The Red Sox announced their roster for their American League Division Series showdown against the Rays this morning, revealing that they’ll have slugger J.D. Martinez available to them for the best-of-five set. Martinez was omitted from Boston’s Wild Card roster after he tripped over second base and sprained his ankle in the final game of the regular season, but he’s apparently healthy enough to return to DH duties after a few days of downtime.
Of greater surprise, however, is that the Red Sox opted to leave right-hander Matt Barnes off the roster for this particular series. Barnes, who signed a two-year extension in July after a dominant three-month start to the season, wilted down the stretch and lost his grip on the team’s closer role.
It was a true tale of two seasons for the 31-year-old Barnes, who posted a 2.25 ERA and a massive 42 percent strikeout rate through his first 44 innings this season before collapsing with a 10.13 ERA in his final 10 2/3 innings (over a span of 16 appearances). Barnes saw his strikeout rate plummet to 26.7 percent as his 6.8 walk rate jumped to 15 percent in that time. After allowing only four homers through his first 44 innings, he yielded four more in those final 10 2/3 innings. Given that context, it’s understandable that Barnes would miss the cut, but such a scenario never would’ve seemed fathomable less than two months ago, when he put pen to paper on a two-year, $18.75MM extension.
Here’s how Boston’s roster breaks down…
Right-Handed Pitchers
- Ryan Brasier
- Nathan Eovaldi
- Tanner Houck
- Adam Ottavino
- Nick Pivetta
- Garrett Richards
- Hansel Robles
- Garrett Whitlock
Left-Handed Pitchers
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
- J.D. Martinez
- Hunter Renfroe
- Kyle Schwarber
- Alex Verdugo
Infielder/Outfielder
It’s also of note that Santana has been added to the roster. The switch-hitting speedster has been on the Covid-related injured list since Sept. 10, but the Red Sox opened a roster spot for him yesterday by outrighting shortstop Jose Iglesias (who wasn’t postseason-eligible because he signed mid-September). Santana will give the Sox some speed, a bit of pop and plenty of defensive versatility — but it wasn’t a productive 2021 season for him overall. In 127 plate appearances, Santana batted just .181/.252/.345 with five homers and four stolen bases.
Also dropped from the roster for this round were center fielder Jarren Duran, catcher Connor Wong and infielder Jonathan Arauz. Those subtractions help to pave the way for the addition of Chris Sale and Martin Perez, who weren’t on the Wild Card roster. Sale pitched in the season finale and wouldn’t have been an option in the Wild Card game, but he’ll be expected to start during the Division Series. That said, it’ll be Eduardo Rodriguez getting the ball for Game 1 against the Rays and lefty Shane McClanahan.
No Sawamura either
Maybe Tamura
I like him, then Davis is useless. Barnes would still like to see, over Ottavino and his season long jeckyl/hyde self which Cora didn’t seem to mind and what is up with santana? Another of his buddies on the roster??
Glad to see wong get shoved off, but still additions and subtractions seem goofy.
johnsilver
Another of his buddies on the roster??
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This type of thinking seems to be trending. I have also heard that the only reason Kike is on the team is because he is friends with Cora, and the only reason Vazquez gets so much time is because he is friends with Cora. And now Santana.
Is it a common belief up in Boston that Latinos are only friends with other Latinos, and that they give them jobs that they don’t deserve?
FWIW, I though Santana was a better choice over Duran in the WC game also.
A third catcher would be extremely valuable
Someone had to not make the cut, but the fact Richards made it…
Richards has been excellent out of the bullpen so
Not recently. He was for awhile, but lately he’s been walking guys and dealing with traffic nonstop.
Not over the past couple weeks
Should have Duran on the Roster simply because of his speed….. Santana is not even a good base runner.
He is not fast any more. His only value is being someone that can play infield and outfield, but it makes no sense to me. Likely he doesn’t get into the game unless it’s as a PH or PR late in the game. If that’s the situation, you could easily have Duran in the same spot and just moved Kiké to second instead of using Santana there.
Duran is redundant.
Who offers the speed of Duran on the roster?
Would redundancy make him Duran Duran?
Duran for pinch running, Wong for 3rd catcher are both legit points. Why in the world, with so many days off during the playoffs (5 games in 8 days), do they need 14 pitchers. Plus, in a pinch, starters can fill in relief, during a tough game. My bet is at least one pitcher never pitches an inning during this series.
Santana hit 30 ft/s this year and is 74th pctile in average sprint speed. He is almost as fast as Duran and provides a bit more defensive versatility and polish in comparison. Not saying his bat is good or that he’ll be a key piece in the ALDS, but that’s the rationale
Barnes i get, he had an ERA over 8.00 against the Rays this season but Sawamura pitched well against them. Obviously they wanted the extra lefties with Davis and Perez
I mentioned that earlier this week in the WC roster thread. The NYY had only two real lefties, and neither were susceptible to lefty matchups. TB has four good lefty hitters, with weakish splits, plus a lefty bench player, plus Kiermeier.
Can’t believe how RH heavy STL was last night.
@tyler. I thought maybe the Cardinals would ride the hot streak and knock out the Dodgers. That’s baseball though. Anything can happen. All I can I know is one of the last eight teams left in the playoffs will win the World Series in a full 162 schedule this year. I’m hoping for a Braves/Rays World Series myself.
If the Rays advance, I can’t say that I’ll root for them or against them.
That’s because the Rays front office deserves a championship, but the non-existent fanbase does not.
I’m not sure the difference in baserunning ability is that much. Duran is faster, but Santana is still a good baserunner.
The difference is that we are far more likely to need a 2B than another outfielder. The chances of us pinchhitting for Verdugo, Kike, Renfroe or Schwarber, is very low. The chances of us PHing for Arroyo is pretty high.
Leaving Sawamura off the roster is a big surprise to me. While he is prone to the occasional long ball, he has pitched some very important inning for Boston this year and would think that he’d earn a spot over Martin Perez or Davis. With the 3 batter minimum rule, having a lefty specialist isn’t nearly as important as it once was.
The 3-batter rule means less against TB than NY. NY only had two lefties to think about, and they were hitting 1st and 4th. Unless an inning started with Rizzo, we were unlikely to have a situation where we had a big L/L advantage since it was L/R/R/L.
In Eovaldi’s last game against RB, they batter lefties 4/5/7. In Eovaldi’s previous game, TB batter lefties 1/2/4/7/8. In his previous game, it was 1/2/4/6/8.
Even in a regular game, we should have a chance to face a lefty-heavy inning twice.
Against TB lefties
Davis 1-6
Perez 6-42
Taylor 8-35
It’s too small a sample to have much predictive value, but imho, the splits have more value than if we chose, say Sawamura or Barnes.
Last night’s NL Wild Card game proved baseball is still ‘broken’. How does a 3-1 game take over 4 hours to complete? They have to bring a pitch clock into MLB…that was a painful game to watch.
Agreed, I tried to follow on mlb.com gamecast while I worked. I thought my pc froze, it was changing so slow.
Agreed. The game moved at such a glacial pace even with nothing happening in most of it. Brian Anderson and Ron Darling were not helping matters but were still less painful to listen to than Matt Vasgersian and Alex Rodriguez in the AL Wild Card Game.
On a related note: Matt Vasgersian has announced he’s leaving ESPN and Sunday Night Baseball to focus more on his MLB Network hosting duties and his deal with the Angels. Rumor has it ESPN is considering Michael Kay as Vasgersian’s replacement. Watching Matt and ARod jerk off to the Yankees was bad enough that you would think you were watching a Yankee home telecast, if ESPN adds Kay i think the Yankee homerism will be downright unbearable
It’s like this all over. I almost never have the sound on. Even the Monday FG game. I’m a Raiders fan, but I can’t listen to this kind of existential, stream-of-consciousness BS, trying to get into the QB’s head and telling us what the QB is thinking.
Or telling us that the SD is laser-focused. Like the other 31 coaches aren’t focused? Geez, just shut up and announce the game.
Honestly, I’d prefer to listen to the Yankee announcers. They openly root for the Yankees, and are smarmy and all that, but I can also hear the pain in their voices if the Yankees lose.
That’s great news about Vasgersian leaving Sunday Night Baseball. He, A-Roid, and Mendoza were unwatchable. I’d select Don Orsillo to fill that role. I’ll never understand why the Sox ditched Don for the interminably dull Dave O’Brien.
I don’t mind O’Brien and I’ve gotten used to Dennis Eckersley replacing Jerry Remy to where i almost miss him when they use Ellis Burks or Lenny DiNardo in his place. The Orsillo thing will probably never make sense beyond the Sox just making a change for the sake of change.
There has got to be someone better than Michael Kay to pair with ARod (if ESPN insists on keeping him). I miss Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. Those Sunday night games whether your favorite team was playing or not you could watch and enjoy
Rsox, yes, I too miss Miller & Morgan. Great pairing. Loved Morgan predicting hit-and-runs.
I think it’s because Orsillo made some biased calls- he assumed at times when assumptions shouldn’t be made on calls that should be neutral.
I personally did not mind him and prefer Eckersley to Remy.
Every count went full, and too many stepping off the mound to slow things down. Painful.
Maybe I’m just crazy but I enjoy listening to ARod. Regarding the game of baseball, he is super intelligent and always provides detailed player/coach perspective that even a casual fan can understand. Even when he’s at a yankee game, I don’t find him to be that biased. During the WC game, I found him to be quite the opposite actually. Love hearing other commentators bust his chops about Varitek and his rocky relationships with other players in which he lightheartedly responds with tongue in cheek honesty . It’s funny, I used to really dislike him, especially as a player. Now I enjoy the novelty of his presence as a baseball personality and really appreciate his baseball insight.
“You know i used to hate Parkman when he was with the A’s. It’s funny how a new uniform can change your attitude about a guy (He’s stil a d***)”
If the Red Sox lose a game because of Garrett Richards they should rethink Cora. Would have felt better with Sour Man. Also feel queasy about Austin Davis. I think the situation where the Boston bullpen will succeed the best is eating innings in a twenty run loss to the rays.
1-There is no way to tell if Sawamura is more likely or less likely, than Richards is to lose a game. If they lose a game because of Richards, it is likely to be an extra inning game.
2-Davis will be in to face 1-2 lefties. I’d prefer that over either Sawamura or Ottavino facing the TB lefties.
Each team gets 26 players. I suspect Sawamura is on the roster and was inadvertently omitted as there’s only 25 players listed.
26 are listed.
Much ado about nothing. Handing the right tools to an excellent craftsman matters. Selecting the tools for a bad finger painter is irrelevant. No point in arguing over whose on the roster when the manager has no clue how to use them.
Let’s just be happy the players had great years that led to wins. Anyone thinking the talent level is good enough to beat TB has allowed the euphoria of this season impact their judgment. It was an unexpected and wonderful ride considering how little that was done to repair the huge holes created in recent years but the ride is over and all that anyone can hope for is a 2022 with just as much luck otherwise the Red Sox fan base is going to start remembering the good old days before 2004. Close but no cigar not lets take another Duck Boat ride. Huge changes are needed but they are obscured by the euphoria so the return to greatness will be pushed further into the future.
Enjoy the moment Red Sox fans.
Good old days before 2004-That’s some serious (yankee 😉 entitlement. That’s on RS fans then and shame on them if they feel that way. 4 rings in less than twenty years after an 86 year hiatus, and one within the past 5 is pretty damn good. Assuming most of us are baseball fans first and foremost and favorite team second, it’s good for baseball to not have the same teams in the playoffs/winning the World Series all the time.
I agree. We should spread the wealth around. One Red Sox WSC every 4-5 seems like more than a reasonable compromise.
We can settle the details later, but now, it is almost party time for TB and RS fans.
Nahh … I liked the one Red Sox WSC every three years plan that was started back in 2004/2007, I think it’s time to get back to that.
Dicklesox – So four rings is too many in 103 years? You actually think that’s hoarding? Unless you are a Cub fan or a few other less fortunate franchises, the Red Sox have not been over-loaded with rings. They simply come in clusters when they come..
“Unless you are a Cub fan or a few less unfortunate franchises”
Umm, the Red Sox have the third most WS wins all time.
What OrienGreene said. Plus they are tied for second place in the AL for most pennants won.
Man, I appreciate you passion and I often agree with your posts KD17, but sometimes you are just incorrigible. You would make for an extremely wealthy attorney with your biting, aggressive mannerisms and ability to argue semantics.
Orien and Dicklesox – Thank you for all the compliments!! haha
Let me understand your point. If you were in Boston between 1912 and 1918 which is a 7 year window you saw 5 championships. Nobody alive today experienced that but my grandfather lived in Boston during that era. My father was born in 1923 and passed in 2003 so he went 80 years and had 0!! My kids and I have seen 4 and I’m old and they are in their 20s. Timing is everything.
So you think BOS has been swimming in rings and completely discount the 86 year drought that followed 7 years of feasting around WWI?
Here are the teams with the most championships:
New York Yankees 27 AL (Not impressive since 22 are before 1963)
St. Louis Cardinals 11 NL (Best spread across years)
Philly/Oak Athletics 9 AL (70s was their decade)
Boston Red Sox 9 AL (5 in 7 years then 4 in 15 yrs 86 yrs later)
NY / SF Giants 8 NL (3 in the last 10 years)
LA/Bkln Dodgers 7 NL It’s been decades since they won (162)
Pittsburgh Pirates 5 NL Decades since their last one
Cincinnati Reds 5 NL Decades since their last one
Detroit Tigers 4 AL Spread it out nicely
Of these top teams NY, STL, PHI, BOS PIT and CIN existed in the NL prior to the invention of the two leagues and the World Series in the early 1900s so Rings per years of existence is much more comparable to some of the teams that haven’t been all that successful like Anaheim, Houston, Arizona and Washington with 1 during their franchise existence which is half that of the teams mentioned above.
So if you look at things from a generational perspective the current Red Sox generation is not as well off as the one 100 years ago. The worst teams that have been formed since 1962 are less than 60 years old and that time period is shorter than the Red Sox drought!!
Also, are you in favor of participation trophies? Having 4 and wanting a 5th used to be the American way and now you are trying to shame Americans for ambition!
Let me know what teams you guys root for so I can root along with you. I do champion the underdog. How could I not, I grew up a Red Sox and Cubs fan. Maybe that’s why I refuse to feel glutenous being as old as I am and only seeing 5 wins for two Large Market teams and they all came after my first 45 years of waiting!! Now that’s a long time to wait.
Again, tell me your teams so I can join you in rationalizing why you are worse off.!!
Foolish post
AUSTIN DAVIS
I watched the game snd in the second inning with 2 on and no out and Bobby Dalbac up. I was hopping he was going to bunt. If he succeeds you have runners on 2nd and 3rd and one out. Cora doesn’t have him bunt and he bounces into a double play. A base hit would have tied the game. Basic baseball.
Big AL34 – But Cora is a professed genius who gets credit for wins and no blame for losses?
Say it ain’t so!! An opportunity to play small ball for the genius and he chokes again? I’m shocked. At least we get to watch Kiki make an out before the good hitters every game in the playoffs except the one game they won!!! hahaha
Cora brings four leaf clovers for each pocket in his pants, he asks his 8 ball to help him with his line-up and he throws darts to see who starts but he refused to be superstitious about beating a better Yankee team with Schwarber leading off so he reverted back to good old .250 hitter Kiki. NO RUNS SCORED!!! Is it insanity to think repeating the same mistake will create an different outcome? Hmmmmm
I figured after lucking out against NY he’d keep his socks and underwear on at least two more day and keep the line-up starting with Schwarber!! He’s full of surprises.
Is anyone confused at this point as to whether E-Rod’s 4.74 ERA and 1.389 WHIP is not deserving? Or maybe his career 4.16 ERA and 1.313 WHIP is not representative of his talent? If you watched the broadcast tonight the announcers discussed the fact that Sale and Eovaldi both think E-Rod has great stuff but he simply can’t put it all together. Smoltz knows pitching. I think he’s right. Great stuff but can’t put it all together.
So how many millions were E-Rod fans saying he should command on the open market that BOS should match or exceed? I said $3M feeling generous and no more than $5M. He’s making $8.3M because Bloom forgot to non-tender him last December when he was supposed to be resting and then starting a throwing program in February. That should have made him available in July or August so $8.3M might have been a bit of an overpay for a healthy E-Rod in Aug and Sep. But instead he comes back early has lots of setbacks and ends with an abysmal set of numbers for $8.3M. Seems like Bloom isn’t as frugal and wise with his money as has been reported. Think of all the players he could have run through the revolving door for an additional $8.3M!!
After watching how outstanding the players played this year despite the crap managing and the non=present GM who added nothing until the injured DH came at the deadline, do you think the players can sue for non-support?
2022 won’t be any different unless someone builds and executes a plan to raise the talent level of the team. Yes, Bloom could pick up 4 more DHs that can hit but how about instead he divests the team of all the DHs except Devers? That would save 24 to 36 errors every year going forward!! Then Bloom needs to actually address the needs of the club not by picking up countless utility player or countless relievers or castoffs tossed in the garbage by other clubs.
Bloom has never really had a chance to step up and buy a quality free agent at a spot where BOS needs a highly talented player but maybe in his 3rd year as GM he could do that!! Wouldn’t that be nice. Heck, maybe he could deal a DH to two different teams and bring back some talented players that are actually needed for the 2022 roster.
I know hypotheticals aren’t reality but boy would that make the off season better!!
Again, I agree with some of what you are saying here (especially about ERod and Kike in the lead off spot)but spending money for high priced free agents is a boon to drafting/development if they go over the threshold. If I’m not mistaken, the last decent starting pitcher the Sox drafted and developed was John Lester and That was in 2002!
Dickelsox – I had this long response about draft choices since the player draft started in 1965 detailing all the first round pitchers the Red Sox have taken and how few developed into major league impact players but I accidentally deleted it!! (cheers everywhere I’m sure!).
DD had a philosophy that the success rate on drafting SPs is far lower than everyday players so he preferred contracting successful SPs and developing every day players. That’s why trading both Kopech and Espinoza didn’t bother him. The odds were against both turning into stars. When an organization is as bad as BOS has been since 1965 at drafting and developing pitchers I think DD had the right plan. So far neither traded prospect pitcher has developed into a star in their first 5 years. Kopech has a chance but remember 5 years have already passed!! Houck, drafted out of college 3 years after Kopech has already made his presence felt in BOS.
The list of first round picks dedicated to pitching since 1965 (56 years as of 2021) is 35!! Of the 35 selected there have been varying degrees of success with Clemens being the most successful
Pitchers drafted by BOS that had careers of greater than 10 years:
1 – 1966 – Ken Brett
2 – 1976 – Bruce Hurst
3 – 1983 – Roger Clemens
4 – 1991 – Aaron Sele
5 – 2005 – Clay Buckholz
6 – 2006 – Daniel Bard
7 – 2011 – Matt Barnes (still active under 10 years)
8 – 2014 – Michael Kopech (still active under 10 years)
9 – 2017 – Tanner Houck (still active under 10 years)
Yep, 9 of 35 first round picks have or had reasonably successful careers. So were the wrong players selected so there is a flaw in the drafting system or did many excellent pitchers get drafted and there is a severe flaw in the pitching development program?
Honestly, it’s not a lack of drafting SPs like many people believe because I too was shocked at how many have been drafted over the years. I was also shocked at the number of HS SP that were draft that failed to make the majors. The college pitchers selected had a far better track record. So for me, that points to the pitching development programs that have existed in the Red Sox organization since 1965. That is something Bloom can fix.
FYI draft picks by recent GMs:
Dombrowski picks
2016 – Jay Groome 12th pick HS SP
2017 – Tanner Houck 24th pick (I believe he’ll be our future ACE)
2018 – Tristan Casas 26th pick HS 3B (top prospect now)
Bloom
2020 – Nick Yorke 17th pick HS 2B (jury is out but improving)
2021 – Marcelo Mayer 4th pick HS SS (top prospect with top pick)
DD picked a HS SP and that has been the kiss of death for BOS over the years and Groome so far has not disproved that theory.
Bloom picked Yorke a HS 2B with a mid first round pick. It’s too early to tell how he will turn out. The gods smiled on BOS when Mayer dropped to the 4th pick. As people say, it’s better to be lucky than good.
Recent draft additions overall have been better than the previous 55 years. Clemens was incredible and Hurst and Buckholz were outstanding but the rest of the successful ones are not impressive.
So BOS either needs to seriously ramp up the pitching development program or continue to let other teams develop great pitchers and then go buy them in free agency. Or maybe both!!
RH HS SPs are the kiss of death to everyone. I don’t know why, but their success rate is really low.
Bloom will get credited with drafting Mayer, but I agree, we just got lucky. Everyone had a strategy in place that did not include Mayer. This is why MLB has to catch up to the 20th century and allow trading of draft picks.
IRT DD and drafting pitching, for all the talk about the RS not developing pitchers, I am not sure if that matters as much as people think. If we hit big on Downs, Casas, Mayer, Jordan, etc., and only hit small on Houck, Groome, etc,, it won’t matter that much. If you have a lineup full of good players, at cheap prices, we’ll be able to afford to buy or trade for SPs.
While it would be nice to draft balance, overall production is more important.
Down 2-0, on the road, and you are going to have your .792 OPS hitter, with one sacrifice in the past 6 years, sacrifice, so that you can depend on Vazquez and Arroyo to get them in?
No one sacrifices out of the 7-hole. In the AL, teams average less than two sacrifices per SEASON out of the 7-hole. And I’d guess that approximately NONE of them were down 2-0 on the road in the 2nd inning.
And you really think that’s basic baseball? Wow!
Danny Santana … ridic. What a waste of a spot
Boston may or may not win the AL east, either way they are the luckiest time in the post season. First they have a manager who should have been banned from baseball for life for cheating, along with A.J. Hinch. They signed Price for an outrageous contract and although he didn’t preform as well as he had in Tampa and Toronto he was heads and tails above any of their other pitchers, but the media and commentators took a dislike to him so they hired Sale again for a huge contract., and they are going with him dispite the fact he has not managed to play an entire season without extended time on the IL and now in the post season he has yet to get past the 3rd inning.. And get ready if the NL adopts the DH Martinez is gone.
How you doing? Great evening, isn’t it?
Joe that was an interesting post, wasn’t it?
Very informative … I didn’t even know the AL East was still up for grabs!
I had no idea what he was trying to say. Cora, Price, Sale, JDM. I assumed he was a TBR fan and blowing off a little steam, which is fine.
I think he’s likely a JD fan …. the one from Lynchburg, Tennessee.
Price better than Sale? NITL!