The Red Sox are bringing corner infielder Travis Shaw back to the organization on a minor league contract, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (via Twitter). The Meister Sports is already in camp with the Sox and will compete for a roster spot in Spring Training. The Sox have since announced the signing, adding that catcher Deivy Grullon has also been invited to camp on a minor league deal.
Shaw, 32 next month, struggled through a second stint with the Brewers last season before setting out on another reunion — this one with the Red Sox following a waiver claim. After scuffling through 202 plate appearances with Milwaukee, he turned the corner and slashed .238/.319/.524 down the stretch with Boston, albeit in a tiny sample of 48 plate appearances.
A ninth-round pick by the Red Sox in 2011, Shaw enjoyed a productive four-year run to begin his big league career, hitting a combined .255/.333/.475 with 92 home runs, 101 doubles, three triples and 20 steals through 1971 plate appearances in Boston and in Milwaukee. It’s been a precipitous downturn since that point, though, evidenced by a .194/.289/.344 output in his past 700 trips to the plate.
The Red Sox are a primarily right-handed team at the plate, so Shaw will give them a veteran lefty to compete for a spot on the bench. There’s no true backup at first base in the event of a Bobby Dalbec injury — barring a promotion of top prospect Triston Casas — and Shaw gives the Sox a potential lefty bat to plug into the mix if Dalbec or designated hitter J.D. Martinez needs a breather.
As for the 26-year-old Grullon, he’s appeared in five big league games — four with the 2019 Phillies and one with the Red Sox in 2020. He’s gone just 2-for-12 in that tiny sample but owns a .260/.333/.482 slash 616 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. He’s probably fourth or even fifth on the organization’s catching depth chart, as each of Christian Vazquez, Kevin Plawecki, Connor Wong and Ronaldo Hernandez are on the 40-man roster already.
Couch Cushion Chaim finally gets his huge acquisition! Tremble, AL East!
It’s not on Bloom that they haven’t made a splash.. It’s on ownership… also, shaw is an upgrade over arauz and in all actuality is just holding the roster spot of Tristan Casas warm. It’s a minor league signing and a good one at that
Ownership hired him knowing what he was going to do.
If ownership was unhappy and in disagreement with what he’s doing they would have fired him by now.
There’s this thing in America to constantly figure out who’s to “blame” when something doesn’t go perfectly every day. It’s as tiring as reading the “cheap” word here every time a team doesn’t overpay for a player.
The off-season has less and less importance. It’s the moves in-season as teams approach the trading deadline and determine if they can compete for a playoff spot that are important.
Patience! I keep checking myself for news updates but sometimes it’s best to wait. I’d love to have JDM Jr. (Castellanos) but not if the cost prevents adding someone else in July. Boston ownership who I don’t like for other reasons has shown they will spend with anyone and no team has more championships since they took over.
@ deweybelongsinthehall;
Between fast food restaurants and the blabbering news media that wants to not only keep their phoney baloney jobs but make a fortune and become a celebrities while still employed – Americans are like rats in a maze trained to jump and head in a non-ending direction.
If cable TV could get cameras into an operating room, they would have a panel of “experts” – ones that have no medical credentials whatsoever – that would give play-by play…..
Panelist #1: “The Doctor is reaching for the scalpel with his left hand.”
Panelist #2: “But he’s right handed! Sure, maybe he can switch it to his right hand before he makes the incision, but it’s a bad look”.
Panelist #3: “Our Sam Succulant reports that the patients family is watching this broadcast and has placed an emergency call to their lawyers.”
Panelist #4: “Our up to the minute poll shows that 68% of the public doesn’t approve of the way the operation is going, 15% do approve, and 17% are undecided…..with a plus/minus error factor of 2.49%.”.
WTF was that?
Somethingsomethingsomething the off-season is won at the trade deadline.
Dewey – it was that people posting frantic about the off season are stupid
Thanks for translating.
Loved watching him with the Brewers. Hope he can get back on track.
Most of us didn’t enjoy it
The ALE is not his bag either
Get rid of Bloom. Very cheap.
if ownership doesn’t agree with his approach than he would be gone already
Ownership brought him in to do a type of job and that is exactly what he is doing
He’s done a great job to date. You negotiate from strength and he has the assets (money and chips) to now get any player he believes will get the team their next championship. Since it’s been three years since the last one and us fans only remember as far back as when we last brushed our teeth, he’ll be remembered by winning or not winning. Sherrington despite the signings of Hanley and Panda brought in the right pieces and Boston surprised the world of baseball by winning in 13. Now it’s Bloom’s turn.
He’s building a team intelligently. Fans don’t like that. Fans want big names, big contracts, big headlines. Chaim wants to win. This isn’t Nintendo, some nuance is needed.
Chaim is dong what he learned on the Rays and what other Ray and ex-Rays executives do – build with an abundance of young players, coach them up, hold onto the ones that are producing for a reasonable salary and forever keep filling the pipeline with more quality youngsters as they’ll be needed to replace the older player when their cost/production ratio turns negative.
The smart FO’s realize that most MLB teams go through over 30-36 pitchers a year, and 22-26 position players. A team – particularly in the bullpen….and MLB is now a bullpen game – is only as good as its weakest link. It’s better to have 10 players that are average or above than 3 players that are very good and 7 that are passable at best. Which describes the what the Red Sox used to do and what the Yankees are still doing.
Look at Friedman who he learned from. He didn’t initially spend in LA but now seems to be going overboard. As long as he has the farm though to balance things, who can argue?
Get rid of him after they just went to the ALCS? Championships aren’t won in the off-season
Until he retires I bet Travis Shaw keeps houses in both Milwaukee and Boston.
Like the silver ball in a pinball machine, he may bounce around other bumpers at times, but he always seems to hit Boston and Milwaukee until the game ends at the end of the season.
If Shaw stays in BOS and then ends his career there, his career track will have been a palindrome:
BOS – MIL – TOR – MIL – BOS.
Just sayin’……:D
Wah Shaw.
Good one whyhazee. 🙂
I feel it was supposed to be a transition year in 2021 for the Red Sox but they overachieved, and it appears that 2022 will be no different…. I’ll still watch
Michael, agree totally! The Red Sox need to give all those prospects a chance to play in the MLB.
Casas, Downs, Seabold, Crawford, Winckowski, Duran, Wong, Bazardo are all in AAA and will all get extended opportunities to play in Boston and see what they can do rather than recycle big contracts like Price that strap the team and force them to pay $48,000,000 over his last three years for some other team.
Eovaldi, JD, Bogaerts and others are gone after this season guaranteed. Even with an ALCS last year this is still a reload year, and the turnover needs to happen without $200,000,000 and $300,000,000 contracts.
World Series wins every year would be nice, but are not realistic.
JC. Sox fans will bury Bloom if he doesn’t deliver. I think he will buy not by your logic. Tampa and Oakland surprise but have one nothing in the last thirty plus years. Bloom will trade and spend when he believes it’s the best course to take.
The Meister Sports?
People don’t understand that Bloom came from the Rays and he’s bringing that mentality to Boston. After this season (if Bogaerts opts out) they’ll have a 40M payroll (excluding arbitration). I see where Chaim Bloom is taking this team. Instead of being committed to big names/high paychecks/old mf, he’s looking to save $$ and build a sustainable roster.
@ Tannel809:
Excellent!
Sustainable contention is what it’s all about.
All a FO can do is put their players and manager in position to win, give the manager information to help with in-game decisions, and from their it’s up to the players on the field.
Well, so far, the FO hasn’t done squat to put them in a position to win this off season.
@ vtbaseball;
How do you know what they’ve mapped out for the players they currently have under contract? Many are young, they’ll get playing time, and depending on how they’re progressing (or not) moves will be made from there.
It’s in-season moves that are the important ones.
Duran disappointed in my book last year. I believe he can overcome how over matched he looked at the plate but with his arm, he’s stuck in left.
Agree on sustainability but money spent sometimes returns more than interest earned. He had to do what he did but I believe will soon make a huge trade or signing. Let’s be honest, he hit the jackpot last year with Renfroe and I for one understand that trade. His value may never be higher. That said, Boston ticket, refreshments, merchandise, parking are not priced like in Tampa and the fans expect a megastar every so often for their money.
So you want to see constant roster turnover, including guys like Bogaerts and Devers, so that the team can pocket even more profit? Sure, they might be competitive, with prospects it’s never a guarantee, but winning it all won’t matter, right? Because neither the Rays nor the A’s (Beane era) have won one.
You don’t need to go out and buy every FA but you should certainly support the superstars on your roster instead of wasting their prime years.
@ vtbaseball;
No, reread.
A team wants to hold onto some veterans, especially for the leadership and stability they bring to the team. But they also have to realize that baseball is a young mans sport – older players tend to get hurt more often and take longer to heal when they do; as well as eat up a higher percentage of the payroll budget.
To remain sustainable contenders – the goal of all good FO’s – teams have to shed some skin in areas and grow new skin. When a players salary exceeds the value he brings in production on the field as well as the intangible value he brings to the team, it’s best to jettison him. Then have the younger veterans take on more responsibility, and bring in entry-level players.
You don’t want to grow old like the Yankees, with old players on long-term contracts that they can’t move, and complain each year that: “We could have won but look at all the injuries we had”….and expect that the next season all the old guys that got injured would play most of the year healthy.
Hard as it may be to believe, most MLB payers peak around age 28. Sure, we think of the star players that produce into their 30’s and some into their 40’s. But they are a small minority. Keep your team in contention and at the trading deadline pick up some rent-a-players that are having good/decent years by taking on their salary for 2-3 months. (A very low percentage of prospects traded for rent-a-players ever amount to anything – no one has to trade their top prospects as the team trading the players are looking for some salary relief in a season that is over for them).
This is the way it’s done today. The 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s are over. Giving a player 4-5-7-9 years at a high salary knowing you’ll have to eat the last 2-3-4 years doesn’t make it anymore. Again, you wind up like the Yankees (and where teams such as the Padres are headed and may already be at).
This is a cycle. imagine if this mentality was generations ago. Yaz and Williams would both have been retired by 35 if not earlier. They need to look at how they’re training today. Pitchers overthrow. As to every day players, I believe they overtrain for baseball
I’m always amazed how people want to get rid of Bloom, the one mistake I feel he made was not getting better pen help, closer down the stretch last year. Our minors have grow by leaps and bounds still nice his arrival. Shaw had some very clutch hits for us last year. If you want to spend, wait and get a difference maker when one becomes available at the trade deadline. Amazing just how far we got last year with a very poor defensive team we had. But all in all they are worth watching. I hope Duran makes a Hugh leap forward this year! Go get them kid!
It looks like Bloom’s first priority is building an upper tier farm system – not win now. We are not there yet, but making progress. Until then, I don’t expect Bloom to part with much minor league talent and I don’t expect big free agent signings unless it is a younger player (free agents tend to be older). Once a great farm system is in place and there is a young core up with the Red Sox, I expect Bloom to spend more on free agents…but to do this well, you can’t be weighed down by money owed to old veterans on contracts signed while building the farm system. Bloom has spent money to build the farm system such as in the Ottavino and Bradley deals. I think he has a plan and is spending money, just not where some fans want it spent now.
In addition, I think that the Red Sox made it to the ALCS when Bloom was not in full win-now mode speaks volumes about him and makes me excited for when he does get to full win-now mode. That’s my opinion.
I’m glad you like Duran. I just wrote that his arm limits him to left field. He also seemed scared to run last year and could use a base stealing coach
Let me tell you how red sox fans actually feel since i actually live here and have been following this team for over 22 years,
we dont want bloom gone, we dont want guys signing 300 million dollar deals, we dont want more david price’s, we DO want is the team to not be the 1 thing we never celled the before- cheap.
We want a competitive talented SEMI expensive roster thats also flexible with a great farm system, fans arent mad that hes smart and building up the system, we are annoyed that hes simply getting fringe to marginally good players who are below cheap, no, i dont want correa, but we do need a balance, like he said he wants a power hitting right hitting outfielder, ok then, sign Nick Castellanos, he wont cost much and hes still available, and its apparent other teams arent trying to get him at this point, its really not that we want looooooong bad contracts, but when we spend like the pirates, we know we arent going to really be that good this year, it is like hes in a sense giving up, like hes looking at the national league who has gotten much better then the American league has, so maybe he is thinking, lets suck for a few years then have alot of contacts be off here to go out and get a great player, the only real ‘need’ boston has is an everyday 2nd baseman, i was also surprised he didnt get a better hitting catcher, this team for whatever reason is obsessed with vazquez, nice guy, but 6 home runs isnt all that exciting. Even the 2 starting pitchers from Oakland are still available, he just doesnt see the team being that competitive at this point, hes only making moves to give the illusion hes trying. If they get Trevor story and he can play 2nd for now that will immediately help, even make a run and kenley jansen, who for whatever reason LA hasnt resigned yet.
So what you’re saying is that he should give out some large, but not too large, contracts to a guys like lets say Castellanos – who along with JD Davis are the 2 worst fielders in MLB……including JDM.
Then he needs to forget how the Catcher is handling a developing pitching staff which kept them in games in 2021 despite a terrible defense – because maybe they can get another Catcher to bat once every 9 batters that might get 3 more hits a week. And since they have a need for a 2B this year they need to junk any long-term plans and overpay Trevor Story – who doesn’t want to play 2B. 3B or OF and whose offensive line away from Coors Field throughout his career is well below ML average. (Hey – maybe they can sign Story to ply C!)
In conclusion, you like Bloom but you want him to only make good moves, and you want him to stop spending like the Pirates whose 2021 payroll was 30% of what the Red Sox payroll was.
Castellanos won’t cost much? In what world? If his cost was so reasonable wouldn’t he be signed already? His market is the entire league now with the uDH which gives him leverage.
I have no idea what’s going on with the RS this off season but I love it. There’s still time to make a splash though with a few big names out there. Travis Shaw is the kind of signing I fully endorse.
he can be smart, but regardless, he needs to build a sustainable team, period.
Amanda – Sustainable means graduating your farm system into controllable, inexpensive, MLB players, and the only way that happens is if you give them a chance to play!
No Sale for most of the year and they were one missed strike call from burying the Astros in a down 3-1 hole. Not saying they would have beaten the Astros but they buried the Yankees and the Rays, made it look easy. That’s a pretty good team right there. And Bloom made some super moves in season, some worked, some not.
If you don’t think Bloom is a really good GM you’re not much of a Red Sox fan no matter where you live and who you talk to. He is excellent. They will be very good this year.
Honestly, quit crying.
Well said, hayzee. The gnashing of teeth and rending of clothing in the streets is just laughable to read over and over, as if a team with a $210 payroll this year is “cheap.” The Sox are being rebuilt for long-term, annual contention. Expensive free agents are not the stuff of teams (a la Dombrowski)–they are the occasional and exact addition that makes a team pop. Story makes no sense, Correa makes no sense, etc.
Welcome back Mayor of Ding Dong City!
After hitting the walk off slam last year against Texas he earned an invite.
Had 10 hits for Boston last year with 11 RBIs. I’ll take those odds.
It’s about efficiency, specifically wins per dollar spent. That is the big metric that John Henry is concerned about. He wants to remake Boston into Oakland and Tampa with the exception that if he has to spend money he will to keep certain players. He’s not going to go to a $300 million payroll yet. Cohen will buy a ring before most teams try to compete, with the exception of the Dodgers group. Henry has taken a beating with Liverpool due to covid, I think some of that is at play too.
oh im not at all saying he NEEDS to shell out a big deal, the days of the 9-10 years deals are over for now with this team, trust me, i watched carl crawford go from a GREAT player to a small lil man really fast, he would cry after his at bats, he hated it here that deeply, im simply saying while i understand his handling of the team, its frustrating knowing were not keeping pace, but trust me i know we arent gonna beat the mets, dodgers, even right now the rangers, hes been here 3 years and he hasnt given anyone a contract beyond 2 years at 18 million, its understating what he thinks the team can do, quite honestly, the BEST move he has made since he joined the organization, is re hiring cora.
I was with you Amanda until that last line….
Mets haven’t even played a game and yet you see them interested postseason? Remember last year this time? They were the team to beat based on acquisitions only.
its the same as the yankees right now, but the yankees have 1 thing we dont, an ace starter pitcher.
Um, we crushed Cole in the WC.
We have Sale.
henry no longer is that invested in the red sox, his ownership group is funding a nightclub/bar/apartment venue near fenway aswell as hes trying to invest in an NBA team, and his soccer team is his first love, always has been, i think hes also into NASCAR but im not sure
Now he’s just trolling us
We’re back Baby!!! Chaim Bloom continuing with the dumpster diving and picking up quantity rather than quality. Pick up some top players already. You lost 31 homeruns in the trade for JBJ along with another 10 from Schwarber. You lost a top starter in EROD for Wacha ( overpayed on him) and 42 year old Hill and another starter Paxton who likely won’t pitch until next year. Stop with the “Rube Goldberg” fix and spend some money on quality
AL34 – you are so predictable.
I know this isn’t a huge deal but I love the Mayor of Ding Dong City.
Shaw played a lot of 2B for Milwaukee, so it is possible that he platoons some with Arroyo.
One thing we can be sure of: under Bloom the Sox won’t have another Hanley, Panda or Rusney contract weighing them down.
I don’t hate it as they needed a bench bat that can play 1B. However, we need another OF bat badly (Soler, Conforto)