the contract is concluded and it was a huge bust but my question is according to Spotrac Rusney is considered a pre-arb 3 so he has 4 years of control left 1 as pre-arb 3 and 3 years of arbitration. Can that be right since he only played 2 years in the majors? If so, we could pay him a controllable wage of $0.6M ish in 2021 then in 2022 he’d be an arbitration case. His cost per year goes down by over $14M.
We didn’t promote him to the majors for years so his money didn’t count against the luxury tax cap. Does that mean we have him 4 more years under control?
That’s my question. I don’t even care if he’s worth it, is he still under our control and if so he becomes a trade-able resource, granted not a big chip but still a chip with minimum value.
To my knowledge, no more control but whomever signs him has the arb years. He will find a MLB job in a split or 4th outfielder job. Sox could even use him to fill Pillar’s past role assuming they resign JBJ and remain lefty heavy in the OF.
Thanks. Spotrac shows a year of control in 2020 but since they don’t have him listed in 2021 I assumed he’s a free agent to be signed by anyone.
Rusney had the option of becoming a free agent to find an mlb contract or keep the huge payday from the Red Sox when he was removed from the 40-man roster. He chose the money as most people would have. He had no guarantee of making a mlb team as he simply was not good enough.
I think it’s more a case like 2003, when Theo said “I’m not sure we HAVE 40 players”……
40-man issues are mainly in the imagination of the fans. Every team has players that can be waived without being claimed, and , if they are, so what? Sure, there are Max Muncy-s out there; but for every Max, there’s literally hundreds of others. And. like everything else in the economically tiered MLB, if the Sox goof, they’ll just have to spend a few more bucks to replace the player.
So sleep tight, Sox fans….they’ll get through the 40-man battle. They have much more serious battles than that one.
The Red Spx have only 46 days to decide whether to tender lefthander Eduardo Rodriguez a contract on December 2. The decision should depend on medical updates between now and then.
Rodriguez is projected to earn $8.3 million as a 28-year-old in his final year of team control.
Has Rodriguez appeared in a recorded interview since being shut down in July? The media reports in the past month quote second-hand sources who apparently have spoken with Rodriguez. The most positive prognosis has come from the lefthander’s agent, who might not be the most objective source.
The next six-plus weeks could be interesting.
i dont think teams usually should make moves for niceness reasons, but non-tendering him would be an all-time bad look.
Good point, The Red Sox could make Eduardo Rodriguez a good-faith tender in appreciation of the lefthander’s past contributions.
Great point about E-Rod. The recovery time to start working out is 6 months from his heart issue, best case. That puts him in January before he’s starts conditioning not throwing. He’s not likely to make Spring Training on time and all of this is contingent on no setbacks.
He makes $8.3M and there is a good chance we won’t get him for the first three months of the season. Then, if he does come back by June or July will he be 2019 E-Rod or the previous E-Rod who wasn’t worth $8.3M? How many pitchers could Bloom get for $8.3M?
December will be key for Bloom. He needs to have a comfort level that E-Rod will contribute in 2021 for more than a few months and at the 2019 level otherwise non tender him and tell him he’s covered by insurance so take your time get healthy and talk to us late in 2021 season when you can show us what you’ve got for 2022 and beyond. He’ll be 29 in 2022 and 3 years removed from his only above average season. Non-tender might make both financial sense for the Red Sox and give E-Rod time to fully recover from a very serious injury.
Uh oh…article was fine until…quoted second-hand sources raised their ugly heads.. Circling the drain.
The 40-roster is not remotely a problem. Tapia, Stock, Leyer, Kickham, Hall, Triggs, and Puella scarcely even qualify as Red Sox players. They were wanderers we picked up to take a look at. I’m more than happy to see them replaced with guys that might actually have major league talent.
While occasionally someone will slip thru, it is not even like we lost one of our prospects. All these guys were someone else’s prospects.
JoeBrady – i agree most were cheap roster filler to keep the Red Sox under the CBT in a year that they could not compete! With Sale and Rodriguez hurt/out and Price traded there was NEVER a chance to even make a wild card spot. For 86 years the Red Sox signed players to “compete”, but never good enough to win. I do not want to return to those times. I agree with what Bloom did…..stay under CBT and spend in 2021 if the right players are available to reload (there was 80 percent roster turnover between 04 and 07, 07 and 13, 13 and 18). Last is fine in 2020 if it leads to a 5th WS in short order which i think it will!
Red Sox have a top 5 pick next year. That is some indication right there that Red Sox weren’t planning anything this year and probably next year. They should let some of their contracts expire and sit back while Rays and Yankees battle out with Toronto hanging in there as well. If I was the GM and owner of the Red Sox, I’d put the most competitive team on the field and not break the bank to do so. Spend a few years under the threshold and retool the system. Come back in a few years with vengeance.
I agree. If I were Henry, I’d make that the policy and announce it. Just say, we will spend up to the cap every year, but not over it. Unless we are in a unique position to win the WS.
Nice job Joe and Shannon. It’s an excellent approach to winning while making a ton of money in a big market town like Boston.
The other key that needs to happen is the finance people need to be fired and a new more modern thinking group needs to come on board to explain why you NEVER buy down a contract. The luxury tax problem stems from buy downs. Any money paid to keep a guy like Sale should not have put us over but ownership screwed up on Panda and Hanley. It also hurt that Pedroia got severely injured and missed multiple years as one of the top paid players. All these things removed and the Sale deal isn’t even talked about. It should still go away when he dominates in 2022 and hopefully late 2021 but until then many have been skeptical about a no brainer contract thanks to Panda, Hanley and Pedroia.
Stay below the luxury tax but as close as possible and don’t pay down contracts ever again. That needs to be the new motto. It makes money for the owners and gives Red Sox fans competitive teams year in and year out.
KD – that means you are passing on top tier free agents that will only sign for four or more years to make maximum money…..but those are usually 30ish years olds that have already reached their prime and may only have a few prime years before the down hill starts. This was DD and why he was fired. It takes a lot more effort to find the Microsoft before it when up…the Trout before he was a star….that is why the Red Sox hires Bloom! Look who is in the World Series. Tampa vs former Tampa!!!!!
Interesting comment. You’ve really bought into Bloom. You also don’t understand why DD was fired. DD wanted to spend money under the luxury tax amount but he didn’t want to be limited by past mistakes. The Panda and Hanley contracts put Boston over the luxury tax not the active roster that DD was responsible for.
Ownership needed a guy who wasn’t going to hold them accountable for their past mistakes and Bloom was the man. He was part of a GROUP at TB that made some frugal and successful decisions. The TB of 2020 added many players after Bloom left. In fact, they did a far superior job acquiring talent than Bloom did in the last year which should raise eyebrows as to how significant he was in their decision making process.
LAD, if they win, can thank Bloom since he gave them a top 2 MVP candidate for some of their depth. Yes, Verdugo started in Boston since Mookie left but wouldn’t have started in LAD. Downs probably would have never beat out Lux and Seager for an infield spot and Kong was 4th or 5th on their catcher depth chart. It’s like in fantasy baseball, you try to get a star player for 3 of your bench guys. Nobody in their right mind makes that deal but Bloom did. He’s not the root of the problem since I do believe he was forced to give away Mookie but he clearly didn’t negotiate well since we got 3 back-ups for 1 year of a superstar. Many people believe in any deal you want to be the team receiving the best player. That didn’t happen when Mookie was moved.
I root for Bloom to do well but so far the book is out on him. He’s acquired NO MLB level players to replace Mookie. In 2021, thanks to his stupidity about the Price deal, he has roughly $30M to fix the holes rather than $46M and one less hole. The Sale deal you scoffed at was excellent and will pay off going forward. The Eovaldi deal looks ok at this point if the Eovaldi of 2020 gets to face #3 SPs not #1 SPs in 2021. DD did not sign any contracts that were comparable to Hanley or Panda. Ownership did try to make him pay for their prior mistakes and so he got fired when he said he wanted to spend a comparable amount of money to the other big market teams. He insisted on ownership eating past overages since it was their mistakes. I completely agree with his approach.
Bloom as a first timer, is simply happy to have a prestigious job for his resume. It’s like being hired by a big 4 consulting firm, it will always look great on your resume even if it doesn’t last long. In the end there are winners and losers this past year. Bloom won, Friedman won, DD lost which resulted in the Red Sox fans losing not just a great GM but their face of the franchise and their dignity because we just had the worst season in a very, very long time. 2021 needs to see the Red Sox fans winning and that can only happen if Bloom is as good as you think he is. I hope you are right but as of now, I’m not impressed.
It’s like in fantasy baseball, you try to get a star player for 3 of your bench guys. Nobody in their right mind makes that deal but Bloom did.
————————————————————
You have that backwards. The best possible target for a trade, and in real life, is top target someone else’s redundancies. That’s why it is so difficult to trade for SPs; because almost no one has excess pitching. It is one of the reasons why I liked SD from the start of the process.
And you have no idea that no other GM makes that trade. On the face of it, it has been a huge success.
There are many trades that sent stars to other teams for a bunch of great prospects that never developed. First one that comes to mind was DD in Detroit trading his farm system that turned out to suck to Florida for Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. Or how about Johan Santana for Gomez, Humber, Guerra and Mulvey. I think the star side was the preferred side in both cases. That shoots apart your theory..
There is nothing that suggests the team getting the prospects will win the deal. Mookie’s part of the deal concluded with an incredible season. Verdugo had a good start but if he gets hurt next year and does no more and the other two clowns never start for the Red Sox, how good was the deal?
What if Verdugo is league average going forward? Couldn’t we have waited and found more than that in July? Your argument that a team should target another team’s redundancies for a top player on your team shows a deep lack of understanding of player value. Trading depth for depth makes sense but giving up top players, especially one of a handful of elite players for their depth is pure stupidity. Apparently you and Bloom are on the same page!!
Elite players must be sold at top dollar. Think of it this way. You own a Mercedes and a Camry. If you don’t get full value for your Mercedes you are screwed. If you trade your Camry for comparable car that the other deal has many of, then trading for his strength makes sense. Giving up a Mercedes for his depth is bad decision making. We gave up a Mercedes for a Mustang and two pintos in January when we needed something completely different for our most valuable Mercedes. Making end of year sales quotas would have gotten us much more for the Mercedes.
Which team has the highest dollar amount coming off the books season end?
1) Yankees, 2) Cubs, 3) Astros, 4) Dodgers…
The numbers are a bit misleading. The Yankees spent nearly $300M in 2020 but only had to pay 60/162nds of it. Nobody was within $50M of them.
Also, its key to know where each team stands with respect to luxury tax overages. The Yankees, for example, are 3 years over so 50% penalty.in 2021. They may choose to get back under but that should be hard because as you mentioned they have lots of contracts to replace and only $63M available.according to Spotrac and that number is questionable because Spotrac has the Red Sox at roughly the same committed resources for 2021 right now and I know the $60M is closer to $30M for the Red Sox since many items are not included in their numbers. Last year, Cashman made a comment about the CBA and how the new one will jump the numbers dramatically so they plan on paying fines until the new CBA. If that’s the case, they may go back up to $300M in 2021 since their profits are so good compared to everyone else and they still have no ring after spending so much in 2020..
There are many, many teams that will have money in 2021 to spend but each ownership will have to weigh the impact of COVID on their financial situation and each ownership group will need to consider the impact of a new CBA and what not agreeing to it will mean to profits as well. We might be on the fringe of a real upheaval in the baseball industry or maybe everything will work out smoothly, COVID will disappear, the CBA will be agreed to quickly and fans will pour back into the stadiums.
Lots for them to consider when seeking Free Agents this off=season.
I hope the sox re-sign castillo to a minor league deal with an invite to sping training. He was never given thaf much of a chance to prove himself before. And the reason he didn’t last was because the chances he did get, he didn’t perform enough to warrant his large salary to go against the luxury tax. On a cheap deal, he could add some big league value
123 – Rusney Castillo will be 34 years old mid season in 2021. I highly doubt any team will be interested in a low OBP player who hits ground balls. He has little power and does not get on base from BB….
It make way more sense for any GM to pay a 23 or 24 year old league minimum (around $560,000) in hopes of higher upside and 7 years of control…..if I were an owner I would think twice about my GM signing Rusney Castillo as a fourth outfielder. (One of the many reasons Ben Cherington was sent packing….final done with the last of his mistakes years after he is gone).
It seems to me the Red Sox need pitching Sunday the moment nothing else matters.
IMO the Red Sox signing Trevor Bauer to a one year contract (assuming he really wants that although I do not buy it) would be a great idea. He strengthens the whole rotation and lessens the need for Sale to hurry back. Overpay for a year and you give more time for prospects to develope and injuried players to recover.
Bauer, Rodriguez, Eovaldi, Perez, Houck, and Pivetta looks a lot better to start the 2021 season as I doubt Sale will be ready.
A significant overpay for one year would be worth it.