March 15: Diekman’s deal with the Sox is a two-year, $8MM arrangement, according to Cotillo (Twitter thread). He’ll earn $3.5MM in both 2022 and 2023. The Sox hold a $4MM club option for the 2024 season, which comes with a $1MM buyout.
March 13: For the second time today, the Red Sox are adding a lefty to the bullpen. Boston and Jake Diekman are close to agreeing to terms, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (via Twitter). The deal is “believed to be a multi-year deal” though the exact terms are not yet clear.
Diekman is one of the top bullpen arms available on the market. The now-35-year-old was lights out for the A’s during the pandemic-shortened 2020. He appeared in 21 games, posting a microscopic 0.42 ERA/2.72 FIP spanning 21 1/3 innings, numbers-driven at least in part by an uncharacteristically high 61.6 percent groundball rate. For comparison, he posted a 34.8 percent groundball rate last year and owns a 47.9 percent rate in that department for his career.
The 10-year veteran initially came to Oakland mid-season in 2019 in a deal with the Royals that netted KC a pair of minor leaguers. He continued to be effective for the A’s last season, though not quite at the surreal level of 2020. He tossed 60 2/3 innings over 67 outings with a 3.86 ERA/4.46 FIP while notching seven saves and 14 holds. He also blew seven saves.
With a 31.7 percent strikeout rate, he differentiates himself from the other lefties in Boston’s pen with his ability to miss bats. In so doing, Diekman becomes the top southpaw in a Boston pen that added Matt Strahm earlier today.
Beyond their new pair, the BoSox can call on Josh Taylor, Darwinzon Hernandez, and Austin Davis as potential southpaws out of the bullpen. Diekman is by far the most established of the bunch, however. He’s sure to team with Garrett Whitlock in the late game mix for manager Alex Cora.
Nice…assuming a fair price.
Now trade JD to the Padres for Myers and Campusano
I doubt the Padres would give up Campusano but you are on Bloom’s line of thinking. I could see him going after a team like the Padres to get a prospect. I think they would have to take Hosmer’s contract, due to the length, to get any top prospect.
Not a big fan of Jake’s, but I’m surprised his agent didn’t get him on the Phillies……they pay $6m for a guy like him.
He spent most of his first 4 seasons with the Phillies
Sox getting all the lefties.
How do you pronounce his last name btw?
Deke-man
“Jake the snake” is all you have to know.
.
DEEK- man
LTGBY
I meant LTBGY.
Lefty three batter guy.
K
4 lefties in the pen now? Unless they’re going to cut/trade Darwinzon.
And I guess Barnes is closing again? Running out of bullpen slots to add someone better.
Darwinzon could be heading back to AAA to work as a starter again.
Darwinzon does not currently have enough control to be anything other than mop. He needs AAA experience to be either a starter or reliever. In fairness to him, he really did not get nearly enough innings in AAA as he was coming up.
That’s actually a good idea. He’s almost unhittable. I don’t think he can ever be a starter, but I’d like to do something about that 7+ BB9 rate. It’s almost incredible that some could have career 3.66 ERA and a career 7.4 BBP.
It would be worth it to get slightly worse by using Valdez, for example, if Hernandez could get down to something like a 4 BB/9.
Darwinzon’s ERA is still good as the relievers coming in behind him have done a successful job of stranding his base runners. In 84 MLB games Darwinzon’s WHIP is an unsightly 1.602, which is only slightly higher than his minor WHIP, so he has put a ton of runners on base his whole career.
The only way he will ever be consistently successful is to lower his walk rate! A trip to AAA will hopefully allow him a lower pressure setting to work out his control. I hope he succeeds.
Barnes will close the first half of the season and then it will be closer by committee the second half.
Shame. Whitlock deserves the closing job.
I think they are stretching him out. Long-term, they see him as a starter. Even if he is in the bullpen, I wouldn’t want him closing. I would want him in the super reliever role getting through the heart of the order anywhere between the 6th and the 8th.
That’s now six 2021 Athletics players (3 trade deadline pieces) gone and probably 4-6 more to be gone as well.
Diekman will not be missed. He was so inconsistent. Bassit and Canha is the only players the A’s truly lost. Marte and Harrison were playoff pick ups with no chance of resigning them.
You can add Matt Olson to that list too now!
Part of your new job description at Old Navy and The Gap is play the OF, 1B, Pitching for the A’s
F! There’s goes the A’s opening day starter!
Come on Avila!!! The Tigers need one of those BP pieces that are flying off the shelves currently!! They’re (most of the good ones) almost all gone!
You can have Austin Davis for a ball bag
MLB The Show glitch lol
I wanted a Phillies reunion.
Probably will end up providing more value than Familia.
Definitely. I would be okay with the Familia signing if it weren’t for 6 mil.
Chaim Bloom back to dumpster diving for high strikeout relief pitchers. I think he’s done okay overall but I do question his bullpen acquisitions.
Diekman was one of the best relievers available. This isn’t dumpster diving
Just call me Jake the snake.
‘Dumpster Diving’ I haven’t heard that term used with the Red Sox since 2013. Back then it was pronounced ‘Dempster Diving’, due to Ryan Dempster. They picked up a bunch of fire-sale players: Dempster, Napoli, Victorino, Gomes, Drew. Every one of them had one question mark or another.
We all know how that turned out.
Fear the beard.
I literally wrote a college paper on those acquisitions that year for Sports Marketing. They essentially bought all 5 of those guys for the cost of Josh Hamilton who was the big name FA that off-season. Smarter to diversify your investment than spend a large chunk on one player particularly because if that one player gets hurt you don’t see any return on that investment while they are out.
Poundsy: Yeah, said every single team who talked to Carlos Correa this year…
And literally every player about to make $30mil/year.
Cherry-picking here, but Hunter Renfroe had almost the same output as Giancarlo Stanton last year and he was $3.1 mil vs $26.8 mil. Obviously Stanton is the better player, but the point is you don’t have to pay $25mil+ to find good production.
DFA Davis and deal him for a lottery ticket type guy
But who is going to close?!?!
Meh. I like the Strahm pickup better. I guess one year is fine, but the reference to multi-year seems odd. Dude is already 35.
I like Dr. Seuss’s “Strahm I am”…..as a nick name.
I think this put Sox over the 40-man roster. It was at 39 coming into the day. So someone’s going to have to go. Valdez?
I believe Mata and Paxton can be moved to the 60 day soon if not now.
We’ll miss Ottavino but the bullpen is shaping up nicely.
Barnes, Whitlock, Diekman, Taylor, Hernandez, Sawamura, one of Houck/Wacha, and still room to add another arm. With Davis, Strahm, Feliz, Danish, Bracho and others waiting in Worcester
Rsox = Carrying 13 pitchers? 6 starters including Sale, Eovaldi, Wacha, Houck, Pivetta and Hill. 7 relievers Barnes, Whitlock, Taylor, Hernandez, Diekman, Sawamura and Davis? Or is Brasier in the mix or Valdez or Strahm?
Every dollar spent on another depth reliever is money not spent on an outfielder or 3B!!.
The line-up with Arroyo at 2b and Kiki in LF makes no sense now that the payroll has $20MM more dollars under the cap. Kiki needs to be at 2B, JBJ on the bench, JD needs to be in LF so Devers can DH. That means that Boston needs an OF and 3B to start the season or the same old bad defense will exist for a sixth year. I’d rather see JD in LF and Arroyo at 3B than Devers at 3B again. I bet the pitchers feel the same way.
Can Bloom pull the trigger on a guy costing more than $12MM? Or can he actually pull off a trade not involving insignificant minor league players? Three years are almost up and no signings or deals yet many seem happy with the horizon planning he does.
Should be interesting to see if Bloom breaks out and spends more than $12MM on a player or trades a guy like JD without giving him away like he did Mookie and Price.
KD17: Where to begin?
1) “carrying 13 pitchers” Several of those players have options ===Houck, Taylor, Whitlock, and Hernandez can all be optioned. Not to mention one of the 13, unfortunately, will most likely get an injury. So, No, they don’t have to carry 13 pitchers, if they don’t want to.
2)”The lineup with Arroyo at 2b and Kiki in LF makes no sense” I agree, and Chris Sale playing SS doesn’t either. The roster isn’t finished and they are still roughly 22Mil under the cap, so another acquisition is in the cards. My bet is Suzuki, Bryant or Castellanos is coming to Boston. But, whoever it is, your prediction/scenario doesn’t make sense.
3)”Can Bloom pull the trigger on a guy costing more than $12MM?” Yes, as soon as the mess that DD left is cleared up. 1 player coming, and multiple players coming next year. Rebuild is almost over.,
The team, as is, is balanced, but thin. Not sure why KD mentioned Kiki in LF. Without another signing, the OF will be Verdugo in LF, Kiki in CF, and JBJ in RF. There is no chance of Kiki playing LF. That puts Arroyo at 2nd.
The only way that changes is if we sign someone like Suzuki, in which case, it is JBJ in CF and Kiki to 2B. Again, no chance of Kiki going to LF.
If Bradley gets more than 350 at bats the Sox are in trouble.
Bloom said it would take 5 years to rebuild the Red Sox. He may be slightly ahead of schedule.
EasyPeasy – First, I was fine with your comments until you wrongfully bashed DD. You don’t know facts you must be listening to Bloom supporters.
DD spent less money in 2018 (entire season) on ACTIVE payroll than Bloom has spent the last 2 years and this year. The difference is DD told owners he wasn’t taking a hit on past mistakes and Bloom doesn’t have the chops to say something like that to the owners.
DD SPENT LESS IN 2018 on ACTIVE ROSTER THAN BLOOM HAS SPENT IN 2022 ON ACTIVE ROSTER. (so Price is not included just like the dead money during DD’s era)
Now that the record is straight lets go to some of the other things you said. The active roster is 26 players and the MLB limited pitchers at 13 when teams were reducing their bench hitters to carry more pitchers. Have you read whether that rule still applies under the new CBA? I’m not worried about shuffling them up and down or to the IL I just wanted to determine if the 26 man roster was still going to be 13 and 13.
Were you aware of the FACT that Bloom’s greatest contract has been for $12MM a year FOR HIS ENTIRE CAREER? Why would that be exceeded now when he had a chance the last two years to try and replace Mookie but failed to do so. Also, since you suggested the greater than $12MM suggestions of Suzuki, Castellanos and Bryant ONLY Castellanos is left and his market value is roughly $9MM above Bloom’s biggest contract.
It doesn’t seem likely Bloom will surpass that threshold. He could have done it at the deadline in 2021 but didn’t.
Why doesn’t making Devers the DH make sense? Do you realize how badly he hurts the team when he picks up his glove to go to the field? I’ll take Arroyo at 3B, Kiki at 2B and JD in left any day over Devers at 3B, Arroyo at 2B and Kiki in LF. I am sure the pitchers would agree.
Last point about your comments. The tear down is nearly complete. The rebuild is FAR from over. In 2023, Boston will lose the next two big salaried guys from the 2018 team (Eovaldi and JD). If things go well for Bogey and/or Sale they could lose the last two big salaried guys to opt outs. That means as many as six all-stars will be gone and none have been acquired.
In 2023, Bloom’s vision will be complete. A roster filled with mediocre interchangeable parts that cost no more than $12MM per season. He believes that will give him sustained winning. We all know it won’t but it’s not our ball club. We are just fans watching the train wreck named Bloom.
You keep thinking like so many fans that big priced guys are still in the future when Bloom is here and that’s faulty thinking. He’s building TB 2 so owners in Boston can make double the profits of the four teams that won rings. That way they can invest in sports teams overseas! Yes, a bit cynical but for good reason. DD’s plan for 2023 was to resign big salaried players who earned a future in Boston to go along with Mookie who would have been on a LT contract as the face of the franchise. Thus, 2023 was the year of the change over under his plan. Bloom’s finances still map to that since big contracts roll-off but I see no reason to think any all-star level players will be contracted especially for contracts greater than 3 years. Bloom’s planning a merry-go-round roster with 3 year windows for players, just like TB.
OK, on to a topic I’m curious about and I hope you can point me in the right direction for an answer.
In basketball Kyrie Irving can’t play in home games without a COVID shot. In baseball I’ve been told that the away teams coming into New York can have their non COVID guys play but the NY teams can’t use unvaccinated players. Also, TORONTO CANADA has restrictions that won’t let players that are unvaccinated play so Chris Sale and others on the Red Sox won’t be playing away games out of the country.
Do you know if there is a site that lists all the restrictions related to COVID in 2022? I have fantasy drafts coming up and if Judge can’t play in home games or Sale can’t pitch in places like Toronto that would be valuable information to know prior to the drafts. Thanks.
If the Sox can pull off getting Freeman then JD probably plays LF with Dalbec at DH. If not, maybe they get Suzuki and he plays RF with Verdugo in LF.
The 13 pitcher count has to with the 26 man roster which was supposed to be split 13 position players and 13 pitchers, which after two years still hasn’t happened
Rsox – S o much for Suzuki, Bryant or pretty much anyone costing $12MM or more. I keep hoping for a trade that sends JD to somewhere that can bring back a 3B costing less than $12MM to fix the infield.
I also keep hoping for a trade to add a fast young outfielder who can lead off and in return we can send them Blaze Jordan (3rd 1B) and Downs. Even a Pillar equivalent would be a step up from JBJ. Ideally, Arroyo is the bench depth and Kiki is the .250 hitting 2B that bats 9th.
If Toronto gets Jose Ramirez (like I suggested a month ago for us) they will own the division for years. Chapman upgraded 3B nicely for them and Ramirez would upgrade Semien. That’s speaks volumes to how good Ramirez is. We could have used him at 3B!!
Do you know if the new CBA limits the pitchers at 13?
Can’t play in Toronto, if I’m not mistaken.
Somewhere Tony Fossas is smiling.
This puts the division out of reach for everyone else.
Current roster:
C Vasquez/Plaweicki
1B Dalbec
2B Arroyo
3B Devers
SS Bogey
LF Verdugo
CF Kike
RF JBJ
DH JDM
SP: Sale, Eovaldi, Pivetta, Hill, Houck, Paxton, Wacha
RP: Barnes, Whitlock, Diekman, Taylor, Davis, Braiser, Hernandez, Sawamura
Bench: Duran, Arauz
Prospects nearly ready: Casas, Downs, Groome, Bello
Honestly, there’s a lot of controllable guys there and roster flexibility. I’d be looking for an impact bat and upgrade infield defense. Adding an OF could move Kike to 2B. Adding Rizzo or Freeman as mentioned would allow you to move Dalbec in a trade scenario. There’s a few things directions they could go.
$8m in Wymore, NE??
Ohh yeah, he’s the new sheriff in town.
Typical Diekman outing:
K
K
BB
1b
BB
2b
WOWZERS Boston is extremely thin on starting pitching; if one of those guys misses any substantial time it won’t be pretty. Yet somehow they pulled it off last season. SHOULD be interesting …
The Sox have 6 starters out of the gate with more to come later in the year so I think they are in pretty good shape on the mound. Sale, Eovaldi, Pivetta, Hill, Wacha, Houck with Connor Seabold and Kutter Crawford ready to be called up as needed. If James Paxton can come back by July, he’ll be ready to fill in for any injured starters as well. They could also see if Bello is ready to make the jump too. It’s a shame that Mata went down last season and needed TJS. He was on a fast track to be part of this year’s rotation but that was set back by at least one full season now if not longer.
Bloom really is taking his time adding pitching. I thought he would have had a few moves planned coming out of the lockout.
Seems like an overpay which is surprising for Frugal Bloom
Damn. Surprised he didn’t get more than this. Great deal for the Sox.
Have faith in Chaim Bloom guys… Have faith.
1st Off Kiki is our CF regardless of if we sign Suzuki or not…I do believe as of now he will play 2b as long as JBJ stays with the team. Personally unless we sign Correa which I would absolutely % prefer while Mayer matured & we wait for the Bogey opt out or trade away…it’s definitely happening…if we signed Correa is has multiple benefits from better defense & offense, getting prospects for Bogey mid season & shifting him to 2nd. I’d like to see Arroyo get his full shot here as the starting 2b in 2022 while Yorke comes into his own. We can use Correa most. He makes the most sense along with Suzuki! This freeman business is garbage…we have Bobby D & Casas & JD no room for Freeman go get Correa C. Bloome! That is the difference maker & HE FITS! From all the important angles! This opportunity won’t be here in 2023, 4, 5, 6 while Mayer gets ready. And I assume you will want to move Devers off 3b to be elite club? If that’s through a trade because Bobby D or Jordan takes the hot corner & we can clean up for Raffy in a trade or making him a one dimensional big papi type DH…but Casas is out 1b of the future I like Bobby D at 3b! Him & Jordan/Binelas & Casas taking the 1b/3b/DH rotations…when Mayer is ready shift Correa to 3b. Bring up Yorke at 2b, Arroyo is either solid and secure & Yorke is utility or the other way around. Also sign Suzuki at 27 a 6 or 7 year deal uses up his prime in Fenway. We don’t need JBJ…Trade him…Duran & Gilberto will cover that