The Red Sox announced they’re selecting the contract of right-hander Ryan Weber. Fellow righty Brandon Brennan has been designated for assignment to open active and 40-man roster space.
Weber makes his return to Boston, where he saw big league action in 2019-20. The sinkerballer pitched to a 4.73 ERA/4.89 FIP in 83 2/3 innings over that time. Weber doesn’t miss many bats, striking out a minuscule 15.3% of opponents with the Red Sox. He’s thrown plenty of strikes and kept the ball on the ground at an above-average clip, though. Weber was outrighted off the roster last offseason and began this year with Triple-A Worcester. He’s made seven appearances (six starts) with Worcester, managing a 4.63 ERA with a 22.4% strikeout rate and solid 6.8% walk rate.
The Sox claimed Brennan off waivers from the Mariners in early May. He spent his first month in the organization at Worcester, tossing 8 1/3 frames of two-run ball. Brennan struck out eleven against five walks at Triple-A, earning him a call-up yesterday. The 29-year-old worked three scoreless innings out of the bullpen in last night’s loss to the Blue Jays. Unfortunately for Brennan, his 42-pitch workload took him out of commission for the next day or two. The Red Sox ultimately decided to bring in a fresher arm in his place.
Boston will have a week to trade Brennan or place him on outright waivers. He still has all three minor league option years remaining, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see another club bring him in. A former Rule 5 draftee, Brennan has a 4.21 ERA/4.61 SIERA over 57 2/3 MLB innings.
Not another Ryan Weber experiment…where is Brasier? The Sox need him back ASAP!
Not sure he sneaks through waivers as forget the results of the one appearance. He showed to me yesterday he’s better than the last pitcher on many current rosters.
So the Sox promote a guy who gave up nearly 5 runs a game in the minors.
What, did Bloom think Weber would pitch BETTER in the majors than he did in the minors? Today’s performance is Exhibit A.
Weber will be DFAed tomorrow…
Tryin to lose games now
Reminds me of the last game in Philly. Even though they had the next day scheduled off, and another scheduled offday just 3 days later, Cora benched Verdugo, Xander and JD all at once. Talk about forfeiting a game.
Fever Pitch Guy – Love everything you are writing today. Cora has given away games dating back to 2018. The big difference is this year they don’t have other guys to keep the games from getting as out of hand as they did in 2018. Worst manager in baseball.
It’s funny, I’ve been watching lots of non Red Sox games this year and Roberts is almost as bad as Cora with respect to knowing how to set a line-up. He’s lucky the guy before Friedman stocked the farm system because those guys are keeping Roberts from looking as dumb as Cora. Since adding Mookie LAD has a team very comparable to the 2018 Red Sox so when Roberts is a bonehead they still usually win..
If you think back to 2018 when Sale pitched. Cora often gave 3 star players off that game and then Sale lost out on a win because no runs were scored and if they were it was late in the game when those sitting got to pinch hit and win the game. Cora has no place managing a MLB team.
Agreed!! Cora may be liked by his players (especially the ones who have a z in their name), but his lineups and managing decisions are just plain dumb!
I’m completely with you, Cora wouldn’t last very long if he were managing a mid-market team. He single-handedly sabotaged the 2019 team with his Club Med approach to ST and his stated belief that winning games prior to June isn’t important. Never have I seen a team so unprepared to start a season as that 2019 team, Overnight they went from a 108-win World Champion to a 84-win third place team that finished 19 games back, and with virtually all the same players.
That year Cora said his top priority was having a team that is well-rested for September and October.
Well, his team was extremely well-rested in October … as they watched the postseason from the comfort of their living rooms.
facepalm
So you send down a kid with a 0.00 ERA through 3 innings for yet another Webber disaster?
We know how awful that guy is. Let the guy that has barely any major league experience get a shot.
But then again. This is the Tampa Bay Red Sox now we’re talking about. Cheap as hell and somehow about to mail it in because they have to “ride the fence” when it comes to money after 4 titles and everything.
God forbid they try to win….every year?
LOL Tampa an Boston are the class of the American League. They ARE winning!
thatsright – You are half right, they are winning at a slowing pace. Class? No! There is no class in an organization that did what they did to Mookie and Price. There is no class in an organization that would hire a convicted cheater who was suspected of cheating a second time.
Class is no longer a word associated with the owners. The organization needs to start regaining that moniker to lessen the embarrassment felt by the fan base for their racism and their willingness to hire known felons.
Don’t forget good ‘ole Marwin, the Astro player who benefited the most from the 2017 cheating. Take away that one season and his career numbers are horrendous.
Get over Betts!!
Cry cry cry cry
KD bleeds Dodger blue…..
RS8 – I”m not a Dodger fan in any way other than being a huge Mookie fan. I don’t like that they took advantage of Bloom idolizing Friedman so he tanked the deal with them. I actually don’t root for too many teams because I am an avid fantasy players. Other than my long, long term affiliation with the Boston Red Sox and Braves (now in Atlanta) I root for the Cubs and White Sox and now the Phillies since Girardi and DD are there and I have several of their players on my fantasy teams. Big Bohm fan.
So going forward when I complain about Mookie please realize it’s NOT because I like the Dodgers, I like Mookie and thought he and Price deserved better treatment by ownership.
The Rays don’t play in Tampa nor are they called the Tampa Rays!!!!
I’ll bite – Where do the Rays play and what are they called?
This should fix everything, said no one.
I thought Brennan was warming up in the bullpen on Friday too?
I’d love to see the phillies give Brennan a shot our bullpen has been a disaster as usual except for a few people. I don’t understand why anderson, Moore, and kinzler are still around with the era they all have, they all pretty much allow a run or more every time out
And he has options .. ? C’mon Dave D.. time to DFA Kintzler!
i get wanting a fresh arm in there, but it stands to reason that there’s a better chance of Brennan being successful than Weber lol.
Brennan won’t make it through unclaimed
I wonder if the Sox just flipped a coin to see which Brandon they were going to DFA from the pen.
What makes you think that would work, man?
Not much here
Shocking…Weber is getting pummeled by the Blue Jays today. Red Sox are in real trouble. Their starting pitching is getting hammered by the better teams and they have no stopper on their roster. Look for Weber to be DFA’d tomorrow after this disaster. Not sure why they gave up on Brennan so soon…Sox need Sale back in the worst way.
Sox Starting Pitching is dreadful! Hope they find a solution fast! Perez, and Weber need to go!
It’s not just Perez. Can’t help but think ERod is still suffering after-effects from having Covid, and Pivetta no longer has the element of surprise as AL teams are developing good scouting reports on him.
Things could really go downhill fast, and we can’t assume management will trade good prospects for instant ML help.
Fever Pitch Guy – If you read from Bloom supporters the Red Sox have tons of new valuable minor league players making the farm system so much better. If you read what baseball people think, the only farm system players worth anything to anyone else are those that were in the system when DD was in Boston.
The Red Sox won’t trade good prospects for instant help because Bloom has no experience trading for ACTUAL star players. He’s very experienced in trading minor league players, MLB utility players and other bench rats but he has NO EXPERIENCE trading for quality players not still under control by their organization. Glasnow was not a star free agent when Bloom got him, he was a controlled player like the others in the deal. So unless there is another controlled player with skills similar to Glasnow, it’s highly unlikely Bloom will be able to trade and help the team win.
It makes perfect sense for an organization with a high profile like Boston to find a GM with no experience EVER getting quality players through free agency or trades. Right? And people wonder why the more intelligent fans hate Bloom. hahaha He’s in the wrong organization for his skill set. The team can afford more than a $60M payroll.
You have to wonder if Bloom was really so great at his job in TB like people give him credit for. If he really was the brains behind the consistent winning but not winning the big one , why hasn’t Boston seen the brilliant moves that TB has been making since Bloom arrived in Boston. Could it be he was NOT the brains behind the great moves,? Isn’t it more likely he simply sat in the room and watched the baseball savvy guys do their thing? Now, two years later he’s still sitting and wishing he had the same guys around him figuring out what the Red Sox need to do to become a sustainable winning organization. The jig is up Bloom, people are now realizing you weren’t the brains, you were a fly on the wall in those meetings. You might want to get your resume ready. If this turns out to be a sub .500 year after the great start and adding Sale along with Houck in July, you’ll need that resume on Oct 1.
As usual you make excellent points KD17. I think you’re right about Bloom in Tampa, similar to Theo’s first few years as Sox GM when he was surrounded by Bill Lajoie, Allard Baird, Bill James, and of course Lucchino pulling most of the strings.
Never forget Bloom’s first free agent signing, overpaying for Jose Peraza who turned out to be a bust. He made the exact same mistake with Marwin. And selling very low with Benintendi, that trade could come back to haunt him.
I do wonder if the situation with FSG and Liverpool has caused John Henry to become cheap with the Sox, hopefully there’s no correlation. We will soon find out prior to the trade deadline.
Sox are reverting to last year right after sweeping the yankees who are also getting tuned up. And so it goes.
It’s beyond ugly right now. Sox need a road trip…they are a much better road team than home team for some reason. I bet they recall Colton Brewer or some other retread for their next series.
The more I think about this move, the madder I get. Bringing Weber up required a 40-Man roster move. Why not bring up a pitcher who has actually shown the ability to get batters out at a reasonable rate? If they wanted an experienced pitcher, they have Daniel Gossett (who has much better stats than Weber) and they have Tanner Houck who just got healthy. They also could have added Steven Gonsalves to the roster instead of Weber. Gonsalves has had a nice start to his AAA season and can actually strike batters out. Adding Weber today made zero sense!!
They didn’t need to bring up a pitcher at all, they already had 8 other relievers on the active roster. Let’s be real here, if you’re 9th on the bullpen depth chart then chances are you’re not gonna help the team.
Weber will be gone again. What a line 5 2/3 11 runs, 13 hits, 4 HR allowed. Woof.
If he’s not gone tomorrow… Red Sox fans riot
But Cora needs 9 relievers at all times ….and even still, he used two position players on the mound today.
I’ll be keeping an eye out for reports of Christian or Marwin sitting out because of elbow or shoulder pain.
We should just move Marwin to the pen, he looked fairly decent plus then his batting stats look good if he’s counted as a pitcher lol
Very good Redsoxx, He is a horrible hitter.
Why is Weber even with the organization still? He provides nothing and has no upside. Give some young arm some big league experience. This guy has absolutely nothing to offer. Not even a major leaguer if you ask me.
Tanner Houck needs to be put in the rotation. He was excellent last year and they need him now. They need a boost from somebody. The wheels are coming off. Marwin was their best pitcher today. I know he’s got win in his name but I don’t think he’s moving into the rotation.
Considering Marwin can’t hit or field, I’d say keep having him pitch.
He was one of the most flagrant cheaters with the Astros.
Dude hit .303 with a .907 OPS in 2017.
The 9 other years of his career, his best was 2015 when he hit only .279 with a .759 OPS
But he’s good buddies with Cora and can play multiple positions, so that’s all that matters … right?
Fever Pitch Guy – You are on a roll!!! The nepotism in Cora makes him a horrible manager. Devers at 3B protected by Cora. Gonzalez playing in Boston when they had Benny, another one on Cora. I wonder if Gonzalez and Cora implemented a new state of the art sign stealing program! Once a cheater always a cheater or so the saying goes.
Whyhayzee – Houck still needs roughly a half month in the minors to get healthy and to stay under the Super 2 number so they can keep him under control the extra year. They need the old Sale and the 2020 Houck in July if Bloom is to have any hope of keeping his job.
11 runs in 5.2 innings of mop up duty today. Meanwhile Marwin and Arroyo each pitched well today. Sad when the Infielders pitch better than the Pitchers. We need Sale back and possibly another because Rodriguez, Richards, and Perez have been struggling of late and Eovaldi and Pivetta can’t do it all by themselves
This pitching staff is giving away games in the first inning. Richards and Perez are 5th starters at best. EROD stuns me of how bad he has been this year. The lost 5/7 to Houston and are stinking it up against the Blue Jays. They better send Weber down to the minor leagues because this experiment was a disaster.
AL34 – E-Rod is completely understandable. He and the Red Sox cut his rehab short and they are paying for it now. They should have non tendered him in December since the last remaining year of his control was going to be a nightmare. Whether he followed the doctor’s recommendations and took 6 months off from all activities which would have led to him coming back in July or him coming back in April and sucking, either way he wasn’t worth signing for one year when money was supposedly so tight. Heck, Bloom could have got 3 or 4 more utility players for his salary!!
June is a brutal month schedule-wise and the Red Sox thanks to the Yankees are doing better than expected. A 13-15 projected record was predicated on the Yankees taking 2 out of 3 from Boston not the actual 0-3 that happened. Even with that, the Red Sox are 7-6 rather than 5-8 as expected. The rest of the month is not much better, especially if the Yankees get their act together. 15 games and fortunately 6 are with KC. The others are all against teams that should beat them – Atlanta, Tampa Bay and the Yankees. People need to focus on reality.
With the fast start Boston is currently in the first wild card spot with Houston (a team that kicked the crap out of them) 1.5 games back. Cleveland is 3.0 games back and Toronto the team currently kicking the crap out of them is 4.5 games back with 96 games remaining in the season. The Red Sox are 20-10 on the road and 19-17 at home. The home record is maintainable but the road record is such an anomaly that NOBODY should expect it to continue. If they drop back to a normal .500 or even .550 record they will lose nearly 10 games on other teams!!
If Sale and Houck can juice the team to new heights, a sub .500 record is very much attainable.
Fixes needed? Sale and Houck fix the biggest problem if they perform as expected. LF, 2B, 1B and to a small degree RF are spots that need improvement. Dalbec is young and needs to stay in the line-up. The Bloom utility players in LF and 2B need to be improved upon and the outfield needs an upgrade that makes Renfroe the 4th outfielder. The luxury tax isn’t an issue. So why not spend some money and some of the Bloom fortified over-rated players to procure the things needed? Trade Downs, Wong and the utility players for at least one solid player at LF, 2B or RF and cross your fingers the weak rotation that was considered outstanding two weeks ago can hold on until hope comes in the form of Sale and Houck.
Great points as usual KD17!! But is it realistic to expect Sale back next month, let alone be effective? I read somewhere, I think MassLive.com, that he’s expected back in August. And if management believes that doesn’t give him enough time to build up his stamina, they might throw him in the bullpen like they did with Evo in 2019.
Fever Pitch Guy – No matter what, the Red Sox will mishandle whatever they do with Sale because they have since Farrell left. My personal opinion is that TJ takes 14 months to be healthy one average so if you consider he had surgery in late March a year ago then late May should have been his return date. Since it was the end of March for his surgery it was fair to expect June 1 as his date to return.
Of course, he got sick and that was considered a setback. I’m not sure what type of training program he was on but for him to get sick during it you have to wonder who was running the show. Next, you have to ask yourself why getting sick during your conditioning period had any impact on the overall schedule since throwing wasn’t to begin until after he was healthy.
During the months prior to throwing most people do cardio and lower body strength training to build up the legs and the stamina. Being sick clearly would interrupt that but his throwing to build arm strength is based on the date of the surgery so it should have started on time while he worked hard to make up for the missed time on his leg and cardio work. His schedule should not have been pushed back if handled properly but the Red Sox are incapable of doing the right thing when it comes to recovery as seen by what they did with E-Rod.
One guy they push to get back sooner and the other guy they baby as if he is the most fragile human being on the planet. It never makes sense. The Red Sox pitching staff, training and conditioning individuals and everyone involved in recovery have no idea what they are doing. Sale is currently targeted for July 10th according to my most reliable source for injury status. That is roughly 1 and half months after a standard down time for TJ surgery patients in the MLB.
A couple of months ago I posted many top pitchers who had TJ surgery and their time from surgery to their first start back and the shortest was a year and the longest was 17 months with an average and mode of 14 months. Right now, Sale is projected at 15.5 months assuming the July 9th date is correct. Just another typical mishandling of Sale by Boston.
Walking backwards for his target start against Philly on Friday July 9th figure he needs several rehab starts prior to the MLB start. If they put him on a normal 5 day schedule he’ll need to start on July 4th for Pawtucket against the Scranton Railriders, then again against the Railriders on the 29th of June. Before that he’ll need to start on the 24th for the Sea Dogs against Somerset and then again this coming Saturday for the See Dogs versus Binghamton at Binghamton, NY or the Greenville Drive Hi A affiliate against the Hickory Crawdads in Greenville, NC.. That’s four rehab starts to get him ready for a July 9th start date.
My guess is the brains in the Red Sox organization will say he’s not ready to start his rehab schedule next Saturday so every day after next Saturday that they wait to let him start his rehab assignments is going to delay the arrival in Boston on July 9th by one day. MassLive.com probably has better inside information but in an interview recently Cora suggested July but we all know he’s a serial cheater and liar..
For comparison purposes, Severino had surgery for TJ about one month to the day before Sale. He was roughly one month ahead of Sale with each major step in the recovery process. Severino has a history of getting hurt where as Sale has a history of getting dead arm in August. On Saturday while pitching at High A Severino did what Scherzer did in his start on Saturday, he tweaked his groin. If Sale is pitching at Hi A on the 12th of July (one month behind Severino) then he won’t make his projected date of return. In fact, his best case scenario would be July 27th. Let’s hope that isn’t the case.
FYI… the All-Star game is on Tuesday July 13th this year. Starting on Thursday July 15th the Red Sox play 18 straight days through August 1 against the Yankees (7), Blue Jays (7) and Rays (3). The Red Sox need both Sale and Houck for that stretch if they hope to stay in contention for the second wild card or even for trying to finish above .500 for the season. That stretch will be brutal so all hitters need to be healthy and Sale and Houck need to be ready and healthy.. If not, they could end up next to Baltimore in the standings by August 1. Ironic, the trade deadline happens during their difficult stretch in their schedule. Who knows, based on recent results maybe by then they will be sellers not buyers.
Absolutely fantastic post, thanks!!!
You and KD need to get a room.
Curtisrowe = Have you ever actually made a baseball comment or is everything you write a comment about another commenter? Do you even follow baseball or are you simply a troll?
Classic overeating.
Theo – Typo? overeating? If not, please translate.