The Red Sox are bumping Martín Pérez to the bullpen, manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Steve Hewitt of the Boston Herald). Righty Tanner Houck is the favorite to take his place in the starting rotation.
Pérez has been a regular member of Boston’s starting five for the entirety of the past two seasons. He started 12 games in last year’s truncated campaign and has made 22 starts this season. The southpaw has reliably taken the ball on a regular basis, but he’s posted below-average results throughout his tenure in Boston. Pérez worked to a 4.50 ERA/5.43 SIERA across 62 innings last season, posting subpar strikeout and walk numbers in the process.
The southpaw did at least excel at avoiding damaging batted balls last year, though, holding opponents to an average exit velocity of 86.3MPH and a hard contact rate of a tiny 29.2%. That seemingly played into Boston’s decision to bring Pérez back on a $5MM guarantee, but his contact suppression skills haven’t carried over into 2021. Hitters are making solid contact on a lofty 42.3% of batted balls against him this year, the worst rate of his career. To his credit, Pérez has made some improvements in his strikeout and walk rates, but the more authoritative contact he’s giving up has contributed to an underwhelming 4.77 ERA over an even 100 frames.
Pérez will now transition into a bullpen role, where he’ll add another lefty to a group already including Josh Taylor and Austin Davis. Pérez has been better against left-handed hitters (.246/.333/.386) than righties (.284/.352/.475) over his time in Boston, so perhaps a situational role could serve him well. It does seem likely to come at a financial cost, as Pérez’s deal contains $100K bonuses for reaching each of 130, 140, 150, 160 and 170 innings pitched. A bullpen move will make it difficult for him to reach even the lowest of those thresholds down the stretch. The contract also contains a $6MM club option for 2022 that seems likelier to be bought out.
Houck has made six appearances (including four starts) in the majors this season. The 25-year-old has tossed 22 innings of 2.45 ERA ball, striking out hitters at an elite 33.7% clip while only walking 5.6% of opponents. Houck has posted similarly strong strikeout and walk numbers over six starts with Triple-A Worcester, although he’s been tagged for a less impressive 5.14 ERA in the minors. Between his strong peripherals at that level and quality results in his brief big league time, the former first-round pick has earned a more regular run in the MLB rotation.
The shakeup comes at a pivotal time for the Red Sox, who entered play tonight with a 64-46 record. Boston trails the Rays by 1.5 games in the AL East, and they’re 2.5 games up on the Athletics for the American League’s top Wild Card spot. Houck is expected to take the ball tomorrow afternoon against the Blue Jays, who trail Boston in the standings by five games.
Gotta make room for Sale
Richards out for Sale
Richards for Sale? How much?
Bucket of balls denny
Make all the moves you want, Bloom blew this season at the trade deadline!
He blew it before the deadline… there was no guarantee our pitching would hold up. It was wishful thinking at best. We were slotted for fourth place day 1 and simply just exceeded expectations first half. I don’t think this one deadline would make or break us.
wouldn’t say they blew it, more like have been awfully careful with guys coming back from TJ, unlike few others who have yet to do much rehab wise, or anything who don’t need to be named.. like for the NYM that were rushed into rehab games in May and may never pitch this year after having the same surgery, same time as Sale, just under more pressure to go at it faster.
Whitlock has been given multiple days off between uses.. TJ guy, or would probably be making some starts instead of multi inning relief by now. Houck had forearm issues in May-June, came back and has been starting about every other week (still outstanding) since the return and Sale slow tracked with 4 rehab outings between 64-75p each, 1 more to go. 92-96 in his games.
They knew had answer within, but hard not to knock all the Richards/Perez starts allowed. Both have been pretty brutal last 2 months. Hopefully both dfa’d soon, along with never used andriese.
By saying they blew it, I meant they should have done more to compensate for losses and pitching. I’m in no way saying rush Sale and Houck, but when you rely on Sale to be the only ace in the rotation, that’s a problem.
If you think any other pitcher can hold the fort down, then watch us fail. We can’t have 5 Chris Sales either, so more had to be done to make us a contender.
If they want to rebuild, fine. But don’t play it up as we’re contenders (as they have).
Do Richards/Perez/Andriese even have options? The waiver trade rules this year are different … no trades allowed. A team claims a player, they get the player. I think Boston would want depth.
Do you guys remember, no one expected them to compete in 2021, back in Nov, Dec, Jan? Someone posted “it would be years until they can compete again”. They, also, have very little in prospect depth to trade away, (ranked close to worst in the league when Bloom took over)?
So, no one thought would compete, because of lack of talent, competes hard and challenges into August. Now y’all angry because GM didn’t gut the farm system (no one comes cheap at trading deadline), to give a shot at a WS, when this team with so many holes, and other teams so many resources, doesn’t sell their meager talent. Is this for real?
Personally, I didn’t think they could compete in 2021, but 2022 would be the start of a good team. Being in first into August, was a huge bonus. Making it a fun summer. But, if they fade now, without losing much from the farm, then that’s great. It’s obvious, Red Sox have unexpected talent on the ML roster, shown by their record. Also, several minor leaguers in their system have had breakout years (just look at their farm system W/L compared to any in past 5 years).
This team is building for a long stretch of contention, to sell off the talent you’ve been building, just for a long-shot at Championship, is laughable.
I guess if your hoping for first place in AL East, this trading deadline was a loss, but if your looking for WS, you have to be a little more patient, and wait for a team with more talent.
Well said dennyd.
He is going to have to live with this at the end of the season. He blew it big time
He’s building a marriage (longevity), not a one night stand… He’s only said it multiple times.
CF78 – He can say it til the cows come home. Isn’t your BS ALARM ringing out loudly every time he does? The guys full of crap. His long term plan is what the Red Sox used after 1918!! Lets just say we don’t have that long to wait. BTW = If this guy was the BRAINS in TB why is it they keep making far better moves than Boston since he arrived? I’m guessing they considered him the Perez of the front office!! hahaha
Bloom was an overreaction to Dealin’ Dave tearing the farm out of the team. At least Dombrowski can get you a WS before he burns it to the ground. It’s tough seeing the prime years of an excellent core get wasted by a middling supporting cast
DD didn’t trade anyone who amounted to much of anything thay wasn’t expendable in any trade, ANY, except for Sale. And you need to give quality to get quality, not to mention the incredibly friendly contract he was on.
Players graduated to the mlb roster. If anything, it’s the sustained success of teams under DD that led to lesser draft picks that hurt the system.
You also had the international bonus penalties that came into play limiting that source of players. But again, that wasn’t due to trading away and the players who contracts were vacated haven’t been anything either.
SoxRewl – Very uninformed opinion buddy. GASoxFan did a great job helping you see the light. Here some more facts that negate your fictions.
1 – DD kept salary below the cap so he didn’t overspend
2 – DD acquired players that impacted results when he got both Pearce and Eovaldi in 2018. He did it again in Philly this year getting a SP Boston could have used.
3 – Bloom got a bad defensive left fielder to replace a young budding 1B star. He’s putting a square peg in a round hole but that’s normal for him since Devers is still at 3B. The last thing this team needed was a guy who like Devers and JD can only be effective as a DH.
4 – Ownership didn’t fire DD for his spending, they sent him packing to get rid of Mookie. DD wanted to retain Mookie and ownership didn’t. They got Bloom because he has no balls. He’s a rookie who says “yes sir’ to everything they tell him. He’s a puppet who was supposed to bring a championship to Boston using products from K-Mart. Everyone wants to give him 3 years but I say that’s just 3 years wasted.
5 – Nothing was burnt to the ground. As GASoxFan pointed out the farm system had graduation. 17 players in 7 years are playing in the MLB. Nobody matches that stat especially the great farm systems based on rankings. Just think about how long Byron Buxton made the Minnesota farm system better than Boston’s. Yet Boston graduated Devers, Chavis, Dalbec, Houck and now Duran in the same time frame it took Buxton to come up to the majors and contribute significantly. That’s why the rankings are meaningless. Successful graduations are all that matter.
Read my comment before diving down my throat. I was praising Dombrowski compared to Bloom – while recognizing his flaws.
Cherington, technically, built that farm, so you’ll have to go back there to have a real opinion on Dave’s regime. But Cherington, like Bloom, was unable to take all that talent and turn it into a winning team.
So he was canned and you get one of baseballs best Roster Closers in Dave – he traded a ton of young talent including the #1 overall prospect in Yoan Moncada to build a winner. Not a complaint – as stated I’ll take that world series team every time. After all, baseball is cyclical. You build a farm, they graduate into a young, affordable core, you surround the core with expensive free agents and trades to win a championship.
That aggressive roster conglomerating and fine-tuning – resulting in one of the greatest teams of all time – DEPLETED THE FARM. Which was expected.
They brought in Bloom because they thought he could bring the “Tampa Way” with a higher payroll, in an effort to stop the cycle of building strong teams and watching them crumble in an expensive, old mess.
Problem is, Bloom is garbage at adding quality arms. Obsessed with spin rates. Colton Brewer, Austin Davis, Garrett Richards, etc, etc. And the farm hasn’t gotten much better, with many key players he’s traded for or drafted treading water in the minors. This roster is only competitive because of the remnants of the last championship core and the fact that Alex Core is a great manager of people.
SoxRewl – At this point I think we agree more than I thought we did. I didn’t get the respect for DD but your second comment is very accurate. I think I’d only disagree with one point about DD and the normal business cycle.
Toronto has 3 great young stars that came up at one time and had a much greater draining effect on their farm system. Boston under Cherington and DD both brought up roughly 1 player a year which means the free agency years are completely strung out. Bogey got his money as Devers was approaching arbitration increases. That’s the BEST way to avoid ending up with an expensive, old mess. The contracts need to target a rebuild year for the purchased skilled players and that needs to work with the control years of the players you are graduating.
What makes DD much better than other GMs is his ability to time things better than most. His target rework year was 2023. Through 2022 the core team was going to keep adding excellent minor league players with low payroll to compliment the high payroll pitching staff and the excellent minor league graduates. The pitching staff was to be Sale, Price, Eovaldi and Houck with one spot being purchased from free agency until another SP from the minors graduated like Mata or some of the other big SPs that didn’t develop as expected. The hitting was to be Vazquez, Dalbec replacing Moreland, Bogaerts, Devers, JD, Benny, Betts and Duran (replacing JBJ) with several possible 2B candidates since Pedroia got hurt. The plan was awesome and they won a ring and were positioned to win more but Cora screwed up and a whole series of events ruined 2019 and the future of the Red Sox..
Cora set the 2019 disaster in motion early with his complete screw=up of the pitching during Spring Training 2019. Add to it a couple of key injuries and a bad March/early April schedule and by the end of April the year was tanked. This was unfortunate because it led to the ownership changing direction with regard to Mookie. DD knew they had enough money to bump Mookie $10M and keep the team together but ownership didn’t want Mookie. DD becomes an obstacle in the plans and the inevitable demise you speak of occurred but it wasn’t inevitable. With the spacing of the farm system graduates the 2022 plan could have worked. Yes, ownership would have had to pay for their mistakes prior to DD but DD didn’t spend money over the cap so that lie is a total fabrication and the payroll records prove that..
Now the part that you believe that is complete horse crap is about the cheater.. Cora sucks. I had no idea why they hired him when Girardi was available. Girardi took so many bad Yankee teams to finishes ahead of the Red Sox that the choice should have been obvious. Cora proved he was clueless in April 2018 when he rested star players when they only had 5 games in a week. Yes, 2 days off and he gave them a third day off because “it was on his schedule” and that’s how AJ did things. Yes, a rain out didn’t change his schedule and put Mookie, JD and Bogey back in the line-up. Instead they got one less game played while trying to win a division. His schedule didn’t alter no matter what the circumstances if the players were healthy. Consequently the stars lost games played on a regular basis.
They sat, especially when Sale pitched, leaving Sale with less run support than most aces. Why is that important? Because it increases stress innings. Stress inning come back to bite you in August and September. Cora should have known that but he wasn’t a good player, he wasn’t a smart player, he was simply a player with the gift of gab. That doesn’t qualify him to run a team, it makes him a bench coach coddling the players as needed
Houston understood that and put him in that position and he excelled by setting up a cheating system. He has no manager make-up in him, he’s a con man who manipulates the press and others around him. He should have been banned for life with his Houston behavior since it impacted roughly 90 games that season. Then, he goes to Boston and doesn’t learn from his mistakes, feels no sense of guilt for his activities in Houston and tries to outsmart everyone with his video room scam.
Someone never explained to him what integrity is so anyone who is a former player should be outraged at his actions. The game has always had ways of policing players who were out of line but managers can’t be policed in the same way so Cora won’t get an up and in 100 mph two seamers.
Calling Cora a great manager is pure ignorance. I ‘m sorry if you think that’s harsh but there is NO redeeming value to the man for cheating the game twice and getting away with it. If he was so great why the massive drop-off in 2019? His greatest suddenly vanishes? Or maybe, the manager has no impact because the games are played by players!!
Next thing you are going to tell me Devers is an excellent fielder!!! That’s the logical progression of your thoughts. WOW I can’t express strong enough how disappointing it is when ANYONE gives that low life a compliment. BANNED FOR LIFE should be on any shirt he wears but he conned his way out of it.
Mookie never had any intention of staying in Boston. He hated it there, in spite of his b.s. comments to the media.
miltpappas = I agree. DD thought he could change his mind with money and respect but ownership had such strong issues with him that they wanted no part of keeping him so they fired DD. My guess is he called them out as racists along with Price. Why else would the two best black players be given away instead of traded in a timely manner.
No he is not. He is cutting payroll looking for these younger players to play so they are at team control for a few years where the most they can obtain is their arbitration. This team is not going to sign free agents. They will pay the remaining free agents until their contracts expire then go the cheap route.
I don’t think the Sox were really built to contend this year. Bloom seems to be building up the farm to contend when their salary cap clears up after 2022. The asking prices were very high at the trade deadline. For example, it took two top 100 prospects to get Berrios. If Bloom paid all the high prices to fix this team, it would have gutted their middle of the pack farm system.
When Bloom took on Ottavino’s salary in order to get prospects you really should have figured out that the Sox are in rebuilding mode and not contending mode. The Sox contending was a bonus. Also, the season is not over yet.
Martin Perez is a career 4.50 pitcher no matter where you put him. It was a disaster of a resigning to begin with. Not sure what Bloom was thinking…
I was going to give Bloom the benefit of doubt for his dumpster diving, but as the season unravels we can certainly see where the faults were made.
He is a Desperate garbage signing at best. Big mistake as was Richards as well.
Richards was at least an attempt at a low risk high reward signing. But Perez- you got what his numbers indicated and they aren’t great.
For $10 mil? Yanks got Kluber (although oft injured, he’s an all star, Cy Young winner who pitched a no hitter before hitting the IL) for $1 mil more. That Richards signing never made any sense to me. Especially at that price.
Richards was hired as a spin rate specialist and indeed performed quite well as a spin rate specialist before MLB decided to crack down on the spin-rate-improving substances. Regardless of what you think about use of foreign substances, it’s tough to blame Bloom for making a signing based on data that’s now obsolete.
CROC – Appropriate name. Did you see a star pitcher before the crackdown on substances? I didn’t. I saw a guy who had some decent years and hasn’t had one in a very long time. Since Price was gone and he was supposed to replace him, the cost was $16M more for that slot. This brilliant Bloom guy you are touting? What suggests to you that he has a clue? I wouldn’t trust him to tie my shoe!! 50 moves and nothing of substance. A couple of half eaten hot dogs and a month old box of popcorn is all Bloom has gotten from his dumpster diving.
Meanwhile, TB where he supposedly led all the brilliant moves are still making all the brilliant moves and Boston is still waiting for ONE brilliant move!! It’s almost as if the TB front office isn’t missing anything and the Red Sox got nothing!! Brilliant move by TB to clean out the deadwood!!
Martin pitched pretty decent last yr when no other pitcher performed.
Tanner Houck may not be as great as people think either… young and inexperienced. Last game he couldn’t get out of the fourth. Probably a good pitcher in the end but no guarantees.
Eovaldi and ERod should have never been 1 and 2. They’re number 3 starters at best. Pivetta and Perez are just awful but career numbers tell you that from the getgo (wake up Bloom).
Not true at all. Houck was absolutely dealing last time out, but didn’t return after a rain delay. You miss a lot by relying solely on stat lines to make player assessments.
I’m not in a good place to watch games at the moment, so I do admit I only looked at stat lines.
That being said, I wouldn’t put the weight of the rotation or the season on a rookie. There’s no guarantees and a small sample size.
Everybody’s a rookie sometime. The only way to show what you’ve got is by getting in the game.
Now, do teams normally pur a guy in the rotation in a pennant race headed for a stretch run? Well, no.
BUT, he can hardly be worse than the likes of guys he’s replacing, so, worst case is status quo, best case is upside inprovement
At least Houck has the ability to miss bats. Perez and Richards just run into them.
True. I would rather watch Houck as well, I just don’t think he should be the one we rely on.
Have we been watching the same Pivetta? He’s not #3 material by any stretch but I actually think he’s a pretty gritty back-end starter.
In normal circumstances, that’s fine… but not when your rotation has more back end starters than it does front end.
Perez and Richards are mop up pitchers at best. Pivetta is a 5th starter at best. This is one step forPerez before he is waived.
shouldn’t have brought him back
Someone needed to take the ball every 5th day and payroll is still a concern for ownership so… what other 5mil SP on the FA market in the offseason that was willing to come to Boston would be better?
I almost want to off myself for having to defend a move by the bloom FO btw…
he was effectively taking Houck’s – a better and cheaper SP – spot. that doesnt follow.
Plain and simple- you’re not a lefty specialist when batters hit nearly .250 off you and have a .333 on base percentage. Perez should be DFA’d but sadly no one better would take his or Pivetta’s place.
look up “fool’s gold” in the dictionary and you’ll find a photo of Nick Pivetta
Another loss coming tonight. This team is done and Bloom
Blew it big time. The team needed help like in 2019 and now you can see they have quit on the season. Sinking like a rock tossed into a pond
Comment Archived
Monsox – You doubt it? Is that why you made the comment? AL34 hung in with them a heck of a lot more than I did. They were toast since April 1.
Why? They lack talent!! Yes, 3 big guns on offense can make up for a lot of missing talent at the other positions as was proven the first 2/3rds of the season. Losing an elite RF and replacing him with a good right fielder is a big step down in talent. JBJ contributed defense only like Devers contributes offense only. Renfroe is a step up in talent from JBJ which offsets right field slightly. In left field the Red Sox took yet another big step down. Benny never had lower than a 100 OPS+ during a full season. Cordero isn’t capable of that type of success year in and year out unless Cora brings back the trash cans. Thus, another step down.
Devers is still killing the team on defense and nobody in the front office cares because he’s treated unlike most players on the team. He’s babied and Cora is back to baby him. A lot of good that’s done, he’s not hitting better than his norm and his defense is still the worst at 3B in baseball or for those who want to be precise he’s extremely close to the worst in baseball. Bogey is having a very good year but that’s not because of Bloom. Kiki was picked up despite Semien being available. Toronto wins and Boston loses but hey at least they didn’t spend any of the money fans are paying for tickets. Dalbec is young and improving. He’s just fine and has nothing to do with Bloom as does Vazquez.
Total it up and Bloom has hurt the offense with his lack of action and his bad decisions. As far as pitching goes, Bloom gave away Price but kept half his salary. A colossally stupid move. He gave up any games played by Price, he gave up $16M of available payroll under the cap for Price and he saved $16M for 3 years which would have cost Boston $8M in luxury taxes in 2020. So is it worthwhile to reduce payroll by $16M to save $8M in luxury tax? My math says NO!! Add to that it cost $10M to replace Price with a far lesser pitcher and OUCH! that part of the deal was atrocious.
Bloom did get Perez in his first year for a reasonably low price to be the #5 SP. He took a chance on a guy who showed a glimmer of hope two years prior with Minnesota for nearly two months. His cost has proven to be high for his ability. Bloom’s grade on Perez is a C at best. Bloom spent 2020 using a revolving door that led to no keepers when it came to starting and relief pitching. His Ottavino acquisition might be his smartest acquisition to date. The pitching staff stunk in 2020 and in 2021 they had a healthy Eovaldi who has earned his $17M despite struggling since the all-star game. Look at pitchers making $17M around the league and most are struggling as well. They are better than average pitchers but their numbers are down overall thanks to the grip controversy.
So has the pitching staff with Sale, Price, Eovaldi, Porcello and E-Rod improved after 2 years? It’s now Sale, Eovaldi, Houck, Pivetta and E-Rod. Do you see improvement after 2 years of Bloom? I don’t and Houck who represents the biggest improvement is from the DD era not the Bloom. acquisitions.
It is mind boggling that anyone can make an argument that Bloom has been good or has the skill to be good. TB is still producing in the front office and Boston is not. Boston got the Ivy League educated bottom of the barrel talent from TB. Face it fans, a new GM is needed quickly to turn things around and it needs to be someone with clout like DD who can tell ownership to shove it if they plan on going cheap like they have under Bloom’s watch.
This move should have been a few weeks back. Team has not played well for a month. Cora losing control, and SP’s are stinking it up on the whole.
CHOKE MODE !!!!!
Man, has this team looked rough for the last several weeks. If activating Sale and Schwarber doesn’t lead to some type of instantaneous mega-morale boost, they’d be lucky to nab a second wild card spot.
Boston has fallen on some hard times (as I predicted several weeks ago). I have to admit the Yankees are coming on strong I would have preferred they traded for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner as well but what can you do too late now.
As far as Perez goes I dont know why boston hired this guy to begin with he was never any good in reality. He used to get hammered all the time when he was with Texas. My best guess is they were too cheap to pay for quality. You get what you pay for!
Yup pure garbage!
Years pass us by but we’re all just a part of the game
Bloom blew the season big time and the platers knew it. He picked up a hitter sho us no even going to be ready to play for two weeks. The Yankees got Rizzo and I do not understand how he could not have made that trade? He picked up two garbage relievers from Pittsburgh and Minnesota. How the hell this guy marches Perez and Richards out there every 5th day is beyond when neither of these two clowns can get into the 4th inning without giving up the game in the first inning. Pivetta is another guy, a 5th starter at best. He needed a Bonafide starter not the garbage they March out there to pitch. The press and media are going to remember this. Lou Merloni is bitching about this over a week now. He is right and he is a former player!
Look at all you people. I’m ashamed of you. You’ve been ringing your hands for months waiting for this time right here. Coming in with your clubs and torches playing Judas, ready to pounce at this unfortunate 2 week period of horrible play. You thought the season would be Disneyland and balloons and birthday cakes the entire season? Come on people.
The lineup is full of professionals up and down. It takes ONE guy to catch fire and many will follow suit. Maybe it’s Kyle Schwarber, maybe it’s JD Martinez, maybe it’s Alex Verdugo? No problem there and hopefully it happens. Fingers crossed.
The pitching staff will inherit two brand new starters in a short span of time. That will Infuse enthusiasm and hopefully success follows. The Sox brought in bullpen reinforcements to help carry the load, even if the names aren’t recognizable. Everyone knows with the bullpen you Shuffle in and Shuffle out much of the season. What you come out of spring training and head north with is often not the same guys you’re riding in September.
Will the Boston Red Sox turn around this horrible two-week stretch and climb back into first place? Well it’s up to them and Who really knows but wow you guys are sure ready to pounce on them like they’ve been in fourth place the whole season !! Bloom this and that, Alex Cora this and that.
My goodness.., rough stretches happen. Why be so negative? I hope they turn it around and you apocalypse guys can go into rah rah mode again.
(Of course I don’t mean to offend any one individual here, I’m just standing behind my team and throwing out some words to rally the troops. My intentions are honorable and I pray they will be received as such.)
Because this did not have to be. Bloom needed to pick up a starting pitcher and a first baseman snd yet got outplayed by the Yankees again.
Well said my man
Gary – Nice Rudy speech but seriously, this was going to happen it just took longer than it should have. Give 3 hitters and 1 pitcher credit for carrying the team this far. It has been a fantasy season until now. This is a 65 win team that has over-performed to their credit. I’m not one of the guys jumping on the band wagon in August, I was on it in March during Spring Training. They lack talent to be a top 5 team in the AL.
At least 2020’s bad performance got them an outstanding future player. This year will net nothing but a seat on the couch during the play=offs and a mid to late round pick. Wow, that’s something to be excited about!!! Especially with ticket prices being what they are and all things related to going to a game escalating as the team continues to deescalate in talent.
Bloom has missed chances to help the club since he arrived. He has screwed up the non tender deadline two years in a row. He’s failed to acquire TOP 5 in the AL East type talent and he’s professed to building an already strong farm system, which he has not. Farm System players are just names until they graduate to the MLB team and perform well enough to help the team win.
Everything Bloom has taken credit for is a mirage. The farm system is no better than before, the MLB team is far weaker than before and the integrity of the organization took a huge hit when it rehired Cora. That’s a lot of negatives for a guy in two years as a GM. Heck, DD did good things and was fired for wanting to keep Mookie and he’s the guy who gets wrongly accused of spending too much money and ruining the top farm system in producing MLB level players during the last decade. What a joke!!
Again, I liked the Rudy speech and I definitely didn’t find it offensive. I pictured him up on his crate mimicking Knute Rockne!
KD17, as usual, I detest what you say but I appreciate the form. Thumbs up.
Gary – I’m sorry. I understand how the truth hurts. I expect as a Red Sox fan it’s hard to have the actions of a bad GM or manager detailed so precisely to show just how bad they are at doing their jobs.
Nobody wants this but until somebody fixes it, I have to precisely point out the issues to expedite the inevitable. Believe me, I miss the days of writing about how well things are going under DD. I also had far fewer issues with Farrell than Cora. Hiring a manager because he speaks a second language seems like a stretch and Cora has proven to be unqualified since April 2018. But he is good with the Latin players and somehow walks away from press conferences without issue. I’ve always figured it was because nothing he says makes sense and to ask a follow-up simply means more gibberish so the reporters pass on follow-up questions.
Let me make a toast! Here’s to the day in the future when a good GM is hired, a good manager is hired and the ownership group re=invests their huge profits in the team rather than yachts and other luxuries for them!!
Agreed, this guys takes are especially detestable
soxfan1 – Why? Its very easy to spit on someone’s opinion. It’s also easy to spit on someone else’s facts. The detestable part is that it all happened!!
Cora is a despicable human being for cheating twice at a game that has been so good to him and his family. Do you even comprehend the word honor?
2022 Red Sox rotation assuming no signings, re-signings or injuries: Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock rounding out the rotation. Not bad if everyone is healthy
I hate to blow everyone’s bubble but Jeter Downs our big acquisition from the Mookie Betts trade is hitting a solid .198 in Worcester. I don’t think he is bringing much help to the team this year.
AL34 – Did he bring his average at AAA up to .198? Wow. I guess I was wrong that he needed to prove he could hit AA pitching before he was promoted. It seems very odd that a 44th ranked prospect could fail so miserably at AAA! I wonder if Friedman sold Bloom a beanstalk too? hahaha
Guys have bad years.
Yes I saw that ESPN’s top 50 had two Red Sox farmhands and neither of them was Jeter Downs, our former #1 top 30 Prospect in the system.
I honestly don’t understand not attempting to upgrade 1B and getting rotation help. I wouldn’t even mind them trying out Hamels. I doubt he can be worse than some of their other options. The Yankees didn’t give up much for Rizzo/I understand they don’t want to give up prospects but the way they played the first half of the season I think warranted a push for upgrades.
Anyone can tank to get draft picks.
Bloom is being evaluated based on two things: 1) being somewhat of a yes man to ownership, and 2) building the farm (and thus roster) by under the radar moves outside draft picks from tanking.
If he weakens the farm he’s not fulfilling his mandate from ownership and the promises he made to get his seat.
So far his flurry of roster moves havent produced much of anything of hidden value. In some ways he weakened the team.
I’d say his only real win comes from the Philly trade of workman. But was it skill, or luck? Looking at the volume of moves… not sure.
But how is he actually making the farm stronger? We missed out on a draft pick and we haven’t exactly made big trades to build the farm.
Kinda my point.
I don’t think he’s been successful at what he was brought in to do. And trading/depleting further only makes that failure more obvious.
I wonder if they’ll try and grab anyone after the olympics are over?
Perez was solid his first 10 starts, its the last 12 that have been up and down (mostly down). After this road trip is over the Sox are going to need some fresh arms for the bullpen because they have been throwing a lot of innings recently. Get ready for Brice, Brewer, and Andriese (soon to be off the IL) to return
That’s cherry picking. Eduardo Rodriguez was also great several starts but it doesn’t compensate for his 5ish season long ERA.
He missed a whole year last year and that hurt him.
AL34 – what really hurt E-Rod was not following the doctors’ recommendations about six month with no activity to allow his heart to recover properly. That impacts his stamina and physical well being.
Also, E-Rod has never been anything more than a 5th starter except in 2019 and even then he wasn’t much better than a 5th starter. An ERA of 3.81 is bottom of the rotation for a highly competitive team. His 1.33 WHIP takes his status down even farther. The fact that the two numbers were close to his career averages speaks volumes to his skill level. Wins come from run support. If he got Sale’s run support he’d be out of baseball or back in the minors. E-Rod is a loss waiting to happen. At times he shows decent stuff with bad control. The rest of the time he gives up too many hits per inning and way too many walks per inning to be anything other than a bottom of the rotation guy. He deserved to be non-tendered and told to follow the doctors’ recommendations and build his strength up gradually then when he is fully healthy sign with someone for 2022. During his rehab he needed to work on his control to elevate his game.
ERod has more upside than Perez. But i don’t really know how the conversation got to ERod. Perez was demoted to the bullpen because he can’t even get out of the 4th inning. Four of his last 5 starts were 4 innings or less and he has 8 starts this season of 4 innings or less. No cherry picking about it
Compared to these other clowns, Brandon Workman is looking pretty good right now.
A month ago people were saying we easily won the Workman trade but Pivetta is showing his career norm numbers that got him ousted from Philly and Workman is gone…
Workman at least had talent at a level that Perez and Pivetta would never reach…
In the world of what have you done for me lately workman has not been successful for multiple teams. That’s why he keeps winding up a FA.
That happens to relievers sometimes. He’s had multiple shots to pull it back together and has failed to do so.
Pivetta was and always has been a dog. A 5th starter at best with a 500 record and an ERA north of 4
Boston has the worst fanbase in the MLB.
Theo – Are you saying you are a Red Sox fan? Because that would make sense if you were looking in the mirror and saying that. Why? Because a good fan base doesn’t simply accept everything ownership does. It applauds the good moves and criticizes the bad moves. This article got lots of criticism in the responses because ownership, the GM and the Manager deserve a lot of criticism.
The fact that you whine about it makes you a lemming. Just a follower afraid to speak up when something is wrong. Now that’s the definition of a bad fan and you qualify!!