11:47am: The Rockies have announced the trade.
11:28am: The Rockies have acquired right-hander Connor Seabold from the Red Sox in exchange for a player to be named later or cash, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (via Twitter). Boston designated Seabold for assignment last week when finalizing their deal with free-agent starter Corey Kluber. The Rockies had an open spot on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding transaction won’t be required.
Seabold, 26, was a mildly surprising DFA by the Red Sox, if only due to his recent status as one of the organization’s more promising pitching prospects. There are pronounced durability concerns about the right-hander, however, due in no small part to elbow trouble in 2021 and a forearm strain in 2022. Seabold has just 364 professional innings since being drafted back in 2017 — that modest total coming despite his status as a starting pitcher.
As far as his Major League work is concerned, Seabold has yet to find success. He’s tallied just 21 1/3 innings in the Majors, all with the Red Sox, and he’s been tagged for 25 runs in that time. Things have gone more smoothly in Triple-A, where Seabold pitched well as recently as this past season: 86 1/3 innings, 3.32 ERA, 24.7% strikeout rate, 5.3% walk rate.
Despite concerns about his ability to stay on the field and a shaky MLB performance to date, Seabold is more or less a big league-ready arm who’ll give the Rockies some depth on the pitching staff, if not a player who could legitimately vie for a starting job this spring. Colorado’s rotation will be without Antonio Senzatela to begin the season, due to the righty’s ACL tear late last year, and the staff has little certainty beyond righty German Marquez and lefty Kyle Freeland (both of whom are looking for a rebound performance anyhow). Jose Urena, Ryan Feltner and Austin Gomber are the ostensible front-runners, but each posted an ERA north of 5.00 in 2022.
Seabold also has a minor league option year remaining, so if he doesn’t win a job out of camp, he can still be sent to the minors without first needing to clear waivers.
Seabold from we Phillies minor league SUPERSTAR
Quite a jump in ERA there
From the minors to the majors
Women would rate him a 10, just like his ERA…
The more home runs at Coors the better… Rockie way
Coors Field is where pitchers get rocked. Kumar Rocker should be there.
A bold move in a sea of PTBNL or cash.
I can see boldly how Boston and Colorado could come to this agreement.
Another miss by Shaim Doom!!
He’s clearly opening up a spot on the 40 for some reason. How could this possibly be declared a miss already, when you don’t know what it’s clearing a path for?
it’s for Corey Kluber. Regardless Seabold was a fringe MLBer anyway. Hardly a miss
Seabold was DFA’d for Kloobs
the kluber signing was made official last week, thus they dfa’d seabold. they sat at 41, with this trade they are now back down to 40.
Cuban – That is why Seabold was moved out of the farm system. He had five legitimate prospect starting pitchers ahead of him, so in a way you are correct. The 5 are legitimate as Seabold no longer is.
He got him and Pivetta for two crappy relievers. This is such a garbage take.
Thoughts and prayers to this ERA.
One would think that a 26, soon to be 27yo starting pitcher with only 364 innings to his name despite being drafted in 2017 being one of the top “pitching prospects” in your system tells more about the state of your farm system than the abilities of the pitcher.
If you know anything about the Sox system, this DFA and trade is more reflective of the fact that he got passed up on the depth chart by 5-6 other high minors pitchers. Seabold likely would have been up full-time by mid-2021 had he not gotten hurt. He lost velo and never really regained a feel for his changeup after that. The high ranking was reflective of the belief he could regain his potential from before the injury
Maybe im showing my age, but for as long as I’ve been following baseball if a “prospect” hadn’t graduated to the majors by the ages of 24/25 for whatever reason they started to lose their prospect status due to the natural influx of talent into the system via the draft and signings. Therefore, if a guy is still held in high regard in the system at that age, especially if its based on “the belief he could regain his potential” the system has to be pretty barren.
Pitchers take longer. A 24 yo pitcher in the minors is typical if they went to college.
cuban – I think people need to understand that there was tension between Cora and Seabold based on his last start of the season. That’s why he got DFA’d when there were better choices and that’s why he’s in Colorado now.
This move has nothing to do with the farm system or his abilities. It’s all about Cora.
The Red Sox do not develop pitching. We have had a dearth of pitching development since the early days of combustion engines. For the most part, if we draft you, chances are you aren’t going to end up being all that good. If you were, you would be pitching for someone else.
“if we draft you, (as a pitcher) chances are you aren’t going to end up being that good”
Fenway is a hitter’s park. So, if you’re a hitter, chances are you are going to end up being that good.
Red Sox producing through their farm system, (players that produce for their own team) the best hitters in baseball. Yankees are the only team that can argue that point. Either way Sox are 1 or 2 producing hitters.
Way to look at the glass as half empty.
No one, including myself made the point that the hitting development isn’t good. It had been for nearly the franchise history. A bit of that is hitting half a season at Fenway which generates AVG, and doubles historically. You can usually expect a slight bump there.
The reason I wrote about the pitching development is because it is historically bad. I mean, hard to achieve terrible. There are franchises around for 1/3 of the time that have developed more solid pitching. No need to go through it, but as noted here many, many, many times. you can place the number of great arms coming out of the Sox system that we developed and achieved their stats with us on the back of a post card.
“No one, including myself” said you said the “hitting isnt good”. Reread my post. I gave a counter-point. I said youre “looking at the glass half empty”.
I wish I had a dime for every time someone complained about the Red Sox. Can’t just say the pitching development is bad, but at least we have the hitters. Eveyone has to be negative all thee time. This site is full of a bunch of whiners.
Maybe trades are happening with greater frequency now that the international signings have started? I sure hope so.
Heath Hembree and Brandon Workman. Turned into a nice deal for the Sox
Was going to say that…don’t need to now.
They still have Pivetta from that deal too, so the Sox made out quite well if you ask me even after this DFA.
One thing I’d love to see is if a DFA’d player is acquired for cash considerations, how much cash does the original team get? Is it only $50K or is it closer to $500K?
Totally agree Mantooth. Poorly worded, but I was pointing out that they were able to get Pivetta and this ptbnl and or cash for a couple throwaways. Nicely played by the Sox.
This certainly feels like it would be a cash considerations type deal yeah? This is an interesting one as his minor league numbers even up to last year have been consistently good. He has the early career stat line of a late bloomer.
Let us know when you find out, DM. Even if it’s off topic. It’s a very good question
Found this in a MLB article from 2020.
One catch to putting a PTBN in a trade: Teams can agree to push the deadline for assigning the player to six months from the date of the trade, or the cash considerations (which is a maximum of $100,000) that would be sent in lieu of the player to complete the trade.
YOLOROX
Tommy John on line 1
While reading the article I was wondering why doesn’t he just get it now and be done with it.
Just more highly dysfunctional trades by an outdated management team. It’s really laughable and/or leads to tears! Equally, trading Rodgers is another bone headed move. He persevered nicely in 2022 and ended with a strong performance with his bat & glove (1st time reaching 500+ at bats…very long season). He is young and far better than any of the young kids coming up. Review his minor league stats verses Tovar and company! Further, he has far more potential than McMahon who strikes out way too much. Paying Rodger 2..7MM p/yr verses Ryan 70MM LTC?? LOL. Plus, how many good players could the Rockies add with Bryant’s 182MM contract!? Rodgers should be the core to this team not unproven minor leaguers. The the manager must stick with a steady batting order versing his yo-yo philosophy! Allow players to establish a rhythm. And, sign Cron to an 2-3 year contract! The kid can play and is proven!! Humbly, a former MLB player…so I understand. …not a hack with a tablet. respectfully! :))
so what are you upset about? seabold, or everything else the rockies are doing? seems to me they just brought in their #3 starter.
Sir are you having a stroke?
complaining about what the rockies are doing as an org is fair, but this deal has potential to be their best transaction in decades
Respectfully, its a joke., I live in Boston and this is not even a conversation.
The player is irrelevant. Absolutely not!
Calling Rodgers the core of a team is laughable. He is an average player who can support a strong lineup but is a regular only on teams with no real aspiration for winning. I can see why you are a former MLBer with no job in the industry.
woah, I’ts not hump day yet!
Lack of velocity and no out pitch, Seabold is going to struggle above sea level
His change-up is his out pitch. One of best in minors.
Seamaholic – Seabold’s change-up WAS his out pitch, but the scouting reports from team insider say that it has not come back after his injuries the last two years. Regardless, Crawford, Walter, Mata,…. have all passed Seabold on the AAA depth chart!
The Red Sox 40-man roster current stands at 23 pitchers and only 17 position players. The Red Sox need to add 2 position players (2B, SS, and/or CF), which means 2 additional pitchers need to be DFA. The alternative is to finalize a infielder signing when spring training starts, so Story can be shifted to the DL, and one of the infielder signings can take his 40-man spots.
In sum, Seabold is not the same pitcher that the Red Sox traded for in 2020. The injuries have lowered his ceiling to a AAAA pitcher. The 40-man roster spot can be filled by a player with a much higher potential. Unfortunately the roster limit is 40 and not 50.
I’ve explained this before, but some of the fans don’t get the 40-man concept. For all the concern about Darwinzon & Seabold, instead of Ort, Mills, etc. At least one more pitcher is slated to be DFAd.
Joe – Agreed, some of the fans forget that the limit is 40! The Red Sox sign Turner, Kluber, and Jansen, and did not make them official for a week or two effectively making it a “43”-man roster, but that is very temporary while they looked to trade some players off the 40. The trades did not materialize, so the DFAs were eminent. The Red Sox could in theory have Andrus or Iglesias “signed” and be waiting closer to spring training to announce it so they do not have to loose another 40-man player. I know for a fact that this goes on.
In one of the reports I read that Devers had been visited at his home by the Red Sox big brass several weeks before the big announcement for the signing, and that the deal was going to get done, but that nothing was leaked until the contract particulars were finalized.
There is really no need to tell the public until all the signings are complete. It gives the others team an advantage if they know who the Red Sox are looking at.
The trading of Seabold for a player to be named later is the conclusion of yet another deal by Bloom that was applauded by so many yet turned out to be a bust. Dumping players like Hembree and Workman and getting something for them is a no brainer. Bloom got Pivetta who most people criticized and they raved about Seabold.
With hindsight it’s clear that Pivetta was the best player in the deal. Seabold, like so many other players acquired by Bloom, has been a bust. Granted his numbers weren’t any worse than one would expect being thrown into a fire with next to no preparation but in the end Seabold is gone thanks to Cora. For that very reason, I fully expect Seabold to resurrect his career in Colorado. NOBODY has been more wrong about pitchers than Cora. NOBODY has impacted the Red Sox pitching staff more than Cora.
Dealing players at the deadline should have been standard operating procedure for Bloom during all his seasons in Boston (including the dream season in 2021) because that’s when you can get the most value for the players if there is a need in the marketplace. Hembree and Workman being traded when they were traded is a simple GM 101 type move and Bloom did it correctly. It’s one of his few correct moves. Getting ANYTHING for those two is a bonus. Getting Pivetta has turned out to be his most productive move. Seabold, while much ballyhooed by people on this site, didn’t really perform to expectations. Still, the move was a good one that ends in a DFA and a trade for the famous PTBNL.
If this was his only acquisition that ended in a DFA and a give away, nobody would care. The fact that there have been countless fruitless acquisitions is the disturbing part to Bloom’s tenure.
I’m sure we will see many more great acquisitions turned sour before he is retired by ownership. Downs and Seabold are probably the highest profile bad choices in acquiring players.
Lets hope it’s not long before we can stop counting the Bloom mistakes and look forward to good choices by a new and experienced big market GM.
@pulledabloom Great breakdown. Just look at the OF we had (Betts, Benny JBJ) and look at the end result of what we ended up with. It’s a joke and the fact Bloom is still employed is dumbfounding.
Betts was never coming back, as was evident by the fact that he turned down a $300 million extension. Its time stop beating that dead horse because there is literally nothing left.
Benintendi was terrible at the end of his time in Boston. His batting stance was all messed up and the Royals were able to fix him.
They had JBJ, traded him, and traded back for him and could sign him back again if they really wanted to because it seems no one else wants him either.
92 wins and a trip to the ALCS in ’21 without any of them…
Revisionist history by Rsox…
JBJ left in free agency. He wasn’t traded away then traded back for. You’ve got the order of things messed up.
JBJ wasn’t traded before his deal ran out. He left in FA, and, bloom foolishly took on excessive salary to buy him back on a terribly underwater deal that ultimately could be pointed at as a reason the bonus pool and draft compensation took a hit for this year’s draft.
Benintendi was traded in another bonehead move by bloom for all useless piles of junk, and fringe lottery prospects. This was as a 25 year old after the abomination no ST 2020 season where cy young winners and all stars alike had off years for the same reasons. All Benny did since then was be a GG outfielder and all star.
Meanwhile, Boston just signed a poor fielding NPB import for bennintendi money hoping the guy can hit equal to Benny but without the defense, for the same years. No guarantee, but, likely a losing proposition there.
Let’s see how Benny vs yoshi pans out, including defensive chops.
Now, imagine how ’21 mightve gone with a competent PBO at the helm that wasn’t going through the motions of seeking prospects and reclamation projects riding the ashes of their predecessors team.
GASoxFan – Great job refuting Rsox’s horse manure.
Betts could have been convinced to stay by DD so they fired him because they wanted the player who called the owners racist out of their organization. That’s not on Betts, that’s on the owners and the trickle down is on Bloom for taking the job knowing what he was being hired to do a hatchet job on Mookie. I guess if you are desperate for a job one that makes you notorious instead of famous is better than a ho-hum job monitoring your brilliant co-workers in TB. Too bad we didn’t hire his co-workers. They’ve done a much better job the last three years and remain the REAL BRAINS of the organization no matter what Bloom claims..
Benny’s downturn was completely on the coaching staff and the demands of the front office under Bloom in 2020 when he was hurt and struggling. His KC numbers showed his bounce back from unlearning all the mistakes the Red Sox coaching staff made. He then went to the pressure cooker that is Yankee Stadium and performed slightly above league average while adjusting to the new pressure. Overall, his 109 OPS+ is about 10 points below his normal OPS+ without Red Sox coaches changing him. Does Boston need a LF who costs $15MM a year with a 120 OPS+? That is better than what they have and better than what Verdugo has done. So it was a bad move by Bloom.
Rsox, like GASoxFan said, you are writing revisionist history. Try the truth next time!!
The best move by Bloom so far has been the acquisition of Garrett Whitlock via the Rule V draft. He has been amazing for Boston! I’m hoping to see Frank German make the major league roster this year as well and pitch out of the bullpen. He was the “throw-in” prospect Bloom agreed to as part of the Adam Ottavino acquisition from the Yankees.
But, from what I read, bloom wasn’t directly responsible for Whitlock. Sure, he signed off on the move, but, wasn’t like he identified the player and arranged a trade.
Good. We’re finally down to the point where all good acquisitions are someone else’s doing, and all the bad ones are Bloom’s doing.
I give bloom credit for renfroe and pivetta. But I also ding him for trading renfroe away.
As the saying goes, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while
Renfroe gets traded every year. He’s probably a PITA. It’s not a bad thing that he’s gone.
While I don’t think renfroe would’ve saved anything, the ‘return’ bloom got for him was a disaster, and, now the team is wishing they had a bat that profiled like his so….
JoeBrady: “all good acquisitions are someone else’s doing, and all the bad ones are Bloom’s doing.”
If you just insert Cashman in that sentence it is completely accurate! Haha.
Especially now that Renfroe is on the Halos. With his helmet on, I can’t tell the difference between Trout and him! He’s like a baby Trout, or a Troutling….
Hey, that’s his new nickname: Troutling!
Neither Workman or Hembree have done anything worthwhile to even stay on big league rosters since the trade. Pivetta is a solid mid-rotation starter, regardless of who was supposed to be the better player the Sox still “won” the trade
Rsox – Good thing we only have one hand to count on!!! Bloom’s good moves could be counted on one hand after a severe bowling accident!!!
Adding a young, talented pitcher with 6 years of control is “just another highly dysfunctional trade”…? I would suggest the Rox should be doing this more often, but to each their own.
This was in reply to Dr. Mark the former Major Leaguer, not sure why it slipped to the bottom of the page. Apologies for any confusion.
I’d say this could be a win if we get a PTBNL. Some good players come out of that and which could be valuable to the team. I’d rather not get cash at this point and honestly, I was kind of done with Seabold anyways. He was just not fitting in. Have a nice time in Colorado.
Freeland doesn’t need a rebound performance .. he had a very sold year.. that’s just ignorant to write it that way.. typical mlbtr
here we go again….sending out a player and getting NOTHING in return. I know, I know there is a PTBNL but I really have no faith in their ability to get anything back of value.
How about some kind of middle infielder??? SMH
I hope you are not suggesting that we would be able to move Seabold for a legit middle infielder.
I am happy with this trade for the Rockies. Even if Seabold turns out to be a dud, I like that the Rockies are getting involved with deals like this. I am tired of seeing every other team pick up lottery tickets in exchange for cash and watching the Rockies sit on the sidelines. It is refreshing to see them join the game.
Hey something from the Rockies. Maybe Buddy Black can do something with Seabold.
And still Ryan Brasier remains on the 40 man??
Seabold
Hernandez
Downs
Ward
Song
Politi
WHY!???
Maybe there’s a new plan for handling brasier this year:
ST – Cora hits brasier in the face with a line drive off the tee. Just like last time, they get a good 13 appearances and 1.50era out of him once he returns.
Sometime around late May, repeat, rehab again, and have him back for another dozen or so good appearances late in the year.
Or, maybe they experiment and just punch him in the face in the bullpen once during warm-ups for each appearance.
It’s the only connection between any changes and any performance worth keeping him around for.
Watch him dominate in Colorado (or at least be half decent since Colorado has never had a dominating pitcher). I know I’m alone but I really think Bloom will regret giving him up. Still only 26 and pretty good in AAA ball.
peddy – Read about his last start and the conflict with Cora. He’s gone because of the conflict and Cora wanting to be the supreme commander of all pitchers. The guy has issues. Pitching coaches should be discussing pitch selection with Seabold not Cora. For Cora to be angry over his choice of what to pitch in the game is completely out of his scope of expertise. For that to blossom into a trade speaks volumes to the dysfunctional nature of the clubhouse and Bloom’s blind support of Cora.
Seabold is likely to do much better as all the pitchers on the Red Sox staff would be if they weren’t under Cora. Farrell might have had edge to him but he certainly handled the pitching staff far better than Cora. The proof is in the numbers..
What’s the time limit on finding out who the PTBNL will be?
@baseballteam
I think it can be as long as half a year. You can either negotiate a monetary compensation for an agreed upon amount or hand over $100,000 if I remember. Someone on here will know for sure.
Six months. The Sox waited almost that long before taking Victor Santos from the Phillies as a PTBNL.