Sept. 10: Motter was not claimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Worcester, the Red Sox announced Friday
Sept. 7: The Red Sox announced a series of roster moves before this evening’s game against the Rays. Utilitymen Kiké Hernández and Danny Santana were both reinstated from the COVID-19 injured list. To open active roster space, outfielder Franchy Cordero was optioned to Triple-A Worcester while infielder Taylor Motter was designated for assignment.
Hernández was the first player on the Red Sox to test positive amidst the recent viral spread that has affected a sizable chunk of the roster. He’s also the first player to return from that group, and he’ll take his customary place atop the lineup this evening. Signed over the offseason to a two-year deal, Hernández has put together one of the better seasons of his career in his first year in Boston. The 30-year-old owns a .258/.346/.465 line over 483 plate appearances.
Motter was claimed off waivers from the Rockies last Thursday to bolster the infield depth with Hernández, Santana, Xander Bogaerts and Yairo Muñoz all on the COVID IL. He’ll lose his roster spot after just three games with a couple of the original options returning. While internal players selected as COVID replacements can be bumped from the active and 40-man rosters without being made available to other teams, those acquired from outside the organization (like Motter) still need to stick on the 40-man or be exposed to waivers.
While Motter hasn’t gotten much of a big league look this season, he posted fantastic numbers with the Rockies’ top affiliate in Albuquerque. Over 265 plate appearances with the Isotopes, Motter hit .335/.460/.759 with 24 home runs and matching strikeout and walk rates (18.5%). That strong showing — coupled with his positional versatility — could pique the interest of another club once he lands on waivers.
While the Red Sox have begun to get some players back from the COVID IL, it wasn’t unanimously positive news on that front. Starting pitcher Nick Pivetta, who landed on the IL last Sunday, has tested positive for the virus, manager Alex Cora revealed to reporters (including Alex Speier of the Boston Globe). The positive test will keep another key player for Boston out of action for at least the next week-plus. The Red Sox enter play tonight holding a three-game advantage over the Blue Jays and Mariners in the American League Wild Card race.
Sucks for Motter, but that discrepancy between AAA and MLB performance has to be a record. If I was MLB, he’d be getting tested every few days at this point. I get when you’re older and your hopes of making/staying in the bigs are fading, you might try PEDs, but lack of MLB performance after decimating AAA raises quite a few red flags. There are AAAA players and there are Taylor Motters. I knew something was up when he got released from the Korean League last year after an epic failure there.
Besides the fact that MLB can’t just CHOOSE to test him, you want him to get tested because of a lack of performance at the highest level of professional baseball?
Well, the minor league team was called the Isotopes. Maybe he had to leave an electron behind when he left there. That would make it harder to attract positive results.
Thank you for explaining what was the Motter.
whyhayzee – I got a charge out of that one!!
You guys have the best puns after a rough day
You could hit .300 in the PCL so you’re reading too much into his AAA numbers. The PCL is like Coors Field on steroids.
The fact that you’re comparing two small sample sizes and implying that he’s using is ridiculous. Just ignore the fact that he’s had 483 total MLB plate appearances over 4 seasons.
More likely the added pressure, knowing that at his age this may be his last opportunity, affected his performance. He also knew it would be a short opportunity and he had little time to show what he has.
FWIW the Isotopes also have the most hitter-friendly home ballpark in all of the minors most seasons. Take any stats put up there with a huge grain of salt.
And Cora’s love affair with Danny Santana continues.
You know it’s bad when the Sox decided to keep Jack Lopez in the organization over Motter. Guess nobody believes in PCL stats any longer, other than those blinded by analytics and such nonsense.
It’s not that nobody believes in the basic stats any longer, it’s that they don’t believe in them by themselves.
Why do you think technology like Statcast exists? Teams can compare data that is based directly off what and how a player is doing on the field! Why would any team NOT use that type of knowledge to their advantage?
To please old ignorant fools like johnsilver.
Hello muddah, hello faddah. The Red Sox just cut Taylor Motter.
So weird that they batted that guy leadoff yesterday.
Oxford – True but there is a one word explanation – CORA. His picture is in the dictionary under sucks.
Right next to your picture.
thatsright – A Cora fan? What do you like most his cheating or his lack of managerial skills?
I have to agree, can’t stand Cora. Never wanted him back
Cora is fine, if not great. This team was supposed to be fourth with a bad record
I bet you said the same thing about Jimy Williams and Grady Little. Didn’t take long for them to get exposed when they managed other teams, now did it?
Fact is the Covid outbreak will be used by the Cora apologists to rationalize possibly missing the postseason. But to say they were supposed to have a bad record is absurd. Teams with a healthy Sale, Xander, Devers, Martinez, Schwarber and proven solid pitchers like Evo, ERod and Barnes are never expected to have a bad record. This isn’t exactly the Orioles we are talking about here.
tstats – How are your two statements related? Cora didn’t play this year. Cora didn’t play in 2019 when they were bad. Cora didn’t play in 2018 when they won. Give me one example of a causal relationship between Cora and winning or losing.
If Cora is fine was a comment on his health, then thanks for the irrelevant news update. Otherwise, there is NOTHING fine about a man who turns on the game that has been so good to him and cheats with two different teams.
No value system helping you evaluate the essence of the man? OK. Some of us think cheating is wrong, others think it is very wrong. Where do you fit in the spectrum from wrong to very wrong?
Oh come on you full well knew I implied he was a fine manager, not the best, not bad either. Read the context before posting a stupid comment
Fever they were by some experts expected to be under .500 in 2021, they have exceeded many preseason expectations. Yes a lot of that is the players but there is something to be said of coras managing of a ragtag starting staff and bullpen that had a lot of struggles
Last year’s ragtag starting staff and bullpen were completely overhauled. Those “experts” made a glaring error by basing their preseason expectations on last year’s disaster, especially with it being such a short season.
Not sure if you’re saying the pitching has been better this year because of Cora, or you’re saying this year Cora has overachieved despite a bad pitching staff. Both assumptions are inaccurate.
tstats – Was my response unclear? He’s a horrible manager and a despicable human being. I tried to phrase it in a politically correct way so nobody was offended but I guess the message wasn’t clear enough.
KD17
CORA. His picture is in the dictionary under sucks.
==================================
IMHO, this is where you get lost. For whatever reason, Cora decided Motter was going to lead off. And he responded with a great game. But you are treating the decision like Motter went 0-4.
If you want to hate the guy, fine. But when the guy makes a genius move, you shouldn’t act as if it was an awful move.
JB – Again, you simply don’t get it. You put your best chance of winning in your line-up each day. He didn’t offer that especially at the one spot.
What he did during the game is irrelevant. He didn’t belong at the top of a line-up for a contending team. Why are these things so hard to comprehend and why do you feel compelled to argue with the obvious?
Also, why must it be hate when I point out a perfectly obvious mistake by Cora? He’s a terrible manager. That’s the point and he proved it with Motter hitting first. You don’t lower the probability of winning to make a player happy or because you feel he might do well because you ate tacos that day and had some gas you mistook it for a premonition that Motter was going to do well.
Cora simply refuses to consistently put an optimal line-up on his pregame scorecard. That is a perfect example of how he hurts the team daily.
About the specifics of the game. If you were a leprechaun I could understand why you believe luck is better than good decision making but to the best of my knowledge you are not. Thus, hitting a .194 hitter who has sucked his entire career in the one hole when playing the first place team late in the season when they have chosen to start a pitcher who has been crushed by your best hitters multiple times is beyond moronic.
How is that not obvious to you? Brilliant move? If the game was packaged prior to being played the package would read DON”T HIT MOTTER FIRST under ANY circumstances. Why? Because he’s a .194 hitter with a horrendous career and the alternative is batting a true professional hitter with a .933 OPS first followed by three more guys with OPS values over 800.
How can your brain not process why you don’t bat Motter first against the Rays in September when every game is critical? You have Sale on the mound against a guy you beat up for 5 runs at least 3 times this season. This was a giveaway game by TB and Cora did everything possible to give it back to TB. He’s horrible at managing.
FYI…If you go into a casino and play craps and put all your money on one number and it comes up that’s NOT a genius move it’s just lucky and reading anything more into it would be a massive mistake. I do however understand why you like Cora, he’s a kindred spirit flying by the seat of his pants betting on lucky outcomes rather than sound logic.
Motter went 2 for 5 from the lead off spot and scored 2 runs. He hit well, but got picked off first base and made errors in the field.
This is usually where the haters run aground. To someone who had no interest in the RS, they would look at Cora’s decision and think that it turned out so well, Cora must be psychic.
To the haters, they look at a double, a triple, two runs scored, and an RBI, and decide leading him off was a bad decision. The laws of physics cease to exist under their roof.
Haters and cheerleaders live under the same roof, you know that. They’ve picked their side and refuse to stray on any topic..
Last week when they had won 4 in a row there were cheerleaders pounding their chest and saying Cora is manager of the year.
Now that they’ve lost three straight, the cheerleaders are nowhere to be found.
Unfortunately very few these days understand the concept of middle ground.
FPG – Middle ground? We don’t want no stinking middle ground!!!
We aren’t reading tea leaves we are watching a manager bat a .194 hitter first like he did with Swihart in 2018 because he’s doing a solid for a bench guy he relates too because his career sucked too. Very compassionate but that’s not his job. His job is to win. His mistakes cost them the game.
No middle of the road today, a week ago, in 2018 thru 2019. The man has no skills except cheating. There is only one side of the road for Cora because he’s not qualified to be a manager just a baby-sitter for Devers, the guy leading the league in errors for his fifth year out of five!!!
And got picked off, it was incredibly bad. He probably got cut on that play.
Can we admit the Peacock has flown the coop and the experiment has failed miserably unless you want him to be a mop up pitcher which is all he is right now.
Since Bloom failed to address the lack of pitching depth at the trade deadline, there’s not many better alternatives until at least one of Perez, Pivetta, Barnes, Hernandez or Sawamura return.
Of course Bloom can always throw something else against the wall to see if it sticks, as was done tonight with Feliz.
FPG – Spent time doing the accounting for the Red Sox last night. Did you know Bloom spent roughly 9 MILLION on the players he picked up at the deadline and off waivers since the end of July? Did you know he exceeded the cap by roughly 4 million to pay for the garbage he brought through the door? The luxury tax jumps to 30% in 2022!! Good thing we didn’t spend that extra nine million to get Semien instead of Hernandez or Scherzer instead of Schwarber. Wait, if we had, we’d still be paying 30% not 20% in 2022! I guess we didn’t dodge a bullet by going cheap, it still was a direct hit!!!
Who is ultimately responsible for the COVID outbreak within the Red Sox organization? People tell me the buck stops at the GM since he sets up the protocol through his staff of baseball and health experts. Is that true?
Yeah I skimmed your back-n-forth with JB. I’ve noticed in prior years those websites never get it right when it comes to final luxury tax salary.
Like this website which I think is the same one you referenced: spotrac.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/payroll/
They have Robles in BOTH the Active Player section and the Retained Salaries section. Not only that, it doesn’t include the Cash Considerations the Red Sox received with Robles. Same thing with Delino DeShields, the Sox received Cash Considerations.
Even if they do exceed the threshold, it’s only the first level. I’d rather they spend extra money than trade away prospects.
Scherzer instead of Schwarber? That was a prospect issue, not a money issue.
I’ve already gone on record, Bloom is the CBO, and as the lead front office member he has final say on everything related to baseball operations. He can’t, and shouldn’t try, to force vaccinations on all the team members. But he certainly could have and should have strengthened the team’s Covid Protocols immediately after Venable tested positive on August 7th in Toronto.
Bloom is just an inexperienced dude, no different than Theo when he became GM. Except Theo had a few guys like Larry that had a lot of power, but Bloom does not.
Not only that, it doesn’t include the Cash Considerations the Red Sox received with Robles.
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I told KD this yesterday. It’s obvious, but KD is a True Believer, so facts won’t matter to him.
Yeah I’m very much in the middle when it comes to Bloom, but going over the threshold – whether true or not – is irrelevant IMO.
I will always prefer to lose cash instead of prospects, unless the prospects are truly worth the players being acquired.
And there is no way Bloom would go over the threshold without Henry’s approval. The budget is established by ownership, no one else.
JB – Nice try jumping on an intelligent person’s comments and agreeing but the cash considerations are netted out of the total and the pay for Robles when added together equals his total pay. I pointed out that it was an unusual split but in the end the total is correct.
FPG – The comparison was between the site you pointed out and the site JB pointed out by COTS. I did a full audit and the numbers are correct as of the day I did it. Every time Bloom picks up another piece of crap he adds to the bottom line. He’s over as of now and yes there may be a hidden accounting trick that will allow for him to submit the year to the MLB as being under the cap but that’s not obvious from either website.
I can’t believe you are suggesting there is a prospect issue when we have Verdugo, Downs and Wong!!! Plus Potts and Seabold. My gosh these guys are top prospects because all the Bloom Fan Boys say they are. Scherzer should not have been an issue with the quality of prospects Bloom added to the farm system!!! hahahahaha
I would have made a deal with Scherzer to extend at least through the Sale contract and traded Devers, the man without a position. Dalbec goes to 3B and Schwarber goes to 1B until Casas arrives. Problem solved and 2022 becomes a year the Red Sox truly compete. But that’s me. I prefer winning now rather than a decade from now.
the cash considerations are netted out of the total and the pay for Robles when added together equals his total pay.
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Show me where it is netted out. Robles is in the section called 2021 retained salaries. is it netted out there? No.
In fact, Robles is in there twice. He is the 2021 retained salaries AND under active salaries. His total in the schedule is $2,000,000. His actual cost to the RS is only $198,925.
But if you can point out where that difference is deducted, I’ll be glad to check it out. But you can’t. How about anyone else? Can anyone else point out where Spotrac made the adjustment for Robles salary?
JB – Stop with the dramatics. You have no idea what you are talking about.
Let me explain how this works so you don’t continue arguing in the blind.
Robles makes $2M this year.
Normally, if a team deals a player during the season the new team owes the amount left and the original team moves the traded players salary paid from standard payroll to retained payroll because the player no longer plays for that team.
The reason Robles is in the top part under Standard Payroll is because that reflects the pro-rated remainder of the season. Since Bloom picked up the entire $2M for Robles (relieving LAA from listing him on their retained payroll in 2021). The part that would normally have been paid by LAA has been transferred from the LAA Retained Payroll to the Red Sox retained payroll. Add the numbers together and you get $2M, the full cost of Robles for the 2021 season. Bloom paid a hefty surplus to get Robles.
So nimrod the cash considerations was the cash paid by Bloom to LAA for the early part of the season and shows up in the Retained Payroll for the Boston Red Sox rather than LAA.
You get so hyper when you are more wrong than usual!!!
You’re wrong again.
1-You mentioned LAA 5x. I presume you didn’t do any research since we did not obtain him from LAA.
2-Minny kicked in $500k of his remaining salary.
From COTs:
acquired by Boston in trade from Minnesota 7/30/21 with $698,925 remaining on contract and Twins paying Red Sox about $500,000
From MLB-R
The Twins are including $500k in the deal
From Fangraphs
fangraphs.com/roster-resource/payroll/red-sox
You will see three lines for Robles. One for his salary of $2,000,000, one for the credit of $1,297,297, and one for the $500,000 that the Twins sent us. I know you will ignore all three sites, because you really, really want to think that Robles cost us $2M, but such is the life of True Believers.
JoeBrady – My bad take the LAA and replace it with MIN and everything is completely accurate. I simply transposed the wrong team name.
Go on Spotrac and click on Robles and then click on Careerr Earnings. It shows the two parts and they are both paid by Boston. The total is $2M as I said.
The COTS
Maybe the cash related to Schreff not Robles.and since Schreff was a minor leaguer it wouldn’t hit the Red Sox books.
So you still need to send the link that shows the BS you wrote about COTS. Here is the link to the 2021 Red Sox payroll.
It clearly lists $2M and none of the crap you wrote or fabricated.
Next Your MLB-R reference is innocuous. In doesn’t mention the critical details of the transaction and you assumed you knew but were wrong based on the facts on both COTs and Spotrac.
Your Fangraphs link completely supports what I said and have no details on payroll beyond the $2M. The rest is stats.
You say you will see three lines but don’t define where? COTS? Which is not true!! Spotrac? Which is not true!! Fangraphs? Which is not true!!
So what are you referencing? Also, as usual, your terminology is incorrect. There was no credit to Boston of $1.297M and no cash associated with Robles for $500K. That’s all your bull crap and fabricated.
Both reliable websites specifically say he cost $2M I have no idea why that’s no proof enough for you but apparenently it isn’t..
You keep pretending you have knowledge and you even send links that don’t support your point. What do you do for a living? Are you a con artist? Or simply just full of crap?
I gave you the benefit of the doubt when you responded and it was very disappointing that you fabricated EVERYTHING. I made a simple transposition error with respect to the name of the team who traded him to us. You can see on the Sportrac and COTs documentation that LAA is never mentioned I simply had it in my head that I associated that team with Robles. EVERYTHING other than the name can be documented completely on either site.
You might want to rest a few days and get your bull crap under control. You just got caught with your hand in the cookie jar with respect to making things up. Don’t send links if they don’t support what you are lying about.
I kind of curious how you think this works. Any article you pick says that Minny sent the RS $500,000. So, assuming you don’t think all the articles are in a conspiracy against you, do you think the Red Sox then secretly sent back another ~ $1.8M to Minny?
What would the point of Minny sending the RS $500,000, if not to alleviate the payroll burden?
I understand they prefer Iglesias with more experience over Motter but what do they see on Santana. Santana is no good. I would keep Motter as a depth piece.
Santana can play every position except pitcher and catcher, that’s his value.
FPG – Would he be a big step down at pitcher or catcher compared to others entering through the revolving door? Santana is equally bad at every position. Give the man credit where credit is due!!!
Well I’m happy with the catcher situation, and worse case scenario if they ever need a 3rd catcher then Schwarber can step up as he has the experience.
Santana as a pitcher? We’ve already got so many mop-up type guys, we won’t need to use a position player. And Cora likes to carry only 3-4 backup position players anyway, so it’s a moot point.
Most people don’t realize, it’s a domino effect. Cora has a fetish for over-managing the bullpen with several pitching changes every game. For that reason, the team typically carried a 9-man bullpen pre-September. Which means he is forced to stick with putrid players like Santana and Marwin a lot longer than he should ONLY because they can play several positions.
If Cora would drop 2-3 of the worthless mop-up relievers, there would be no need to retain guys like Santana.
Im sry to say but motter was awful over the weekend, i, like the rest of the world outside of where the rockies play, have never heard of him, i mean, theirs a reason he was RELEASED by another team, hasnt anyone noticed since Bloom took over ALL he does is get guys that other teams no longer want? every one he signed is the bottom of the barrel , mediocre player, thats why the angels RELEASED iglesias, and san diego RELEASED garrett richards, ok his contract was up, but they didnt resign him, although hes actually been excellent in the bullpen for us, point is, this team isnt succeeding because they arent spending, love or hate dave dombrowski, he signed anybody at any-cost no matter what it took
You do understand Covid? Not a lot you can do at this point in the season.
Richards was a FA. SD did not release him.
baseball-reference.com/players/r/richaga01.shtml
Amanda San Diego didn’t release Richards. Bloom had to pickup a bunch of trash lately due to the outbreak no one of real value is available this late in the season after the trade deadline. Most of the guys will be Released or returned to the minors as there guys come back this isn’t a Bloom problem.
and cora is no longer right for this team, hes lost anything he has with this team, i hope no matter what happens after this season, they look elsewhere for a manager, truthfully i never wanted him back, its just not working this time
I’d say every manager except Bobby Valentine could have won it in 2018.
Cora is highly overrated because of his popularity with the players, particularly the Latin players. Strategically he’s quite poor, let’s not forget it was his overly casual approach to ST and the start of the 2019 season that led to his team not being prepared to compete until June.
Managers with virtually the exact same players don’t go from 108-win championship seasons to missing the playoffs the following year. Henry had every right to be furious about that.
How do you know the approach to spring training in 2019 was all Cora’s idea and not a decision made as an organization?
AITSTYW – He said it was during interviews. He wanted to give the SPs extra time to recover since they played nearly a month longer in 2018. (very close to an exact quote but I’m sure you can look it up if you don’t believe me)
If the man explains it on TV, I think we can safely say he took credit for it like so many other things. After the fact, he probably wishes he didn’t take credit for it but since it’s recorded for history he can’t say it didn’t happen like he did about the cheating in Boston!!
In 2019 he also is on tape talking about how he needs to fix Sale’s delivery. The change effectively destroyed two years of the Red Sox future. The guy has done so much for the club!!! I can see why everyone loves the guy. Mistake after mistake but hey fair weather fans think he is likeable despite his cheating and bad managing.
It’s hard to account for public opinion.
I see. Thanks.
I also recall a quote from Cora in which he stated that winning is not a priority in April and May, it is more important to win games in August and September, and he wanted the entire team to be well rested for the last two months of the season.
I guess Cora isn’t smart enough to realize the first 60 regular season games count in the standings just as much as the last 60 regular season games.
And he also doesn’t realize that one of the reasons they won the championship in 2018 is because they wrapped up the division title very early, which allowed the players to rest during the month prior to the postseason. You can’t do that if you dig yourself a hole early in the season.
But hey, Cora was right about one thing. In October 2019 he had the most rested team in MLB, as they all sat home watching the postseason on TV.
Tito also rested guys. So do lots of managers.
JB – Seriously. What kind of response is that? Did you really miss the point made by FPG? It’s not the rest it’s the poor timing of the rest.
You two boobs are probably the same “fans” that wanted to trade Devers three years ago.
Cora is a great manager. Look at his starters. Just what is he suppose to do with Perez/ailing Erod/Richards/Pivetta?
dbdmack – I’m sorry do you actually follow the Red Sox or baseball?
Have you heard of the biggest cheating scandal in the history of the game that Cora led in 2017. Or maybe the 2018 cheating scandal that moved to Boston coincidentally with Cora? Cora not only lacks integrity, he has no skills at managing which makes sense since he was a bench jockey during his 14 year career in the majors.
His lifetime OPS+ is 72!!!
(That is terrible or clinically speaking significantly below league average)
His first season his OPS+ was 2!!! I hope you understand OPS+ otherwise the magnitude of his inabilities in baseball can not be fully appreciated. Defensively he played 2B and SS at league average which is the most positive statement you can make about his playing/sitting career. He played third too but was a butcher at that position but his fielding percentage was still higher than Devers!!!
Do you realize people wanted to trade Dalbec this year and he has better numbers than Devers through the same number of plate appearances to start his career?. So if someone wants Dalbec traded they most certainly had grounds to trade Devers. See Dalbec can field and Devers can’t. His only value is at DH and they have JD and now Schwarber.
One last point!! You say look at his starters and say you can’t blame him for those bad starters. Did you give him credit for those starters when they pitched well in the first half of the season? If so, then your argument doesn’t work. You can’t complain about pitchers who are doing badly at a point in time if you supported them when they did well.
But I do agree that Cora is not to be blamed for the pitching woes. Bloom gets full responsibility for personnel as the GM. He thought the pitchers were good and when they performed well the uniformed fans thought he was right. Then, when they failed as the knowledgeable fans knew they would, Bloom got Schwarber instead of a SP. Joe Brady ought to weigh in on this discussion since he completely disagrees with you. He thinks Perez/Erod/Richards/Pivetta are good and just going through a rough patch. I would argue their careers are a rough patch.
I admit I am probably one of those boobs you referenced in your comments because I prefer trading incomplete players for complete players. A player who can’t field must be a DH and JD was the contracted DH for several years so after the 2019 break-out by Devers and then the throwing away of Mookie and Price I thought it made sense to trade Devers for deGrom or an elite pitcher to replace Price and cover while Sale was having TJ surgery. That move would have significantly improved the horrible pitching and Chavis could have gotten a real chance to prove he was better than his brief audition showed. Or Dalbec could have played 3B and Moreland could have been kept until Casas comes up. If Casas is as good as Dalbec swapping Devers who can’t field for an elite SP would have been a huge long-term upgrade to the roster.
dbsmack is probably one of the same “fans” that thought Jimy Williams and Grady Little were great managers too.
FYI …
Pivetta had a 1.80 ERA last year under Roenicke
ERod has been healthy all year and showed it last week in Tampa
Perez had a 4.50 ERA and 1.339 WHIP last year under Roenicke
Richards had a 4.03 ERA and 1.247 WHIP last year under Tingler
Just a coincidence that all 4 pitchers have grossly under-performed under Cora, right Mr. A-Cup?
Very mysterious. It’s almost like the league outlawed the sticky stuff or something.
I do think that had an immediate and brief impact on many pitchers, but for most it wasn’t a longterm impact. Certainly Richards has performed quite well without the sticky stuff since going to the pen.
Pivetta had a 5.50 with Philly and a 4.67 this year. Is it Cora fault that his ERA dropped 0.83?
I’m not sure what your point is on ERod. He was out the entire year in 2020. He had a 6.07 in his first 14 starts, and a 4.10 in his last 13 starts. Would this not indicate nothing more than rust?
Perez had a 4.88 FIP and a 4.87 FIP.
Richards is down maybe 0.68, but the difference between pitching in the NL, particularly SD, and pitching is Fenway is significant.
Eovaldi is pretty much the same.
Barnes, Ottavino, Taylor are all better than last year, and Whitlock might be ROY.
You’re grasping for straws. I think most of the good and bad for the pitching staff is on the pitching staff, and on the pitching coach (who I think is good). I don’t think a journeyman 2B is making our pitching staff a lot better or worse.
The other guy cherrypicked those 4 pitchers and referred to them as trash that Cora inherited. So I pointed out that “trash” did a lot better under other managers.
Pivetta’s days in Philly had him leaning heavily on his curve, which wasn’t a good idea. Last year he started using the slider as his primary pitch, and the results were obviously there. Same pitching coach with the Red Sox this year and last year, the only difference is the manager. Hmmmm …
Again, same thing with ERod. He was a very successful pitcher in his last season, so why would anyone say Cora got “stuck” with him this year?
Perez was decent last year, certainly worthy of a #4-#5 starter.
Same with Richards.
For him to say Cora had no chance of a playoff spot because of those four guys is ludicrous.
I didn’t see the previous comment. IMO, they always had a chance, even if they were certainly underdogs. I honestly don’t understand either side.
I calculated their predicted rotation ERA back in March. It figured to be roughly league-average. And it is roughly league-average. It is not an overly complicated exercise. But some folks, on both sides, refuse to admit or acknowledge it.
There are people in here that believe that, just because they hate Bloom, that a 4.61 ERA is really a 5.61. There is no other explanation.
FTR I think Bloom did a fantastic job rebuilding the bullpen, and I have no complaints about the starting rotation that he started with. The Pivetta deal is already a steal. Bloom had no idea what to expect from ERod and Sale, so his hands were tied there. Could he have done better than Richards and Perez? Probably, but Sale/ERod/Evo/Pivetta should have been enough to contend with Houck on the horizon.
FPG – Never liked the idea of E-Rod in 2021 due to the health issue with his heart. A pitching staff with Sale/Eovaldi/Houck late in the season was going to keep them in contention if they could be in contention late.
Trading Workman and Hembree was a no=brainer. Getting anything for Hembree was a bonus. Gambling on two guys that have some upside if the right pitching coaches work with them made the Philly deal one of the best done by Bloom.
Pivetta looked good often but couldn’t sustain a level of excellence. Seabold is known for his incredible control but in the MLB that’s often not enough to sustain a career unless the control is truly pinpoint and the velocity varies enough to keep the hitters off balance. Will either pitcher be part of their future pitching staff? I hope not but if the austerity program continues one might be.
2022 needed to be planned with specific SPs in mind. A right-handed ace to compliment Sale is needed and ideally a left=handed #3 or #4 would be ideal so Eovaldi and Houck fill out the staff. Three righties and 2 lefties.
There are five worthy relievers to hang on to for 2022 with Ottavino the 8th inning guy. A 9th inning guy is needed.
The hitting did better than expected and should regress to the norm in 2022. I’m not sure Bogey’s ascension in hitting will continue, he may have hit his peak. Devers is incredibly inconsistent so he will always have flashes of brilliance hitting and extended dry spells. I don’t think he will ever be a .300 hitter like Mookie was or JD has been but he’ll be a .280 ish guy.with 35 home runs at DH.
Overall, the team will be better than most but not better than three other teams in the division. That’s why big money needs to be spent with a slotted plan for who will be the long-term solution at each position while considering the graduation plans from the farm system. We haven’t seen that type of thinking since DD was here.
Motter f-
Welcome back, Motter
KD17, I see your positions as mostly correct! Certainly things need a drastic change for the Redsox! They couldn’t wait for Chavez to figure things out so they gave him away. I was afraid they were going to get themselves in a similar pinch with Dalbec. Devers has got to be moved to first, or DH, or traded. If first, then what do we do with Casas? If DH then JD needs to be traded. If Dalbec can avoid the 1/2 season slump he had this year, he deserves to get a shot at third. Anyway, somebody has to go, and we don’t need to wait until management makes them worthless, like Chavis to trade them.
It’s not much of an issue. Devers at 3rd, Dalbec at 1st, and JD at DH. 3 players at three positions.
Casas should be available in 2023. At worst, it would be Casas at 1st, Dalbec at 3rd, and Devers at DH. I like guys with gloves, but having mashers can win almost as easily.
And no one needs to go. There is no logjam since Jordan is only 18, and has no guarantees. The next guy after that is Kavadas, and he is in A ball.
So if JD doesn’t opt out, and as of right now I’d say he won’t, does that mean there’s no chance of Schwarber returning?
See if I could sign Schwarber to a reasonable deal, I’d trade Dalbec for a solid starting pitcher with at least two controllable years left and I’d let ERod walk.
I know everyone is always afraid to trade promising prospects, but they are needed to acquire proven talent.
It’s tough to comment on a trade without knowing all the ingredients. Theoretically, I could trade anyone.
But if we traded Dalbec for someone with two controllable years left, that is Arb 2. That would likely make him expensive. And Schwarber will likewise be expensive. I’m on record as saying that any extra spending money we have should be used internally to extend some of our guys.
We have a decent core, and our farm is on the rise. I’d spend up to the limit, but not invest in any long-term contracts.
I’d also point out that Schwarber, as outstanding as he’s been, has always been this good. Toss out 2020 and 2021 as outliers high and low, and his three previous years had a cumulative .829. That’s good, but not outstanding with someone with fielding deficiencies.
Money will not be much of an issue next year as $37M in existing contracts will come off the books, and definitely won’t be an issue in 2023 when another $100M comes off the books.
The only big-money extension candidates would be Devers and Xander, so how much more would extending both cost? Maybe $23-$28M combined for 2023?
JB – A player with 2 controllable years left could be an Arb 2 or an Arb 3. Some players qualify for Arb 4 so unless you know if they qualify you can’t assume they don’t!!
How is the farm system on the rise? You mean we sucked in 2020 and got Mayer. That’s the rise you are talking about?
A GM should never think like you do. He should have a targeted time span and figure out the resources he needs to maximize his team during the time span. Some of the critical resources may last longer than the time span for the sake of the organization but each slot in the starting line-up and the pitching needs specific players targeted to fill the slots during the time span. Making arbitrary decisions about length of contract is simply boxing yourself into a corner.
If a minor league player like Mayer is expected to play by 2025 then you have a plan for Bogaerts that fits with the Mayer plan.
Bloom just keeps spinning the revolving door because he doesn’t know how to do his job. Hope is great but it does beat a plan. Winging it is a lot more fun but it’s not as effective. Ask Tom Brady how often he wings it rather than preparing in excruciating detail. Maybe Bloom could hire Brady to work with him on how to plan for a successful future.
Fever Pitch Guy
Money will not be much of an issue next year
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Said no accountant in the history of the world.
But IRT extensions, I’d also like to extend Verdugo & Renfroe. And if Whitlock enters the rotation, then our BP is really, really thin. It would be Barnes, Darwinzon, Taylor, Brasier, and Sawamura. Maybe Bazardo contributes, and maybe Seabold morphs into Whitlock, but we likely need a good RP, and a setup, and that won’t be cheap.
Pretty sure the accountants for Cole, Mookie, Trout, Lindor, Tatis Jr have all said that … to name a few.
Definitely too soon to extend Hunter and Dugie, we’ve already been burned enough by extending too soon.
I think they will continue to scoop up whichever relievers go unsigned, grabbing them at bargain basement prices. And the way relievers can suddenly turn to garbage overnight, I don’t object to that philosophy. They’ve already locked up Barnes to a kinda-big contract, I’d give semi-big bucks to Ottavino but that’s it.
JB – The plan must have a timeline. Extending is too vague. DD had a plan to keep the core together through 2022. Bloom needs to do something similar. He has Sale through 2025 so maybe it makes sense to align with that timeframe. Bogey if he doesn’t opt out lasts that long too. Barnes goes thru 2023 and represents the ONLY other guy extended beyond 2022.
That means there is a clean slate as DD planed for after 2022. Only $45.6M committed after 2022. That’s how DD planned to keep Mookie!! The slate in 2023 is clean so $35M would have been insignificant from a money pressure standpoint.
The salary overflow of 2019 to 2021 was caused by the contracts prior to DD and should have been paid for by ownership who made the mistakes. The Red Sox could have had a top MLB team through 2022 discounting the injury to Sale that could have been minimized to the COVID season if the post DD front office had their act together.. Just think, in August 2019 when Cora’s change to his mechanics tore Sale’s elbow, ownership should have directed the four clowns replacing DD to have the surgery immediately allowing Sale to return at the start of 2021. That way, he misses 60 games!!!
So many mistakes all beginning with the firing of DD, the man with the outstanding plan for sustained greatness. Isn’t it ironic Bloom pledged that and hasn’t delivered and DD never pledged it and simply delivered it?
I’d give semi-big bucks to Ottavino but that’s it.
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It’s kind of a quandary. I wasn’t a big fan of the trade, because Ottavino is pretty inconsistent, but he has served his purpose by giving us an experience closer when Barnes was unavailable. But his 4.9 BB9 is scary.
And I get that RPs can be unreliable, but your downside risk is a lot less if you have 6-7 big names instead of what we have right now. And right now, depending on what they do with Whitlock, the BP is Barnes, Taylor, Sawamura, Darwinzon, Brasier, and maybe Bazardo, Seabold, Valdez, and Davis.
Otto was really good his prior two full seasons. The homerless streak was impressive, although quite odd he gave up homers in back to back appearances right after. He didn’t just help us, he also helped weaken the Yankee pen by coming here.
I’ve seen waaay too many stud closers suddenly lose it … Kimbrel (twice), Diaz, Hand, etc. I’d rather invest in two really good relievers, and spread the rest of the money over the starting rotation and hitters. You’re always going to need room to demote starting pitchers to the pen, it’s worked out quite well for the Sox over the years …. Wakefield, Lowe, Price, ERod, etc. Even Mariano was a starting pitcher at one point!
As for Motter, I just can’t see why there aren’t at least 6 teams willing to give the guy a good shot. Pittsburgh, Texas, Washington, Colorado, Kansas, Baltimore, Miami, and Arizona. Not sure why Colorado let him go in the first place.
I can’t wait to see the excuses why the red sox let the Rays win the division.
I wonder if the yankee fans are still cheering, “we want Tampa” lol
18 fans, warehouse, cheap… please be original
No excuses, the difference is you’ve got Kevin Cash and we’re stuck with Alex Cora.
The Red Sox ‘let’ the Rays win? ROTFLMAO!
Maybe the Rays are going to win the division because they are on pace for 103 wins?
Well they did kinda let the Rays win Monday’s game …. just sayin’ …..
The ball went off of Verdugo’s glove. These things happen.
Blowing a 6 run lead at home with your ace on the mound because of 5 unearned runs and numerous glaring baserunning and fielding errors is not something that happens Inexcusable.
Oakland has done it.
Houston has done it.
Washington has done it.
I could probably find a few others, but that requires real work.
Thanks, can you provide the dates of one or two of those games? I’d really like to see which games meet all five of the criteria I mentioned, and that’s not even including the fact that the 6-run lead was in the 4th inning.
I only looked for games where someone blew a 6-run lead.
JB – They don’t happen to good players, they happen to second rate players like Verdugo. He was the fourth OFer in LAD. He’s now considered the best one in Boston. That speaks volumes to why they won’t win and balls are being dropped all over the park.
You need some advice from Tom Brady along with Bloom. Mistakes can be minimized with hard work and a plan. The errors are a function of a lackadaisical manager who was a lackadaisical player. A good GM would not allow the approach to the game that Cora provides. He would demand a higher commitment to excellence in fielding.
Well yeah, blowing 6-run leads ain’t that uncommon. Usually it’s just poor pitching by guys with poor track records.
But to have it happen because of numerous official and unofficial errors, both in the field and on the bases, with your ace pitcher on the mound, that was unquestionably the worst defeat of the year. The game was handed to the Rays. In fact Kevin Cash was so convinced the game was lost, he left his starter Yarbrough in for 7 ER on 8 hits and 2 walks in just 2 innings. He waved the white flag early, but Cora’s team refused to accept the victory.
Tough lesson to learn with Bloom about the trade deadline, but let’s face it, he has been hung to clear very bad contracts out of the system. He has improved the minors, more then DD did for sure and my opinion is this team is homer crazy… they need hits with ducks on the pond, instead of constantly stranding people. JD is obviously not the same JD of a few years back, and has stranded a ton of base runners since late June
You’re right about not having ducks on the pond, and that’s on Cora.
Our best slugger, Schwarber, has been batting first or second.
Look at the players that have been batting in the 3 spots in front of him.
There’s your answer, very few RBI opportunities when you’re batting first or second and the guys in front of you have very low OBP.
badco44 – What bad contracts besides Price? Which wasn’t a bad contract it was a good contract in the late years and when the deal was made that should have been understood that his payback would be less late in the contract.
Bloom mishandled the Price contract and increased the overall cost to the team because they are paying a player to play somewhere else and lowering the available payroll by $16M for three years. When he’s on the Red Sox roster the cost is $32M and the benefit is his performance. Now the cost is $16M and there is no benefit. Also, how much did his replacement cost? Richards is $10M!! Since he’s in the bullpen now, how much was the additional pitchers needed to cover his starting spot? So do you think Price pitching for Boston rather than LAD would have provided $6M of value? That’s the difference between $32M and $26M(Price and Richards). Was $6M worth the disruption caused by the move?
How about the Mookie part? Mookie’s value was more than his cost so giving him away is simply a huge cost to the future of the organization. Instead of winning rings when the team got healthy now the future is finishing 4th to 4th to last for years to come. Is that really a better alternative than having a black man be the face of the franchise making the all-star team yearly and leading RFs with his defense? I don’t think so and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in my thinking.
Bloom wasn’t hand=cuffed. He took the deal knowing the situation and just wanted the money and notoriety. Nobody feels sorry for the guy as he cashes his paycheck and runs the team into the ground while promising sustainable success yet not reaching it.
You have the nerve to pick on JD? Why because he’s older? Devers is young and can’t field a ground ball and throw it to the first baseman. Five years of killing the pitching staff and you pick on JD for batting 5 points below his career batting average and driving in less runs hitting out of the 5 hole rather than the 3 hole? Why? So many places to criticize this team and you pick JD?
It must be you have an issue in general with JD. His performance was only below par 1 year and that year he couldn’t adjust to having no in game video which is part of his process for hitting.
Any shortcoming in JD’s numbers should be directed at Cora. When you take an RBI machine and move him around in the line-up substituting low OBP guys into the first two spots and then moving him day to day from 3 to 5 you are asking for a lower performance level. OBP at the top of the order explains the drop in run production in general. That’s on Cora not JD.
25 homers, a 285 average and a .350 OBP is a normal year for JD. His RBIs would be a lot higher if Cora kept him in the 3 hole but he’s not smart enough to see a good thing when it’s happening in front of him. Your observation isn’t wrong, it’s just showing the effect of moving him from 3 to 5 then back then to 4 then to 5. Cora has no plan. He has no understanding of routine and how critical it is to premiere players because he was a crappy scrub when he played. He is clueless as to why guys like JD, Harper, Miggy and others like having one spot in the order and thrive while hitting there.
Don’t blame JD, blame Cora.
It is so great to have someone here that writes more than I do!
I think it’s far too soon to judge the Mookie/Price trade. I won’t bring up how highly regarded a prospect Verdugo was at the time, because I know prospect ratings are based on opinions.
But one thing that’s a fact, Price had a hard time staying healthy after his first season in Boston. He averaged just 21 starts from 2017-2019, to go along with 5 relief appearances in 2017. That’s just 119 IP averaged over his final 3 seasons in Boston. Add to that all the controversy that always surrounded him, including verbally assaulting a Red Sox legend, and it was obvious he had to go.
BTW – The trade worked out even better with Covid. Mookie certainly wouldn’t have gotten the Sox to the 2020 postseason, and Price opted out which means they will end up paying him $32M total of his salary with the Dodgers. .
I’m a big fan of Price, and thought the right number was about the $16M we chipped, and was hoping that we’d have kept him. In retrospect, I was obviously wrong. At this point, he isn’t anything more than a decent #6.
When used as a starter this season, he is 0-2, with a 3.92, and averaging only 3.2 IPs/GS. I still respect him, but $16M is about $12M too much for what he supplies.
FPG – The whole idea of trading one year of Mookie versus the controlled years of the players received isn’t measured by just the value of the players, it’s the results of the team.
So Mookie goes to LAD and wins a ring rather than playing a shortened season in Boston or being traded in July when LAD, ATL and SD all would have bid for him to help their chances of winning their division and the world series. Opinions will vary on which time is better and I firmly believe based on how close the NL race was in July of 2020 that Betts would have been a bonanza for the highest bidder and Boston would have gotten more than Verdugo and two minor league depth chart guys. Yes, Downs was rated highly thanks to Friedman but it was all smoke and mirrors as we’ve come to see. Starting pitching was needed and by July ATL, LAD and SD all had ample young SPs to outbid the other teams.
Verdugo reaches free agency in 2025 so for the deal to be a good one for the Red Sox they need to win a ring by 2024. Otherwise, the cost savings produced by Verdugo doesn’t off set the value added by Mookie to LAD for the single year and the primary opportunity to sign him for longer.. That was a HUGE cost to Boston.
So how do we put Betts/Price on one side of a scale and the three clowns from LAD on the other side and decide which was worth more?
Some people would compare stats but stats don’t mean anything if you don’t win. Success comes from winning. So LAD has already won the trade thanks to Mookie being the difference between being the bride’s maid like LAD was in 2019 or the bride in 2020.
How did Boston do in the trade? Terrible. They lost their franchise player who was a generational talent. They gained three guys who will help them be mediocre throughout their controllable years and then move on to free agency where Verdugo might land somewhere else with a shot at winning having not won in Boston.
How can ANYONE say Boston got the good end of the deal? Some might say WAR or some other screwed up modern metric will prove Boston did better (JB is the most likely to go down that ridiculous path) but as a fan do we really care that some convoluted stat says the Red Sox did well if we have five fourth place finishes from 2020 to 2024 when Verdugo’s control ends?
Next, you obviously had issues with Price. He was on the back end of a long contract and had already provided value during the early years. He was a significant part of the 2018 team that won a ring. If he stays and is hurt that’s life. The money is spent, it’s a sunk cost that rendered a ring. There is no financial impact to him being good or bad because that was factored into the contract initially. The deal is done so live with it or improve your team by successfully upgrading the roster by using his contract. The Red Sox did the opposite. They downgraded their available payroll for 3 years to dump Price’s contract. DUMB!!!
In hindsight, the deal is FAR WORSE thanks to Covid. Your logic was missing a piece. If he opts out in Boston or LAD he does not count on the luxury tax calculation. Boston would have saved $32M in 2020 or his lessened cost due to the short season. So Price only costs $64M and there is still two years to try and deal him. Peddy’s salary rolls off after this year so Mookie making $35M was not an issue after 2021. It would have been a one year hit on the luxury tax and that hit would have been capped at $10M prior to COVID, after COVID that number drops dramatically. So the only real issue would have been trying to talk Mookie into playing for racists. I firmly believe DD thought he could make that happen so they fired him. I’m fairly certain that was a condition of the Bloom hiring. He had to move Mookie and Price because they were risks when it came to the ownership’s reputation. Who knows if either player had the balls to force them to move them but at this point nothing would surprise me.
So if both players had to go. Bloom’s job should have been to maximize value but the deal played out like a pure dumping since they got so little back in return. Remember, LAD had Pollack, Bellinger, Pederson, Verdugo, Toles and Taylor who were all full or part time outfielders. Giving up a guy who was a part time player for Mookie and then throwing in an over valued prospect like Downs and their 5th catcher in Wong and Friedman had to be thinking it was the steal of the century because it was!!
If Mookie and Price were leaving and you were GM knowing Sale was going to be out for one and half seasons since by January 2020 Sale having TJ would still return him in the middle of the 2021 season, would you have wanted a RFer or a SP? Mookie was considered the 2nd best player in baseball and it was January and there was no COVID yet. His value was to be a FULL SEASON of the 2nd best player. Don’t you believe that is worth a top flight SP prospect? I do, if not more considering the impact of such a talent on an already talented team. Friedman handed Bloom the Vaseline and asked him to smile.
People have tried to spin it to suggest a fair deal and some even argue that Boston got the better end. The measure of success is rings. No rings for Boston and 1 ring so far for LAD. This evaluation is a no brainer. LAD wins hands down. They may double the margin of victory this season and triple it by 2022. That’s how bad the deal was!!!
If the players had to go then the GM should have tried to maximize the deal from the Boston side. Without letting Price pitch (since the deal was in January) there was no way to improve his value. By reducing available payroll under the cap by $16M a year for 3 years Bloom put himself in handcuffs. Less payroll, no added value from Price pitching for Boston and money needed to be spent to fill his spot in the rotation. Wow, was that a dumb financial transaction to rid yourself of a player no matter who he insulted!!
Everything about the deal was bad and last year was just the start to many years of frustration. The team is back where they were in the early 1920s when they went from the pinnacle of baseball to the second longest sustained frustration by any baseball organization.
I’m glad 2021 gave fans that great feeling of being competitive for a while but I remember having that feelings many, many times prior to 2004. It was a way of life and now we have returned to it. And why? Ownership has profited mightily during the last 20 years and the value of their business has skyrocketed. Why screw over the fans now? Because they didn’t want a black face of the franchise? How ignorant is that!! They hire a known cheater to manage the club but don’t want a black face of the franchise!! When the press reported a problem after the 2017 season with respect to diversity in the Red Sox organization they had no idea how deep the problem really was. It took ownership’s obvious actions to confirm what many had suspected for years.
JB – Your math is wrong. The Red Sox may have had a bad #5 SP in Price this year but $16M wasn’t saved. They had to get Richards to replace him and he cost $10M. So a whopping $6M was saved. That savings compared to the $9M spent since the deadline speaks volumes to the insignificance of the $6M savings for Price. Also the team’s available payroll took a $16M hit.
So if you subtract the $18M for benefits and minor league contracts from the $210M cap the Red Sox should have started with $192M to spend on the players. Instead, they had $176M to spend since Bloom thought it smart to reduce payroll to get rid of Price.
One other point that never seems to surface and it should. After DD was fired the team was at $228M in payroll for 2020 including JBJ’s money and several others who weren’t worth what they were being paid. Bloom could have non-tendered roughly $20M to get the starting point down to $208M which was the cap but chose not to.
There were 5 large contracts in Price at $32M, Betts at $27M, JD at $22M, Bogey at $20M and Eovaldi at $17M. A smart GM looks at the need to reduce payroll and says to himself which player will be the quickest way to get to the number below the cap and which way would bring the most value back while keeping under the cap.
Price was the obvious answer to the question of which was the quickest if he had any established value but he was hurt in 2019 and his perceived value was far below his actual value so he was the worst candidate for trading. Betts had a year left and both parties were at an impasse so optimizing the timing of moving the Betts contract was key to maximizing value. Bogey was a team friendly contract but it had an opt out after the 2022 season and this was 2020 so 3 seasons were left before a renegotiation or free agency for Bogey.
JD had a deal through 2021 with an opt out in both 2020 and 2021. He is a DH and Devers needed to be moved asap to DH so JD was the logical choice.. Since JD is the higher priced commodity compared to Devers, it would have made much more sense to move JD and Betts rather than Price and Betts. Betts at the deadline in 2020 and JD in January after his very solid 2019 season would have been the smart play by a savvy GM. Obviously that didn’t happen.
By reducing the payroll by $22M (JD’s cost) and $27M (Mookie’s cost) Bloom would have gotten under the cap with room to spare because the JD reduction was $6M more than the Price payroll reduction. Everyone knew Sale was out for 2020 and 2020 would be a crap year so moving JD made far more sense than Price.. The Red Sox needed to allow Price to establish a higher value before moving him. A season without JD in 2020 would have been a comparable disaster and the net result would have been an even higher draft pick which might have landed Boston with Leiter who was much closer to the majors than Meyers and a SP which is desperately needed..
So JB, things could have been a lot better if Bloom was better at his job. The team would have parted with Mookie at the deadline and got better prospects at positions that were more needed. Price would have sat out the 2020 season at no cost and then established value in Spring Training this year comparable to the rave reviews he got for the Dodgers this ST. That would have been the time to deal him and clear payroll. Lastly, moving JD would have returned value and lowered payroll AND the biggest bonus is Devers at DH not 3B. Dalbec goes to 3B or Chavis finally gets the chance to prove himself and I believe he would have just like he’s doing in Pittsburgh now. The future would have been brighter under this scenario because the GM would have maximized value across all his moves. That’s why Bloom is a bad GM. We’ll be digging out of his self created hole for years to come.
You keep saying Richards replaced Price … but he didn’t! It was LHP Perez who replaced the LHP Price, and for only $2.9M last year and $4.5M this year!
RHP Richards replaced the RHP Porcello, who hadn’t been properly replaced last year because of the ridiculous shortened season.
I’m a wait-and-see type of guy, I don’t jump to conclusions. You say there’s no way the Mookie trade works out for Boston. Even if Dugie, Downs, Wong all turn into busts …. have you seen the year Mookie has been having, with all his injuries? He’s having his worst year since 2017, he’s missed 40 games so far this season, and his hip injury could easily plague him for the rest of his career.
As far as the race thing, I don’t get what you’re saying about the face of the organization. David Ortiz and for a shorter time Pedro Martinez were the face of the organization, both quite dark skin. Then Mookie took over. Now it’s probably a tossup between Xander and Devers. This century no team can compete if they are racist, it’s just not possible.
And how could you possibly say that one player can carry a team to a championship? This isn’t the NFL or the NBA, you could be the best player in MLB and still not even make the postseason because of the other 25 players and the manager/coaching staff. Look no further than the Angels, would anybody bash Trout because the Angels can’t make the playoffs year after year? Championships have nothing to do with whether or not the Mookie trade was a good one or bad one.
FPG – If you are saying he was the first new pitcher then yes Perez’s money could be slotted behind Price’s but common sense suggests that’s silly. Perez would never be confused with a #2 SP and that’s what Boston lost.
If you are slotting Richards after Perez by suggesting he replaced Porcello then I have to disagree. You don’t pay the #2 SP 4.5M and the #3 SP $10M.
This is how I slotted them:
#1 slot is Sale at $31 M temporarily covered by Pivetta
#2 slot went from Price $32M to Richards $10M
#3 slot was Porcello then Eovaldi replaces Porcello at 3
#4 slot was Eovalid then E=Rod replaces Eovaldi at 4
#5 slot was E-Rod and Perez got slotted in as the 5
So I used Price’s high dollar amount and tied it to Richards the most expensive new SP and I put Perez at 5 since 3 of the 5 had not left.
We could argue the match-ups but in the end two pitchers replaced Price and Porcello and they were Richards and Perez.
Pivetta was a filler for a hurt Sale until Perez proved how bad he is.
If swapping the match-ups makes your argument work that’s fine but to me we got Richards who was a SP 4 but the closest to a replacement for the SP2 that was lost. Perez should be a SP 9 but the lack of SPs made him the SP 5.
Many would argue that this year’s Mookie numbers are irrelevant since he would have hit FA before they happened so all you can count is his second place finish in the MVP in 2020. I won’t argue that because I believe the cost to Boston extends out much farther.
If you think Mookie’s deal is a bad one because he regressed from his 2020 numbers and got hurt this year I say that’s very short-sighted. The guy was an all-star. The season isn’t over and he’s so talented that he could go on a tear late in the season and carry them to the second ring. He’s that good. That’s why I count the 10 years after his free agency as time and value lost to Boston and I’ll take his short-term temporary blip in 2021 for the next nine years and the remainder of the season. The man is elite and the only other elite player on the Red Sox is Sale.
Bogey may make it there if he takes one more step forward and Devers could be considered elite if he didn’t play defense because his hitting is borderline elite by itself. The same could be said for JD. BUT none of them are in a league with Trout, Mookie, Acuna, Harper, Pujols (in his prime), Miggy (in his prime) or Papi.
Smart GMs and owners don’t let elite players slip through their fingers!! There are less elite players than there are teams!! Boston gave theirs to LAD and they won a ring because of it.
Your argument for why a player can’t carry a team to a world series really doesn’t hold water. I watched Papi do it. I watched Yaz carry them to the last game of a World Series. It can be done but the other players can’t be revolving door utility players they have to be quality players like DD assembled. No reason Boston couldn’t have won one or two more rings by 2022 under DD’s plan. Mookie was the mainstay of that plan.
Last point. Flip your logic for a moment. Could the team have won in 2018 without Mookie? The answer is no. Without Papi multiple times? No. Why doesn’t Trout win? He doesn’t have a championship quality team around him but LAD had that and it resulted in at least one ring and maybe more.
I watch Sweetness (Walter Payton) be the best running back in football for years. Then Ditka like DD put together the right supporting cast and a Superbowl was won. DD did that for Mookie and they got a ring. LAD needed Mookie to get over the top and finally win the big one after over 30 years of frustration.
It’s not about one player until the supporting cast is in place like in LAD or in Boston prior to the firing of DD and the January 2020 insanity. Boston would struggle to win even with Mookie back because they haven’t replaced their #2 SP but could have if DD was still here.
But sadly Perez WAS the #2 SP last year!!! I don’t blame you for not following, honestly it was the first time I couldn’t get into a season …. more brutal than any other last place team I followed in my lifetime.
That was kind of a fluke. It was so bad that, even when looking at B-R, I can’t remember who our #5 was supposed to be.