11:46am: The Red Sox have announced the signing of Iglesias to a Major League deal and added him to the active roster. Additionally, Boston has reinstated reliever Josh Taylor from the Covid-19 list, selected the contract of right-hander Michael Feliz and returned Covid replacement players Kutter Crawford, Jack Lopez and John Schreiber to Triple-A Worcester. None of the three had to be passed through waivers to be sent down and removed from the 40-man roster because they were specifically appointed as Covid-19 replacements.
11:30am: Shortstop Jose Iglesias, who was released by the Angels over the weekend, is at Fenway Park today, per the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham (Twitter link). The Globe’s Alex Speier tweets that the Red Sox are expected to announce the signing of Iglesias shortly. He’s represented by the MVP Sports Group.
The Red Sox, in the midst of a Covid-19 outbreak in their clubhouse, have a whopping 11 players in Covid protocol at the moment. That group includes infielders Xander Bogaerts, Christian Arroyo, Enrique Hernandez and Yairo Munoz, leaving the Sox in dire need of some infield help. Jonathan Arauz and Jack Lopez have been lining up in the middle infield in recent days, but Iglesias figures to step into that mix and begin logging some regular reps while the team awaits the return of Bogaerts and others.
It was a rough season for Iglesias in Anaheim — his lone year with the Angels. The 31-year-old wasn’t able to replicate last year’s enormous production at the plate — or even to come particularly close. It was just 150 plate appearances, but Iglesias posted a career-best .373/.400/.556 batting line with the Orioles in 2021 before slipping back to a .259/.295/.375 slash that falls more in line with his overall career numbers.
More troubling than a return to the norm at the dish, however, has been the decline in Iglesias’ glovework. He’s made 16 errors in 961 innings this year after making just 18 errors in 2393 innings from 2018-20 combined. Iglesias had never made more than 11 errors in a season but already has 10 throwing errors alone, in addition to six fielding errors. Defensive Runs Saved pegs Iglesias at a stunning minus-21 this season, while his Ultimate Zone Rating is a career-low minus-4.9.
Defensive struggles notwithstanding, Iglesias now returns to his original organization as a veteran reinforcement at a critical juncture. The Sox are quite unlikely to run down the Rays, who lead them by eight games in the standings, but are hoping to maintain a three-game lead over the upstart Mariners for the second AL Wild Card spot. They’re also just a half-game behind the Yankees for the top AL Wild Card spot and would surely like to eek ahead of their archrivals in order to seize home-field advantage in a theoretical Wild Card showdown.
The Red Sox originally signed Iglesias back in Sept. 2009 after he left his native Cuba. He spent the next several seasons rising through their minor league ranks and making a handful of big league appearances before settling in as their shortstop in 2013. Boston, however, sent him to the Tigers that summer in a three-team trade that sent Jake Peavy from the White Sox to the Red Sox and Avisail Garcia from Detroit to Chicago. (The White Sox picked up both Frankie Montas and J.B. Wendelken from the Red Sox in the trade as well.)
It’s something of a full-circle moment for Iglesias, who won’t be eligible for the postseason roster due to the fact that he’s joining the organization after Aug. 31. He’ll still have the opportunity to help his original club reach the postseason again, though, and this late change of scenery can also provide him an offseason for the league’s other teams as he preps to head back to free agency this winter.
Wonder if it will be a major league or minor league deal?
He’s at the ballpark obviously its a major league deal
Yes and it’s a great move that most of us hoped and expected!!
His offensive numbers, combined with his mediocre defense, make him look like Xander when compared to our other middle infielders like Arauz, Lopez, etc.
Absolutely a great move. What was the alternative? I’m glad Jack Lopez got an opportunity. it’s something he can always remember. He was though over his head at the plate.
Yes it was sad to watch Lopez try to hit. Now we can have Arauz at 2B until the return of the player whose name can’t be mentioned here.
Enrique Hernandez?
Yes they don’t allow the name he always goes by.
One would think when it’s reviewed by a mod, they would see the context and approve the post. But that doesn’t happen.
I’m sure it’s major. They need warm bodies until they clear the outbreak.
I don’t really get this move by the Angels. Releasing Iglesias to see what a nearly 31 year old Jack Mayfield can do?
it was probably a gift to a pro. The Angels saw the Six in desperate need for a middle infielder and an opportunity for Iglesias to “go home”.
Fred – Think of it as something similar to releasing Cam Newton. He gets a chance to catch on with someone else and maybe a post season opportunity and the kid gets the chance to become the long-term solution in LAA.
He won’t play in the postseason
Surprised KD didn’t know that. it also can’t be said but there were other reasons with Cam’s release. He won’t in my view be signed as a back up.
Dewey – If you read what I wrote I was referring to Cam not Iglesias. It was an analogy not a comment specifically tied to Iglesias and I’m sure by now you know that I don’t think they will be in the post season so I would NOT make the mistake of suggesting HE could get into the post season as a Red Sox player in 2021 since I don’t believe there is any way that it can happen especially after today’s game..
Cam being released allows him to not just play somewhere else but to also get into the post season. It’s a great gesture by the Pats to give him that chance and I think the Angels made a similar magnanimous gesture. Nothing more or less intended by my comments.
I agree he won’t be a back-up but if Rodgers went down and they were doing well enough to make the playoffs they might bring him in to start. I think the same could be said about many other organizations. Look at the back-ups around the league and not many would be reliable starters if an unexpected QB injury were to occur.
Pretty sure the Red Sox making the playoffs or not is irrelevant as to if Iglesias can play in the postseason. He wasn’t on their roster in time to be eligible for the postseason so your analogy of him and Cam doesn’t really apply.
Spin job. That’s not what you posted.
You obviously never watched Jose play this season. Mayfield was hands over heels better in every aspect of the game. Jose cost us plenty of games he was horrible at short stop
Murphi – His .958 fielding percentage is below league average for the first time in 12 seasons. I get your pessimism but his lifetime fielding average is .981!! He’s been stellar for over a decade!!
Worst case he fits in with guys like Devers whose career fielding percentage is .934!!! Devers will make him look good!!
So, did his skills erode? Not likely unless he needs glasses or something. He had an uninspired season or simply wasn’t as focused as he was before Trout got hurt and the season ended for LAA. For over a decade he was a wizard with a glove. There is no reason that he won’t be in Boston if he is highly motivated to win a ring before he retires.
Give him a dozen games and it should be obvious whether the issue of his fielding is permanent or just a symptom of another frustrating season playing for the Angels.
My guess is that something just went awry. Guys don’t forget how to field. They all slow down, but unless there is an undisclosed injury, I see no way he got this bad this fast.
Ummm … when you get a chance, watch the top of the 9th and the top of the 10th from yesterday’s game.
First when Jose was backing up Dugie on the wall ball, he dropped the ball. Then he made an awful relay throw. Then next inning he dropped what would have been a sure DP grounder.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still glad he’s on the team. But just like when you reunite with a girlfriend from 8 years ago, it’s still her … but she’s not the same girl you remember.
I didn’t see the DP ball. I saw the wall ball. He could’ve handled it better, and the throw was off-line, but that might’ve been due to the fact that he was in a rush. I also saw that the cut-off man was out of position. So I don’t know if Iglesias was throwing to the cut-off man, or if the cut-off move out of position to intercept a throw that was off-line.
Either way, I’m still glad that he ran out as far as he did to back up the play.
Yes it was good Jose did, because Hunter totally spaced out and forgot to back up Dugie.
But considering his recent circumstances, I’m not gonna bash Hunter for failing to do what he should have done.
FPG – Do the announcers annoy you as much as they do me? The ball off the wall is in right center and clearly Renfroe’s responsibility to back=up along with the 2B running out for a relay while SS covers 2B. Why in the world would the LF playing straight away (not left center) run to back=up the CFer on the wall ball? The announcers harped on it for 10 minutes and had no clue what they were talking about.
If anything the LF should head towards the infield to assist in any way possible. If the pitcher is backing up 3B the LF could have covered 2B for the SS while he went out and created a double cut=off situation once the ball was retrieved. No reasonable baseball person would suggest JD should have run 200 feet to get the ball once Verdugo used bad judgment and didn’t play the bounce off the wall. I don’t think JBJ could have gone from where JD was playing to back up that play!!
For me, Hunter had a very good starting position to do the right thing but simply froze and watched the play thinking Verdugo catches the ball. By the time he realized Verdugo misjudged it, it was too late. The 2B should have been running out to get a relay and it made sense that he might be closest once Hunter didn’t break immediately to do the back=up.
In the end, Verdugo needs to move to right field because he’s not a good center fielder.. The dropped ball killed Sale. It’s typical of what the pitching staff goes through because the defense is so bad.
Remember who kept Devers at 3B, who contracted a DH at the deadline, procured an average defensive right fielder and asked him to play center field and traded a good left fielder for a bad left fielder and four entry level minor league players. All personnel issues start and end with Bloom.
Maybe a sustainable winning organization shouldn’t have the 3rd worst fielding statistics in baseball? Ya think? Maybe the 3B shouldn’t lead the league in errors 5 years running? Ya think?
A plan needs to be articulated by Bloom on his vision of the 9 hitting positions, 5 starting pitcher positions, 1 closer position, four set up positions and four other reliever positions along with the bench positions. Then maybe he could run some numbers and determine how they can upgrade their defense in key positions like 3B and CF. I like Renfroe in RF and Verdugo in LF. I like Bogey at SS and Dalbec at 1B. I can tolerate Hernandez at 2B and Vazquez at C. I like Sale, Eovaldi and Houck as 3 of the five starters. I like Ottavino, Taylor, Whitlock, D Hernandez and Sawamura as set-up pitchers.
What’s missing is a #2 SP, a closer, a 3B unless Dalbec is allowed to play there when Devers moves to DH and a #4 SP to fit between Eovaldi and Houck. A good GM should realize what’s missing and go get it to compete. A good owner grants requests to GMs that show they have a plan not a strategy.
Bloom could have flown under the radar during these first two years if he had simply made an effort to replace the lost talent. The items listed above have been needs since the Mookie deal a year and a half ago.
Actually, a true post in that AV is not ready to be a CFer. He plays it like it’s do or die each time. Not all balls can be caught and the best know when to concede the hit and get ready for the bounce off the wall
AV and Renfroe are good fielders, but neither are blazers. They need someone fast in between them
Are there other ex-Sox we can add to the Iglesias / Shaw contingency to make the has-beens brigade even funnier than it already is? I demand they sign Panda.
There’s really nothing funny about Covid.
What are you talking about? Who made a covid joke?
Maybe if Texas releases Holt. or perhaps Sweithart’s phone will soon ring.
Someone that has their panties a bit too tight!
Where is Hanley Ramirez these days? Not seen him swing out his shoes and lose his helmet for over three years now…
Lighten up, Francis.
LOL. I don’t watch many movies but I’m picturing that scene.
Devin Marrero
They could claim him
I’d bring back Porcello if he had time to ramp it up, but I don’t think he’s been working out at all.
Please, no Porcello.
I wasn’t a fan of Porcello, but he’d be a lot better than Peacock, Crawford, Robles etc.
The team actually has Porcello already. He’s wearing a Richards jersey. I actually like Richards in the pen and would even give him a shot to close.
Nah, Porcello is more like Martin Perez. Peacock has better career numbers than Porcello.
do you want career numbers or a Cy Young award and bigger paychecks? I’ll take Porcello’s career every time.
What are you smoking? Peacock most definitely does not have better career numbers than Porcello. Thats just flat out wrong.
Porcello stole that Cy Young award. It was literally the only season he was half decent. I’d rather try Peacock to be honest.
I’m not smoking anything, it’s closer than you think. Peacock has the better career ERA while Porcello beats him out in WAR by .20.
Porcello has been less consistent with a couple great seasons with an ERA in the 3’s while also having a couple in the 5’s. Peacock has had a smaller sample size but was really good for three straight years. If he can get that magic back, he had more upside than Porcello.
How did he steal the award? JV is hall of Fame worthy but agree or disagree without making a baseless assertion.
I’ll still take Porcello’s career and earnings hands down
As bad as he was, I was surprised not one team signed Porcello. There are (a few) worse pitchers out there.
So was I. I’m guessing he was choosy and given the pandemic there were other considerations.
Bring back Jody Reed’s 1983 moustache. Just the moustache.
Jody Reed, the cost of greed!
Good one. Think Lavarnway and Federowicz are still toiling around the minors for someone. be kind of statistical point to bring back those 2 catchers and have all 3 again on same MLB roster (Vazquez other) from that ’08 draft together.
Lavarnway just played against the Sox when Cleveland was in town.
Might as well bring back Ellsbury and Pedroia while we’re at it.
I hear Man Ram wants to make a comeback…
Steven Wright was released from the Pirates AAA team a couple weeks ago
4th in the league in errors at SS. What happened to his glove? Did he get it bronzed? Haha!
Iglesias has so much range that sometimes he makes errors in plays that other SS could not even get to. Errors do not tell the whole story.
poz24 – Yes errors do tell the whole story. It’s a binary outcome. Either they are successful at fielding the ball and getting the out or they are not. Any rise in errors is a perfect reflection of their performance.
Look at the bright side, he’s still light years better than Devers!! Can he play 3B?
KD, I try to be mindful but sometimes I can’t help it. Please just go away.
Learn about baseball and then type your comment. I won’t come down to your level.
poz24 – Seriously? You need a step ladder to get to the curb with your baseball knowledge. Hahahaha
Devers sucks on defense, that’s not a secret. Five years running the worse defensive 3B in baseball. Sorry you don’t like facts. Go get the step ladder!!
Dewey again pound sand.
No, errors do not tell the whole story. At an absolute minimum, you start with fielding percentage for a shortstop. But range is far more important than errors.
I like Bogaerts, and hope we can extend him reasonably. But his range per 9 is 3.82. Gimenez is 4.19. Goodrum 4.10. Crawford 4.15.
This is not to suggest that Bogaerts isn’t a better all-around player, because he is. But when putting together a contract, we need to account for the additional maybe 0.30 chances per game. That is the equivalent of stopping another 50 hits per year.
Or put another way, if Bogaerts OPS is 150 points higher, how much difference would it be if we gave the lighter-hitting SS’s another 50 hits?
JB – Stop already. You are light years out of your element when it comes to baseball knowledge. Range is bull crap. It can only be of value if the player actually catches the ball which is fielding percentage. Those are facts!!! They are not arguable.
A batted ball to a fielder has a binary result. Success or failure. That’s why fielding percentage was created. To measure the success of the binary outcomes.
You keep proving your lack of understanding of the new metrics. Bogaerts is hurt badly with respect to range because Devers is a ball hog with terrible fielding acumen. If Bogaerts is allowed to run to the ball hit to his right he would improve his range but selfishly Devers cuts in front to be the hero and most times ends up being the zero because no out is recorded. That’s a HUGE problem and a perfect example of why range is bull crap. It promotes selfish play and the goal is to get an out not to run farther than others to make a play. This selfish action is being done by a guy who can’t catch a ball hit at his feet so it magnifies the impact of him trying to show great range.
Every time Devers cuts in front of Bogaerts fielding a ball between them it is comparable to sending JBJ up to hit for Betts, Devers, JD or Bogey. It makes no sense because it reduces the success rate of getting the batter out. The side effect is hurting Bogey’s range, improving Devers range and killing the ERA and WHIP of the pitchers who get paid on those numbers. Devers is so incredibly selfish as a player the team captain should get in his face and ream him out for not being a team player.
One last point that you simply can’t comprehend. An average distance calculated from unique conditions on each play DOE NOT predict the future. Modern metrics are misusing the results and building meaning into them that doesn’t exist. If Bogey has a 3.82 but catches every ball hit to him I would rather have him than a guy with a 20 that catches 50% of the balls hit to him. Why? Because the results of each play is binary and the higher the binary results the more successful the team is on defense!!! Range is fun trivia but is meaningless with respect to the next ball hit to a player. Fielding percentage creates a probability of a player making the next play but more importantly after the fact it measures the success rate of the player at doing their defensive job.
Range suggests a player can run farther to a ball that may or may not be hit far enough to make the additional measure relevant. It’s theoretical and not practical. It’s a simulation number not a fact. In the end, it’s meaningless unless you are in a bar or writing on a site like this. Then, its bull crap that you can spout to look intelligent to those who don’t understand how meaningless it is.
Another novel that shouldn’t be printed .
What an amazing combination of bull-headed arrogance and dead wrongness. Every single sentence of KD’s previous comment is inaccurate, which is almost impressive in its consistency. He/she has no idea how advanced metrics work, no grasp of the concept of probabilities, and yet the gumption to accuse others of being ignorant. Quite possibly a troll. Fortunately I’ll never have to read their sputum again, because I’m muting them.
It’s theoretical and not practical. It’s a simulation number not a fact.
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The kind of can be. The RS are last in the AL in infield hits allowed, by a fair margin. That’s attributed to by a lack of range at all infield positions.
That comment deserves some recognition. Well done!
Called it
“To all the girls he’s loved before, who traveled in and out his doors…”
Wasn’t he a red sock already before ?
Yeah I don’t think the writer knew that, otherwise it would have likely been mentioned. It was 8 years ago.
I wrote the MLBTR post on Iglesias being traded from Boston to Detroit back in 2013! Haha. It ended up in there, I just didn’t lead with it because it’s more anecdotal than anything else at this point.
I remember he showed promise when coming up in 2013 than just like that he was traded for Jake Peavy. At the time I was a little unhappy at the move but the fullness of time proved that I know nothing.
You couldn’t bump that 2013 post? LOL!
All good, thanks for the reply Steve.
Steve,
“the writer”? I guess you’ve been called worse.
I sometimes complain but overall you’ve done an amazing job on this site.
Chaim
Was part of the trade that got Avi Garcia out of Detroit and away from Mrs. Fielder
In before KD who will respond and say this is another poor Bloom dumpster dive.
This guy is a defensive wizard. I saw when he was released, there could be a chance. Can’t hurt to give him a shot.
Was a defensive wizard, now a defensive disaster.
pwndroia – Bad call! What is Boston worst at because they have Devers? Yep, defense. All these garbage heap middle infielders that Bloom has acquired lack both a bat and glove. Iglesias has a glove even if he didn’t show it in LAA this season. He has a long history of making truly remarkable plays. He also has a history of being a very streaky hitter. Bad slumps and short hot streaks define Iglesias as a hitter. if he can get in one of his streaks that would be great compared to the alternative dumpster dive hitters that have been filling the gap at 2B this season. Kiki had his moments but he’s no Semien. Check Semien’s numbers!! For a team that makes nearly a half billion a year in profits and is over the cap it sure would have made sense to get Semien for $11M more than Kiki..
Watching Verdugo play CF makes me think Renfroe couldn’t do a worse job so put Verdugo back in RF and Renfroe in CF and Schwarber in LF. That way Dalbec plays 1B and JD DH’s for now and everyone has to sweat it out every time a ball is hit towards 3B or LF. Bogey and Iglesias will make a decent DP combo and Dalbec has earned his right to start the remaining games.
Every time Dalbec comes to the plate I think a home run is possible, just like when Schwarber and Renfroe come to the plate. That’s a lot of bombers in the line-up and hopefully the pitching they face will be league average because they feast on league average. Just like the Yankees, they need to worry about top end pitchers completely shutting down the power.
Back to the point, Iglesias significantly upgrades their defense. Ask Motter who couldn’t throw the ball to 3B accurately today. Fixing the defense needs to be done in the off season with the new GM figuring out that Devers must be the DH from now on and that means JD needs to be dealt. His .290 average his 100 RBIs and his 30 HRs will play anywhere so move him for a critical top end SP. Throw in the former 44th ranked Downs just so we can say he paid off in the Mookie deal!!.
KD, please stop writing novels. it takes too long to skip your post
Dewey – I mean this sincerely pound sand. If I wanted to text comments I would but this is a website allowing old school full expressions of ideas.
Join twitter if you need brevity. I think you’ll like it!!
No I don’t twit but the expression seems to fit you better. Steve should do a simple poll as to do more read or skip your posts. I believe the results would have you look in the mirror. Sadly though nothing would get changed as you probably try to with your eyes closed.
I just read another comment that got me back to KD. Deal JDM for a top end starter? at his age and money? Who would pay?
Deal JDM for a top end starter? at his age and money?
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I mentioned that elsewhere. If JD doesn’t opt out, it is prima facie evidence that he is not worth his contract. If he thought he could get even, say $35M/2, he automatically opts out. He he doesn’t opt out, it means no one is interested in him.
It might be worth our while to see what we could get in return if we eat money, but he also still has a pretty good fit with the RS for another year.
I do agree with you on dealing JD. That is a logical decision and this post seems much more logical than your others.
pwndroia – Less insults based on less fabrications by the writers. That’s all. I have a very low tolerance for people making things up especially when it comes to what Bloom has accomplished.
I love baseball discussions but I prefer solid evidence rather than “because I say so” as many use on the website. Specific writers are paid to promote the ownership’s viewpoint so they continue to spread false information in hopes of swaying fans in favor of Bloom and the owners
Next time you read something that supports an illogical position that backs ownership or Bloom ask yourself if you think the individual really believes such crap or is there another reason they are so vigorously forcing concepts down the throats of the people on the website. It’s the litmus test for a paid social media influencer.
I know because my daughter had a job doing exactly that for a very large company and she was just one of literally dozens of paid media influencers promoting their product to the public.
I take no issue with people who don’t agree with me but when the facts are so badly mangled I start to follow the writer to see if their history is one of an influencer. After reading dozens of comments that all mislead the readers it becomes apparent the person is trying to influence the story on this website. That’s when I typically go off on the person for distorting the facts. Examples include farm system ratings and how DD did nothing to damage the farm system and how Bloom has done nothing to improve it except lose. Or the suggestion that Bloom is not responsible for the huge drop-off in talent despite being the GM when it happened. Yes, the ownership team gave him his contract but look around the league and point out another GM whose job consists of doing exactly what ownership says rather than presenting strategies and getting ownership to buy into those strategies to improve the future of their club. I don’t believe he’s the only guy who is forced to do everything against his will. I believe he’s been doing his job and the direction set was presented by him to ownership and agreed upon. That makes him culpable for all the negative actions since DD was fired.
Some contributors on the website defend him by saying he has no choice and others make up stuff like the farm system improved because the rating is higher now and they are fully aware that the only positive in the farm system rating came from the draft choice that came from a horrendous season. That’s a politicians spin on an issue not facts about what has happened. Fans don’t usually make stuff up to make someone look good. Usually when you dig into things there is a reason for spinning things. On this website it’s usually a troll from another fan base or an influencer paid to create an opinion for the public.
So, if my strong comments upset you I’m sorry. I simple want the discussion to be motivated by fan passion, facts and not by money being paid to the writer to create an opinion that supports the organization or an individual like Bloom. Let his record be his legacy not some historic spin on what he accomplished. At this point, his record is bleak when it comes to trading superstars, trading solid players that existed prior to him joining the team and financial decisions impacting the payroll of the Red Sox.
Has he done what everyone expected? Sustainable winning? Nope. Finding gems in the garbage? Not yet. Improving the integrity of the organization after 2018? Nope. That can’t be done as long as Cora is part of the organization. Has he added ONE highly talented individual to the roster after letting several go? Just Schwarber a DH. Did the team need a 3rd DH? Nope. Did they need a high quality pitcher? Yep. Were there any available? Yep Did the team need a true Closer? Yep. Was a true closer available? Yep. So many needs unfulfilled in two years.
Is money an issue with this team? That’s a great question because the profits of the club say no but Bloom has suggested that there is a problem with money. He was brought to Boston to make it frugal like the Rays and he has quickly got under the cap by surgically removing the heart of the ball club in Mookie Betts. Then rather than fulfilling his mission by further cutting or at least holding the line and staying under the cap he’s brought in countless minor players who all cost money and he’s now over the cap in year 2 of his quest to create a cheap and sustainable winning organization. He’s neither won nor showed financial acumen with respect to his budget and financial commitment to reducing payroll. Will contracts roll off after 2021? Yes. Pedroia’s money goes away. Did Bloom do that? Nope. Is the current 2022 payroll before uplifts to arbitration eligible players currently $66.775M less than the 2022 cap? Yep. Did Bloom create this huge drop in payroll? Nope. It was planned by DD to happen as it has happened except for the Mookie/Price part and the Benny/JBJ part.
So, from a financial perspective, Bloom has done nothing other than butchering Mookie/Price from the payroll and his only talent add to offset the loss was a 3rd DH. DD planned for money to be available in 2022 but didn’t know at the time that Pedroia would be taken out by Machado and he’d be forced to waste over $40M of the planned payroll. Otherwise, the 2022 clean slate would have been there under DD’s vision except Mookie would still be in Boston making mid 30s money leaving about $20M to replace Pedroia, a closer and a #5 SP since 2022 would have seen a Sale, Price, Eovaldi, Houck starting staff. I’d say that was pretty good planning in 2018/early 2019.
Oh well. I’m just glad JD, Bogey, Devers and Eovaldi had great years and gave the fans hope after their hearts were ripped out with the Mookie/Price deal. I believe it’s false hope because the talent has not been replenished yet the team has exceeded the cap and career years from our big five players (Sale, Eovaldi, JD, Bogey and Devers) aren’t likely in 2022.
Will 2022 be the year the ownership team cleans house and goes back to competing by paying for talent rather than dumpster diving and wishing upon a star? I hope so. This off season has many great candidates that could significantly improve the level of talent on the Red Sox. Let’s hope that if there truly are purse strings that have been pulled to prevent spending that ownership comes to it’s senses and releases the strings to replace the talent they gave away.
What happened to Jeter D?
Jeter Downs has .177 batting average along with a .260 OBP over 300 at bats in AAA. Iglesias is the much better option. The Red Sox and Yankees are going down to the wire as the 2 wild card slots. I predict Cole/Sale in the 1 game wild card playoff with Red Sox winning.
On a stolen base off of Chappy
When did Jose Iglesias turn into Offerman?
Close comparison, but Offerman could at least draw walks and get on base. Maybe Mariano Duncan?
Always liked Iglesias. Hope the Sox can capture lightning in the bottle with him for the next 1-2 months.
One month, he’s not eligible for postseason.
LOVE this move! i havent given the sox much credit lately but this actually makes sense, i just hope in a week or whenever xander gets back, you dont see jose on the bench every night, i know he cant play past the last day of September, i hope he has an amazing 3 weeks
Not true, Jose can play the first three games in October.
Unless Xander or Raffy need a day off, you probably won’t see Jose much after Xander returns.
another thing with the Covid outbreak i realized for boston, is just how many guys arent ready for the major league roster, i know they were specifically a few days replacements but still, the last few guys like the SP in yesterdays game, absolutely nowhere near major league talent, kinda was a bad sign seeing him get knocked around by a below average Indians lineup
he’ll most likely next season get a long term deal on a team thats good, but not ready yet, think of a team like the twins or Colorado, i can see them giving him a 2+ year deal, as a team thats not gonna be good for awhile
Good for Boston. He slipped with the Angels this year but I saw Igelsias and Fletcher make some amazing plays together too.
Scrap heaps are scrap heaps. Everyone should have low expectations and think of any contribution by Iglesias as a bonus and don’t worry about the fact that Bloom barely exceeded the cap number because he brought in 50 crap players all of whom were not expensive but not free. 2022 will now cost 30% if the cap is exceeded but at least we do have dozens of crap players going through the revolving door and we continue to pay for moving good players like Benny and Chavis.
Bloom has proven he’s not good at balancing a budget but hey he’s awesome at evaluating talent!! hahahaha
You mentioned the cap thing before, and I explained to you that you were wrong. Has anything changed since then?
JB – Different sources show different numbers. Your website (Cots I believe) shows the Red Sox $4.5M under and my website (Spotrac) shows them at $4.353,095 OVER!!!
So I downloaded both into a spreadsheet to find out why they are different and COTS does not include recent pick-ups like Schwarber and Robles. When you add everyone into the total = THEY ARE OVER.
Don’t believe me, access COTS and SPOTRAC and do the comparison yourself..
I did. In Cots, Schwarber is on line 17, and Robles is line 25. Believe it or not, I make a living from pointing out obvious things.
JB – I downloaded the cots spreadsheet today and line 17 is Vazquez and line 25 is Plawecki. Below is the left hand column. This list totals to $205,466,167.00. Note that like I pointed out neither Schwarber or Robles are on the list.
I have no idea what you are looking at but here is the COTS Red Sox summary page for the last several years. The Opening Day roster has a link but there is no value for year-end roster. The column for CB tax 40 man roster ties directly to the Opening Day roster so it would not include the additions.
Year Opening 26-man Year End 40-man CB Tax 40-man
2021 $180,147,694 ( 8) $ ( ) $205,466,167 ( 5)
2020 $ 73,931,812 ( 4) $ 64,338,341 (13) $184,859,384 ( 8)
2019 $236,171,429 ( 1) $228,403,219 ( 1) $243,653,717 ( 1)
The list below ties exactly to the numbers above and you can see that player are omitted. Spotrac captures the missing numbers.
Player Pos.
Sale, Chris lhp-s FYI – SALE is on line 10 of the spreadsheet
Bogaerts, Xander ss
Martinez, J.D. rf
Eovaldi, Nathan rhp-s
Ottavino, Adam rhp
Richards, Garrett rhp-s
Rodriguez, Eduardo lhp-s
Vazquez, Christian c NOTE line 17 is Vazquez
Hernandez, Enrique 2b-ss
Devers, Rafael 3b
Barnes, Matt rhp
Perez, Martin lhp-s
Renfroe, Hunter rf
Gonzalez, Marwin rf-1b
Andriese, Matt rhp
Plawecki, Kevin c NOTE line 25 is Plawecki
Brasier, Ryan rhp
Sawamura, Hirokazu rhp
Brice, Austin rhp
Cordero, Franchy cf-rf
Verdugo, Alex of
Pivetta, Nick rhp-s
Arroyo, Christian 3b
Taylor, Josh lhp
Hernandez, Darwinzon lhp
Valdez, Phillips rhp
Houck, Tanner rhp
Dalbec, Bobby 3b
Whitlock, Garrett rhp
Araúz, Jonathan ss
Bazardo, Eduard rhp
Brewer, Colten rhp
Chavis, Michael 3b
Groome, Jay lhp
Hernandez, Ronaldo c
Mata, Bryan rhp
Potts, Hudson ss
Rosario, Jeisson of
Seabold, Connor rhp
Wilson, Marcus cf
Wong, Connor c
Benintendi, Andrew – money paid by Boston
Pedroia, Dustin = money paid by Boston
Ottavino, Adam – Credit for amount of bonus paid by Yankees
Ottavino, Adam – Credit for amount of base pay paid by Yankees
Price, David – money paid by Boston
Using their spreadsheet the values for players listed from Arauz to Wong
are ZERO. Based on Spotrac those players are being paid roughly $1M in total. Schwarber and Robles total roughly $3.1M so that means the year end 40 man roster will be at least $4.1M more than the stated $205,466M.
Without any further review the new COT number will be no less than $209, 566M. That would be within $434K of the cap.
I am going to fully audit the numbers and finalize the exact amount. I have no idea what spreadsheet you are accessing but I am accessing today’s COT Boston Red Sox 2021 Payroll and SPOTRAC’s 2021 Boston Red Sox payroll numbers.
If you are accessing a different link then please share it with me so I can validate that it is truly another COT spreadsheet on the COT website.that captures all the Red Sox payroll costs.
The point of this discussion is whether they are over or under the cap.
JB – I did the complete audit and compared the two sites and lots of recent adds are missing on COTS. Here is the break down:
Normal Payroll – $155,269,642.00 (42 players)
Retained Payroll – $40,125,257.00 (9 players)
Players currently in the minors – $1,326,356.00 (8 players)
That totals $196,721,255.00
Benefits and Minor League Contracts – $17,750,000.00
TOTAL LUXURY TAX PAYROLL is $214,471,255.00
Leaving the team $4,471,255.00 over the first luxury threshold so the tax bill will be an additional $894,251.00!!
Next year the penalty will jump to 30% for exceeding the cap
Here are the players omitted from the COTS spreadsheet:
Schwarber
Robles
Shaw
Davis, Austin
Gonsalves
Peacock
Lopez,Jack
Schreiber,John
Motter
Crawford,Kutter
Santana
Duran
Munoz
Workman
Weber,Ryan
Espinal (M)
Hartlieb (M)
Rios (M)
Gossett (M)
Brennan (M)
Brewer (M)
(M) means they are considered back in the minors
The total is just barely over $9M spent on recent claims.
The nine retained salaries include:
Price, Pedroia, M Gonzalez, Benintendi, Andriese, Chavis, Workman and Weber. All players no longer with the Red Sox.
Also, Robles is partially paid out of normal payroll and partially paid out of retained payroll. Since he’s with the team I’m guessing this was done for LAA sake.
So hopefully Bloom learned his lesson about retained payroll.
1 – The player plays for someone else so no benefits come from his play.
2 – The money paid to cover his cost reduces the available payroll under the cap.
If the cap is $210M and benefits/minor leagues is roughly $18M then the effective payroll can’t exceed $192M. If the team is paying players to help other teams that money comes off the top and reduces the remaining payroll for the players who will actually be on the field for the Red Sox. Bloom’s mistake with Price deal reduces available funds by $16M for three years!!! That $16M mistake is the single biggest contributor to the $40M reduction to available funds..
JB – So as we go forward I will continue to comment on how the team exceeded the cap with many small additions that brought very little value. Can we now agree that the information is true or are you still going to protest and say it’s not, despite me showing you the details?
Without any further review the new COT number will be no less than $209, 566M. That would be within $434K of the cap.
==========================================
The $209.566 looks approximately like the figure I read about a week ago. The URL I have for Cots is https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WWRsQNsGZkWuJZwlY8–xVBXMJGjh230D45KiHTHuvY/edit#gid=1520401900.
FWIW, I don’t think COTS or Spotrac are 100% accurate. For some reason, COTS doesn’t foot down, and they are listing Schwarber’s salary as $10M. Regardless of the buyout amount, Schwarber’s base salary (whether $10M or $7M) has to be allocated between the Nats and the RS.
On the Spotract side:
They have Hartlieb listed for his full salary.. I’m not sure how much of his salary the RS pick up if he is in the minor leaqgues, but at most, the RS would only be responsible for one month of salary, not the entire $570k.
Santana joined the RS on a minor league contract, so his $1.75M doesn’t kick in until he joins the team, which was May 21st.
Andriese & Gonzalez are both fully weighted, but since they were picked up by Houston and Seattle, there should’ve been credit for 1 and 1.3 months of minimum wage (~ $220k total).
They have Robles in for $1,301,055, but the RS are only picking up $198,925. For some reason, Spotrac charged the RS for the portion already paid by the Twins, instead of the reverse, and then failed to include the $500k that the Twins agreed to pick up.
I’m not sure how calculate Bazardo’s salary They have him listed for about 3 months salary, for only two appearances. I’m also not sure all these low-end guys are on major league contracts, meaning only the ML time gets charged to the luxury tax. I believe that was the case with Brice, but not sure. The objective behind the deals was to not charge the luxury tax, while making his salary high enough that no one would claim him off waivers.
FWIW, I found Spotrac to be inaccurate, but far better than Cots. Both are fine for looking up a salary, but to find the difference between $209.6 and $210.4, I wouldn’t trust either. There are just too many moving pieces and interpretations.
I agree we should have gotten a lot more back for Benny but not a big loss. He’s hitting .250 with an OBP less than .300. Added with the fact I’ve heard he wasn’t the greatest guy (attitude wise), I’m happy we unloaded him. We just should have gotten more.
Pwndroia – Benny may have been an issue but I never heard that. I’m sure he was frustrated with the coaching staff asking him to bulk up and change his swing to elevate the launch angle. His success after a couple of years should have insulated him from bad suggestions from hitting coaches. His success in college and his first few years to me indicated he knew what he was doing.
There is no way to link Cora directly to the request for change but he has meddled in so many skills that he had no business commenting on that I find it not a coincidence that the change came when Cora was there. He tried to change Sale’s delivery for Pete’s sake. He was not a pitcher yet advised Sale. He wasn’t a good hit yet it appears he changed Benny’s approach. These are reasons I’m not high on Cora along with the cheating.
I loved the way Benny squared up the ball when he arrived in Boston. He didn’t need to be a home run hitting corner outfielder. His hits to all fields made him dangerous. Some coaches recently have gotten caught up in the launch angle bs and have pushed it on very good hand/eye coordination hitters in hopes of increasing power. Some guys don’t need big power to be effective. Benny squared up the ball and went to all fields. I hope in KC he gets back to doing what he did originally in Boston.
I agree we should have gotten more.
You need to realize how DD was setting up his payroll. He had slots for big money (Betts, JD, Bogey), slots for modest or average money (Benny, JBj, Vazquez) and slots for cheap money (Devers, Dalbec, Duran replacing JBJ). Pedroia’s slot got to be a problem since it was close to big money but without a player being available so to keep it within the overall plan the Pedroia replacement had to be a controllable cheap player.
Benny performed at a level that allowed for modest money to be spent on him while he provided league average to roughly 125 OPS+ value. DD’s plan made sense from a distribution of payroll standpoint. He was a big believer in high quality SPs so he dedicated big money slots to his top 3 in the rotation. After that he wanted modest to cheap #4 and #5 starters. Preferably a guy like Houck or Mata to off-set the big bucks on Sale, Price and Eovaldi.
I got the plan under DD and bought into it since it made baseball sense. Have you figured out the Bloom plan? I haven’t. To me he seems to not have a plan, just a nebulous goal of sustained success. It’s hard to understand why he hasn’t tried to replace the lost talent making winning more imminent. I’m sure the lucky season in 2021 has given him cushion from the boo birds who see that nothing has been accomplished with respect to replacing the talent.
People want to give him 3 years before evaluating. I sure hope someone rings a very loud bell to signal the last season of that 3 year window. I think players will regress like 2019 in 2022 and if that happens it will be interesting to see how Bloom and ownership spin the lack of success. After all, when you come in preaching sustained success and you have none it’s tough to sell the idea as still being credible.
Well, they obviously lost on purpose last night so they could get him. 😉
Good grief, 11 players out and they’re crushing it today. This team is resilient. Great management.
Or I could just complain about everything.
This didn’t age well
The sun got in my eyes.
JB – Good news. TB pulled a Cora and decided today’s game was the one they would sacrifice during this series. Like Cora did yesterday.
The current 9 game stretch that started today needs to end with a 5-4 record and TB giving up early on this one makes the Red Sox more likely to survive the 9 game stretch!
TB started Yarbrough who has faced Boston 5 time this year:
April 7th he helped the Red Sox sweep their series with TB by giving up 6 ER in 5 innings.
June 22nd he gave up 5 ER in 2 innings but TB still won the game.
July 31st he gave up 5 ER in 5 innings and TB lost
August 31st he gave up 2 ER in 6 innings and TB lost.
And now today a week later he’s given up 7 ER in 2 IP!!!
Thank you KK and TB. I guess once again I need to suggest to you that you buy a lotto ticket since your luck is running high today!!!
WOW Verdugo just dropped a routine fly in the sun that hit his glove and the score keeper gave them a hit raising Sale’s ERA significantly. Throw in a wild throw by one of the new scrubs and Cruz got a little league home run and the score keepers belong in little league!!! Wow. What horse crap.
The announcers were kind enough to point out that 3 balls were hit to Devers and he didn’t get one of them whereas a good 3B would have supported Sale’s effort. I personally saw the backhand ball that he fell down on because he has no footwork and they gave no error on that routine ball either. I take it back I said Devers gets 24 errors a year but misses on up to 50 ball hit to him that aren’t counted because of the score keepers. I want to up that to 60 or 70 based on today alone!! It’s criminal that the record books don’t reflect what happens in the game. Some should fire the Boston official scorer for negligence and ineptitude. EVERYONE sees Devers can’t field there is no need to pad his already horrendous numbers!! Give the pitchers a break and move him or trade him.
They just changed the Verdugo play to an error like it was and Sale’s ERA went from a ridiculous double digit number to 2.45!! Yes, 5 runs in less than 5 innings because the defense is so horse crap and has been all year. Devers is killing the pitchers, after watching Betts, JBJ and Benny all those years the outfield defense looks like crap other than Renfroe and even Bogey hasn’t been as good as he normally is. The pitching staff ERAs all absorb the flaws on defense.
Maybe Bloom can start a new winning tradition by bringing in SPs like Sale, Eovaldi and Houck and by fixing the defense beginning with Devers. JD must be traded during the off season or Devers must be traded. It’s bad enough that Schwarber can’t field but must play an OF position, the team can’t afford both Schwarber and Devers on defense. Move Devers or JD and get a top flight pitcher then put Schwarber in LF or deal him too for more SP. That leaves a future outfield of Renfroe, Duran and Verdugo and significantly upgrades the pitching which is the biggest weakness of the team.
JB – Hold off on the lotto ticket. The Red Sox defense allowed the Rays to steal a critical game and now they are 0-1 on the critical 9 game stretch against contenders.
Verdugo proved he doesn’t belong in CF. Renfroe forgot to back him up allowing for an inside the park homer. Motter threw one into the stands and Devers made 3 bad plays but got no errors on them. The defense is a bigger Achilles heel than the starting pitching!!
Imagine is the Red Sox win the World Series. Igelsias will have his 2nd Red Sox World Series ring without ever having played in any of them.
Beautiful signing by the sox, Iglesias is a very underrated ss who can make a difference for their ill team rn. Also reunites him with DD
I think you meant to say overrated. He makes some amazing plays as well as some amazing errors.
I’m hoping this is a one-year aberration. He’s been really good every year until this year.
I remember when there were a lot of people who thought…they really did….that Iglesias was better than Bogaerts.
There were complaints aplenty.
Much like there are today.
I was on the same Boston.com board you used to be on with Softlaw and all that.
Curtis, is that you?
And I remember Softlaw. There was another crazy dude in there with the name of Law. Both guys would go on incredible rants. And the more wrong they were, the longer the rants. I think it was probably maybe the 2007 season?
I signed on one morning, and there must’ve been 30-40 posts, with 200-300-400 words each. He had to have been up the entire night typing.
Nice!!!! Welcome home!
Is Jose Iglesias better than Marwyn Gonzalez?
Yes.
FPG – Good answer. I second it. Its end of day so I won’t list the dozens of other acquisitions that he is also better than. With roughly four weeks left in the season the Red Sox need Iglesias to go on one of his hot streaks like Schwarber has done. His defense will create even more double plays when Bogey returns.
I agree. he won’t play much when everyone returns, but he is a real SS. Lopez, et al, just aren’t professionals. I don’t think he will have a big impact, due to the lack of playing time, but this is clearly a step up.
Halo11fan? Looks like he actually did end up on a contending team. Go figure
Jose Iglesias is hitting well for an IF but his defensive range is mysteriously low. Something may be wrong with him for his range to degrade that significantly.