Nov. 27: The deal is a one-year contract reportedly worth $7MM, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (via Twitter). That would be a raise for Wacha, who signed last offseason with the Rays for a $3MM guarantee. The deal has been made official, per Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post (via Twitter).
Nov. 26: The Red Sox are finalizing a one-year contract with Michael Wacha, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). The deal is pending a physical. Wacha is represented by CAA Sports.
Wacha spent the 2021 campaign with the division-rival Rays. Working primarily as a starter, he tossed 124 2/3 innings across 29 appearances. Despite a league average 22.9% strikeout rate and a solid 5.9% walk percentage, the 30-year-old had trouble keeping runs off the board. Wacha pitched to a 5.05 ERA, largely on account of the 23 home runs (1.66 homers per nine innings) he surrendered.
That’s become somewhat familiar territory for Wacha, who has struggled with longballs in each of the past three seasons. He’s allowed a higher than average homer rate every year since 2019, with an ERA of 4.76 or higher in each season. Since the start of the 2019 campaign, Wacha owns a 5.11 ERA/5.07 FIP across 285 1/3 frames. While his strikeout and walk numbers have been fine, he’s not been able to effectively compensate for that home run trouble.
Nevertheless, Wacha has continued to draw interest as a buy-low target for clubs. The right-hander was an effective mid-rotation starter with the Cardinals earlier in his career, even earning an All-Star nod during a 2015 season in which he worked 181 1/3 innings of 3.38 ERA ball. Despite being a nine-year big league veteran, he’s still relatively young, not turning 31 until next July.
While Wacha’s results have gone backwards in recent years, his fastball still averages a solid 93.8 MPH. He’s also coming off his second consecutive season with a career-best swinging strike rate, as he’s generated whiffs on a bit more than 11% of his offerings over the past two years. That’s a hair better than the 10.9% league average for starters.
Financial terms remain unreported, but it’s unlikely Wacha’s deal will have a huge impact on the rest of the club’s offseason. The Sox have been known to be targeting rotation help this winter, particularly in the wake of Eduardo Rodríguez’s departure. Wacha can offer some back-of-the-rotation depth, but it’s also possible Boston bumps him into a multi-inning relief role depending on the rest of the club’s dealings. Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi and Nick Pivetta are locks to open the season in the rotation, while Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock and Connor Seabold are potential candidates for either back-of-the-rotation or bullpen roles.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Nice little pickup for rotation depth
You sure it’s rotation depth?
No, it might be AAA depth but who knows. Minor league deal might be better
I doubt that. I was thinking more like spot starter/ long relief. You never really know what goes through Chaim Bloom’s head when he makes these kinds of deals.
Agreed
5th starter, 6th spot starter, long relief all seem appropriate based on how he’s pitched of late. He’s really been pretty rough for a good min now. A little surprised an analytical entrenched team like the rays took a chance on him last year. Kinda surprised the Red Sox are trying to grab him. Must be a low cost sea
From what I can see, Bloom attempts to put together a starting staff of at least 4 above average pitchers. He also seems to not place much emphasis on his bullpens.
It’s an interesting template.
From what I saw of the sox last season, their starters seemed to keep them in the game night after night. Which isn’t all that common anymore.
Now.
We can certainly debate whether Wacha is – indeed – an above average (or even *potentially* above average) starter.
But: the Ray’s signed him last year. So a couple fairly “modern” front office’s seem to believe he is.
He has replaced E-Rod at at a significant savings for John Henry. This is why he was hired
This is not ERod’s replacement. ERod’s a #3 starter, Wacha is a swingman. There’s no rule that every player lost must be replaced in the next transaction.
Yeah, he might be thinking front line starter. Right.
@ducky
Not hard to believe that Chaim would value a guy like the Rays. Seeing as that’s where he came from. Pretty good success rate w that org but Wacha’s been largely the same below average pitcher for awhile now.
This year the Rays paid him $3M.
Next year the Sox will pay him $7M.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
I think that answers most of our questions, folks.
Not a minor league deal.
Not a long reliever or spot starter.
He will be starting every 5th game all season.
If he has a 5 ERA at the All-Star Break, they won’t eat that contract.
Worst-case scenario has become reality.
Andriese 2.0 at almost 4 times the cost.
You think Wacha (last 3 seasons = 5.11 ERA, 5.07 FIP, 1.5 WHIP) is gonna replace ERod (last 3 seasons = 4.11 ERA, 3.63 FIP, 1.3 WHIP)?
i bet if Bloom traded Devers straight up for Hunter Dozier, you’d still call it a genius move by him.
It might be an overpay but it’s a one year deal. He’ll be gone if he doesn’t perform well and no major loss.
Let’s face it- we had to pay him more than the Rays. We have more money and are in a different market.
Question for all:
With the many reports of the Red Sox showing interest in several starting pitchers, why do you think Bloom hasn’t been able to land anyone better than Wacha?
a) Red Sox want to give the impression they are trying to improve the starting rotation and the impression they are willing to spend the money to do so.
b) Bloom is trying to drive up the prices so opponents spend more
c) Bloom has misjudged the market, just like he did at the trade deadline
I’m gonna go with “C”.
pedey – How do you know how much the Rays offered? Did you read it somewhere?
I have a feeling Chaim Bloom is still building up the farm system in preparation for a (hopefully) long stretch of dominance. I don’t think he is going all in until he has one of the best farm systems in baseball which will provide players for the team and prospects to trade to fill gaps. So, I think it is pretty likely that Bloom’s approach is to field a team that has a chance to compete but also a chance to flop so he can further build up the farm system. I have a feeling Bloom won’t go all in until Casas, Mayer and Yorke are up with the Sox. I could be wrong, but I think Bloom is building up the farm and avoiding bad long-term contracts until then.
a) Wrong — no one thinks losing ERod and signing Wacha is giving any “impression” other than to people who are way too fast to judge. Offseason just began. You’d have to be an iddiot to draw any conclusion from a. 7mil signing, with so much time to go.
b) Wrong — One 7mil purchase doesn’t effect the market at all. ERod signing had FAR FAR more effect on the market.
c Wrong — Again, what are you talking about? The offseason has just begun. And Bloom had the best ‘trade deadline of possibly any team in baseball. Schwarber was a steal for next to nothing.
No way 4 people upvoted this comment. How many accounts do you have?
I understand the premium to a point but mainly on cost of living. No way I see anyone else giving this one year deal. I thought Richards was an overpay last year. if love to privately speak with Bloom to better understand the cost. if he offered $5m, I don’t see anyone coming close. We’re there other big offers?
Fever, the team’s that have spent so far have more $$ available before the threshold comes in. Some are waiting for the new CBA.
Best way to build up the farm system, outside of the draft and international free agents of course, is to trade MLB players for prospects and then sign free agents to replace them.
The Yanks have done a great job of that in the past, I wouldn’t mind the Sox trading Verdugo or Renfroe for good prospects and then signing a free agent.
Denny you crack me up, good thing it’s the holiday season :O)
dewey – Negotiations is something we can never 100% know about. Can we trust what the media tells us, often based on anonymous sources? Probably not.
Maybe someone will report how much another team offered, but Bloom has always maintained he won’t engage in bidding wars and will simply bow out if bidding gets too high. So for $7M to be in his range is concerning to say the least.
I do like what someone else said here, that perhaps Bloom’s lower-tier targets all became unavailable and he was afraid of getting shut out so he panicked and chased Wacha like guys in a bar do at 2AM when the lights go on.
@Fever Pitch Guy I’m strictly going off last year. But we all know the teams are in completely different spending markets. I wouldn’t think Rays have that much money to take a chance on a guy. Sox do.
I don’t know what or if they offered him anything this year. I too think this is an overpay but personally I do not mind one year overpay unless they’re outrageous. I don’t think this one is at an outrageous level.
He’s replacing Martin Perez
No disrespect but one year (Renfroe) makes him a hot trade candidate where you get real assets back I don’t see anyone left in free agency for right field. Any time you find someone who can play in Fenway like he did, don’t rush to get rid of him. I like AV but unless the offer is over the top, his value to Boston is not just his on field production. His cheapness allows the team to spend I. other areas.
I don’t see any good negotiator just taking what’s left. Building a team, that extra couple of million can be used elsewhere. My gut tells me there was another offer out there but he chose Boston because of the team’s playoff abilities AND the chance to start
Fever Pitch Guy4 hours ago
Question for all:
With the many reports of the Red Sox showing interest in several starting pitchers, why do you think Bloom hasn’t been able to land anyone better than Wacha?
======================================
I don’t think he wants to. I’ve said this since the beginning of the off-season; this is a dangerous pitching market. Regardless of how Wacha works out, I still don’t want Matz at $44M.
IRT the trade deadline, Schwarber was probably the best pickup at the trading deadline.
pedey – I don’t think any of us can make an assumption on how much money the Sox can risk. We don’t know what kind of budget Bloom is working with. We don’t know if he will be offering 9-figure extensions to Xander or Devers. We don’t know if he will spend over $60M to land Suzuki. We don’t know if he will try to retain Schwarber.
Sox have had a young superstar on their hands since 2019 when Devers led the league in Total Bases, and unlike Xander (with DD) there has been no extension.
Meanwhile the Rays just gave a contract extension of between $182M-$223M to a 20-year-old who has played less than half a season.
And you think the Sox are more likely to take a chance spending than the Rays are?
I’ve already stated I will reserve judgement until the regular season starts, but there is PLENTY of reason for Sox fans to wonder if we’ve entered into a new era of cheapness under Henry.
We know Henry was really angry that the huge 2019 payroll didn’t even get him a playoff berth (Cora’s fault, but still …)
We know Henry’s other investments, particularly Liverpool, have not gone very well of late.
We know Henry lost lots of money on the Sox because of Covid.
I’ll leave you with the words of the incomparable John Tomase:
“Every day that passes without the slugging young third baseman inked long-term not only costs the Red Sox money, it feeds a nagging suspicion that’s becoming more insistent: Henry doesn’t see the value in spending big on anyone anymore.
The Red Sox haven’t signed a player to a contract worth more than $14 million in three years. They last opened their wallets for World Series hero Nathan Eovaldi, who agreed in December of 2018 to a four-year, $64 million deal that was derided as an overpay, but looked like a bargain when he finished fifth in this year’s Cy Young voting.”
I’ll leave you with the words of the incomparable John Tomase:
=====================================
Tomase knows nothing about baseball. Very few RS writers know much about baseball. Listen to Pete Abraham and Lou Merloni. Abraham is not as sharp as Merloni, but he is balanced and works hard.
But Merloni, outside of trade deadline predictions, virtually never misses.
Joe – Merloni is great, and so is Alex Speier.
And I agree on two of your three Abraham points. But balanced? You’re way off on that one.
As for Tomase, he ain’t wrong.
Sox haven’t spent more than $14M on a free agent since 2018.
Still no Devers extension.
And Henry was furious about the 2019 disaster (well justified anger I might add).
We will know for certain by April, but for now it sure looks like we have entered a new era of doing everything on the cheap.
I hope I’m wrong.
I know the history, but it is a moot point. The reason why we haven’t spent is because we already had a lot of expensive contracts. We’re at or above the cap every year. It’s like saying that we have $45M to spend, spending $44M of it tomorrow, and then complaining next week that we haven’t signed anyone all week.
IRT to Devers, without knowing why he hasn’t signed, there is nothing to discuss. That’s what makes Tomase such a bad writer. Without knowing whether Devers is even open to signing, or what his price is, there is no way to ‘blame’ anyone.
Joe – Who is giving you all this wrong information? Is it Abraham?
At or above the cap every year?
Joe, they were well below the cap in 2020 which helped them reset. In fact, they were $26M below. In fact, they had only the 8th-highest LTPR in MLB that year. They had no luxury tax bill. I know you have relied on this site in the past:
spotrac.com/mlb/tax/2020/
And this year, same thing. They are projected to not have a luxury tax bill for 2021.
spotrac.com/mlb/tax/2021/
But now let’s move onto 2022. Heading into the offseason, they had $24.5M to spend if they still want to remain under the threshold (assuming nothing changes with the new CBA).
So why would they use up nearly a third of that availability on someone like Wacha? And better yet, why are they *supposedly* showing interest in players like Verlander, Ray, Stroman etc?
I asked the question earlier, is “varying degrees of contact with virtually all of the top starters on the market” just a smokescreen? Or has Bloom grossly misjudged the market, as he admitted to doing during the trade deadline?
One thing is for certain, reports of the Red Sox offering a multi-year contract to ERod were lies. ERod himself said only the QO was extended to him before signing with the Tigers.
As for Devers, why wouldn’t he be open to signing? Where has he or anyone else said that he refuses to sign an extension?
Between recent events with Liverpool and now the Penguins, there’s no doubt Henry’s priorities have changed. He doesn’t want to go through 2019 again, a year in which the team led MLB in payroll but didn’t even qualify for the postseason. High expense won’t be tolerated if revenue isn’t at least equally high.
I don’t think John Henry is going cheap. I think he saw the Rays doing just as well or better than the Red Sox and Yankees while spending about $77 mil on player payroll which is less than half of what the Sox and Yankees spend. So, I think John Henry went out and hired Chaim Bloom from the Rays to spend money more efficiently. So, I think the Red Sox spending will at times look like the Rays.
suit – Absolutely Henry brought in Bloom to reduce payroll. But will Henry lower ticket prices in conjunction with a much lower payroll, which right now their ticket prices are still the highest in MLB?
Because despite Tampa’s recent success, they still have the 3rd-worst attendance in MLB. That’s what happens when you keep letting your best players leave.
The Red Sox took a huge PR hit when they traded Mookie for financial reasons. If they do the same with Xander and/or Devers, attendance and ratings will drop quite a bit.
And BTW the Rays have done well with limited resources, but they have not done as well as the Red Sox. In 24 seasons they have never won a championship, and have advanced past the ALDS just twice. No comparison to Boston’s 4 championships and 8 ALCS appearances during the same time period.
Let’s make this simple. In the past ten years, how often have the RS been within 95% of the cap?
FPG – I think the Red Sox will take a lot of the Rays approach to spending, but be able to retain guys where the Rays don’t. If the Rays had the Red Sox resources, they might have kept some players such as Morton and Snell. I like this approach. I think Bloom is still building up the farm. While he does that, I get the feeling he is only fielding teams with roughly a 50% chance to contend. This keeps fans interested and also leads to better draft picks etc. for building the farm. I don’t think Red Sox tickets prices will ever go down. I thought part of the Rays attendance problem is their stadium location. Also, I think MLB teams have failed to draw in Florida.
Joe – What are you getting at? Everyone knows Dombrowski spent big, with Henry’s blessing of course.
So tell me Joe, and be honest …. did Bloom screw up by not extending Xander or Devers already?
Because after the contract Seager just signed, Xander’s price just went waaaay up. And even though Devers might not be on the left side of the infield for much longer, his price also just went way up.
1-We have no idea if Bogaerts or Devers wanted to extend.
2-We have no idea what Bloom’s long-term plans are for the IF. When I suggest that we sign Story for $126M/6 (yesterday’s pre-Seager price), other posters suggested that we we not sign a SS and wait on Mayer, Yorke, and Downs.
I don’t agree, but they aren’t wrong. Bogaerts is not really a SS. He’s okay, and I love him from a RS perspective, but I know, with a near certainty, that he should not be our SS any longer than is necessary.
Within three years, the likelihood is that Casas, Yorke, and Mayer will be in our infield. Adding back Bogaerts, Devers, and Dalbec, we have 6 guys for 4 slots. As much as I’d like to add Story and retain Bogaerts, and move Devers to DH in 2023, I cannot honestly say that is the smart move.
Joe – Every player would happily take the security of a longterm extension. Even Mookie, who gave plenty of indications that he wouldn’t sign before free agency, signed an extension. Nobody is gonna believe that Xander and Devers would refuse an extension, as long as it’s fair market value.
Waiting on prospects is a fool’s game. You can’t forfeit contending for 2-4 years with the hope that a prospect will live up to the hype. Especially when you are in a passionate big market with the highest average ticket prices in MLB.
I have no problem moving positions for Xander and/or Devers. But they should have been locked into a longterm contract long ago.
You keep saying the Red Sox should emulate the Rays. Well, the Rays just took a gamble with a massive longterm extension for a 20-year-old with less than half a year’s experience. How do you think that made Devers feel? You can’t pick and choose Tampa’s decisions based on whatever Bloom does. And again, it ain’t Bloom. It’s Henry, he’s the problem ATM.
“You keep saying the Red Sox should emulate the Rays.”
===================================
I’ve never actually said that. What I have said, and will continue to say, we have to be smarter than everyone else. TB is not the only smart team. What we need to do is to add value in every single transaction.
And I doubt Devers gives a rat’s a$$ about whatever Franco gets.
And fair market value is a moving target for both Bogaerts and Devers. FMV for Bogaerts depends on whether he is playing SS or 3rd. And Devers FMV goes down if he becomes a DH.
And it depends on price. Locking in a kid, without a penny to his name, and 6 years to go before he hits free agency, is a whole lot easier than extending guys that already have money.
Joe – I agree about being smarter, but smarter includes giving big contracts to players who deserve them and avoiding overpays like Wacha.
The Dodgers with Friedman are a smart team, are they not? And they are smart enough to know it takes money to make money, which is why they spend so much despite having a former Tampa guy running the team.
I think you’re way wrong about players not caring what other players get. David Price insisted on $217M because he wanted to be the highest paid pitcher in MLB history and he knew Kershaw got $215M. Mookie paid close attention to how much Harper and Machado got when they signed free agent contracts the year before him.
Semien will likely be playing second base again, that certainly didn’t prevent him from getting a massive contract.
Franco was without a penny to his name? He received a $4M signing bonus when he was just 16 years old!
“but smarter includes giving big contracts to players who deserve them”
=================================
And who deserves what is in the eye of the beholder. And there is a matter of fit. And a matter of context. It isn’t always about the biggest players. If we don’t someone like Story, I’d be real happy to get Kiermaier with TB picking up half his salary, and moving Hernandez to 2nd. That leaves substantial money for a closer and maybe a trade for another SP.
There are 100 ways to build a roster, but it always starts with getting someone whose values exceeds their paycheck. Bogaerts is my favorite current RS, but I cannot make a compelling argument that a long-term contract is in our best l/t interests.
Fever Pitch Guy
Joe, they were well below the cap in 2020 which helped them reset. In fact, they were $26M below.
=======================================
Remember when I said that the RS were at the cap, or above, every year since Henry bought the team?
And you had an issue because we weren’t over in one of those years? It turns out that we’d have been almost at the cap in 2020 except for the fact that Price opted out, saving us $16M. So the RS, and Henry, are back to 100%.
Joe – Eye of the beholder? Coming from someone who believes stats such as WAR tells us everything we need to know! LOL!
I absolutely agree with you on fit. All the more reason why retaining your own players should be a priority over acquiring new players. If you’ve had a player for years and know he’s been a good fit with your club, do everything you can to keep him.
I like your idea of KK and moving Hernandez, but not the closer part. Barnes MUST be given every opportunity to turn things around. If we need a closer in July, they are relatively easy to obtain at the trade deadline.
Regrettably, I think the Xander extension ship has sailed. He will now want something similar to what Seager got, and certainly another team will be willing to give it to him. All the more reason why they should sign Devers ASAP.
All the more reason why retaining your own players should be a priority over acquiring new players.
====================================
But you can’t do that blindly. Sometimes guys gotta go. I don’t know what Bloom’s vision is for the next 5-10 years. We have two 2Bs coming up, a SS, and a 1B, plus Dalbec.. It could be Bloom’s vision that we play these guys and devote the money to a starting rotation, rather than spend $25-30M per season on Bogaerts.
It is virtually impossible to say it would be a bad strategy.
6% chance starting staff depth, 94% more likelihood he’s batting practice staff depth. Not the move I was hoping for but again Bloom deserves the benefit of the doubt. last year’s group if moves would get a B+ or A- on my grading scale. The pick up of Renfroe was huge in the regular season and Hernandez’s glove and bat in October was amazing. Moreover, his stealing Pivetta in 20 and Whitlock last season can’t be ignored.
Can’t believe $7m. How did he deserve more than 100% raise?
Looks like the price of poker is going up!
@dewey – he got the raise because bloom was cheap and run out of options that either weren’t near the top end of the market, or, hadnt failed in boston already. With multiple empty rotation slots, sale still ramping up, and Whitlock not stretched out, and having lowballed erod and matz, he had no choice but to pony up or have nothing at all.
dewey – You know the answer to that, Bloom must see something in Wacha’s obscure analytics that make him think he’s a lot better than his ERA, FIP, WHIP and HR rate says he is.
Kinda like how Cashman thought Heaney was a great acquisition.
It’s all about the peripherals, baby!!! LOL
Somehow Heaney got more money from LA than Wacha got from Boston. Go figure….
Hey, he was 3-5 with a 5.05 ERA, worthy of a $4 million raise. I don’t get it either.
Yeah let’s see if Heaney works out better for the Dodgers than he did for the Yanks.
Looks like the price of pitching is going up. Maybe they are demanding more in anticipation that all salaries will go up under the new CBA.
But how much do you think the total will go up (despite owners wanting a lower tax free ceiling)? if it goes up without a roof, the best will get the extra bucks, not a fifth starter.
Good question dewey. Hopefully we get some clarity at some point.
@GASoxFan You do realize it’s still November? There is a lot of off-season left and a lot more to be critical about. Off-season is young.
I’m so-so on Bloom myself but I can’t fathom calling him a failure until the regular season actually comes and we start faltering.
Way too early to be calling him out.
He really likes to give up the long ball. Not sure how that will work out in Fenway.
Fenway has around a 98 park factor for home runs, should help Wacha a bit. It’s a hitter friendly park because of all the doubles, not homers.
Wacha hasn’t been reliable, much less good, since his early days with St. Louis. Still, he didn’t cost much so the expectations will be low. He should have no difficulty meeting them.
Funny how everyone assumed, and with good reason, that Wacha would sign for LESS than the $3M he earned this year.
I’m reserving judgment until ST opens.
If this is another move in the same vein as andriese, perez, and richards…. it’s it’s failure.
If this is just a buy low and see what sticks, designed to be a mop up guy, and, if you get more… then great.
But it’s a bad idea to expect this guy to be viable taking the bump every 5th day. He’s long ball prone (a fenway problem) and has shown that he works to a 5.xx in the AL east. (Except this time it’s many more games in fenway.) Also note, TB is better at fixing/getting more out of pitchers. They let him go, and it wasn’t over affordability. That also says something.
It *feels* like this is one of the best moves bloom could come up with at his “pricepoint” after cheaping/losing out on other SP. There comes a time when you have to admit your expectations for market prices are out of whack – like the guy who says he wants to spend $5000 on a car… but is looking for a Porsche or Benz. To get what you want, reliably, sometimes you need to up your budget.
So… we wait and see, but there better be someone better than this coming to town from the SP FA market…
Watch out for a Martin Perez part 3 signing for a further discount
Nice little pickup? LOL! Glad he is no longer in Tampa.
Seriously?….Dude is freaking Road Kill.
Oy
Fozzy Bear’s favorite player
Michael “Wacha” Wacha
Why? We killed him as a ray last season… so now we want him? If you can beat em, sign em?
I think you meant ,If you can beat em sign em
Forgot your contributions to the Red Sox last year. Invaluable.
hey, I did more than the likes of Brad Peacock or Kutter Crawford
If you take out all the games we smacked him up last season he was probably a halfway decent #5
(Rays Fan): yes we exist, LMAO I hope to see Wacha pitch a lot
Championship
He was good in his last 4-5 starts and Bloom has done well in short term deals
But had a -.7 WAR for the year.
OMG! No!! A -7 WAR???? Every player who has a minus in that all important metric should be cut from MLB immediately!!!
I’m not saying it’s a terrible deal but I do believe the WAR for the full season should at least be noted.
Definably. Wacha was a pheneom who never panned out. Some pitcher in aaa ball has to be a lot better.
pwndroia5 hours ago
I’m not saying it’s a terrible deal but I do believe the WAR for the full season should at least be noted.
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FG had him at 1.1.
FG has been wrong a lot. Remember their preseason projections for teams like the Rays, Red Sox and Jays?
No way you can tell me a starting pitcher with a 5.05 ERA is better than replacement.
“Bloom has done well in short term deals”
Marwin Gonzalez, Jose Peraza, Garret Richards etc all say hello.
Bloom has done okay in short term deals, not well.
That being said, you can afford to not have good short term deals. They’re meant to either pay off or be a bust. Not a huge spend for the gamble.
pedey – It’s not about the spend, it’s about the roster space.
If MLB goes through with it’s plan to have roster restrictions of no more than 11 or 12 pitchers at a time, the Sox can’t afford to carry pitchers with ERA’s over 4.80 for very long.
@Fever Pitch Guy isn’t that what Spring Training is for- to weed out all the underperformers? If Wacha (somehow) comes back to his former self, this is a goldmine. I realize that is not likely but we won’t spend a lot for it. This reminds me of Garrett Richards.
I do agree with you on the front that much more needs to be done. I don’t give this one a plus or minus until we see.
I would love a maximum 11 or 12 man staff. I’ve been pushing it for years. Anyone old enough to remember the 75 WS, Cincinnati won the championship with a WS staff of 9!
I still would like Richards back for the Sox pen if he doesn’t find a starting opportunity and the money is reasonable. He seemed to adjust well and wouldn’t it be nice if he had an Eckersley type second career? While I don’t expect a HOF reliever, he can be even better than last season when he first moved to the pen with spring training to further adjust.
I’d say its about both the spend and the roster space.
Buy low candidates are something you do with empty 40 man spots and leftover budget funds. It’s OK to target one or two towards the beginning as well if you have a larger plan it’s built into as well.
When it becomes a problem is when you chop up your available funds and only go after buy low/reclamation types. Then you wasted your bullets.
It’s like a guy with buying piles of scratch tickets every week instead of putting something, anything, into a 401k. It’s not a very good recipe for success, and you’d usually get a better return with another strategy unless you’re very, very, lucky.
Theoretically, yes. But someone like Wacha, signed to a ML contract, will be on the team Opening Day no matter how bad a ST he has. Cora typically doesn’t allow his ML players to play much in ST, for example Andriese pitched only 10 innings last ST.
Like I said, I’m fine with the signing … as long as Bloom will still go out and acquire a SP who is at least #4 material.
Agreed. We need better pitching, I agree.
GASoxFan4 hours ago
It’s like a guy with buying piles of scratch tickets every week instead of putting something, anything, into a 401k.
================================================
More like my poker game. What people at the table don’t see is that I am occasionally stealing pots with low-cost and low-risk moves. It’s what sustains your stack while you are waiting for a big hand.
But Joe. I wouldn’t call 7m to wacha low cost. It’s sorta low risk in that you only are stuck with him one year, but also sorta not as you’re punting on a roster slot and running a sub-par team on the field when youve got a ‘pen that makes the socal ground look stable and an arm like wacha taxing it further.
Hopefully there’s more dependable and higher pedigree arms headed to town. I’ll hold judgment overall until the ST roster is set, but, this is very questionable
At this point, I have to agree. I was okay with a #6 type at $2.5M or thereabouts. $7M is what you pay to a real plyers.
Dewey – Getting pitching staffs down to 11 or 12 is a necessity IMO. It will drastically increase the quality of every pitching staff, and also increase the quality of the hitters. I’m tired of seeing guys with an OPS in the 500’s or 600’s batting in high leverage situations because there’s virtually nobody on the bench.
Richards was perfectly adequate after he was removed from the rotation.
satan – Is that why Richards faced only one batter in the entire postseason?
At first he pitched well in relief, but it didn’t last long.
4.80 ERA in the second half
5.06 ERA and 1.625 WHIP from September 1 to the end of the regular season
I think he got hitin s couple of appearances that inflate the numbers. I remember him being their best reliever not named Whitlock at one point in September.
He strained a hamstring in his first and only appearance
Like I said, Richards was good in relief for a short while.
The Red Sox have done well in free agency this last decade
A list of failures doesn’t exclude that fact
MOST free agents ARE going to be bad inks making the ones that DO pan out like JD Bogs (ext) , Kiki etc etc that much more impressive
Friedman started his tenure w Lad by inking Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy
There’s a lot of stupid comments today.
Marwin Gonzalez, Jose Peraza, Garret Richards etc all say hello.
Bloom has done okay in short term deals, not well.
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Richards & Marwin cost a total of $11.5M last year. Hernandez, Whitlock, Pivetta, Renfroe have combined for 12.8 bWAR for $10M. Combine them, and you have 12.8 bWAR for $21.5M. He didn’t do ‘okay’; he did great.
Joe – Come on, don’t be trying to cook the books with me. LOL
You know Whitlock was a Rule 5 and Pivetta was a trade.
Short term deals (actually the ONLY type of deals that Bloom has ever given with Boston) with their WAR and Luxury Tax Salary covering 2020-2021:
Renfroe $3.1M 2.3 WAR
Richards $10M 0.3 WAR
Hernandez $7M 4.9 WAR
Perez $11.5M 1.6 WAR
Peraza $3M 0 WAR
Plawecki $2.5M 0.8 WAR
Sawamura $1.5M 0.8 WAR
Andriese $1.85M -0.6 WAR
Gonzalez $3M -0.4 WAR
Workman $360K 0.3 WAR
Santana $1.75M -0.3 WAR
That’s $46M in 2020/2021 salary for free agents signed by Bloom and just 9.7 WAR to show for it. Unlike you, I included EVERYONE instead of just trying to cherrypick.
Needless to say, I’m being very generous in calling Bloom’s short term deals “generous”.
I’ll be saving and republishing this list for anyone else who tries to claim that Bloom has done “great” with free agent signings.
* Needless to say, I’m being very generous in calling Bloom’s short term deals “okay”.
Im confused. Are you saying 9.7 WAR for 46 million is bad? Thats above average.
Also, Red Sox now have Renfroe, Kiki, Sawamura and Plawecki signed for this season, at excellent prices. So they lose on Andriese and Gonzalez, but now have very reasonable cobblestones for this year.
Considering the mess Dumbrowsk left – In Salary Cap Penalty, Worst Ranked Farm System in MLB. Chaim has done excellent.
Unlike you, I included EVERYONE instead of just trying to cherrypick.
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Did you include Arroyo? $1.7M for under $1M. Iglesias? 0.4 WAR for maybe $100k? Plawecki? Robles?
One of the questions I like to ask is, for example, how did SD go from a mid-market team with a great farm, to missing the playoffs, with the #2 payroll, and most of their farm is gone? That way, the Preller defenders have answer uncomfortable questions.
Same thing here. How did we go from a .400 team to a team two games from the WS? The same group of people think Bloom and Cora are idiots, and that Henry is cheap. But here we are.
denny – I know others had that debate before about average salary vs average war, I won’t get into it.
I made it very clear already, I think Bloom has done just okay with free agent signings. Not great, not awful, just okay.
But it should be noted Hernandez’s WAR is more than half of the combined total of 11 free agent acquisitions. Needless to say, without him I’d be changing my Bloom free agent rating from “okay” to “poor”.
Joe – I appreciate your “win at all costs” approach, but everyone knows Arroyo and Robles were NOT free agent signings!
Arroyo was picked off waivers.
Robles was acquired via trade.
Plawecki is already included in my list.
I didn’t include all the emergency Covid-related signings for piddly dollars as those shouldn’t go against Bloom because of the unique circumstances, but if you want to add Iglesias … sure …. $82,809 and 0.4 WAR. Doesn’t change a thing now does it?
I’ve discussed the team’s 2021 performance countless times already. 2020 was a joke of a season, no Sale or ERod and Devers hurt and JD lost without his in-game video. No money spent going into the season because of the desire to reset the luxury tax, and a firesale at the trade deadline.
I always believed the Sox would contend this year. How could they not with a healthy ERod, Devers, Xander, Eovaldi, JD, Barnes, and later on Sale.
FIVE All-Stars this year, and all of them holdovers from the 2018 championship team. That was the core that carried the team to the best record in the league all the way to late July.
Joe Brady – Circle gets the square !!!
I agree sometimes you have to step back and take in the whole picture
Every single team fan base brings up their bad fa signings, its pretty annoying as that’s typically what you get in free agency-
Red Sox have been awesome tho being relative across the board
yeah like Garret Richards
Scratching my head at Bloom.
@pwndroia In an era where teams use 50 to 60 players (the Rays used 41 pitchers alone in 2021) Wacha is going to be better than some of those guys.
If you don’t sign a few Wacha’s (4.47 FIP in 2021), you only end up with even worse pitchers on the mound for you.
I’m accepting it but still questioning his motives, that’s all.
Honestly, this makes a lot of sense. He’ll compete with Houck and Whitlock for a rotation spot, but also has shown he can come out of the pen. Can’t imagine it’s anything beyond a cheap one year deal. Not a bad signing.
That is the hope.
If you’re a Red Sox fan, in now way should Wacha be taking innings away from those two. Those are young guys you want to develop and their floor is just wachas base …
What I’m saying is it’s depth as a spor starter and long relief pitcher. Of course I don’t want to replace those two.
bravesfan – Thank you for saying exactly what I was going to say. If this is going to be Bloom’s only SP acquisition this offseason, I won’t be happy. So I’m waiting for more information before forming an opinion on this signing.
Good teams don’t actually have guys ‘compete’ any more, except in rare cases. They’ll use ST to see where a guy is at, particularly if he’s coming off an injury, and project accordingly. They’re not going to let 50 PA or a couple dozen innings decide anything for them.
I think you’re taking the term compete too literally. Wacha can come out of the pen or the be a back end starter. If the young guys aren’t ready or are getting shelled early in the season, you bring Wacha in. If they look good, he can come out of the pen, or just be dropped if he continues his decline. It’s essentially a low risk move. He is not a replacement for E-Rod.
After 8+ yrs, Wacha is still a two-pitch pitcher. I think he can be one of those guys who pitches once through the lineup somewhat effectively. After that, its a roll of the dice.
Not a bad signing?
The guy went 3-5 with a 5.05 era on a 100 win ball club. So the supporting cast was there behind him to have done better, defensively and offensively. This isn’t a case of degrom struggling with the Mets not backing him up.
He started twice at Fenway in 2021. His combined stat line was 0-2, 7.2 IP, 17H, 11R, 10ER, 2BB, 10K, and a HR to round it out.
So… there’s that. How much had to do with the Red Sox hitters, and how much to do with fenway? Not sure. I guess we may find out.
I have absolutely no idea where you’re getting your numbers from. From what I can see on Baseball Reference, he has pitched at Fenway twice in his career: he has a 1-1 record with a 4.50 ERA. He pitched there once last year. Yeah he struggled in that game, it was also his first start of the season.
This is not a front end rotation signing. The Sox aren’t doing that. They have Sale & Eovaldi there and they’re happy with that. This isn’t even a mid rotation signing. They will either sign someone else like that to replace E-ARod, or feel Pivetta/Houck/Whitlock can be that pitcher. This is back end/bullpen depth.
Duffy, you’re looking at the wrong numbers.
Ignore what he did years back in the world series.
Look at regular season last year, 1 start, plus post season last year, one start. Baseball reference doesn’t combine regular and post season, you need to look further.
Make all the excuses you want, he still stinks worse than taco bell garbage.
I was looking at starts. That postseason appearance was not a start. He came in to eat up innings as to not waste the rest of the bullpen. So get your facts straight before you say I’m wrong.
I just don’t understand what’s bad about this signing. $7 million for long relief/possible starter is not bad at all. The Red Sox have plenty more moves to make.
Wacha think?
ERA 5.05?
Not too excited!
Okay, you tried too hard with that one.
Fozzie Bear wouldn’t approve.
Wacha changed his pitch mix late in the season and was a completely different pitcher. Not a bad pickup for them.
3.20 ERA his last 39 innings. Promising, for a couple mil.
Lol a couple? He’s getting 2 years and probably 15-18 million. Starting pitching is a premium.
Changed so much he only lasted half as long in his second appearance at fenway as he did in his first. Gave up about the same number of hits and runs though….
You mean that teams actually adjusted to his new pitch mix?
How is that possible?
I always thought whenever a pitcher makes some changes, opponents are never able to figure out what to do about it.
Hmmmm … interesting.
LOL
Wacha Hell BoSox??
Great addition for the Rays, Blue Jays, and Yankees.
In 2020 it was Colin McHugh that was supposed to full this role. This past year it was andreise. Now wacha
123 – Thank you for reminding me of two more short term Bloom busts.
McHugh pitched well last year and knowing he was coming off an injury, they took a shot that didn’t pay off. I never understood Andriese and still don’t.
dewey – I can explain Andriese.
Bloom probably said to himself “I’m very familiar with him from our time in Tampa. He was decent back then, I can fix him and get him back to what he was then.”
Fever Pitch Guy5 hours ago
123 – Thank you for reminding me of two more short term Bloom busts.
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You really have some of this stuff mixed up. McHugh was an outstanding gamble. He only cost $0.6M. He just didn’t make it back in time, but that’s the way it works for minimum wage guys. When he did come back, he had a 1.55 ERA.
Joe – I’m not the one who brought up McHugh. Last year was a joke season, I don’t put much stock into anything that happened in 2020.
I thought the idea was to get better, we lose E-Rod and sign Wacha? How the hell is that better? Bloom better bring in some high leverage inning eaters for the bullpen if he isn’t going to improve the rotation. Our bullpen sucked dick last year.
Wonderful another bargain basement BUM!!! I was afraid Chaim would do this when he was hired. If he had pulled the trigger and got Scherzer and Turner (had we known Turner was an option) were probably sitting with another Championship right now. Instead we are scratching our heads and trying to talk ourselves into this deal having upside. SAF
Compare what he gets to the 4/44 deal just handed to Steven Matz and then tell us this deal doesn’t have upside. Warm bodies with long injury histories are getting paid. Mediocre pitchers are flying off the shelves. I’m fine with Chaim shopping in the Rich Hill/Michael Pineda aisle for the second starter too as long as they are 1 year deals. Im sure we didn’t break the bank for Wacha it is probably 1 year 7-8 million with Bloom’s famous team option tacked on for 1 more year at slighty more av.
Kelley – You think $8M for one year of Wacha is a good signing for Bloom?
Speaking of, how many would be happy with the return of JK?
Fever Pitch Guy5 hours ago
Kelley – You think $8M for one year of Wacha is a good signing for Bloom?
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I think I must’ve missed that in the write-up. Care to show me where it said he was getting $8M?
I don’t know where I got the idea Wacha was making about 8 million a year recently- I stand corrected. Still Andrew Heaney is making 8 million and Matz is making 11. Ill say Wacha ends up at about 4.5 to 5.5 million with some incentives. Basically the Matt Adriese deal. If they end up with something like Bassitt or Pineda, plus Wacha and Rich Hill as the pitching reinforcements I think they’ll do great.
Regarding Kelly – As always, depends on the contract.
Joe – It didn’t, I was questioning JK’s speculation of it being a $7-8M contract.
Follow the thread! LOL
Well, unfortunately I was right with my first prediction. Free agent pitching is just bonkers this year. Still, on a one year deal the extra few million is trivial. Rather this than 40 mil for Max or a 6 six year deal for Ray.
JK – This isn’t the big-spending 2018 Red Sox anymore. If they need to spend a few million on a certain player, but that player would push them over the luxury tax threshold, they will not acquire said player.
That’s why the Wacha contract is so concerning. Not just because it’s a massive overpay. Not just because he’s gonna occupy a spot in the starting rotation all year no matter how bad he is. Not just because he will block a talented youngster. But also because the resources allocated towards his contract could be better spent elsewhere, and could prevent a much-needed quality player from being acquired.
This makes the rotation worse than last year
Not sure how to feel about this. Bloom is giving Wacha the Renfroe treatment? Or is it that Wacha is a warm body? For fans, the late-season success Wacha put together, there isn’t much to go on. Unless Bloom et al. know or see something, this is a hurdle/drain plug for the young guys to break into the rotation.
Maybe Bloom is preparing for another 2-month Covid outbreak?
See I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Thoughts and Prayers.
I’m hoping this is guy 6/7 if I’m a Sox fan. Not sure….
In Bloom I trust.
How many expected a second place finish in the AL East, wins over two divisional rivals to get to the AL championship? Yes, in Bloom I trust.
And if the ump didn’t blow that infamous third strike call, maybe they go to the World Series. Who knows?
You sound like the same guys who gave 100% credit for 2004 to Theo, while totally ignoring the players he inherited and how he was able to inherit them.
Moral of the story: Winning championships is a TEAM effort, on and off the field.
No front office executive is perfect, they make mistakes. If you think every decision made must be the right one, well … I guess it’s each person’s choice if they want someone else to do the thinking for them.
Second most starts, second most innings on the team with the best pitching in the league.
If he stinks, why would the team with the best pitching in the league use him so much? They won 100 games with him as their number two starter. Second most innings. Get it?
hayzee – Since you brought up team wins:
Rays record in games Wacha pitched was 15-14 (.517 winning percentage)
Rays record in games Wacha did NOT pitch was 85-48 (.639 winning percentage)
Now tell us again how his “second most innings” helped the Rays?
By freeing up the better pitchers for the games that they won. The very definition of innings eater. Don’t waste your good pitchers on the games that you lose. And if the guy gives you a good game? Bonus. Reference Claude Osteen for further information on the value of the .500 pitcher. The Red Sox are building their pitching staff. Let it play out before you judge the moves.
1.6 HR/9. Just what he needs-a smaller ballpark.
Apparently this is what i get for joking about him signing with the Angels
Seriously ? another let’s see what Wacha can do in the AL East lol. Please! Get Stroman
You do realize Wacha was in the AL East last season, right?
Not to worry. Since Bogaerts has an opt-out after the 2022 season, they probably will trade him before the deadline freeing up salary.
The Red Sox are back baby!
I can’t wait to see on the jumbotron at Fenway a clip of Arnold saying, “Wacha talkin about Willis.” when he takes the field.
Acceptable if this is a long relief depth move to replace someone like Perez. Much less acceptable if they expect him to take the ball every 5th day and provide 5-6 innings as a starter. Doesn’t seem like he has the stuff to go through a full order multiple times anymore. He’s probably better limited to 2-4 innings before guys catch on and swing for the fences.
This should be a $3-$4M contract. If so, it’s not a bad gamble. If he cost $7-$8M then that is a huge overpay for limited upside.
Definitely agree with you Dorothy….$7M is a huge overpay
Nice! This should secure the championship for the Sox.
As a Rays fan…yes, another, the Sox will see that he’ll be sharp for 2 or 3 innings then the blowup will happen. Can’t see him having much success in Boston. They could do much better.
I think he could be a legit setup reliever with his high strikeout and low walk combo; as it mentions he just gives up the long ball and usually next turn in lineup.
“…Despite a league average 22.9% strikeout rate…”
Been lousy for the past 3 years. Bad signing
Hard to say that without knowing the price tag.
Hard to say that without knowing the price tag.
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I agree.
Some of the folks in here are complete idiots. Without knowing his salary, or what his role on the team will be, it’s pretty stupid to predict whether he will be a good or bad signing.
If he is a $2.5M, #6/LR type, I like it. If it is $6M and he is slotted to be our #5, it looks bad to me.
I don’t want to be mean, but saying this is a bad signing, without knowing any of the details behind the signing, is just plain stupid.
I love it (another junk)
I like Wacha, just don’t like seeing him go to the Red Sox. Pivetta is another I like just not with the Sox.
The Red Socks are back baby!
There are several better options out there for our rotation…
Teheran, Duffy, Garcia, Martinez, Rodon, Pineda, Stroman, Ray & Gausman are all better. Some will only sign for multiple year contracts but all of those pitchers are better than the Wacha option!!
The guys you mentioned are likely better pitchers.
But the guys you mentioned might be worse deals. The two concepts are different. A guy like Matz is likely to be better. But if Wacha costs $2.5M, I will like this deal a whole lot better than the Matz deal.
For what they’re paying wacha they could’ve put a sizable buyout on a erod/matz 4th year, lowered their risk profile, and gotten a better pitcher at not much extra aav.
Except having Matz for 4 years and Erod for five isn’t lowering their risk profile at all- just the opposite.7 million vs. 44 to 70 million is not insignificant. And quite frankly even if he stinks someone will take half his deal at the deadline because pitching is scarce. Go look at a Mets forum, you’ll see that Cohen was about the only person pissed off about Matz not coming back to the Mets. If Wacha sucks he’ll be in the bp mid season just like Perez and Richards and thats ok. I expect them to trade or sign someone a bit better than Wacha to round out the rotation with Houck and Whitlock pitching in some spot starts. And they will once again surprise people next year because baseball is not won in the offseason
The headline should be, “Red Sox sign human sacrifice for Open Day festival of Ba’al”
Great, we sign a backend guy coming off 3 of his worst seasons id rather have signed Drew Smyly who has a good fastball still unlike Wacha whom used to hit 96.5 on the radar gun, now he sits at 93 and gettin shelled pretty routine.
The only use of this guy is an innings eater, expecting anything else is a big disappointment.
I will be kind and not use the adjectives i would like to about the sort of player/signing i think this is, but its certainly here just to keep innings down on the kids (Houck, Seabold).
Yeah Bloom !!!! Great signing !!! Where do we get our World Series tickets! Can we please get out of the Dumpsters and crumbs other teams have no interest in! We are not paupers
Dude, you ready to embarrass yourself again, with another last place prediction?
I did not predict last place dude, but this is a waste of 7 million dollars for a guy who should be on a minor league contract or major league minimum. Better to spend that money and a Kittle more on a better pitcher or reliever. Did we not learn anything from Martin Perez and Garrett Richards? Both way overpaid for what they provided or potentially provided.
Bloom being Bloom. Is this a logical move? NO. Is it a typical Bloom move? YES.
Here is the only logic one can find in such a move. Innings eater and $3M per year who was outstanding many years ago and maybe the Boston staff can turn him around. My suggestion was Kim who had better numbers, a similar cost and is left handed. Is Wacha low risk? Yes because of his price. Is he a safety net for injuries? Yes but other better ones were available.
Will he be the last SP brought in and thrown against the wall to see if they stick? NOPE.
It’s just Bloom being Bloom. No big contracts. No exciting adds. Just more dumpster diving.
When Bloom does things like this I find it hard to call it news.
KD – Change your “$3M” to “$7M” and then tell us what you really think.
FPG = Seriously Bloom fans it’s time to jump off the band wagon. There is dumb, there is dumber and then there is Bloom. I guess it’s appropriate that a turkey would have a bad day around Thanksgiving!!!
The Red Sox didn’t have enough to pay for the 2nd best player in baseball but for the third year in a row Bloom is pissing away money and claiming austerity and sustained excellence. No offense to all you morons that believe in this guy, he’s a total joke!!
Much like his Perez mistake he read too much into a short burst late in the year, kind of like the .250 hitter who got hot and will hit .250 in 2022. He doesn’t get that the small sample can’t be extrapolated!! Wow, $3M would have been an overpay if Houck and Pivetta are healthy and can start 32 times in 2022. Unless there is something terribly wrong with Sale, Eovaldi, Houck, Pivetta or Whitlock this is the most high priced bad insurance a team could buy.
For the idiots that think the farm system is improving based on Bloom (yes somebody had the audacity to say something that stupid) look at the ranking points and see that they come from 2 GUYS = Mayer (who we got after one of the worst seasons in history thanks to Bloom throwing away Mookie) and Yorke another high selection caused by the injuries and Cora in 2019. Yep, that’s it!!! Two guys are the reason for the rating increase.
In the meantime, Bloom’s predecessors have watched their selections graduate to the majors and ACTUALLY contribute to the MLB team unlike Bloom. All those trades and Bloom still hasn’t added an ounce of value through the farm system. Sitting on losing seasons to get early draft picks isn’t really a skill one should thump their chest from. It’s the screwed up farm system ratings that reward failure. So YES Bloom has failed miserably and improved the farm system rating but not the farm system!!
Is that a good thing? I don’t think so. Has he made ONE acquisition of big time talent or does he prefer to get a dozen cheap guys and pray like last year. There was no ring at the end of last year’s rainbow. It was another wasted season under Bloom. The players who were in their prime when he arrived have either been shipped elsewhere or have aged 2 years without a division win or a world series ring. The decade long drive to improve the already best farm system is smoke and mirrors and mostly bull crap. Bloom has set the team back two years so far and in another year it will be three.
Let’s count all the improvements:
C – SAME
1B – Dalbec (not a Bloom Add)
2B – Arroyo versus Chavis (I’ll call it a wash but I like Chavis more)
SS – SAME
3B – SAME (still the worst defender in baseball)
LF – Step down from Benny to Verdugo
CF – Hernandez a .250 hitter over a better fielder in JBJ but a .230 hitter
RF – HUGE step down from Mookie to Renfroe
DH – SAME
SP1 – SAME
SP2 – SAME
SP3 – Wacha (hahaha)
SP4 – SAME (Houck)
SP5 – Pivetta versus E-Rod (small step up)
CL – SAME
Set-up = Improved
Bench – Step down
So going into his third year does that seem like improvement? It sure as heck looks like a disaster to me!!! Get a new GM before he runs this team into the ground or keep him and have many early first round picks. Either way with Bloom there is no future Duck Boat parades. That’s a huge disappointment to me and every Red Sox fan I know.
Does this mean you are predicting 65 wins again, or did you learn your lesson?
Just a little added context: according to the Athletic, Wacha ditched his cutter in August. It was getting hammered, and after that he had a “3.20 ERA and 45-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his final 39 innings”. Not much of a sample size, but very likely part of why Bloom signed him. I know many fans are unhappy with this signing, but personally, I like the approach of signing a few guys that have potential to short-term contracts and seeing what sticks. Signing any pitcher to a long-term contract is a crap shoot with how much variability (and injury) even the really good pitchers show from year-to-year. The best route, of course, is to develop our own pitching in the minors, but the Red Sox have been terrible at that for a long time now.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was wondering what the sox were seeing that I wasn’t… now I know.
THANKS!
Was wondering what made the difference starting in August. Thank you for the insight!
DB and Duffy – If Wacha had been great then suddenly fell far down thanks to the one pitch he dropped then I could see the optimism. Unfortunately, while the Athletic reported the ONLY possible reason for wanting him it wasn’t enough to raise his pay by 1.3 times what it was last year. If 2020 had been good or 2019 had been good then there would be lots of room for optimism. They weren’t they were both disasters like 2021 except for a few weeks at the end of the season and somebody has marketed that it was a change that would fix him.
It won’t be. He’s still the same guy who came up with great promise then fizzled out and hasn’t put together a good complete year since 2018.
ANY Athletic story needs to be put into context because each time they write something they want people to jump out of the bathtub and run down the streak yelling Eureka! Think of their story more as a rationalization of the very bizarre GM who is so far over his head he’s hired a PR firm to help sell his moves. It’s BLOOM BEING BLOOM. Another bad deal. He’s still way under the Mendoza line!!!
Typically a Bloom Dumpster Dive signing. Cheap garbage signing. Red Sox are the throwaway team now. They are going after other teams garbage. This team got lucky and overachieved this year. Bloom should have done more at the trade deadline.
Not sure how some can say this is a good depth signing, or good signing of any sort honestly. Yes, Wacha was a decent pitcher way back in the day for the Cardinals, but that was waaayyyy back in the day at this point. It’s been 4 seasons now since he has had a positive WAR. So he is a below replacement level player. Minor league depth maybe to help mentor the youth maybe, but keep him out of the big league pen and pray the Sox don’t need him to ever start on any consistent basis. The Sox need one more solid SP that can be counted on to consistently eat some innings and keep them in games. Then,after that pitcher is signed, they need to add some depth type flyers willing to take minor league deals. Scherzer (pipe dream probably), Stroman, Guasman..someone like that is needed. Maybe a Carlos Rodon if his physical reveals he will be ok. But they need a solid #2 to help Sale, Eovaldi, Pivetta, and Houck.
While Bloom admittedly has been an acquired taste for us that are used to RS just throwing good $ after bad a little fiscal responsibility is a good thing. Not every player checks all the boxes for his position and as the Rays (and last year’s RS) have shown us putting players in their best position to produce often returns a profit in the aggregate. It might be a bit gratuitous to claim Wacha is at worst a league-average pitcher but the cost in wage/term is unlikely to be catastrophic if he completely implodes and if he is league average it’s a push. Look at the staffs of the 3 other ALE upper teams and you’ll see all of them littered with pixie dust wish upon a star arms.
monster – Apparently you didn’t catch Bloom is rewarding Wacha for his 5.05 ERA by giving him a 133% raise.
This absolutely is catastrophic.
Bloom just committed $7M and a season-long spot in the starting rotation to a guy who has been let go by 3 teams in the past 3 years and since 2019 has put up a 5.11 ERA, 5.07 FIP and 1.451 WHIP..
A 133% raise after three years of sucktitude, unreal.
$7 mil is excessive (I was thinking 4-5) but at only 3.5% (or less) of the payroll, it’s not catastrophic even if he’s DFA’d in ST. And as a guy who is lucky enough to be sitting in Fenway most nights (thank you, grandfathers, co tickets) it’s unlikely he’s going to walk any less a tightrope than Eddie did and Det saw something in his 4.7+ ERA to commit $77 mil to.
Also as we saw with Richards lottery tickets are NEVER guaranteed season-long spots in the rotation.
I don’t love the signing but Bloom has shown a propensity for this kind of thing and it’s low/risk. Lighting a candle tomorrow praying it’s not the major pitching move as well.
I suppose Bloom is using this as his lottery ticket justification.
In 2021, Michael Wacha led the majors with 4 starts of 5.0+ innings, 0 runs, and 1 or 0 hits:
4/16 @ NYY – 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R
6/24 vs. BOS – 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R
9/28 @ HOU – 5.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R
10/3 @ NYY – 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R
Final 7 outings: 2.88 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, .167 AVG, 36 K, 7 BB
Greenmonster – I’m not looking for people to have deep mathematical backgrounds but did you justify $7M spending on four good starts and discount the rest because you believe he’ll ONLY repeat those 4 starts?
Trending can be interpretive but not that interpretive!!
Next you are going to tell me you expect Kiki to repeat what he did in the playoffs for the entire 2022 season instead of a week or two like he did in 2021. The reason people look at full seasons is because it represents a body of work. Throughout that body of work there are ups and downs. You just pick his UPS and ignored his downs which were 8 times as many.
Based on his last TWO seasons $3M was an overpay. Remember, his final arbitration year was his highest salary until Bloom pulled another blunder and gave him more despite being THREE years removed from a decent season.
This is an example of what NOT TO DO as a GM.
Everybody here is panicking about the $7 mil. To put into perspective take $20 out of the ATM (representing RS payroll) and then spend $0.70 on a lotto scratcher. .Who cares.
Green Monster – Take your $28M of life savings and spend $7 on a throw away not a lotto ticket. You are way over estimating the probabilities of Wacha being a good SP for Boston. Yes, a lotto ticket is a much sounder investment!!
Dumpster Dive Signing.
Wacha is going to get lit-up in 2022. Haven’t we been through this before, Chaim?
Garbage Signing. Waste of 7 million dollars
I guess every team needs a guy with a 6 ERA, you’d think most triple a farmhands could provide that for cheaper.
Jeez who were they competing with for that kind of salary. He’s nowhere near that good
Obviously, the deal needs the context of further moves to figure out what this means.
Still, its hysterical people are waving off 7 mil as a flier. That might not be prohibitive but theres intent to hold roster space/contribute baked into that price.
You’re right, $7M is starting rotation money. It’s not a lotto ticket minor league signing, he’s a part of the rotation now.
This reminds me of the Drew Smyly singing by the Braves last year. You can see with the dollar amount in both of these deals that the team is expecting a rotation contributor. If he falls out of the rotation, like Smyly eventually did, then he’s an expensive bullpen arm.
Lazing – Let me put this into context.
There is no reason to ever overpay a player by more than double his worth unless you are trying also get his son who is stud. Wacha’s son is not on the radar.
You are trying to paint Bloom as a genius instead of the dolt that he is. The man is drowning as the GM in Boston and people need to stop throwing him lines and let him drown so the team can move on and get back to winning and actually competing with a much higher talent level.
Um…yay?
Why does he do this and throw money at mediocre low end pitchers like Martin Perez and Garrett Richards. Complete waste of money in bargain basement guys who should be given minor league contracts or major league minimum. Wacha is a dumpster dive at best
Is this the best Bloom can do after 3 weeks of loosing EROD?
If $7mil for Wacha is any indication of where the SP market is going, then some of the early SP signings are going to look good.
Love the complaining pink hats. They would much rather prefer throwing hundreds of millions at the front line starters available and than bitching and whining when they’re traded away as a throw in with us paying half the price tag a few years later.
Nobody is disagreeing the Price contract and Sale extension were both dumb, but they have absolutely nothing to do with giving a guy a 133% pay increase after 3 horrendous seasons.
FPG – Speak for yourself. Both contracts were just fine. Price contributed early in his contract and not late. That’s a normal risk in longer contracts. The result was a ring so it was worth it. The Sale contract only looks bad now because of Cora’s mistakes that led to his TJ surgery. Blame Cora for minimizing the greatness of the Sale contract.
A $4M increase for a guy who had a horrendous year while making $3M. That’s what just happened. The Sale contract isn’t over and a year ago many said the Eovaldi contract was bad. I bet they don’t now. In a year, I wouldn’t be shocked to hear people talking about how great it is to have Sale back.
Last point for all you fans that complain about the big bucks. Here is a reality check for all of you people whining about Price or ANY contract given to a ballplayer where the years are more than one and the player has a bad year.
This ownership group charges MONSTER prices for tickets, food at the game, parking at the game and merchandising. They make more than $300M in profits in a normal year!!! When you complain that the payroll went over the $210M cap by $20M which was the case when Price and Mookie were in Boston, you make it sound like such a big hit for the owners. The hit to the owners from a tax perspective in the third year over the limit while spending less than $20M over the cap is no more than $10M. That means if profits were to be $310M they only make $300M. Poor owners!!!! OUCH that must really hurt their wallets. Maybe one less yacht to buy that year!!
Now think about what winning a ring means to the fans. The fun, the celebration of not just lucking out to make the playoffs but to be the best team in the league like 2018. The extra profits made by all the merchandising and TV money for the playoffs and World Series more than covered the luxury tax paid that year. So why cut Mookie or Price? So Price wasn’t performing up to his contract late in his contract but that was planned for when the deal was made. Suggesting he was only worth $16M like they did tells you that not rocking the boat after a WS championship wasn’t worth the small cost of Price not performing up to expectations. It’s that type of thinking that sent the team down the current rabbit hole they won’t recover from for many, many years. And why? So ownership could make that full $330M instead of what might have been $300M with Price and Mookie.
Debating the stupidity of a Wacha signing is so distracting from the real problem which ownership doesn’t want fans to be thinking about. That problem is the destruction of a great franchise so a few very, very wealthy people could make even more money while the fans debate nickel and dime moves by an under qualified GM.
Stay focused fans on the big picture. Tell the owners you want quality players going forward and if they make 1 to 10% less profits so be it!!
KD – Price got the biggest pitcher contract in MLB history, but he was never the best pitcher in the game. Not even close.
As for Sale, regardless of how he became injured the facts are still the facts: He had injury issues for most of 2018, right up through the postseason, therefore DD never should have rushed to give him that extension the following spring. At the very least, DD should have waited until the All-Star Break to give him the extension.
You know I’ve supported most of DD’s moves, but that extension was by far the dumbest thing he did and probably the biggest reason why he was fired.
FPG – Some of the dumbest things you’ve said to date!!!
First, Price was the #1 pick of the draft by TB in 2007. In 2008, he pitched in the majors a year after being drafted and threw 14 IP with a sub 2.00 ERA and a sub 1.00 WHIP. at age 22. He followed that up with his worst year when he had his only sub 100 ERA+ and it was 98!! In 2010 at age 24 he finished second in the Cy Young voting with a 19=6 record and a 2.72 ERA and 1.19 WHIP. Felix Hernandez won the award in 2010. In 2011 at age 25 he was an all-star and finished with a 12-13 record with a 3.49 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. At age 26, Price won the CY Yound Award. while making $5.3M for the Rays during his ARB 2 season and finished 12th in the MVP voting..
FYI… In August of 2007 the year he was drafted TB signed him to a six year $8.2M contract and by 2011 he opted out of it after finishing 2nd in the CY young vote in 2010. Since Price had two years of control left with TB he got paid $11.11M in 2013 after his Cy Young and then in 2014 got traded for Smyly and Adames to Detroit (DD) and made $18M that year.
In 2015 he signed with Detroit for $19.75M. In July of 2015 he was traded to Toronto by DD. Less than a month later DD got hired by Boston two weeks after being let go by Detroit. Price went 9-4 with DET with a 2.53 ERA and 1.11 WHIP then improved on his pitching while in TOR who was competing for a championship. His 9=1 record and 2.30 ERA and 1.01 WHIP help TOR make it to the AL championship where they lost to KC the eventual World Champs.
In 2016 DD signed Price to a contract that paid $30M (third highest for 2016 behind Kershaw at $34.57M and Greinke at $34M). Price had a CY Young in 2012, a second in the Cy Young in 2010, a sixth in the CY Young in 2014 and another 2nd in the Cy Young in 2015!!!
Two years older than Kershaw with a CY Young and 3 other top 10 finishes he was clearly behind Kershaw’s 3 Cy Youngs and 3 top 10 finishes. He was two years younger than Greinke who had 1 Cy Young and 3 other top 10 finishes just like Price. So his contract WAS NOT out of line with what the market was paying. DD had witnessed how effective Price had been in Detroit and when he went to Toronto and was paying for the BEST available pitcher on the market to head up the starting staff in Boston. It was a smart move at the time. Hind sight is 20-20. At the time he was a step down from Kershaw and younger with similar accolades to Greinke.
Sale had injury issues most of 2018? You mean 2019. In 2018 Sale started the all=star game and finished 4th in the Cy Young voting!! Are you having a senior moment? Sale’s second half may not have been as good as the first half but his year was tremendous. He was dinged up down the stretch but you don’t not extend the ace of your staff because he gets dinged up late in the year!! That’s ridiculous. Again, 20-20 hindsight can’t be used to blast the contract. I would do it now even knowing the problems Cora caused for him. The guy is elite for 10 years. A GM like DD gets the BEST players. If the jackass manager ruins things that’s on the manager not the GM who signed the quality player.
One more really important point about Sale. Sale arrived in Boston for the 2017 season costing $12M based on his CWS contract. In 2018 the Red Sox exercised their option to pay him $12.5M (WAY BELOW HIS MARKET VALUE!!). In 2019 the Red Sox exercised their option to pay Sale $15M (Again WAY under his market value) and then considered his upcoming free agency so they offered him $145M for 5 years. That contract started in 2020 so in 2019 his $15M was less than Boston paid Peddy to not play!!
Yes, three years of one of the top pitchers in baseball and the total cost was $39.5M for 3 years. Add 5 years for $145M and his 8 years with the Red Sox will pay him $184.5M or $23.06M per year.
If he recovers from the damage done by Cora that cost him nearly two years of service and finishes out his contract as a top pitcher, the $23.06M is damn cheap for such a stud. The Sale contract still stands as an excellent investment in a top player. Somebody should have fired the fool who has done nothing but ruin the guy.
Last point, don’t rewrite history. DD didn’t get fired for ANY contracts he signed. He had the active players being paid under the cap and the team was winning until Cora screwed the pooch in 2019 spring training. DD got fired because there were issues with ownership that still exist today. Whether they suddenly chose to stop competing because they needed to use their $300M in profits to subsidize other ventures or they simply are ignorant racists we’ll never know. DD had the experience to tell them that he wanted to win and that meant keeping Mookie and they clearly had an issue with that thinking. DD did nothing wrong. He won better than anyone before him. 3 division titles and a ring in less than 5 years.
Your revisionist history is very aggravating. Next time actually use facts not just your opinions. You must be arguing with JoeBrady too much. Your opinion is just that an opinion. What I just documented is the justification for paying Price big bucks and for signing Sale to an extension that did not make his pay from the Red Sox anything but what they always want….. a home town discount. If the idiot front office thinks a piece of crap like E-Rod is worth $18.4M then paying Sale an average of $23.06M is more than reasonable!! It’s a steal!!!!
Explain to me like I’m five years old why this guy gets a 3million to 7million per year raise?
Bloom is high
As a Yankees fan, I’m thrilled!
Michael Wacha flew so far under the radar that the righthander failed to gain even an honorable mention below MLB Trade Rumors’ list of Top 50 free agents this offseason:
mlbtraderumors.com/2021/11/top-50-mlb-free-agent-r…
Wacha might be a mirror image of lefthander Andrew Heaney, whom the Los Angeles Dodgers signed earlier this month for a reported $8.5 million. Wacha and Heaney, who were born less than a month apart, were the 19th and ninth picks in the 2012 draft out of Texas A&M and Oklahoma State, respectively. In fact, Wacha and Heaney faced each other that year in Big 12 Conference action:
12thman.com/sports/baseball/stats/2012/oklahoma-st…
Since the start of the 2019 season Wacha has posted an ERA of 5.11 and ERA+ of 80 in 285.1 innings while Heaney has posted an ERA of 5.21 and ERA+ of 87 in 291.2 innings.
Heaney occupied the final slot on the MLBTR Top 50 free agent list. Neither Wacha nor Heaney made the Top 50 free agent list at FanGraphs:
blogs.fangraphs.com/2022-top-50-free-agents/
The Red Sox and Dodgers, two of baseball’s more successful franchises, presumably had more and better information on Wacha and Heaney than the casual fan who is puzzled by each signing.
“The Red Sox and Dodgers, two of baseball’s more successful franchises,”
And of course the fact they’ve been two of the biggest spenders in MLB the past several years has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with their success … right?
Really don’t understand this signing has the pitching market really gone this crazy?
If it has then it’s time to look at the trade market sign Schwarber and look to make Dalbec, Duran and Renfroe available see what kind of starters they can get.
Bruin1012 – It’s not the market it’s Bloom.
It’s illogical to spend $7M on a SP that should be making $3M or less when you are working under the luxury tax cap and only have $30M to spend and you need so many other players.
It’s not like this is the first overpay by Bloom. The marketing team does a great job distracting fans from his countless screw-ups. Is this number 31 or 61? Who cares it’s like counting Devers errors, it’s meaningless if nobody cares if he makes them.
KD – Where did you hear the Sox had $30M to spend? They had just $24.5M.to stay under the current $210M threshold.
FPG – I rounded up since I wasn’t sure where they stood on a few different lower priced players. I thought the $7 took up roughly 25% of the available money under the cap and that got me thinking they might trade another big priced contract or give it away like Mookie and Price.
As of Nov 29th Spotrac has the Red Sox at $24.35M after adding Wacha.
Wow.
5.00+ ERA & more than doubled his 2021 salary.
It’s a better move IMO than bringing Richards or Perez back. His SIERA since 2020 is 4.00 and he was worth 1.1 fWAR last year. Also he has a 158:38 K/BB since 2020 so there’s some potential for him to put everything together an have a great season. They’re paying him like a #5 starter and if healthy he should be able to be closer to a #4.
Very true. Plus since he scrapped his cutter in mid August his numbers improved dramatically. People only see overall need to look further.
fba – You really think other teams won’t update their scouting report and make adjustments to their approach against Wacha, eh?
Those moves were a joke. They paid Perez 7 million and Richards close to 10 million. You were better off running outside snd throwing the money in the wind. Wacha is awful and should be on a minor league contract, major league minimum, or an incentive laden contract. No way deserving of 7 million that Bloom gave him.
Al they actually paid Perez 5 million not 7 million and the Richards signing only looks bad in retrospective after the sticky stuff crackdown.
You can blame Bloom for bringing Perez back for 5 million that’s on him. I don’t blame Bloom for taking a chance on Richards there was no way to foresee a sticky stuff crackdown in the middle of the season. He was actually pretty decent before the crackdown certainly worthy of a 10 million flier. The real question was if he could remain healthy and he did my guess if we didn’t have the crackdown on the sticky stuff his option would of been picked up assuming he remained healthy for the whole year.
He better be there as a swing man ONLY. This smells of Richards and Perez part 2.
Why?
According to informed sources, The Marlins were in on Michael Wacha right up until he signed the deal to join the Red Sox.. The Marlins made a “strong” offer, but not one that matched the Red Sox’ financial commitment. The Marlins weren’t the only team to be outbid.
nentwigs – When you say informed sources do you mean credible sources?
You’ve made this sound like a bidding war with more than just the Marlins and Red Sox. My BS meter went off when I read this. If people want a bad innings eater they aren’t going to get into a bidding war since there are lots and lots of them out there at $3M a year or less. Perez is a perfect example. Eating innings with below league average pitchers isn’t exactly a winning philosophy and it makes perfect sense for Miami. It’s embarrassing that Boston was even involved let alone won.
Think about who might join the bidding war you are suggesting. Baltimore has a projected $19M payroll so they might have been in it, Cleveland’s projected payroll is about $33.5M so they might have been bidding. Maybe besides the Marlins the Pirates and Rangers were bidding too!! Wow, I feel so much better to know that Boston outbid them for such a crap pitcher!!
wigs – Until we hear solid information about other offers he received, we can’t make assumptions.
My hunch, Bloom allocated up to $7M for a SP and because he knew there would be interest in Wacha coming from mostly non-contenders or small markets, he probably wanted to avoid a bidding war by saying “Look we’ll give you our best offer now, $7M take it or leave it, we are not going any higher and we want a decision within 48 hours”.
$7m – looks like we overpaid to me.
I cant believe that 3-5 and a 5+era is worthy of a $4 million dollar raise. i guess we aren’t going anywhere again this coming year.
Bloom needs a Seeing Eye Dog if he sees anything in Wacha. Wacha is awful and not worthy of a million a year
Yeah Bloom you just sit tight and underwhelm the free agents and overpay for the likes of Michael Wacha who should be at major league minimum. This must be the “Rube Goldberg” method of addressing free agency and getting help for your team.
Lets check the scorecard:
BOS – adds Wacha for $7M
NYY – adds Joely Rodriguez for $2M
TOR – adds Gausman for $22M, Yimi Garcia for $5.5M
TB – adds Kluber for $8M
BOS – loses E-Rod
NYY – loses Kluber, Heaney
TOR – loses Semien, Matz,
TB – loses Wacha
FA after 2021 season still available
BOS – Schwarber, Richards, Ottavino, Perez, Robles, Santana, Shaw, Brice, Peacock, Motter, Iglesias, Herrmann
NYY – Odor, Rizzo, Gardner, Frazier, Lamarre, Koerner, Warren,
TOR – C. Dickerson, R Ray, Yates, Phelps, Dyson, Dolis, AJ Cole, J. Barnes, Bergen,
TB – N Cruz, Archer, T. Hunter, McHugh, Roe, Armstrong, Drake, O’Grady, Reed, Conley, Mazza, DJ Johnson, Odom, Robertson, Enns,
Based on the off season TOR has both lost the most and gained the most.
Within the division the biggest loss is Semien and the biggest gain is Gausman.
It’s safe to say the off season scramble hasn’t started in the AL East!!
Just another junk !!
I’m a Red Sox fan and all we heard was how they were going to spend money on improving the team. The media had us in on everyone including getting EROD back. He could not even get EROD back. The offer must have been insulting compared to what Detroit offered. Good old Bloom has underwhelmed every free agent he was supposedly interested in. Then in a panic move he signs a guy for 7 million who should be at major league minimum or a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training. Wacha should have retired 3 years ago. I am so glad the Red Sox ownership is spending their money on a hockey team (Penguins) this offseason. Absolutely unbelievable! Come on already.
The media had us in on everyone including getting EROD back.
============================
You must be new to this. The media has us in on everyone, and have done so for years, even when it makes no sense.
But I am going to let you in on a secret. The media does this in every city. in fact, there is an entire profession dedicated to writing articles-called writers. In fact, I heard rumors of a site called MLBTradeRumors, dedicated to printing baseball rumors.
I don’t know what your deal is, nor is it any of my business. But you seem to want to read all the rumors, and then get upset when the rumors turn out to be rumors. Whatever. Why not take five minutes out and let us know what you think should be done, using real players and real numbers.
Wouldn’t that be a little more interesting than coming in here 5x a day to whine?
Joe – Just a quick reminder, who owns The Boston Globe and NESN?
And who in the past has repeatedly “leaked” stories to the media to make it seem like they are willing to spend and trying hard to sign good players?
What do you think the fan reaction would be if the Red Sox didn’t publicly try to acquire any good free agents?
It’s a moot point. We always try to acquire good free agents. I’ll let you in on a secret. A lot of non-RS fans consider us the Evil Empire-lite, for the amount of money we spend.
IRT to newspaper ownership, baseball rumors is a separate industry all its own. It is literally what the entire baseball universe does during the off-season. I have Philly Phanatic Phriend who speculates on the players leaving, and on at least a half-dozen possible acquisitions.
Al – ERod confirmed the Red Sox never made an offer to him. All he got from them was the QO, nothing else was offered. They had no intention of keeping him, they just wanted to save the money and get the draft pick.
Lots of signings today. Guess I missed the Red Sox signing of a quality player!
Sounds like Boras wants everyone signed by November 1 because he expects a strike.
If a strike happens in 2022 you have to laugh at how badly ownership and Bloom played the Price situation. In 2020, after agreeing to a 7 year deal several years earlier without a gun to their heads, they clear half his salary by maintain $16M a year for 3 years ($48M) and letting LAD have him for $16M a year while he pitches for them.
With 3 years left his monster salary is $96M and the owners normally make profits of $1B in three years so they MUST dump his salary to survive. What happens after their bonehead move?
Year 1 – COVID hits and he opts out so the $16M they thought they saved is $0!!!
Year 2 – He plays and isn’t any worse than the dozens of clowns Bloom pays money to so they can tryout for the team. $16M saved is wasted on trying to find his replacement.
Year 3 – STRIKE. Yes, if a strike happens the players have a reserve fund they get paid from and the $16M savings is once again $0!!!!
So how IRONIC is that? If there is a strike the savings from throwing away David Price and paying LAD to play him rather than in Boston doesn’t save $48M it saves $16M of Price’s salary and it costs Boston more than $16M to find his replacement for 1 year!!!
Yes, the $48M saved turned out to be a cost instead!! Great financial decision making by the rookie GM and owners!! What a colossal blunder!!
At least if a strike happens Bloom gets yet another reprieve from being bad. The strike isn’t his fault. The talent depletion is and the lack of Division Titles are and the lack of another ring is but hey he’s building sustained something. I think it’s sustained crap but those with rose colored glasses still think the future is bright.
If he gets a few more top draft picks everyone should be happy. The crap farm system rating system will have them near the top and we all know that’s more important than Duck Boat Parades. Eventually, the team talent level from those high picks will rise since Bloom has no ability to actually acquire top flight talent so long, long down the road the Red Sox could compete again and not just on a magical ride like 2021.
I hope everyone has memories of 2018 locked up tightly in their minds. For those of us that are senior citizens I fully expect it to be our last experience with Duck Boat Parades for baseball!. How disappointing.
KD – In his two years with LA, Price has pitched a total of 73 innings and was left off the postseason roster. The only reason the Dodgers acquired him was because they wanted Mookie badly.
And players cannot strike without a CBA. There could be a lockout, but not a strike.
And even though the writers here insisted there would be virtually no free agent activity prior to the expiration of the CBA, I figured the opposite would happen especially with players not wanting to wait until February/March before knowing where they’d be playing and moving/uprooting their families. Also if the luxury tax threshold is lowered, that would obviously reduce offers.
I was one of the ones that was hoping to keep Price, though fully understanding the trade. He was probably worth about $15M at the time.
But my opinion, in retrospect, is laughable. He is nothing but a mediocre LR, maybe #6/7 type. No normal baseball fan would want him for $16M, and would laugh at the person suggesting it.
I’m always willing to debate the Betts trade, but anyone suggesting that we should pay $16M for Price is hanging-upsidedown-batschitt crazy.
FPG – I think you missed the point. He didn’t pitch in 2020 and it cost Boston no money rather than $32M if they had kept him. In 2021, he pitched 73 innings which benefited the Dodgers and cost them $16M and Boston paid the $16M regardless of his innings pitched. Thus, after two years Boston has paid $16M versus $32M so the savings is $16M EXCEPT they paid Perez $2.2M in cash for 2020 which amounted to $6M versus the luxury tax and then paid Richards $9.5M in cash which was $10M versus the luxury tax in 2021. So the $16M of savings in 2021 is offset by the costs incurred to replace him in 2020 and 2021 since Price opted out in 2020. $16M saved at a cost of $11.72M thus a net savings of $4.28M versus the expected $32M of savings (less Price’s replacement cost to Boston).
My point is if there is a lockout (not strike) the $16M savings in 2022 will also be wiped out but the good news is Boston won’t be paying anyone to replace him. Thus, in three years the $48M cost savings that justified the Price deal actually turns out to be $4.28M and the 73 IP by Price in 2021 could have counted for Boston instead at a net cost of $4.28M!! Even if he wasn’t in Cy Young form, Boston paid a bunch of people more than $4.28M to pitch for them last year. Richards got $9.5M, E-Rod got $8.3M to pitch like crap and Perez got $4.5M to pitch like crap! Price would have been cheaper than all of them over the remainder of his contract!!
My point is the Price deal was a financial disaster especially coupled with the loss of Mookie. The ownership and Bloom need to be held accountable for their huge mistakes, heck they need to be held accountable for ALL their mistakes.
You are right that a lockout would happen not a strike and tell me do the players get paid during a lockout? Do they get paid if there is no CBA?
The agents want the deals done before the lockout so they get paid. That’s why there has been a flurry of contracts closed before the CBA expires. I’m not sure it impacts the players much either way if the lockout lasts the full season. Ownership is determined to get back money lost from COVID, there is a new version of COVID looming in the future so I don’t see an end to the problem.
A lockout for the season seems inevitable. Greed is greed. Both sides feel like they are owed by the other. The commissioner is an idiot and isn’t the leader to bring the negotiations to a quick close so as far as I’m concerned it’s highly likely that there will be no baseball in 2022 which means no saved $16M on the Price deal. Thus, the deal was a bust for Boston except to those that don’t like Price because of his tiff with Eck. Otherwise, Price in Boston costs roughly the same over 3 years as Price playing for LAD and being paid 1/2 his money from Boston.
Was it really worth it to give up Mookie and Price? Are we better off today than we were in January of 2020? My answer is a huge NO!!!
“Are we better off today than we were in January of 2020?”
===========================================
You predicted 65 wins. We won 92 and missed the World Series by two games. Is 92 wins not better than 65?
Are we better off today than we were in January of 2020?
Cora wasn’t the manager at the end of January 2020, so you know what my answer will be!! LOL
At some point, you and KD and GARSFan and AL34, etc., will have to overcome your cognitive dissonance, and admit that the RS played a lot better than you expected (first KD will have to be convinced that we won more than 65).
Once you get to that point, you have to figure out who to blame for our near-WS season.
FPG – HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OUTSTANDING ANSWER!!!!!!!!!!!