The Red Sox won’t be exercising their end of Tommy Pham’s $12MM mutual option for 2023, Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe reports. Pham gets a $1.5MM buyout on the option, and becomes a free agent.
It was a tough season for Pham, who may have received more attention for a fantasy football-related altercation with Joc Pederson than for anything he did on the field in 2022. Pham hit .236/.312/.374 over 622 combined plate appearances with the Reds and Red Sox, with Pham coming to Boston at the trade deadline. The acquisition seemed a little unusual given that the Sox were on the outskirts of the playoff race and had already dealt away Christian Vazquez in a seeming “seller” move, yet the Red Sox were hopeful that Pham and Eric Hosmer (picked up in another deal from the Padres) could help spark a late-season run.
Unfortunately, as Boston as well as in Cincinnati, Pham couldn’t translate his 89th percentile hard-hit ball rate into consistent production. Pham didn’t help his cause with a 26.8% strikeout rate (his highest since the 2016 season) that included a lot of extra pitches chased outside the strike zone without any success. His nine percent walk rate was still above the league average, yet well below the 90th-percentile average that Pham previously posted during his career.
Vision problems may have contributed to this down season, as Pham has been dealing with keratoconus (a cornea-thinning eye issue) for several years, but he told McWilliams that he believes he now has the problem corrected. This is hardly the first or most serious health problem Pham has had to overcome, as he was the victim of a stabbing incident in October 2020.
Pham expressed an interest in returning to Boston, which may yet be a possibility given the uncertainty in the outfield picture. Enrique Hernandez and Alex Verdugo look like the only regulars in place, and even Verdugo might not be a safe bet given some recent trade speculation. It remains to be seen if the Red Sox might look to bolster the outfield with a star-level everyday regular, or if they could perhaps add a complementary or part-time veteran to allow for mixing and matching at-bats for Jarren Duran and Rob Refsnyder. In general, the Sox could just be looking for more power in the outfield, which might not bode well for Pham given his modest slugging percentages in the last three seasons.
Alert the strip clubs
He will no longer be part of the Red Sox phamily.
They should just alter the course of history here and kick Ortiz out….
Hahahahaha Good Afternoon Clip
I agree but also Piazza and Bagwell just to name two others.
So basically kick out anyone as long as you believe in rumors
If you’re on a jury, you decide based on evidence. Watching in Bagwell’s case how bigger he got after being traded to Houston and Papi having the greatest hitting season for a 40 year old with no one talking about it? Yes, I believe in my eyes and brain. Certain players I believe cheated and sadly, younger voters choose based on stats that weren’t even designed when the players played. Such hurts the game because there are so many intangibles that can’t be measured.
A jury can’t convict based on the shoddy guess work and assumptions you are engaging in. Your own analogy kills your point.
A HOF ballot comment, I’m guessing.
Any time a team tries to “both buy and sell” it always ends up backfiring on both fronts.
He walks around with a chip on his shoulder like the world owes him something just because his father abandoned him when he was a child.
Great way to out it. He has a serious chip on his shoulder. He is a below par player in the outfield and at the plate. I can’t stand Pham really, he is more trouble than he’s worth
If Rob Refsnyder is the answer,
what is the question?
Question: What is a player Red Sox fans ridiculed but now love?
BBB pickup which is where Bloom likes to shop
Baseball Reference has Phams’ option at $6 million…..
It was originally reported as $6,000,000, but was later corrected, and definitely is $12,000,000!
Strip Club Tommy is out of a job? Can’t say I am surprised
Someone in that front office is going to get slapped.
Hit the road Punk!
And don’t you come slappin’ no more, no more, no more, no more!
I wouldn’t mind bringing Pham back on a lower base salary
I liked the pickup, but his 6 HRs and 67/14 K/W in 214 ABs is pretty pedestrian, and he is soon to be 35.
but he is cheap. fits right in.
We get it. You think money equals winning.
If you were dog crap before you took them, you were dog crap after you took them.”
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I don’t buy the whole story. Speed is not a long-term solution to anything. From my academic studies, if I was out until 4 AM and needed to show up at work the next day, I’d open up a black beauty and tap a little into my coffee, and continue that all day. You won’t be so high as to be jabbering.
But you also won’t be able to get your normal sleep, so that requires more alcohol. Do that for 2-3 days in a row and you’ll be a mess. So maybe a player might want to do after they get back from a road trip. But it’s impossible to do that every day. And I’d bet pitchers would have the advantage anyway, since they can high, get drunk and sleep it off for two days.
Joe, what Bouton was getting at (from his book “Ball Four”) was greenies didn’t make you better than you actually were. You were just able keep going, where steroids make you bigger, faster and stronger.
Not sure why all the other comments got deleted. I know we are off topic but everyone was respectful in their comments.
So the cheating done in the ’60s-’70s era is no big deal, but cheating ’90s-2000s style is a problem?
Steroids is much more of a performance enhancer. Greenies didn’t necessarily make anyone better.
If greenies kept them from getting worse, the end result is they were better with them than without them. Both greenies and steroids are/were cheating. One is glossed over, the other is castigated.
Wut? There is no comparison. Greenies are not a performance enhancer. They didn’t alter the record books. Were they even banned? How is it cheating if they’re not banned? Your comparison is way off.
If performance is better with them than without them, they are, by definition, a performance enhancer.
If they weren’t banned, fine. Using that train of thought, any steroids usage prior to them being formally banned should not be considered cheating.
Who says performance was better with greenies as opposed to anything else? Why is taking greenies so different than coffee or another stimulant? It doesn’t enhance performance. It may relieve fatigue a bit. So what? It doesn’t enhance performance. Its in any case, DIFFERENT than steroids. You’re allowing no distinction here.
Yes, there is a difference. Steroids can improve players’ baseline performance. Greenies can prevent performance from dropping off.
My point is, in both cases, performance can be enhanced compared to performance without the substance. It’s easier to play baseball if you’re wide awake vs. sleepy, so greenies/coffee/tea/soda can be considered performance enhancers. Caffeine has been regulated in some sports.
My point is, it’s not greenies=okay, steroids=evil, greedy ballplayers, but many people see it that way. It’s more nuanced than that.
Ok so by your logic any player that drank a bunch of coffee before a game needs, what? An asterisk next to their stats? Your argument is crumbling here. There needs to be a distinction between performance enhancing and something used for a slight energy boost. (And the side effects of greenies could also be said to diminish performance so…) Plus, it seems that most players were on them so your basically canceling an entire era.
No, a coffee drinker doesn’t need an asterisk by their stats.
My point is, the distinction between acceptable and unacceptable cheating is a blurry line that’s constantly moving based on technological advancements, societal norms, and individual opinion. But where is the line between what is okay and what isn’t?
You say, “There needs to be a distinction between performance enhancing and something used for a slight energy boost.” What’s the distinction? How much performance enhancing is too much, what quantifies a “sliight” energy boost?
I don’t want steroid users vilified across the board while greenies users get a free pass. It’s just not that simple.
Also, the side effects of steroids, such as more frequent injuries, also could be said to diminish performance.
Ok. There is a line. Which implies a distinction between different things. And that line is, at best blurry. So now we agree. It just seemed earlier that you were entirely equating the two situations but perhaps I misunderstood. We’re in agreement on this.
Unless there is a positive test report for a specific substance, you can’t fairly evaulate/accuse Ortiz. If you were accused of something, I bet you would demand proof and say that speculation is unfair.
All in the suit – We can accuse the accusers of stupidity and arrogance, and they would be unable to prove us wrong. Lol
Whoa. They deleted the whole thing. It did have nothing to do with Pham.
he said that journalists should be killed
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That was a joke.
“Rope.Tree.Journalist Some assembly required.”
Some of these hacks will bash players non-stop for an entire career. And then curl into a ball when someone insults them back.
A joke? Not funny. Not at all.
Not really. Belle’s career OPS+ was 144, Dewey Evans had a 127 and Reggie Smith had a 137. So Belle was a marginally better hitter than Smith, a fair bit better than Evans, but not remotely close defensively.
Big deal he was opinionated…
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If he was woke-opinionated, he’d have been a first-ballot HOF. Bunning went from 74.2%, to 63.3% to 57.9% as he became more important in conservative national politics.
Mo Rivera and John Smoltz are well known conservatives. Neither had any problems getting in. And whith Shilling that’s not conservatism, that’s hate.
Also about the joke thing, make sure the people you are counting on for votes are ok with the joke. I think he’s very borderline HOF just with stats, add in his “joke” and wouldn’t have voted for him.
Just to be clear, the opposite of woke is unconscious
That’s a slap in the face.
EVERY YEAR PHAM HAS VISION PROBLEMS and every year he announces that he thinks they’re over.
The dude is a cancer to society. Being stabbed at a strip club during the pandemic was just the most famous incident.
He’s a cancer to society?
Well, thank humanity for your contributions.
The guy gave us a little spark but was more or less a pointless acquisition. Everyone knew we weren’t making the postseason. Now he will be gone.
i will give you some breaking news–we ARE NOT making the postseason in 2023 either
I’m not doubting it but it’s a little early to say that
tommy pham and tim anderson articles, back to back. two jackie’s
tommy pham=cancer/attitude. could probably be a better player with a change in his disposition.