Aug. 19: The Red Sox have released Andriese. He’s now free to sign with any club for the prorated league minimum over the remainder of the season.
Aug. 17: The Red Sox have designated reliever Matt Andriese for assignment, per a club announcement. The move clears space on the 40-man roster for fellow bullpen arm Josh Taylor, who has been reinstated from the COVID-19 injured list.
Boston brought Andriese aboard on a free agent deal over the winter. He’d hoped to compete for a spot in the starting rotation during Spring Training but ultimately found himself working exclusively as a multi-inning option out of the bullpen. The 31-year-old didn’t find a lot of success in that role, posting a 6.03 ERA over 37 1/3 frames.
Andriese has always been a solid strike-thrower and that’s again been the case in 2021. He’s only walked 6.2% of opponents this year, but Andriese has struggled to miss bats. His 21.5% strikeout rate and 8.8% swinging strike rate are each well below-average for a reliever and he’s given up plenty of loud contact. Certainly, Andriese has been a bit unlucky to allow opponents to hit .407 on balls in play against him, but he’s had a hard time avoiding barrels over the course of the campaign.
That production all came in the season’s first half, as Andriese hasn’t pitched since landing on the injured list with hamstring tendinitis on July 10. He’s nearing a return to health, having spent the past few weeks on a minor league rehab assignment with Triple-A Worcester.
Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, so Andriese figures to be released. That’s little more than a formality, as he had enough big league service time to refuse an outright assignment and hit free agency anyways. Assuming he passes through waivers unclaimed — which would appear likely — the Red Sox will remain on the hook for what remains of his $2.1MM guarantee. Any team that then signs Andriese as a free agent would only owe him the prorated portion of the league minimum salary for any time he spends on the big league roster.
This is a question I have been curious about and so I’d like to ask Anthony this. Let’s say a player who has a club option after the season like Eaton, Inciarte and in this case Andriese end up being dfa’d, outrighted and sign with another team. Does that team still hold a option over them or has it automatically been voided when they dfa’d them.
Only if the player is claimed off waivers. If the player is released, the contract is voided.
If Andriese is claimed off of waivers, the new team acquires his existing contract ‘as is’. If he goes unclaimed and the Red Sox release him, the Red Sox are still on the hook to pay him any buyout associated with the option. The option itself is void, but the Red Sox would still owe the player the buyout amount. Otherwise, every team would be releasing underperforming players in Sept in order to avoid paying buyouts on future year(s) options.
If they are “claimed” the clock stays the same. If they become a free agent, the terms of the next deal/team can be whatever the 2 parties agree to in the contract, service time be damned. This guy will probably only get the basic minor league deal tho
Andriese, another solid pickup by Bloom. I remember listening him blow a game with a 3 run lead in extra innings. Bloom is good for a small market team with no fans not mainstream Boston.
He was great the first 6 weeks before he tanked but he could have been garbage all year long and still worth all the money for teaching Whitlock his change up. For that alone he is worth twice what The Sox paid him.
Yes, his entire makeup is built on the signing of Andriese. Can you feel the eye roll through the internet?
Bloom is solid and building the farm while competing. If you listen to his interviews and press conferences, it is easy to hear the plan and believe in it.
Focus on the positives, not small signings.
Chaim is really good I’ll just say giants fans likely are ok with giants going farhan over Chaim ( Chaim was a finalist )
Regardless according to baseball America Sox now have the 9th ranked farm in all of baseball giants 5th ! Both teams are ahead of schedule
When you trade a likely future HOF like mookie Betts, then throw away a season entirely by refusing to add complementary pieces to a WS caliber core and fix a bullpen just so you can get high draft picks, yes, that certainly helps things along with prospects.
Chaim looks like the guy who was there, but wasn’t a big enough part of getting things done. He knows generally what the other guys were doing, but is more bumbling fumbling when he tries to do it himself.
After they lost Sale and E Rod for the yr it was better to rebuild. Also no one knew if there would even be a WS in 2020.
@jmi – Erod wasn’t known to be lost when he assembled the team, or should I say, didn’t.
Nice Monday morning quarterback though
The season was in doubt for all due to covid even after they settled on a 60 gm season. Sale was gone and Mookie refused to even discuss a new contract. That made it a perfect yr to rebuild. They also got a blue chip SS prospect by blowing off 2021.
Annnd… Bloom built his mess before covid even suspended spring training.
Try again.
Noel1982 – Stop reading crap like Baseball America for the lists. They are meaningless. Read about players and take everything with a grain of salt because the programs that back the players influence the write-ups. A good PR firm behind an above average player will always get better write-ups in publications than a star player with a weak PR team behind him. That’s how guys that suck like Downs are able to ascend in the rankings despite lacking talent.
Bloom sucks at his job. The results already prove that.
Normally you don’t stop building a team during ST. It was obviously that once Covid hit everyone knew there might not be a season. Henry was looking for a reason to shift gears, I doubt it made any difference what Bloom wanted. We saw this when Henry went from Theo to Ben to DD
which resulted in two radical swings of roster building. And by the way WS titles in 2013, 2018, making the Sox’s the last 2 time champ. So I give Henry credit for having the guts to recognize when things aren’t working.
Maybe you should find a new favorite MLB team, so you won’t have to complain on every post…..maybe the Dodgers since you are love if Mookie.
jml1950 = I think your sequence of events is off a bit. Please let me recap.
1 – This all starts when DD wants to resign Mookie and ownership doesn’t want him so they fire DD. This event creates a huge talent gap at GM that has yet to be fixed. It’s also the snowball that starts rolling downhill and gathering size as it goes.
2 – Knowing they wanted to rid themselves of Mookie ownership hires a stooge with next to no experience who won’t stand up to them when they want to do incredibly stupid things. Bloom joins the team and austerity is claimed because the 2019 payroll for the second year in a row was over the cap due to mistakes the ownership team made before DD arrived.
3 – Bloom’s first chance to make an impact on payroll is in December when he could have non-tendered players like JBJ and Hembree. That would have saved $14M but he didn’t do his job.
4 – With Cora gone Bloom should have picked his own guy for manager so he could be more accountable for results but instead he let ownership group dictate the managerial plan. Again, Bloom acting as a puppet to ownership.
5 – Ownership explains to Bloom he must dump his two best black players and he should do it as fast as possible because they are both unhappy playing in the organization due to ownership’s racism. So Bloom calls his mentor and grabs his ankles. Now the talent level of the organization has dropped significantly. Is it the start of a rebuild? Maybe but it’s only 2 players at this point : An all-star right fielder and the #2 SP on the team. Could they simply be replaced with the huge salary reduction? No because Bloom didn’t understand payroll and cut his future available payroll by $16M the next three years thus the skill level couldn’t be replaced under the new austerity program.
6 – COVID hits and it’s possible that trading at the deadline instead of in January when there was low interest in Mookie might not have been the superior action by the GM but now the cost of both players in 2020 is radically reduced. The impact of COVID on the schedule ends in July and it turns out trading Mookie at the deadline would have brought significantly more than trading them in January. Another bad choice by Bloom.
7 – Sale is told to have TJ surgery in March due to the uncertainty of COVID. This decision caused by Cora trying to change his wind-up in April 2019 is made 9 months too late causing an even bigger ding to the talent level of the Red Sox. Now they are missing their #1 and #2 SPs and their best hitter/fielder. The talent level plummets even farther. Is it a rebuild now with Sale coming back by mid season 2021? No, there is simply a need to reorganize the future talent level by mid 2021 when Sale returns. 2020 and 2021 are lost at this point.
8 – The team is 4th worst in baseball in 2020 and the good news is a decent draft pick is gained. The bad news is the new GM has done nothing to prepare for 2021 with respect to reacquiring new talent. He dumpster dives and adds utility players and minor league players and sells them as a huge future the team will have knowing it’s a huge lie.
9 – Toward the end of the 2020 season the #3 SP E-ROD has a severe heart problem and is told to rest for six full months. That establishes a February start date for conditioning which moves his return to roughly the same as Sale’s. If he follows the doctors suggestion he plays 3 months at best in 2021 his last year of control. This means the Red Sox are paying E-Rod $8.3M for half a season during a time of austerity.
E-Rod should have been non-tendered. His best season was 2019 but his ERA was 3.81 and his WHIP was 1.33 so his numbers make him a #5 SP not a #1 like many thought because he won 19 games due to huge run support. The non-tender would have freed up $8.3M to go with JBJ’s $11M so $20M less payroll during a season that includes no #1 SP for at least half the season, no #2 SP for the whole season, no #3 SP for either half or all the season and no Mookie. With that level of talent the GM should have been doing a future team chart and started plugging some of the long=term holes spending whatever it took to get those players since more money was rolling off in 2022. Instead, he paid small money for lots of crap players who were plug-ins and he set no direction for the future.
So jml1950 – Is it really a rebuild or is it simply horrendous management of resources on the part of the owner and GM? The talent level is significantly down as expected after the insane moves made since DD was fired. The ONLY talent ADD was a LF who can’t play defense so how does he fit into the long term plans of a rebuild? The Red Sox got their #1 SP back, their #2 is still missing, they have Houck to fill the #3 spot for the future. E-ROD will ask for #2 or #3 money after performing at a #5 level but based on the bad decision making lately I’m guessing they will over-pay for him. There is no effective closer just Barnes who crumbles if the Red Sox ever make it back to a pennant race in September (this year seemed like it might be that situation but each day makes it look less likely). There is a huge problem at 3B until Devers is moved to DH. If Devers moves to DH then JD must play outfield or be traded. His defense is roughly comparable to Schwarber so getting Schwarber is even more confounding since the Red Sox could have moved JD to LF and got a #2 SP instead.
There is no plan in place it’s chaos in the Red Sox front office. Chaos does NOT suggest a rebuild. It suggests no plan at all just a bunch of promises from the stooge who got hired as a yes man to ownership.
If a rebuild is to occur then players will actually need to be acquired, THUS the word rebuild. Right now, the tear down is the only action by Bloom and the owners. It’s an ineffective tear down since money wasn’t saved to the degree it should have been. Thus I call it Chaos. Neither a rebuild or a tear down fits the description of the front office actions since the summer of 2019.
A top 10 finish in the AL in 2021 brings no great draft pick and no playoff opportunity. It’s like Bloom was climbing over a picket fence and his foot slipped and he impaled himself. No forward movement in trying to bring this organization back from it’s self inflicted wounds. Just a guy hanging from a fence yelling to everyone that things are great and right on track.
NONAME – I thought you were banned? Oh that’s right you created a new id to troll the site. We sure are lucky to have your insightful comments! haha
@KD – one thing you left out was the bullpen. Although DD did mixed results building it (he gets credit for kimbrel afterall and did trade for Josh taylor among others) the pen was a weak point when.bloom took over in October 2019.
It still is a weak point a couple years later. More neglect by bloom.
Noel19826 hours ago
baseball America Sox now have the 9th ranked farm
=========================================
Amazing move in such a short period of time. The last time we had a farm was when Theo was here.
@JoeBrady-
Also the last time Theo was here the sox blew a large lead atop the AL east due to complacency and missed the postseason altogether.
Hrmm… Bloom must be trying to replicate that too.
As an aside, if Theo got the last farm system, I’m confused where all the young mlb talent the sox have been graduating these past years came from? I mean, has Devers really been with the sox, well, over a decade? What about the items?
Hmmm
@KD – You forget the biggest issue here in that Bloom was directed by ownership to get under the CBT. Even by trading Mookie and 1/2 of Price’s contract, the team was still close to the CBT threshold (and they would have been three time offenders) so Bloom had no options to bring in ‘better’ free agents as he was handcuffed by the excessive payroll he inherited. Sure, he could have non-tendered E-Rod but what does $8M get you in free agency? Not much out there better than E-Rod at the time if you ask me. Kiké & Renfroe were fantastic additions to this team given the payroll constraints. If you want to point fingers, point them at ownership as they drove the mandate to cut payroll and trade Mookie since they “couldn’t afford him.” And please stop the racist owner BS. That is absolute nonsense. Case in point, they traded for Jeter Downs…enough said. Letting Price & JBJ go was long overdue. Everyone loved Jackie, but not at $12M/yr. to bat .200. That was one of the best, difficult decisions they made.
_____ It suggests no plan at all just a bunch of promises from the stooge who got hired as a yes man to ownership.—–
Not even going to waste time going over point by point the inaccuracies and total BS of that novel like post from above. Worst of which accuses RS organization of returning to it’s 1960’s level of racism, nothing new from wokies in this day and age always looking under every rock for this type of thing.
My defense is only going to be with Mr John henry and the 4WS trophy’s since he has brought to the city since owning the team this century and stop there. Please cease with all the “he did this” and “he did that” hog wash” which just doesn’t hold any water as compared to 28 other teams the last 21 years, other than the SFG trophy wise.
Dorothy – I can’t stomach the argument that after making hundreds of millions of profits over a twenty year period and their franchise rising in value by billions that this ownership team wants to stop re-investing in the future of the club for a measly $10M.
Big market teams get under the CBT to reset and then go over. Ownership recanted their comments in the winter of 2019 that the CBT was a driving factor. Are they liars? Or are they cheap and chose to not reinvest in their product to maintain the excellence they’ve had for 20 years?
You are looking too deeply into individual numbers. This is a philosophical set of questions:
1 – Why after 20 years has ownership chosen to stop reinvesting in their product?
2 – If this is truly an austere time where money is short, what the heck happened to the billions of profits and added value they have received in the last 20 years? Did they siphon it off to other investments so now they can’t spend like big market team?
3 – If you are going cheap then the $8M for a recovering E-Rod in his last year of control is excessive pay. If you aren’t going cheap then $8M is fine but the Mookie/Price deal makes no sense. My point is Bloom had a rep that he reinforced when hired that he was a smart spender. He saved $10M a year on Mookie and spent $11M on JBJ for one year and $8M on E-Rod who wasn’t healthy. This makes no sense. You can’t be not in on spending big money and then waste small money on people who don’t present the returns of the people you divested. It’s all illogical.
So for me, if the future is guys like Kiki rather than Semien then don’t expect to win. If you want to say they have no money to pay for Semien then tell me where all the profits have gone and why they aren’t being reinvested in the team. If the Red Sox are now a small market team that is trying to bring down it’s payroll to $100m OR even $125M or $150M state that as the direction so EVERYONE can be mad.
Price’s deal reduced their cap money for 3 years. The reason they are still close to the max is because they still carry Pedroia, Price and others who are no longer with the club (Benny, Gozalez now, Andriese now, Chavis, Workman, Weber to name a few). The amount of money paid to non-playing players is nearly $40M in 2021. Pedroia’s money is the only amount that existed before Bloom. So he reduced available payroll by roughly $27M in less than two years on the job. The payroll cap after taking out minor league contracts and benefits is roughly $190M, That number shrunk to $163M due to Bloom and $150M due to Pedroia’s contract. Bloom imposed an available payroll reduction of 21%!!! Yep, if you are complaining about available money under the cap, it’s on Bloom and NONE of it is on DD. Bloom should have divested Price in a much more financially savvy way but he didn’t. So that lost payroll is on him.
So please tell me what’s inaccurate in what I’m saying:
1 – A mandate to get under the cap immediately makes no sense unless you have a great desire to go over the following year. That was not the stated direction of ownership so taking two years to get under when Sale was going to be out 2 years makes much more sense and costs less than the non tender that didn’t happen for JBJ.
2 – You don’t have to believe the ownership is racist. I do and the freedom of speech allows me to express that belief. See when the two best black players on a notoriously racist organization are given away a red flag pops up. When the players join a diverse organization and sign and have no issues for 2 years then the red flag is validated.
3 – Since the trade I have complained about the return they got for Mookie. Everyone blasted me because Downs was ranked 44th on the prospect list. I’ve explained how full of crap those lists are but people still believe them despite them ranking Swihart higher than Mookie and so many other mistakes. I pointed out that Downs couldn’t hit AA pitchers and his promotion by LAD was a ploy to have him over-valued just like Philly did with Pivetta. Pivetta was a disaster in Philly because of it. Downs has fallen as a prospect because he still hasn’t proven he can hit AA pitching except for 12 games against two of the three worst pitching staffs in the league.
Downs been under the Mendoza line at AAA this year. Proof that he’s not ready to be at AAA. At his age and not having mastered AA he’s not even a decent prospect. He’s the type of player that is likely to never get out of the minors unless the front office promotes him to save face and he fails and gets traded. Then the question becomes did we really get good talent in the Mookie trade. Verdugo has had a full season and short season to prove he’s an all-star and it hasn’t happened so are we better off with Verdugo or a more expensive Mookie? We all know that answer so if the team made so much money why couldn’t they pay Mookie from their profits not their revenues and position the team to make another run at a ring in the early 2020s?
Dorothy – I do point fingers at ownership but I saved my index finger for Bloom and my second finger for Cora.
johnsilver – 20 year run was good. it makes sense that you couldn’t explain why my comments were BS because they weren’t. The organization stated before they hired Cora the first time that they lacked diversity so you interpret that as you see fit. For me, that tells me that they had issues before Bloom arrived. They traded their top 2 black players (that’s not BS that’s a fact) and to me that made them racists.
I was a huge supporter of John Henry until DD was fired and the entire organization went to crap in late 2019. The events that led to the massive ownership change in philosophy is what angers me. Why compete with the Yankees for 20 years and then stop. I give Henry his due for the first 20 years but I also hate what he’s done since. He’s the owner and the buck stops with him. He gets credit for the 20 years of prosperity and the 2 year disaster.
The Red Sox HAD the right philosophy about winning whereas teams like NYY and LAD didn’t. They were content to compete but Boston, SF, STL all wanted to win championships and in between years didn’t matter as much. Rings to me are signs of achievement. Making the playoffs and not winning is close to a participation trophy. The new Red Sox philosophy is a participation trophy philosophy. Maintainable performance with slightly above mediocre talent and not spending money so the profits that are already huge grow even more. Win for Ownership and loss for the fans.
I am not ungrateful for the first 20 years. I spent nearly 50 years waiting for it to happen so I appreciate it. I simply don’t want it to end and I can’t comprehend why the massive philosophy change. It’s a losers mentality to be satisfied with the playoffs and no rings. It goes against a baseball players competitive spirit and likewise the baseball fan’s spirit. My father waited 80 years to see a ring in Boston and passed before it happened. I’m guessing he would be excited to know that his grand kids got to see 4 in 20 years. I’m also sure he’d be questioning the huge philosophical change back to the old days when he was alive. 86 years of being a bridesmaid isn’t something to be proud about. 4 rings in 20 years, now that’s awesome so lets keep the awesome going!!.
dbdmack – We are all laughing at your ridiculous eye roll. Learn something about baseball before you post cute crap that is so dramatically wrong.
The Red Sox Farm System – Graduates more than any other in the 2010s. Around the horn with Vazquez, Dalbec, Peddy ( a bit before 2010), Bogaerts, Devers, Benintendi, JBJ and Betts. Because of the success in graduating hitters many of the pitchers were Free Agent claims but Houck is home grown, Mata is home grown when he arrives after recovering from surgery.
It shows your knowledge of the game when you criticize the most productive farm system in baseball because it doesn’t have the top 100 guys. Instead, it has players in the MLB because it’s actually functioning as it should.
The crap Bloom has accumulated has yet to graduate and provide value so it’s very easy to say he’s improved it when there are no results to support your argument. I just hope by adding the dumpster dives that Bloom has done nobody of real value has been cut due to the short-sighted behavior of guy trying to fill the minors with “his guys”.
Last point!!!! THERE ARE NO POSITIVES!!! Wake up and deal with reality!!!
When you are winning and you need help, you go for it. He said back snd picked up an injured player who gave them nothing for over two weeks. The relievers he picked up were garbage. What is the plan, throw away this year and hope for next year? No impressed with him
The best way to get rid of all these wasted money contracts is get rid of the source.
You cut out a cancer before the host becomes hopelessly infected right? Need to remove bloom.
All the apologists jumped on me when I said what a crappy pickup this was… well, he was as bad as advertised!
What bloom doesn’t understand is, you pick up 5 dumpster guys, you hope one hits. But you got 5 pieces of trash on your roster.
Use that same total money on one quality guy and you’ve got something good from the start!
Bloom spends so much money looking for the “bargain” that by the time he finds one you can’t point to the face value of the contract, you’ve gotta add in all the chaff it took to get there.
Renfroe? Kiki?
Chris Mazza, martin perez, Jose peraza, Johathan arauz, Josh osich, Marco hernandez, adenys Bautista, Matt hall, Jeffrey springs, Austin Brice, Phillips Valdez, Jhonny Perada, Colin McHugh, Robert stock, Stephen Gonsalves, Dylan covey, blaze Jordan, Shane Drohan, Jeremy wu-yelland, Andrew tiggs, Christian arroyo, Jacob Wallace, Joel payamps, Matt andriese, Christian Koss, angel Lopez, marwin Gonzalez, Franchy cordero, John Schrieber, Ronaldo hernandez, nick sogard, Garrett richards, Daniel Santana, jogly garcia, Tyler Olson, Hector Rondon, Brandon Brennan, yaksel Rios, Victor Santos, Hansel Robles, delino shields, and now, Travis shaw?.?
I tried to weed out all the minor league contracts and non-roster invites, even if bloom later called then up and they were trash.
The list could be longer. It’s also hard to claim Kiki was a “find” after his LAD tenure.
Oh really, most of every teams “prospects” turn out to be depth at best.
You forgot Pivetta, Seabold, Sawamura, Ottavino, Whitlock, Renfroe all hits.
Those were major league contracts and trades. I ignored prospects and minor league signings, but nice try.
Marco Hernandez was acquired by Ben Cherington.
Martin Perez was solid last year and decent the first half of this year.
Christian Arroyo was having a good season before getting injured.
Garrett Richards started off decent but like many Pitchers has struggled since the ban on sticky stuff
Hansel Robles, Phillips Valdez, and Yacksel Rios each had one bad outing but have all been decent
Chris Mazza didn’t pitch bad for them last year.
Hector Rondon decided to retire, it’s hard to blame Bloom for that one.
Collin McHugh opted out of last season, again you can’t blame Bloom.
You didn’t mention Daniel Gossett who has been one of their best starters at Worcester.
Payamps played musical chairs between Boston and Toronto all winter before staying in Toronto.
The rest of those guys have been mostly minor league roster filler, with the exception of Peraza, Brice, and Springs who spent all last season with the team.
Every team is going to miss on some free agents or trades. Marwin has lost both the ability to hit and seemingly the interest to play. Cordero may end up being nothing but a AAAA player and Santana just hasn’t been good. At least they didn’t cost big money like Pablo Sandoval or Hanley Ramirez
@rsox –
Marco hernandez was a free agent in Dec 2019 before bloom signed him on the 4th.
Anything after that is on him as he chose to bring Marco back/in.
Did you see Robles today? Guy has been with Boston all of 2+ weeks and already has multiple dumpster fire outings.
I focused on guys signed to normal contracts before being optioned up and down. There were dozens more minor league signings most of which are crap, but, that’s the purpose of a minor league contract to see what you can make. Most of those guys should bust so I left them out – good and bad.
A common point is if you condensed those salaries and offered decent money to decent players more often – especially the bullpen – like he finally did to lure Kiki in, the team would be much better.
dbdmack – In baseball what is your average if you go 2 for 20?
jml1950 – Define hits. I think we have a definition issue. A deal isn’t a hit because it’s not a miss. A hit adds significant talent not replaceable talent.
Ottavino is the only legitimate hit. Seabold might be some day but as of today he’s meaningless from a value add perspective. Potential players don’t suggest that real value will actually happen down the road. Until Seabold provides value to the Red Sox he has no value.
GA conveniently forgets all the good acquisitions.
Yorke & Jordan are tearing it up, while Wu-Yelland is doing well. I find it interesting that GA included Jordan in his list of moves he didn’t like. I suspect he doesn’t follow our prospects much.
Mayer is likely the best player in the draft, though that’s equal part luck, and equal part tanking in 2020.
His FA signings cost $28M and returned 6.3 bWAR, and excellent return.
His trades/pickups (Pivetta, Whitlock, Verdugo, Arroyo) returned 8.2 bWAR for $2M.
All these nice additions, and the whiners still don’t realize that we went from .400 last year to .575 this year. And our farm went from maybe #24 to #9.
Martin Perez is and has always been trash.
JB – Nothing counts until they are in the majors. That’s why your perspective is jaded. You keep believing the farm system guys are worth something before they are traded or graduate. They are not worth anything until they add value to the major league team. Performance in the minors has NEVER won a major league game and the criteria for a successful trade or acquisition is how much benefit it brings to the MLB team in the form of wins and rings.
Don’t give Bloom credit for the draft pick because it was like the Barkley commercial. Taking the best player is expected. The fact that he fell to them doesn’t get credited to Bloom it’s an indictment of the teams picking before Boston.
Cherry picking again? Please help me understand why you count the WAR on the Red Sox half of trades but not the WAR for players traded away as a reduction to the WAR of the players added?
Why do you count bWAR of FA signings without pointing out the bWAR of alternatives Bloom passed on that have much higher bWARs?
The farm system ranking is still a bunch of crap but you continue to bring up bad data to make your argument. Measure the farm system based on ACTUAL PERFORMANCE not a point in time guess at it’s value based on potential not real stats.
The winning in 2021 should all be attributed to the All-Stars playing far over their norm much like in 2018. The shortfall is the talent depletion caused by Bloom. No great draft picks and no playoffs. This year was a waste as predicted by so many. If you want to consider it improvement because 3 hitters had career years, great. But that’s a rationalization. The talent level is still down from when Bloom took over and until the talent level comes up, 4th will be all Red Sox fans can realistically expect.
You simply don’t comprehend baseball. No matter how many times you are told how to analyze the performance of a player, a farm system or a team you always take the inaccurate method that supports your biased opinion. Use facts so people will respect you.
@brady- as I explained elsewhere, nd you read but ignore, I left off what started as minor league signings good AND BAD and just left what were announced in transactions as mlb signings at the time even if the guys got punted to the minors. I also left of non-roster ST invites good AND BAD, and tried to delete all draft picks.
AS IVE STATED ELSEWHERE SINCE YOU KEEP IGNORING IT I MISSED JORDANS NAME FOR DELETION.
AGAIN. AS I STATED ELSEWHERE SINCE YOU KEEP IGNORING IT I MISSED JORDANS NAME FOR DELETION.
Dont let your bloom delusions carry over to elsewhere in life!
Funny there is just two guys on your list I’d want Arroyo and Valdez
He wasted millions on Perez and Richards and Andries and a few others. It looks like they got nothing for Benintendi too.I do no not think Ottavino is that good. That was a contract dump from the Yankees.
He has some hits and some misses, but I like the direction Bloom is taking them. Already built the farm back up as well.
Bloom is the guy at a poker game that just sits there pushing in blinds all game and never putting his chips in and on the line when it counts.
A waste of a chair in the poker game when you could’ve had an engaging player go for it, and, a waste of a gm when you have a core team that could’ve gone for it.
Again, you spent the winter whining about us being the worst team in the division. And you are spending the summer complaining that we might not win the WS.
Heck of a hobby you have going there.
What *I* mainly complained about over the winter was bloom not doing the following:
1) not fixing the bullpen. Status… still incomplete after almost 2 full seasons.
2) not fixing the rotation. Cite to failures of Perez and Especially Garrett who I always said would be a bust. Perez, if you recall, I defended as an OK #5 to fill in until Sale. With erod a pending FA, not signing legit #4, and Perez out as expected as a temp fill in, still incomplete after the same nearly 2 seasons.
3) I complained about not going after a good 2b and not fixing the outfield where Boston demands a cf caliber rf. Status, moved backwards by moving benintendi from LF. Verdugo seems to have settled into average, not a star which is ok… if you upgrade elsewhere. Jury is out on whether Duran was ready or just a byproduct of the superball put in MiLB AAA play. Status incomplete.
If bloom was earning a report card it would read D- on 2B, C- on OF, C on bullpen, F on trade deadline.theres better GMs out there.
Meanwhile, the worthless Travis Shaw, after screwing over the sox in g1 of the double header, also struck out every appearance after starting in game 2 of the doubleheader.
Hope the bonus bloom gets from being voted a full playoff share by the NYY and TB for his sabotage is worth it….
Sox & Rizzo – What direction is that? Are you a Yankee fan and you like him driving the team into the ground? The farm system had the best graduation rate of the last decade. Do you even understand the purpose of the farm system? It’s not to brag about having more top 100 which is NOT what has happened under Bloom. It’s to provide value to the MLB team. Houck added value and he’s not a Bloom guy. Duran added value and he’s not a Bloom guy. Dalbec added value and he’s not a Bloom guy. THERE ARE NO BLOOM GUYS!!! How does that suggest he improved the farm system? At best you can try to suggest the potential is greater but there is no way to measure the potential as a real reflection of what will happen so any claim of improvement is bull crap and non existent.
In the defense, the farm system was potentially bad under Dombrowski.
pwndroia – So you don’t like Bogaerts, Devers, Vazquez, JBJ, Benny, Dalbec, Houck Betts and Duran? I’m confused.
I thought you liked those guys. They came from that bad farm system. They came spread out over time which prevents payroll issues when all of them graduating at once. The farm system needs to produce 1 or 2 starters per year and it’s a success. That’s exactly what it’s done during Cherington, DD and now Bloom. Unfortunately most of the players come from Cherington since he was adding draft picks the longest time back, then DD and then Bloom. Bloom has no graduates but if 1 or 2 graduate per year the farm system is in great shape.
Stop looking at rankings they truly are meaningless. Swihart ranked better than Mookie. I could go on with hundreds of other examples which all negate the veracity of these lists. Measure the success with tangible additions that help the major league team..
… and there was much rejoicing.
If the Sox win the AL East Bloom will be Exec of the yr.
Sawamura, Whitlock, Ottavino (NYY pays 1/2 $$ plus Sox get a prospect), Renfroe, Hernandez, Schwarber, all without giving up any real prospects.
Last yr he traded Mookie because he had no choice — Mookie was never staying. Verdugo Wong, Downs was clearly the best offer. He got Pivetta, Seabold for 2 expiring contracts.
That’s a lot of hits. All GM’s have some misses. Even Richards, Perez and Andreisse were enough to help them build up a 1st place lead at the All Star break. There are no bad 1 yr contracts and he got cheap options for 2022 if any of them looked like keepers.
It’s looking doubtful the sox hang on to a wild card, let alone win the east anymore.
Bloom screwed that up at the deadline while everyone else loaded for bear he went out and got a peashooter waiting for the ammo to get there a couple weeks.
If they win anything, it’ll be in spite of bloom
It was always going to be Sale;/Houck as pitching help.
Schwarber can still be a monster which he was for the WS winning CUBS. NL player of the month in June this yr.
Houck shoulve been there all year. He never should’ve been help. Or did you not watch him in 2020?
Houck was up early but then had an injury so they got him back healthy and protected him by keeping his innings low. A much better job than the Nats pitching Strasberg heavy in the first half and not having him available when needed in the playoffs.
Houck was injured for two months so he couldn’t have been there all year. He needed to build up his arm strength in the minors after getting the green light to throw again.
GASoxFan5 hours ago
Houck shoulve been there all year.
=============================
You didn’t know the dude was injured! What’s the point of debating all things RS if you don’t know anything about them?
My recollection is that Houck was sent back down and got hurt at Worcester. I clearly remember Will Flemming complaining that sending him down was not the right move.
“in spite of bloom”
Yes, if they win, it will be in spite of the guy who put the team together.
@orien – The core was NOT brought in by bloom. You a bandwagon fan?
GASoxFan – Lots of dbags today. Wow. So many comments by them with so little substance behind their comments. I’m trying to decide if the Red Sox hired a bunch of interns and told them to fight for the organization and Bloom and what they say didn’t have to be true!!
Haven’t seen an influx of stupidity like this in a long time!!
I wonder if any of them know that spouting an opinion isn’t the truth. Facts support arguments not I said so.
KD17- so many bloom-apologists. I don’t see what’s hard to admit about “yes, he blew the deadline.”
It’s not often a team is rolling at the AS break and deadline approaching with a good 5 game lead in the AL east. If you don’t see that as being waived around third to go for home and add to your roster using prospects that may still bust to buy contributors… I don’t know what is.
Imagine a RS team where you burned a few guys to add scherzer, rizzo, and a decent non-robles arm or two? You have to imagine bundling a couple guys with Chavis (who was sold too low on an overpay) get a convo started on one of the three… heck, cubbies could used Chavis as centerpiece in a rizzo swap.
Instead, your competitors both for the pennant and the wildcards load up and bloom scrounges for more chaff/bounceback candidates.
The only decent player he picked up was schwarber who is blocked by better players already on the team?
Richards, Perez, Cordero, Gonzalez, Andriese – piling up. John Henry’s puppet is in a slump.
Richards, Perez & Andriesse provided enough to get them through the first 90 gms.
Cordero is still young with options left. So wait and see.
Which of Whitlock, Ottavino, Sawamura, Renfroe, Hernandez & Schwarber are you saying were misses?
@jmi, not counting minor league deals and non-roster invites that were brought up and junk, how about Chris Mazza, martin perez, Jose peraza, Johathan arauz, Josh osich, Marco hernandez, adenys Bautista, Matt hall, Jeffrey springs, Austin Brice, Phillips Valdez, Jhonny Perada, Colin McHugh, Robert stock, Stephen Gonsalves, Dylan covey, blaze Jordan, Shane Drohan, Jeremy wu-yelland, Andrew tiggs, Christian arroyo, Jacob Wallace, Joel payamps, Matt andriese, Christian Koss, angel Lopez, marwin Gonzalez, Franchy cordero, John Schrieber, Ronaldo hernandez, nick sogard, Garrett richards, Daniel Santana, jogly garcia, Tyler Olson, Hector Rondon, Brandon Brennan, yaksel Rios, Victor Santos, Hansel Robles, delino shields, and now, Travis shaw.
I see a lot of future HOFers there
Less than 5% become HOF. Fred Lynn, Dewey, Evans were pretty good for missing the HOF. Tony C was the youngest AL player to get to 100 HRs and was beaned into a nobody. I could name 100’s of all stars who had only a few or one good yrs.
You are still ignoring 1/3 of the roster that Bloom signed and have turned this team from last to a playoff contender.
Most others are just depth.
Bloom was the only reason it WAS a last place team, it never should’ve been.
Had bloom done his job in 2020 who knows what kind of contender you could’ve had.
The “third” you reference is mostly depth and guys who aren’t living up to their billing.
I see you included some guys who were drafted last year, including Blaze Jordan, who is still only 18 and slashed 362/408/667 in the FCL before being promoted to Salem.
@traderumormonger- yeah, problem is bloom has churned players at a rate that makes preller and dipoto proud.
I took a transaction list, had a search and delete for assignments, reported as minor leage deals, and reported as non-roster invites. That of course let a few draft picks through I didn’t catch, and left off minor league deals that were promoted, sucked, then kicked away as failures.
But what it should do is show the volume of bloom deals that were wasted money and took away playing time from more worthy options at the mlb level.
jml1950 – You are a troll aren’t you? 1/3 the roster that Bloom signed?
Let’s just count the all-stars this year because the baseball world acknowledged them as true contributors to the success of the Red Sox.
Bogey, Devers, JD, Eovaldi and Barnes !!!
Which one is Bloom’s guy? NONE!!!!!!!!!!
The crappy 1/3 Bloom brought to the team is preventing them from staying in the lead until the end because their talent level is and always will be suspect. They may have had a few hot streaks but their actual talent level is low which is why Bloom got them. Their price matched their talent.
His job was to get under the lixury tax threshold.
MariaBass – If you understand the Luxury Tax you know the only reason to rush to get under it like Bloom did is to go back over the following season. Otherwise, a graceful reduction of payroll may take two years with less than a $10M cost but it allows you to move your over=priced players at optimal times not force it in January.
Bloom made the bad decisions on WHEN if in fact he was mandated to get under the luxury tax. Ownership publicly denied that his charter was to get under the tax.
You’re willing to break the season into a 90 game chunk to validate poor decisions? Your faith is noble, but misleading. Those players you referenced are hardly diamonds. There’s an unwillingness to be critical in a lot of Sox fans I find puzzling. The fall is underway.
Meanwhile, as expected, they pulled the hot bat of dalbec with bases loaded, no out in the final inning.
Shaw failed, as was expected, and couldn’t even get a sac fly.
Red sox lost, no runs scored. Bloom continues to leave his mark. Also, the vaunted bloom bullpen walked 6 in 2 innings, giving up the lead.
So you have nothing to say about the six players I listed other than that Whitlock and Taylor (not listed) are Bloom’s mistakes. Give it a rest you are making a fool out of your self.
JMI – you proved above you didn’t even know when covid shut down ST and how bloom built the 2020 squad BEFORE it hit by months… so who’s the fool?
OK, here goes:
Whitlock – bloom finally got something to stick after a good 100 or so misses in trades, non roster invites, minor league deals, etc. Good for him, just far more bad moves to get there than your average gm.
Ottavino – really bailed out Cashman and the Yankees there taking a bad contract at the time and enabling them to upgrade while staying under CBT. Interesting fact, he’s blown multiple games against NY but Cora the idiot keeps using him there not learning. Shouldn’t have had to help NY and take on the money if he ever spent time actually building a bullpen, the fact this happened points to how bloom has been inept and how poor he let the BP get under his watch.
Sawamura – he’s ‘ok’… not great. His RA9 is hidden behind a lower era due to unearned runs. What that means is he’s not as valuable to come in with men already on base and really only useful in a clean inning. Even then. He’s relying in part on teams not having a book on him yet being new to mlb- teams weren’t scouting him as a milb player then a mlb player for years. I wouldn’t be surprised by regression.
Renfroe – has a good arm, but was a known quantity around mlb before being signed. Slightly above league average bat, but a low average guy who depends on power to have value… reduces on-base guys because of that lower average, reducing pressure on pitchers. Basically a product of modern execs saying more power, we don’t care about the Ks.
Hernandez – basic super sub. Anyone in mlb knew what he was and could sign him. Having (maybe?) Learned from his bad moves with Holt bloom for once paid market value for a player. Unfortunately he only did it the once and ignored other holes in the roster while inexplicably trading benintendi for cordero.
Schwarber – traded for a guy who was injured. has no clear role on the team while ignoring upgrades that could’ve been had for clear shortcomings. Also has only played a handful of games. Jury is out.
Better?
You have to be kidding. I actually watch the gms. No players are perfect.
Then you saw once again, for the second time in just a pair of weeks since being acquired that Robles, the marquee pitching addition by bloom at the deadline, once again put up a clunker and put the game out of reach for Boston for good?
Another bloom gem…
GASoxFan – NICE JOB!!! Where do these clowns come from? Trolls constantly invade this site and say the dumbest things and then refuse to substantiate their comments with actual facts or timelines for the events they suggest happened.
Loved reading your responses! You can drop the microphone now!
jmi19506 hours ago
Which of Whitlock, Ottavino, Sawamura, Renfroe, Hernandez & Schwarber are you saying were misses?
===================================
The haters don’t even know who these guys are. One of the guys above was complaining about Blaze Jordan. The dude is killing it. They’re picking names at random.
I already explained how the name was missed from deletion on the list of hundred of bloom transactions by accident.
But just like the rest of your bloom delusions, you seize on it and don’t let go after a common sense explanation it didn’t belong there.
ERA of just north of six? That kind of fits for Padres 3rd or 4th starter. Wonder if his arm is built up to be a starter…
Matt Andriese’s name appears 7 times. Josh Taylor mentioned once. Guess we know where mlbtr wants the narrative to go.
Josh taylor, obtained via trade by Dave Dombrowski, contributing member if the bullpen.
Matt andriese, obtained via free agency by chaim Bloom, useless cannon fodder signed by Chaim Bloom as a signature move supposed to help solidify the bullpen he neglected since joining the team.
Yup, toss another point in the unheralded DD wins-a-trade column and another loss for bloom.
I don’t have anymore time to waste on the trolls. If the nay sayers are really BoSox fans they can suffer on. For my part I will cheer the positives knowing that there will be negatives as well. I saw my 1st gm at Fenway in 1956. goodbye for now.
And good riddance. I hear bloom needs his boots licked again after walking through the sh!tshow that was his making in this afternoons game.
The amount of Bloom haters on this site when he has just been there a year and half is astounding.
Bloom was brought in to a job and his is a long term job you can’t even begin to judge him until after next season. He isn’t trying to do a quick fix so you can’t judge him yet. The amount of ignorance on this site is astounding GA Sox fan you take the cake. You are throwing in draft picks as failures what are you a complete dolt? You actually used Blaze Jordan as a failure? You obviously don’t follow the minors because if you did you would realize that Jordan tore it up as a true 18 year old as FCL and was promoted to low A Salem as one of the youngest players in the league. Please actually do research before opening your mouth you might learn something.
Bruin1012 – Bloom has been here well over a year and a half. DD left 2 years ago and Bloom was hired before the December deadline for non-tenders and he messed it up as his first assignment.
You and I have different measuring sticks for the success of a GM. You have observed the half life of an excellent GM like DD is less than 5 years. Bloom’s reign is now approaching 50% of that half life of a successful GM and he’s been a failure in comparison. What has he accomplished that is a GM responsibility? Many GM measures are hard to quantify like the improvement of the farm system coaching. That may or may not have improved but it was so bad before I think it had to improve. The talent level of the farm system? No way to measure since the players aren’t actually contributing at the major league level. So how can we measure the POTENTIAL accurately? We can’t. It’s like predicting the future and we simply can’t do that accurately. That’s why actual results are the only measuring stick for Bloom’s performance.
Start with talent level. It’s down significantly at the major league level. Why? Because the talent lost is greater than the talent gained since Bloom arrived. There are many players that have been retained since he arrived so they are neutral in the measurement. Mookie is by far the largest loss. It does not matter why or who ordered it because we are simply measuring talent before and after. Verdugo is a partial recovery from losing Mookie so that means the talent level is lower. Next we compare Price to Richards. Price is still a better pitcher than Richards so again the talent level went down and to make matters worse the available money under the cap went down with the Price deal. Benny was replaced by Cordero. Another big drop in talent. Renfroe replaced JBJ and has had a career year so that adds value to Bloom’s side of the ledger. Vazquez, Devers, Bogey, JD and Dalbec were all here so they are neutral. Hernandez is a plus compared to Chavis at 2B but is a huge drop off from Semien who was available but wasn’t picked up.or Cesar Hernandez. The opportunity cost of Bloom’s lack of expertise in identify best talent at positions needed weighs in this comparison.
These are all the players than have daily roles on the team. The minor roles have such a small value that arguing over whether Workman is better than one of the many relievers grabbed by Bloom and then cut or replaced by another bad reliever is a waste of time. They are insignificant adds in the big picture.
The team’s talent has fallen. That’s the measure of a GM. The other component measuring a GM is his effectiveness in timing moves. This past deadline is all I need to point out. He’s a major failure in that category.
So if he gets another year what do you expect will change in that time? 20 to 40 more dumpster dives will produce a gem that will replace Mookie’s talent? I don’t think so. He hasn’t talked ownership into replacing the lost talent why would you to expect him to do that in year 3? None of the farm players will add value at the major league level in the next year except maybe Seabold. But frankly it’s highly unlikely that Seabold will out perform Sale, Eovaldi, Houck, Pivetta or even Whitlock. So is the team really moving toward success in the near future? NOPE. In the distant future? Can’t tell we don’t have an accurate crystal ball for the teenagers he picked up to replace a league average left fielder who helped Boston win a ring. If a gem is to pop out of the myriad of minor league deals it won’t happen soon. Heck it probably won’t happen in my lifetime.
You are dug in protecting the guy’s right to three years. I believe no positive action in 2 years is enough to send him packing. The farm system is not measurably better because it hasn’t actually graduated to the MLB. The MLB level is significantly down from before he arrived. What other redeeming factor can justify him staying? Next year the top players will regress like 2019 and the team will not be a disaster because Sale will be healthy but the talent level will still be lower than the 3 main competitors in the division leading to no playoffs for the third year in a row. DD won 3 division in a row and got ousted in under 5 years!!
I lived through over half the 86 years we waited to win a ring. I can’t do that again and Bloom offers NOTHING to suggest a playoff spot is in the near future or even the next decade.
If a mechanic can’t fix your car you don’t leave it with him 3 years in hopes he miraculously figures out how to fix it. You find another mechanic who looks at the car and says I’ll take care of it right away not some time in the distant future.
I agree. I have been a Red Six fan since the 1970s and I agree. How this guy sacrificed a season this year to pick up nothing but two scrub throwaway relievers and an injured player who was out over two weeks. He picks up garbage snd throws it against a wall seeing if it sticks. Richards and Perez were a waste of millions of dollars. You pick up these guys for league minimum or minor league contracts not millions. No one was going to throw millions at these guys, no one! Spend money wisely and pick up a good pitcher not league garbage. This team is looking to reduce payroll and will not be picking up anyone of value. It is going to be more released garbage to stick in the farm system. I am not getting my hopes up in the future on this team. They got nothing but warm bodies for Benintendi.
KD you seem to missing the point.
DD was hired to do a job and he did it. Bloom was hired to do a totally different job. He wasn’t hired to build Rome right away. He was hired to build a sustainable model of both a strong competitive big league club and a strong farm system a lot like the Dodgers. It seems to me that you Bloom haters just don’t seem to get that. You want instant success. This is not what Bloom was hired for by ownership.
Of course KD when you trade a guy like Mookie then your talent level is going to be lower then when he was here. Bloom was forced to stay under the lux tax it appears as a mandate from ownership. So he I think he did a pretty good job of signing on a budget. Kike was an excellent signing and without a doubt his option will be picked up. Renfroe and Sawamura were good free agent contracts for a low price. He also stole Whitlock so that is 4 very good additions to this team and, with the exception of Renfroe will be with the Red Sox at least through 2022. It’s important to remember he was on a budget when DD was hired he pretty much had a blank check get it done mentality. Bloom does not seem to have that yet.
There is absolutely no question that farm is getting better under Bloom. His first draft is looking better and better all the time. Yorke looks great and so does Blaze Jordan there top two picks. I think his vision on the minors is coming together.
Blooms last season trade deadline moves last year can be considered nothing but an unqualified success. I will have to say this KD I do not like the moves he made at the deadline this year. I’m not sure if he just got caught with a better team then he anticipated waited in to see if he improve the team and didn’t like the cost or if he is just not good as a buyer at the deadline only time will tell that story.
Did Bloom Miss on some of his free agent pickups yes he did of course he did. Look at DD’s free agent signing and see if missed on quite a few this year spoiler alert yes, yes he did. It happens so far it appears to me Bloom has done what he was hired to do. We will see if ownership takes the reigns off on the payroll next year and allows some big free agent acquisitions. Will be interesting to see how this plays out. I would give the guy at least 5 years if they want to see if his vision is the right one.
Bruin1012 – Lets assume your assumptions are correct:
1 – He was hired to build a sustainable model for MLB and Farm
2 – Mandated to go under the luxury tax immediately
Response to #1 – Friedman’s model which you believe is what Bloom was hired to build is bull crap. Friedman has sat on the success of his predecessor like Bloom and taken credit for winning since he joined the Dodgers but he’s using his predecessor’s draft picks to win.
Bloom, like Friedman, has sat on his hands and done NOTHING to improve the MLB team now or in the future. This fake model that he is setting up does not exist. It’s all bull crap often called marketing speak. There is no substance to the model it’s a guy who doesn’t know what to do because he wasn’t paying attention when he was in TB where the real brains still exist. He’s the screw-up that goes to the Ivy League to graduate with a C= average but flouts where he attended classes. He didn’t pay attention and his track record is his indictment to failure.
Bloom picks up a few cheap guys that don’t have bad years and you talk about them but the dozens of bad choices are ignored. Does the model say piss away small money in hopes of landing a gem? Great model.
The farm system has ONE player that boosted it’s rating significantly and that’s because the team sucked so badly they got the fourth pick and a couple of really bad GMs passed on the 2nd best player in the draft and he fell to the Red Sox. Was that in the model? hahaha NO of course not that was a bad GM being rewarded for being bad. The mere suggestion that he helped the Farm System shows your prejudice. EVERYONE knows why the ranking went up. ONE BAD SEASON add a GREAT PROSPECT while all the other farm system adds fall in value. Is Downs #44 any more? NO. Why? HIs value was a marketing ploy by Friedman. Pump up a guys value and then trade him. Smart move but it has nothing to do with his model. It’s Friedman taking advantage of a naive Bloom. One more reason to kick Bloom to the curb.
Making something sustainably bad is not what anyone thought when Bloom spewed his bull crap when he was hired. His miserable failure after 2 years needs to be measured versus his plan and then he needs to be fired. His ineptitude in December both years at selecting the best players to non-tender is a huge ding against him. His ineptitude to pick up players to help an over-achieving team is another huge ding against him. So what are his positives? NONE. Picking up trash like Kiki for a cheap price when he could have had Semien? Seriously, you look at that as a positive. Ownership has enough profits to reinvest in the team and you are condoning them NOT investing. I thought you are a Red Sox fan. Why would you want them to go cheap? Do you want sustainable mediocrity? That’s what exists today with no vision of the future that changes that under Bloom. He’s a pretender not contender. His knowledge of the game and trading was based on the reputation of the TB Rays and they have maintained it since he came over and Boston has failed miserably in those areas..
Point #2 – what a bunch of crap. You should know the luxury tax rules by now. I’ve explained them many, many times. You ONLY go under if you have plans on going over. As Bloom nickels and dimes his additions in 2021 it’s clear there was no intent to exceed the cap in 2021. Given that fact, there was NO REASON to divest the team of expensive players as Bloom did it. There was no rush because the penalty was less than $10M and he reduced available payroll for three years by $16M to avoid paying a $10M tax in 2020. Then COVID hit and the $10M tax wasn’t going to be $10M any more making the hasty Mookie/Price move even worse.. So the Mookie deal which reaped garbage for the Red Sox compared to what it could have reaped if timed properly was a complete waste thanks to Bloom. If they trade Mookie at the deadline as I suggested when the trade was first announced, they would have made so much more. If they had kept Price it would have cost so much less to either pitch him this year at the higher cost or trade him when teams needed pitchers at the 2021 deadline. Since Price opted out in 2020 his forecast expense was far less. Two bonehead components to ONE TRADE and Bloom still has a job? WHY? Dump him unceremoniously like Mookie, Price, Benny and JBJ..
Now the dbag Bloom is over the cap by $3.5M after spending the last year in K=Mart picking up K=Mart talent for K=Mart costs. This is your idea of a sustainable model that is going to bring future championships and competitive seasons? So far, fourth to last and now another non playoff year suggest the model isn’t working. Successful GMs get less than 5 years why should horribly unsuccessful GMs get as many years. By now DD had 2 Division Titles, the ownership was making profits hand over fist from winning and they were re-investing in the future. Bloom has failed in year one, then tried to make fans believe the bull crap in year two thanks to five players who were in Boston before he arrived having fantastic starts and Cora not screwing with the lineup and now after no help at the deadline by Bloom and Cora once again screwing up the batting order the fans view of the two pretenders is one of contempt and desire for fresh blood leading the team. Kick em to the curb is being screamed all over New England. We want to win again.
The great ride Bogey, JD and Devers put the team on is over. Even Sale can’t salvage the weak talent level to bring the team back to a playoff spot. Bloom’s sustainable greatness is factually sustainable mediocrity. There are no rings, no sustainable winning or playoff games in the near future. Yes, by completely screwing up Bloom has raised the farm system by adding a high pick in 2021 that took up the farm system by 250 points to 9th. Is that on the debit or credit side of the ledger for Bloom? You are acting as if HE built up the rating but he didn’t do anything right to make it happen, he sucked so badly at his job that the farm system ranking people reward screw ups!! That’s why DD never had a great rating!!
I’ll take DD’s Division wins and graduating farm system players over the bull crap coming out of Blooms mouth about fixing the farm system that wasn’t broken by finishing so poorly that an early draft pick creates the illusion of an improved farm system by raising the score by 250 points when in fact the Bloom adds are dropping in value and the pre-Bloom adds keep rising in value.
SMOKE AND MIRRORS and BROKEN PROMISES. That’s the Bloom legacy. WE WANT DD BACK!!!!
KD, while I agree with some of the minutia you have pushed, make no mistake. John Henry and his group are not racists. The are flaming freekin liberals. JBJ was a washed up player who never reached his potential and Mookie on many ocassions states he was going to free agency. In addition, have you forgotten these libs bought the globe and continue to pump out support for the socialist party?
bostonbob – Interesting take on how political groups align. This is a baseball sight so I wont’ debate you on the topic of whether liberals can be racists while earning hundreds of millions in profits from conservative business practices..
Little known fact, the Red Sox hired the first black female coach in professional baseball history.
FPG – The hire came after they gave away the two best Black players on the team and were being accused of racism. The female coach is very talented but this is a response to their mistakes. Call it a cover-up if you prefer. It’s a racist ownership group trying to find a way to slow the harsh feedback. Like Bloom, she’ll take the job and use it as a stepping stone to a better opportunity. Good for her but you can’t use an eraser on what they did to Mookie and Price. NO APOLOGY says everything about their perspective on their racist act. If they weren’t the owners, they would have been fired for racism. If they were journalists they would have been forced to apologize and then been forced to resign or get fired. Ownership has privileges and fans have the right to point out the inequities in their decision-making.
Way to go Bloom. July 6 we were up over the Yankees by 10 games, now it is a tie after dropping a doubleheader. The players in this team realized you were wasting their effort this year when you fumbled the trade deadline. Want to rethink that trade deadline again? Your team was in first place and needed help and you picked up two throwaway relievers and an injured hitter. This is like 2019 when the Red Sox did nothing at the trade deadline and did nothing, then dropped like a rock. Rizzo was a great fit but now all you are doing is combing the the waiver wire for released players. The Yankees always go for it. Bloom surrendered the season and this team will be lucky to make the playoffs. Another season wasted when you were in first place.
Another Bloom Superstar Pivetta pitched a solid 1.2 innings tonight, giving the game away in the second inning. I know you did nothing at the trade deadline in the way of pitching effectively tanking the season. How about getting rid of Perez, Richards, and Pivetta and sign some good pitching not the garbage you pick up at the waiver wire. The fans are not happy with the ending of this season.. Bloom, this Is not Tampa Bay where no one comes to watch the team. This is a big market team.
Pivetta is not the problem. He is easily having his best year and is a solid #4-5 starter.
Hey Bloom Rizzo beat you tonight, sound familiar? The Yankees outsmarted you for him because they know you are a small time GM. He would have helped this team. The difference between them and you is that they go for it and you do not. They knew that the could take this team this year. You sat back and we dropped like a rock thrown in a pond.
Thank God! This guy was such a bum! Good riddance!
Wow, what a huge load of hogwash in the comments section. The Red Sox are in the midst of their worst stretch of the season, by far, and they’re not even remotely out of it. But I guess this is the toilet for miserable Red Sox “fans”. Dump away and don’t forget to wipe yourself.
99% of Red Sox fans are very happy with the way they’ve overachieved. There’s less than ten accounts hating on the Red Sox here, and my guess is the number of people behind those accounts is even less. (not hard to make several accounts, and agree with yourself). Also, some are so full of hate, I question whether they Red Sox fans at all, just trolls.
dennyd – Your comments don’t fit. On one hand you discuss people being happy the Red Sox over achieved which is probably accurate and includes the people giving the negative feedback. The 10 hating as you phrased it are the 10 informed people as I would phrase it have a right to point out facts about the problems with ownership, Bloom and Cora. It’s great that you are sitting on your joy stick and only being complimentary but that shows you simply don’t know baseball.
Call it as you see it don’t cherry coat it. The Red Sox have far less talent than when Bloom arrived. That’s not a negative that’s a fact. Bloom has made no significant adds to the team in nearly 2 years. That’s not a negative that’s a fact. You can pretend guys like Kiki are significant but ask yourself, WHO is more important to the success of the club: Any of the 2021 all-stars on the Red Sox or Kiki? The answer is NOT Kiki. The same can be said for any of the other acquisitions by Bloom. They are modest role players who have very low ceilings. That’s not a significant acquisition.
TB in the meantime added Arozarena, Martinez and a pick for Liberatore. That’s an impact player. So is Cruz!! Bloom was supposed to be the brains from TB but it turns out it’s just an address not a skill level that he has related to the Rays..
FYI… I have one account just like all the other people who point out the obvious flaws in the ownership, Bloom and Cora. You are fabricating things to try to pretend that something is happening when it is not. I can understand why you like Bloom, he thinks the same way!! Why produce when you can simply say you produced and the gullible will believe you!
They are not going to make it. They cannot beat good teams. They kicked the hell out of hapless and pathetic Baltimore. They needed a first baseman and a starting pitcher and did not get it. They had a shot at Rizzo but money talks and BS walks. Cashman outplayed Bloom. That trade should have been pulled off days before the deadline before the Yankees came on with their “under the table money” because Dalbac is clearly not ready. This is how the Yankees rarely give up good players in trades.
Such BS Al34. Red Sox were not suppose to compete this year, just because they overachieved for 4 months, doesn’t mean they have a chance against better equipped teams. To mortgage what little talent they have in the minors for a long shot at the playoffs wouldve been moronic at best.
A year and a half ago, the Red Sox were the 30th ranked farm system in baseball, and had been over the Salary Cap 2 years (Thank you DD). They set a 2 year rebuild program, and are far beyond their best expectations. Keep it up Sox.
Also, Yankees gave up an excellent prospect in Alcantara (1.005 OPS). plus another. Red Sox would have been foolish to give up more than that to win the war for 3 months of Rizzo. Especially, when you consider they can sign him in the winter.
You were up 2 1/2 games and needed help. Sure let’s just blow the year for the future where nothing is guaranteed! You get it. Prospects are simply that Prospects. When you get a chance to get a good established player you go for it. You like Chris Ssle? You gave up two supposedly cannot miss prospects. Moncado is struggling this year and Kopesch has had Tommy John Surgery. You believe what you want to believe and I believe what I want to believe.
Bottom line: we blew this season at the trade deadline!
I have seen more prospects flop who were can’t miss guys. I am sure that I am older than you are. Look up Jeff Ledbetter, drafted 1981 the next Mike Schmidt who could not make it out of Single A. Look up Jeff Sellers, Rob Woodward, Allen Ripley, Sam Bowen, Chico Walker, Eric Hetzel, John Dopson, Gary LaFrancois, Marc Sullivan,Paul Mirabella, Hanly Muellens, Sam Milotello, Henry Cotto, These guys were can’t miss prospects that did not make it.
I have seen more prospects flop who were can’t miss guys. I am sure that I am older than you are. Look up Jeff Ledbetter, drafted 1981 the next Mike Schmidt who could not make it out of Single A. Look up Jeff Sellers, Rob Woodward, Allen Ripley, Sam Bowen, Chico Walker,
I could name plenty of additional players from other teams, but sticking to the Sox the first guy that comes to mind is Phil Plantier. Also Brian Rose, Casey Kelly and Craig Hansen to name a few.
Funny how some people say the Sox overachieved when their key players performed basically the same as they’ve done in the past, if not worse. They had the best record in the league deep into the season despite having several guys under-performing quite a bit. Look at the numbers of Richards, ERod, Vazquez etc and try to tell us they have overachieved.
Overachieving is measured simply by wins and losses. The fact that some players have performed poorly and the wins and losses are in a better state than expected completely supports the overachieved conclusion. In fact it’s kind of the very definition of overachieving. Winning when the expectation would be losing.
I remember when I was in high school and telling my friends who were yankee fans that they better watch out next year because the Red Sox had two really good prospects, Jim Rice and Fred Lynn. That turned out ok, if Rice didn’t go down at the end of the season, they would have beat the Reds. Without Rice and going against the Red machine, taking it to seven games was overachieving.
I remember when Lonborg was pitching on two days rest and I knew in my heart they had no chance against Gibson. They didn’t overachieve.
I remember being mad when they traded Dick Stuart. I remember when YAZ won his first batting title, the beginning of my love affair with the man and the team.
I remember my first purchase of baseball cards at a little store in Bethel, Connecticut, birthplace of Matt Barnes. Because I didn’t make it to the major leagues, he was the first mlb player from that town. If we didn’t move away, I would have been in high school with Meg Ryan. Like I would have had any chance at all. Now that would be a huge overachievement.
Pat Dodson a power hitting first baseman 1986 Pawtucket Red Sox 1st baseman supposed to be a can’t miss guy, complete bust, P John Leister, John Mitchell, P Joel Finch, P Bobby Sprowl, P Winn Remerswaal, all high prospects that bombed. You always make the deal for an established player. There is no guarantee with prospects period!
whyhayzee – Any time you want to stroll down memory lane please do. I get a huge kick out of historical personalized trivia. It always triggers great memories so please do so any time.
You do not waste a year when you are in first place for something in the future that may never be.
Agreed. The Sox had the best record in the AL deep into the season, and led the majors in comeback wins. They had something unexpectedly special going, just like 2013. To not go for it was cruel to both the players and fans. The timing of the tailspin, right around the trade deadline, was not a coincidence.
Having run 23 marathons, I can tell you that sometimes you run out of gas. I think the Red Sox got kind of pooped. But they can still regroup and finish strong. That’s the way you qualify for the Boston Marathon, which I did in 2004. Nice coincidence.
Whyhayzee – Congrats on your success in the Boston Marathon. Even with Sale I think the team led by a cheater and a GM with no idea how to do his job will walk the last few miles of this marathon. It’s about the depleted talent level not the heart of the players. It’s about the ineptitude of the front office and manager not the heart of the players.
Given some changes in the front office and manager and a renewed commitment from ownership the Red Sox will eventually be able to reverse what Bloom has done to the club. Removing the cheater is simply an integrity thing that many old time fans root for.
Here’s an idea = lets make REVERSE THE BLOOM t=shirts in hopes of getting a GM that understands how to win.
The Red Sox line-up today (Monday vs TX) has Schwarber hitting 2nd in LF and JD hitting 3rd as DH. They should win today with JD in the 3 hole. He got taken out of the three hole near the time the downward trend started. If Cora pulls his head out of his hind quarters he’ll keep him there to give them the best chance of success. Schwarber at 2 makes sense as well.
Just a couple of days ago I wrote about the need for a closer and Barnes just choked and it’s not even September yet. A 2 run lead in the top of the 9th and Barnes gives up 2 runs and leaves men on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out.
Raise your hand if a closer is needed for 2022!!!!
Eovaldi pitched a great game. Seven innings 1 unearned run (guess who made an error hahaha) and only 97 pitches. If he goes eight and then Ottavino closes it out the team wins. Cora being Cora. Never the right move when it comes to pitchers.
In the end Shaw hits a Grand Slam and JD batting third starts a new win streak.