The Red Sox have claimed catcher Caleb Hamilton off waivers from the Twins, according to the transactions tracker at MLB.com. Outfielder Abraham Almonte was designated for assignment in a corresponding 40-man move. Chris Cotillo of MassLive confirmed the transactions (on Twitter).
Hamilton changes organizations for the first time in his career. The Oregon State product entered the professional ranks as a late-round Twins draftee back in 2016. He’s spent seven years climbing the minor league ladder and was rewarded with his first big league call when Ryan Jeffers landed on the injured list in mid-July. He appeared in 22 MLB games but only started four times and tallied 23 plate appearances. He struck out in 14 of them, an obviously untenable rate. He did, however, collect his first big league hit — a solo homer off José Quijada.
The 27-year-old spent the majority of the season at Triple-A St. Paul, where he had a solid showing. Over 251 plate appearances, he hit .233/.367/.442 with 11 home runs. He went down on strikes 26.7% of the time and didn’t post a particularly impressive batting average, but he showed the best power of his professional career and worked walks at a stellar 17.1% clip. That patient plate approach is clearly of some interest to the Red Sox, who add Hamilton to Reese McGuire, Connor Wong and Ronaldo Hernandez as backstops on the 40-man roster.
Hamilton only exhausted his first of three minor league options this year. If he holds his spot on the 40-man roster, the Sox can shuttle him between Boston and Triple-A Worcester for the foreseeable future. He’s still three years away from arbitration eligibility, so he’d be an affordable depth option for the Red Sox if they devote him a 40-man position.
Almonte is a journeyman who has gotten to the majors in each of the past nine years. He cracked Boston’s roster after the team had fallen out of contention in September, appearing in 15 games down the stretch. The switch-hitter picked up nine hits, including a homer, in 37 plate appearances. Still, it never seemed likely the Red Sox would tender him an arbitration contract this offseason. His projected $900K salary wasn’t onerous, but he always looked like a temporary stopgap for the season’s final few weeks.
The Red Sox will place Almonte on waivers in the next few days. He’s virtually certain to clear and elect free agency, as is his right as a player with more than five years of MLB service. The 33-year-old is coming off a .293/.417/.534 showing in Triple-A, so he shouldn’t have an issue finding another minor league opportunity with a Spring Training invitation this winter.
I feel like Bloom is just accumulating any number of catchers and seeing what works.
Oh.
Not uncommon to acquire a player in the offseason, then cut him when someone better comes along.
But it’s quantity over quality with Bloom.
I don’t think so, AAA needs a replacement catcher if Wong is going up.
Valid point
Yeah, and every other position too, whatever, smh
It sure is lucky Mr. Henry got rid of that Dombrowski guy.
Arthur – I believe the proper term for what Bloom is doing is “Throw spit against the wall and see what sticks”.
Other teams do it too, but doesn’t seem to be nearly as often as Bloom. He is acting more like a small market team than small market teams.
This I agree with. And honestly, it’s fine if you want to respond to my posts. I like your responses even if I disagree. I just don’t like it when people assume they know my argument simply by one sentence out of context
That doesn’t really make sense. If I can find a nice setup guy for my fantasy team, that might be ranked #200, to replace someone that might be ranked #220, I do it. If I find a 1974 Freehan PSA 9, that cost the same as my PSA 8, I replace it.
I’m not sure why the RS shouldn’t be doing the same.
If you really think other teams don’t do the same things as often as Bloom has with the Sox you really don’t pay much attention to this site. It’s full every day of other teams making the exact same type of moves. You just don’t care and jump over them because they don’t involve the Sox.
Bogaerts took off for home right after the season ended, likely at the urging of his agent. Boras knew the Sox would come in with a competitive offer, but probably not the max dollars he thinks he can get for himself on the free agent market, and didn’t want the emotions from the end of the season and his ties with the Sox factoring in. So he convinced Bogaerts to “clear his head” to try and break the ties with Boston.
Almonte was terrible in CF at Fenway. Yet for some reason i can see Bloom inviting him to spring training again
Thought Bogaerts was top priority
Thomar – Their top priority is trying to convince the fanbase that Xander is a top priority.
Can this be done before the postseason finishes?
Thomar
Thought Bogaerts was top priority
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So does that mean we cannot sign Bogaerts because we claimed Hamilton? I didn’t think it worked that way.
My guess is Bloom won’t go after Contreras, Murphy, or Vazquez now. So much for getting better…
I don’t want to give the 31 year old Contreras the big contract he wants. Might want one of the other two at the right price.
I’m usually pretty forgiving about “free” pickups but this one really doesn’t make sense. This guy isn’t even good enough to play at AAA nevermind fight for a 40 man spot. Like nothing against him personally but he’s been horrible at every level of the minors and there’s NO scenario in which he adds ANYTHING of value to next year’s team.
Someone needs to play catcher in AAA Worcester. Most of the brainiacs commenting on this site seem to forget AAA exits except you. Lol
I guess… but I’d hope they bring someone in besides wong, Hernandez and McGwire so 2 of those 4 should start in AAA OR the 4th they bring in should at least be someone who pushes 1 of those 3 for the 2nd roster spot. This guy is purely a backup AAA catcher. I suppose IF he’s good defensively (which I assume he must be seeing as he isn’t offensively) I’m okay with him being their 5th catcher at AAA. in that case though… he’s going to be waived soon anyway off the 40 man when they have to protect rookies or eventually sign some players.
Yet again…..
The team is over the luxury tax and finished in last place in the AL East.
And all Red Sox fans keep saying is that they need to spend substantially more money on payroll.
Now every one is attacking him for claiming a guy on waivers while the World Series is still 10 or so days away. Other teams are making minor claims that don’t mean much, and those teams fans know it.
I feel sorry for Mr. Bloom. He was set up and has always been the fall guy.
This can’t go on much longer.
It’s like this with a lot of teams.
The casual fans don’t understand that these moves mean almost nothing. It’s like my spouse buying a $1 lottery ticket. It just simply makes virtually no difference. Maybe we get lucky and Hamilton is good enough to be our 4th best catcher.
Joe – You are correct! The casual ‘fans’ actually understand very little about how the MLB works and almost nothing about the minor leagues. If you ask 100 people at a MLB game, probably 20-25 could name the AAA team 5-10 the AA, and 2-3 the A affiliates. Maybe 1-2 could name prospects at each level.
The ‘fans’ also do not understand the budget for MLB teams, and less the penalties for going over. Most ‘fans’ think the Red Sox should spend an unlimited amount of money since Henry is ‘rich’, and if not he is ‘cheap’. I am embarrassed at what I read on this site, so I have muted over 90. If my comments have hit home, my fellow Red Sox ‘fans’ are free to mute me lol
Something else the Red Sox fans do not know is that they violated the rule on international signings and lost ALL the signings from one year (which averages about 30 players), a number of those who were sign then forfeited are now in the MLB with other teams (thanks Cherington)…
Can’t reply to you Samuel, but I agree. It’s a waiver pick up, and there’s a decent chance he’s DFAed before next season and the Sox hope they can pass him through waivers.
Bloom: You wanted a catcher, fans? You got him! I deliver!
Nothing to freak out about., It’s just a minor league’s depth chart move. He’s not slated to replace Vaz by next tuesday. Honestly the dude will be lucky if ever sees the majors again. he’ll just end up in AA as a replacement for a catcher with promise who gets bumped to AAA
On a side note, I can’t help but notice this dude makes JBJ look like a good hitter lol
Almonte was not likely to be around in spring, and this is a very low-risk move that will be a stop-gap measure and bring in a competent catcher to receive pitchers when mid-February arrives. It would be premature to read anything more than that into this move, IMHO.
The guy’s a waste of a roster spot so was AA.