9:34am: The Red Sox are one of multiple teams in “advanced talks” with Kahnle, who is expected to make a final decision on where he’ll sign as soon as today, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports.
2:45am: The Red Sox are making a push to sign reliever Tommy Kahnle, and there’s a chance a deal comes together soon, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Cotillo does note that other teams remain in the mix for the former Dodgers reliever.
Kahnle, 33, pitched 12 2/3 innings for the Dodgers in 2022 to a 2.84 ERA, striking out 30.4% of batters and walking 6.5%. He did struggle a little bit with the long ball, but the small sample size makes it hard to read too much into that. It was Kahnle’s first season back from 2020 Tommy John surgery, but after making his Dodgers debut in May he went on the IL with right forearm inflammation and didn’t return until September.
Kahnle was drafted by the Yankees in the fifth round of the 2010 draft, but the Rockies picked him in the 2013 Rule 5 draft. He wound up performing as a solid reliever for the Rockies, pitching to a 4.41 ERA in 102 innings over two seasons in Colorado before he was traded to the White Sox.
His career took off in Chicago as he blossomed into dominant relief arm. In parts of two seasons there, he pitched to a 2.56 ERA across 63 1/3 innings. 2017 was particularly dominant, as he struck out batters at a ridiculous 42.6% rate. That prompted the Yankees to acquire him with Todd Frazier and David Robertson at the 2017 deadline, and he became a valuable member of the Yankees’ bullpen, pitching to a 2.70 ERA down the stretch in New York.
He struggled mightily in 2018, dealing with shoulder tendinitis early in the season. While he return in late-May, a surge in walks saw him limp to a 6.56 ERA that year. He bounced back in 2019 though, tossing 61 1/3 innings of 3.67 ERA ball.
While there’s a history of injuries and some inconsistency there, there’s also no doubting the talent and late-inning stuff of Kahnle when fit and firing. As Alex Speier earlier noted, Kahnle has had many suitors this winter. The Red Sox, however, have been vocal about their interest in upgrading the roster, and chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom has spoken of looking to add as many as nine players this winter.
The bullpen has already been a focus for them, with the team inking Joely Rodriguez to a one-year, $2MM deal and Chris Martin to a two-year, $17.5MM pact. The possible addition of Kahnle would give them another strong option as Bloom looks to bolster the bullpen ahead of the 2023 season.
Sneaky good move. I had hoped the Yankees would bring him back. Bulldog mentality.
Inconsistent, most likely due to arm issues. Depends on the cost as I’d prefer looking for starters and then have Whitlock and Houck at the end. Bloom is trying to repeat 2013 when the team filled out their roster, mostly everything hit and Papi had as great a playoff run as we’ve ever seen. Better odds of getting the 78 lineup to reassemble than winning in 23. Hope I’m wrong but the way ownership has tied his hands is a disgrace to Sox fans everywhere. Fans deserve a balance of putting a quality team on the field today while we wait for the youngsters to mature.
Fair assessment Dewey. I think the Rays FO personnel are waaaay overrated in their ability to employ the Rays MO in every FO. These are the fruits of Rays FO personnel. Fringe people that can get on base or pitchers with deeper friendly metrics. All garbage for regular teams. It doesn’t work. You know what does? Getting proven talent the old school way. Sorry if that’s a bit cynical, but there’s a reason teams are hiring 75-year-olds to manage again.
And just how has ownership tied Bloom’s hands? The Sox had the fifth highest luxury tax in 2022 and exceeded it for tax purposes. You are entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts.
It really does get tiring with all these people who continue with the “Sox ownership is cheap” mantra despite the team rarely being outside the top 5 in payroll every year over the past 20 they’ve owned the team.
True statement however most of those contracts werent in blooms era.
Jock strap: But Blooms team payroll have been in top 5, 2 of his 3 years. So whats your point. Because he inherited a bunch of bad contacts, he should’ve overspent even further? How is this Bloom’s fault. Make some sense, please.
Fans are just dumb. There’s a penalty for continuing to run payrolls above or near the luxury tax. The system is designed to penalize teams for going all in. This is why you hear owners and the brilliant Ivy League talk about sustainable success, and competitive windows. Spending the most money every year in free agency is a good way to have a 5-7 year rebuild. But if you asked fans in a year they thought they could win it all should we go all in or course the delusional idiots would say go all in. Even if you explained to them payroll will have to go down next year. Fans are too dumb to think beyond today. That’s why none of them have any money whatsoever. They don’t know how to use a budget and all have debt they will never pay off.
Not once did i say this was Blooms fault. Point being he DID inherit hefty contracts so no matter what he came into top 5 payroll. It does take time to get those contracts off the books (thats a fact..”wink””). Before Story’s signing, Kiki was the highest contact he has given. So lets turn this back to you!! whats your point?
He was already over the cap “Before Story’s signing” and needed to reset the Luxury Tax. You do understand that right? How 3 years in a row Luxury Tax penalties kill a team?
So what does “Story’s signing” have ANYTHING to do with anything. He had no money to spend. Whats your point?
Again you keep bringing ‘Bloom’ into this, not me. Even the early post talks about the “ownership”. But, your immediate post is “True statement however most of those contracts werent in blooms era.” You’ve got a bad case of ‘Deranged Bloom Syndrome’.
“He was already over the cap “Before Story’s signing” and needed to reset the Luxury Tax. ”
“You do understand that right?”
Do You?
“How 3 years in a row Luxury Tax penalties kill a team? ”
The luxury tax was already reset. This past season was the 1st time Sox went over since 2019. Try google next time to back up statements.
By straddling the tax threshold. Only big signing since 19 was Story. Part is the pandemic but fans who have supported the team deserve profits reinvested instead of building the overall Fenway brand.. Other big markets are forced today to compete with the mid market clubs that are now spending.
I’m a Bloom supporter but the team should be able to build for the future while competing each year instead of boom or bust each season
Huh?
2020: Bloom HAD TO get under in Threshold. Because of the “three year penalty”, and ownership mandate.
2021: Red Sox were 400K from Threshold.
2022: Red Sox were over Threshold.
I was talking about the “3 years” before Bloom got here. Now youre just twisting words to make your point. So lame. I doubt Bloom will go ever go over Threshold in consecutive years.
In 2020, Red Sox had to reset.
In 2022, Red Sox were over the Threshold.
So youre saying in 2021 they shouldve spent a lot more money. Its the only way you can justify your “Before Story’s signing, Kiki was the highest contact he has given.” comment, and have it make any sense.
So in 2021 Red Sox shouldve blasted thru the threshold?
Ridiculous. Thats not the way the Red Sox are being run these days. Get used to it, crying wont help.
You are NOT a Bloom supporter. You and FPG, always say that, then proceed with 10 hate comments, before going back to the “Im a Bloom supporter” mantra.
“I was talking about the “3 years” before Bloom got here. Now youre just twisting words to make your point. So lame. I doubt Bloom will go ever go over Threshold in consecutive years.”
These are the years Red Sox went over the threshold….
2004–2007, 2010–2011, 2015–2016, 2018-2019
Are you talking 2004-2007? Because those are the only 3 consecutive years.
*Not twisting any words! problem is, your getting tongue twisted when facts are brought to you. Own It!
Dont worry Dewey!! Huntington just found out he’s on the naughty list & has to face the “facts”…LMAO :p
Facts? You mean the “facts” I present that you neatly avoid.
For Example: You fault Bloom for not spending until “Story” yet you dont explain how he was suppose to do that, before “Story” when the Red Sox were over the cap in ’20, and 400K under the cap in ’21.
As long as you dont ever have to be consistent. You got the facts.
Go back and look at my historical posts. in 20, I understood and accepted the Betts trade but now we have a new CBA and the Sox are the only big market team concerned with the threshold. My problem in retrospect is straddling the line and marginally going over this past year. Boston is a northeast fan base where today AND tomorrow both matter. Are we expecting a Houston like situation? I hope so given their run which now cannot be ignored. I don’t see that happening.
Huntington,
my issue is with ownership mainly who spend more on other issues than they do on the team. Why not act like a big market like they used to appear? Once the threshold was reset in 20, many expected the team to again spend. If others can, why not Boston?
ok! Do you feel better now that you have reposted a fact?
Now that you feel better let’s get back on the original topic that you are steering from…ok?
Now again, what 3 consecutive years are you talking about they went over the luxury tax before Bloom?
Don’t suggest 2004-2007 because that was a different era of spending and 15 years ago….mmmm k? I know you are talking recent history so please educate me on what im missing here.
These are the years Red Sox went over the threshold….
2004–2007, 2010–2011, 2015–2016, 2018-2019
Well Said!!!
Your silence justified everything!!! :p
Sox got Blake Rutherford from the Yanks in a trade for Kahnle (Robertson and Frazier), Rutherford is in the rule 5 draft, had a decent year in AAA
CWS, Ive always liked Rutherford, thought the White Sox would give him and/or Haseley a shot this year in left
A 93 wRC+ in AAA for a corner outfielder won’t cut in the majors. He’ll have to get that up to about 130 to have any chance of being an average major leaguer.
Got your wish afterall
He could be had for like $2.5M. Low downside high upside.
Trill – You see how Simon wrote “the small sample size makes it hard to read too much into that.” about giving up homeruns?
He’s right, but it should also apply to his ERA, K% and BB%. We are talking just 12 innings here.
A big payroll team can afford to take a $2.5M gamble like that, but for a team like the Red Sox that’s extremely tight with their money, $2.5M is too pricey. I would pass.
Bloom is a guy that if you forced him to spend your money in a casino he’d walk around the penny slots, then come back saying he won 5 times in 100 because he spread the cash around so much, so, that makes him a winner.
Reality is, he lost more in the process trying to get the ‘wins’ than the so called jackpots were ever worth.
He runs player acquisition the same way. For each ‘good move’ or ‘bargain’ there were probably 20 failed transactions, and, the net cost of the failures plus the ‘wins’ exceed what it’d cost to just go get known quantities.
2.5 would be a bargain for him. 12 innings isn’t enough of a sample to judge his hr rate but enough for other more useful evaluation data. Also won’t need to spend much time in the video room but enough to make a decision on him.
GASox – Great analogy.
Thats a pretty accurate assessment.
Red Sox are gonna make so many moves they’re being underrated on the market.
Red Sox can come get Blake treinen or Daniel Hudson too while they are at it.
Good Move
Awesome comment
The Red Sox have really gone downhill, they are looking awfully like a last place team in that division. They are about to be bad for quite awhile.
I would bet on him having a good year.
Another strikeout guy but his FIP is a little high. We will see how he goes but doesn’t look bad.
Wow!!! Let’s win the offseason!!
After picking up Joely Rodriguez and Chris Martin, pursuing Kahnle now makes it more puzzling than ever why the Boston FO did not DFA Brasier. It doesn’t seem to be coherent strategy, which is a criticism that many commenters here and elsewhere have been hanging on the Bloom admin, especially since the stark mishandling of the trade deadline. Ultimately, the decision not to DFA Brasier makes it look like the FO did not have the foresight to know they were going to be in on a number of relievers in the offseason. How could they not know?
I’ve only ever come up with 3 explanations…
1) they have no clue how to run a front office properly.
2) everything they do is on the fly and there never really is a roadmap.
3) they make a plan a, plan b, and plan c, but don’t understand that sometimes you run them consecutively instead of just all at the same time.
I guess there is a fourth option in the words of Frank…. Bloom and the baseball ops dept enjoy nose clams.
GASox – I think it was you that brought up Lucchino not too long ago.
It really feels like Henry decided to go with a young, inexperienced guy in Bloom because of Henry’s history with Theo. I am really starting to believe Henry thought he would have the same success with Bloom that he had with Theo, despite Bloom’s inexperience.
But what Henry doesn’t realize, or remember, is that Theo was surrounded by a strong team of executives that helped mentor him.
Lucchino, Baird, Lajoie, Bill James … all those guys played huge roles in the team’s success but they were behind the scenes so we didn’t read or hear much about it.
Bloom doesn’t have all that experience surrounding him, THAT is a huge difference between the mid-2000’s Red Sox and the organization we have today.
Darn, I knew I forgot at least one more experienced front office guy from Theo’s days in Boston … Mike Port.
Yes, I brought up Larry a few times this offseason, think I’ve been the only one who has.
I agree you’re right about the mentorship, but, also think the quartet of assistant gms that were in place at the time and where they promoted Brian out of were viewed by Henry as creating a braintrust of sorts that would be sufficient in a similar way. I think he was wrong, but, believe it’s what he may have thought.
But, even if you HAD the same support, doesn’t mean two different guys will turn out the same way. Just like the same owner can get two dogs, train em the same, and they grow up different. Well, in bloom Henry gas got a dog that don’t hunt.
Ive got a few theories:
1) Angry fans in Boston don’t understand how badly DD left the team. Devoid of a decent team, prospects, draft picks, and over the cap for multiple years.
2) Angry fans in Boston don’t understand the amount of time it takes to develop a home grown. Prospects need 4 to 7 years to develop.
3) Angry fans think that if you throw enough money at the problem it will fix itself, without any understanding of how ‘Over The Cap’ in modern baseball shoots a team in the foot long-term. Its not their money, and they probably don’t even go to the game, so throw that money around.
4) Angry fans just like to be angry, even if its irrational, and will pizz and moan about things every year, regardless of team status. See any post at MLBTR during 2021 season, when Red Sox made it to the ALCS. All they did was cried, all season long. And not one said, “I underestimated them”.
You are missing the most important Angry Fan…
We know the Sox had to rebuild, and still need to rebuild. But the FO keeps lying, saying there is no rebuild. Keeps lying about signing high end guys.
Basically we are the Angry group of fans who are completely fed up with a Lying FO who thinks the rest of us are too stupid to know they are a Lying FO.
We were the ones saying if you are going to do a rebuild, do it right. Tear it all down. If they’re not resigning Zander then he should have been traded 2 years ago, and Devers last year. And JDM, and anyone else who was worth 3 cents
DBH gets it.
If you couldnt see there was a rebuild, then you are not very astute. It was obvious (JBJ trade, Benintendi trade, Workman trade).
“keeps lying, saying there is no rebuild”
Please explain: Sox management in 2020 tell fans ‘There will be a 4 to 6 year rebuild’. Okay, how do you explain that to the season ticket holders. Please explain your marketing technique to sell out Fenway, after explaining that?
“Fed up fans” 4 World Series in 20 years. WS win 4 years ago. ALCS 1 year ago. Bunch of cry babies, if u ask me.
Huntington sounds about right from my time in Boston in grad school. Angry angry angry.
Right and the Red Sox pivoted twice and have fielded championship level teams under separate regimes, cleaning up after my namesake profligate chicken and beer spending. Perhaps why Red Sox Nation should not have nice things for the time being. So much needless drama. Contrast Giant fans who have similarly seen their franchise zig zag their way to multiple championships across multiple windows and seem to enjoy the ride each time.
You forgot another one
Angry Fans who simply can’t grasp that the disappointing record in 2022 had much more to do with numerous injuries to key players than it had to do with poor roster construction. There were points in 2022 where the only healthy starting pitcher who was expected to be in the rotation entering Spring Training was Nick Pivetta.
And, DBH, if you’re going full rebuild and not wasting your chief asset – peak controllable years – then you also don’t waste your second best asset, QO compensation. Bloom screwed the pooch on that one this offseason.
Oh. So sox fans are to expect that the 2022 record was about injuries and underperformance, BUT, 2019 was because the team need a full on rebuild?
Not buying it. 2019s team.was head and shoulders better than 2022, or for that matter, 2021, in a vacuum if measured in that regard.
Try again and tanks for playing.
Build the bullpen first because those are the guys who go off the board first. Work on the other needs as well but you don’t sign the big boys without more negotiation. Stay the course.
Judge the result, not the process. Take the knots out of your underwear and relax. Even at the end the off-season, you still don’t really know, but at least you get some indication.
hayzee – I’m curious as to why you believe relievers get signed first? Do you have a list of free agents signed thus far this season by position than can support your belief?
Because quite frankly, relievers – especially those who aren’t elite closers – typically get signed last as they command the lowest salaries and play the fewest innings.
Scrub relievers probably do get signed last and that’s where Bloom did things in the past. I think he’s being smarter this time. Just my thoughts for now.
I think it’s in part a matter of perception. Excluding minor league depth signings, more relievers are signed every offseason because more relievers are on every roster.
So, you read of more. The other side of things is a reliever fighting over 10% extra contract value is only talking one or two mil in contract value.
A position player works in contracts 10-20x the value of a relievers similarly positioned in the market. There’s a lot more jockeying around and offers/counters on a 70m or 300m contract than a 7m or 30m one.
No surprise there. Bloom loves tailing his old bosses Friedman and Neander on players.
That applies to every Personnel guy, everywhere in all sports. They leave a team, are very knowledgable about the team’s talent, then want to acquire players they really like. Your point?
Lol.
He’s tailing guys who weren’t in the org when he acquired them too.
Unlike Neander and Friedman—Bloom isn’t developing guys. That’s the problem. He’s tailing his bosses moves well though!
I think people have good reason to be pissed off at Bloom. The guy has made many poor decisions. I was on board with the decision to have sustained success by balancing a good farm system with a big contract here and there. The problem is Bloom isn’t good at identifying talent. A vast majority of his trades are bad, he seems to prefer quantity over quality. His Renfroe trade was dumb, the benetendi trade was terrible and the mookie trade went poorly too. He hit on a couple things but his mistakes outweigh those hits. Also, his one big contract was Story who hit 220 playing half his games in Colorado. That was a fireable offense just in itself.
Facts
Bloom continues to put together a team from Filene’s Basement. Looking forward to another year of a Verdugo-Hernandez=Refsnyder OF, except thjat Kiki is aldo apparently going to start at SS or 2B, And at this point, there’s absolutely no reason to believe they can get a Devers extension done.
The one thing I can’t blame the sox for is not wanting to sign long-term contracts that nearly always end poorly. I do blame them for not taking the approach Atlanta has and signed guys to extensions early on. Devers should have bern signed 3 years ago when it was apparent he was a good player. It generally cost less to sign them before they hit arbitration than wait till free agency.
The single biggest reason bloom didn’t sign Devers early to an extension is that by CBT it would eat up his dumpster fund.
Extensions work because you shift money from the FA years into the pre arb and early arb years. Guy going to be worth 25m/yr? OK, take a year you can show on paper he makes 700k or 3m and combine them. Same way your mortgage interest works. Then your avg across the two is a manageable 13m/year, but, he walks away with the same money.
Bloom wanted under the cbt with a good 50m/yr slush fund to waste on lottery ticket reclamation and bad deal psospect buying. That’s a fact. Had you averaged Devers for say, buying out 3 FA seasons, with that he’d make in pre-arb, Arb1. Arb2, and figure arb3 was going to straddle near the mean anyways if not be above so as to not count it, you’d get around $18m in projected money, and 90m in fa money, with maybe 22m in arb3, with a kid hitting FA around 29 or 30 still which annagent would accept. Avg that out, 130/6 is a 21.5 aav. But, aavs of 700k, 4m, 9m or so leave a surplus for cbt from NOT extending.
Bloom wanted that cbt surplus which, as we saw, brought the likes of JBJs bad contract, or, peraza, or any of 100 other dumpster moves.
That’s why Devers didn’t get extended.
Whitlock and Houck are cost effective. That’s why they were advised to come to camp ready to slide into the rotation. Pen arms are much cheaper to obtain. Players like Rodon are probably going to get 6/160-175. Sox have little appetite for that. Finishing under the CBT is a bigger priority than finishing in the playoff hunt……At least in 2023. Story, JBJ, and Paxton signings/trades kept them from a reset in 22. The unexpected success of 2021 paralyzed any decisions to sell off major assets at the trade deadline. Here they sit with most farm hands a couple of years away and a multitude of holes to fill on a team. It’s a long off season, but perhaps an even longer regular season.
I can completely see how the Red Sox management would be against obtaining and building high quality starting pitching and making that the foundation of the team going forward. We managed for nearly the entire 1900’s not trying it and we almost won a world series a couple times. The times we did try this approach only netted us the 2004, 2007, 2013, and 2018 World Series.
Just an aside. I have been a Red Sox fan over half a century. Is anyone ever going to bring up or hold accountable the people responsible for the biggest black hole in pitching development maybe in baseball history? In an entire lifetime I have seen about a dozen or so quality pitchers that we drafted, developed, held on to, that really panned out in the long run. They are like a rainbow striped unicorn with tap shoes. There are other organizations that have multiple pitching stars coming up and sticking in the majors on an almost yearly basis. It is staggering how bad we are at this. Even factoring in bad luck, you would have to have such bad luck with having bad luck to have this bad of luck at drafting and developing pitchers over all these decades.
I am not kidding. I want you all to really think about it compared to the Dodgers, Yankees, etc. on drafting and developing pitchers. Are we the worst in history? We might actually be. Try listing the pitchers we drafted, developed, came up through the system, and had lengthy careers as stars in the major leagues for us.
Lester, Clemens, Lonborg, Radatz, Lee, Hurst, Monbouquette, Leonard, Papelbon, Wood, Ruffing, I honestly cannot think of more before we dip into guys like Buchholz, Barnes, Houck, Sele, Brett, Pavano, Boyd, and Stanley. This is 100+ years of baseball. W T actual F ?!?!?! The Orioles alone have produced 3 times t
Some names, like buchholz, you can’t even claim full credit for because they were identified, drafted, and began development with other teams.
Sox also have a history of mismanaged development such as breaking bard, although they made similarly costly mistakes on the diamond like swihart.
On the flipside, sox have been VERY hood ad developing position players, even just the last 20 years. The smart thing is stick to what works, develop excess position guys, and flip them to a club that develops pitching like Miami or Cleveland.
Signing a pitcher coming back from tommy john surgery is almost akin to something from the world according to garp. He buys the house after a plane hits it.
WHAT are the chances of that happening again!
“So you’re saying there’s a chance.”
Kahnle
Injured for most of 2022 and 2018 and all of 2021 and 2020
Only has been healthy in 2019 and 2017
Would be irresponsible for anyone to give him a multi-year contract
so, bloom in with a guaranteed 3 year deal then, maybe 4?
I wish they had been assertive in the pen, like this, last offseason – multiple guys, late inning stuff, contingency plans. Last year they lost their regular 8th inning righty – Ottavino – and brought in two lefties, in Diekman and Strahm. They had three or four guys handed spots coming out of camp, who really ought to have been competing for the last spot or two. Sure, they expected a couple of their back end starter types would end up in the pen. But they had a glaring need for RH setup that was ignored or excused away. When Whitlock was pulled, it compounded the problem.
Things are going to go wrong – on paper is always going to look different in August than it did in February
Last year’s team had zero chance as constructed, and I am fairly sure they knew it. If they didn’t that is an even bigger troubling issue to deal with. You can’t build a competitive team purely on the hope of overperforming players at nearly a dozen spots. and that is exactly what they did. They “hoped” we would get better than average MLB production from multiple positions, half the rotation, and nearly an entire bullpen. That doesn’t even factor in injuries that are sure to pop up.
The things they should have known for certain were these. Lack of real power was an issue in this line up. We knew we were losing at least 50+ home runs as constructed, and only if players performed at high level. It could have been even worse amazingly. The bull pen was going to be average at best, and that was with “hope” coming through. Starters were a huge issue, and in turn would create a massive strain on a mediocre bullpen.
Result. The starters performed as expected. Mediocre. The bullpen performed badly, which should have been expected. The lineup was easily maneuvered through by pitchers with an expected result from a power perspective. In the end we were not built for speed, defense, power, had no expectation of having a lock down bullpen, and the rotation was weak enough to know without a shadow of a doubt that it wasn’t prepared for any playoff run if lucky enough to squeak into the playoffs.
My one “hope” in all this is that Bloom was well aware of these massive and blatant short comings. He knew that last year was a throw away season and had zero expectation we were a competitive team. Otherwise, this is really, really, really bad.
Kahnle would be a good choice. The Sox have had their SS for a year. If Xander goes and if Devers doesn’t accept a new contract they should move Devers. Iglesias or someone comparable will back up Story.
Spend the money on pitching; it’s the name of the game, we all know that.
Bring back Vaz or a better catcher. Stock up on GOOD prospects. I love Xander and Devers but not for $30 M each over 10 years.
less than 14 innings pitched over the last three seasons and a team is “pushing” to sign him?
So… Xander Bogaerts? Where’s the push to sign HIM??
I guess this is what you mean by signing players with “upside”. Not hard for him to outperform pitch 13 innings in the next 3 years.
I can’t wait for Bloom to hold that press conference to tell us about all the players they almost signed. Abreu,Khanle,Bogaerts (is it really jumping the gun at this point?)….Who’s next?
Basically 3 forms of Red Sox news. 1) Red Sox are interested in (insert name). I can be nearly certain (insert name) is signing with another team imminently. 2) (insert name) just signed with another team. You can be sure a release will be made that the Red Sox were in on that player, but blah blah blah happened, so blah blah blah. 3) Surpirise news that the Red Sox just picked up (insert name). A player that we either forgot existed or didn’t know existed. That is exaggerating, but not by a lot..
Yankees To Sign Tommy Kahnle
By Steve Adams | December 6, 2022 at 10:41am CDT
If I knew this news I wouldn’t have posted. but seems to fit in nicely with my post.
……and moments later Kahnle signs with NYY for $11.5M. Sox fans can take solace in the fact that what the Yankees got for all that money is a relative question mark whose thrown fewer than 13 innings over the past 3 years. Missing on this one could be a blessing.
This has become obsolete now
I get this odd feeling he will sign with Yankees.
Got beat again! Got to go the extra if want someone!
Guess Redsox signing Tommy did not work…
DD is like a Canadian Mountee, he always gets his man! I don’t know what that makes Bloom like. But apparently he always thinks he is taking the money from his kids piggy bank to pay these guys. If you don’t pay them more than the next team, you ain’t gettin ‘em! Wake up! A well known definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results!
It means Dombrowski is willing to overpay and Bloom is not.
The things to be learned over the many years of off seasons are these. If you wait you miss out. Prices go up, not down for the most part so if you are looking for a bargain, it’s because that player always was one, and those players usually do not solve problems, they simply exist. You will pay more for the elite fixes to your problems, because you need to. Agents gauge the moves/market and will prolong the process whenever necessary to gain max value through competition as players come off the board. Prolonged means you have missed out on the better mid-tier options while you waited. You tend to pay more for mediocrity if you wait, rather than paying more for the elite.
Identify your weaknesses. Identify the targets that fix those weaknesses, and strike early to make sure you get your targets. If you wait you are going to overpay for plan D, E, and F.
What are the problems with the Red Sox?
We need a proven starter that can eat innings and hopefully perform at the level of a number 2 in the rotation. I am sick and tired of management thinking Pivetta is anything better than a 4 or 5 starter in the AL east when gauging the pitching staff. We have picked up three relievers to add to an atrocious bullpen. The pen as it stands is adequate only if we get better production from the relievers we retained. The smart move would be to get one more starter at a number 3 rotation level and let the excess of starters sort out the pen to strengthen it. Ex: Houck, Bello. You cannot have a bullpen filled with pitchers that should be spread out through the league pitching unimportant junk innings assemble in one place.
We have very little thunder in this lineup. I watched an entire season of teams pitching around Devers in any situation that mattered. This lineup instills fear in no one, nor should it. Now that lineup with little thunder doesn’t have Martinez, or Bogaerts. If you resigned both of these players, you would be short at least one legit power hitter, or two mid-range power hitters. The market is already down to the shortstops’ (which doesn’t solve the problem, and just retains what fell short last year) and players like Voit, Contreras, and Mancini. It is slim picking at this point to address a lineup that has to string together walks and singles to do what every other competitive playoff roster can do with a swing of the bat from 4 or 5 players in their lineups. The last option is raiding our farm system to trade for players to make this lineup formidable again.
We aren’t built for speed. We aren’t built for power. We aren’t built for defense. We aren’t built for dominant starting pitching. We aren’t built for a lock down bullpen. At some point the nerds running baseball operations for the Red Sox have to sit around a table and ask each other if anyone has any ideas about what the goal is in this roster building. I would hate the Bloom era to be all the shortcomings I listed above with the only caveat being that the Sox hit a bunch of doubles off a 37 foot wall between 310 and 379 feet away (like every other Red Sox roster in its history).
maybe the Yankees will trade him to Boston