The Red Sox announced Monday that they’ve reinstated infielder Christian Arroyo from the injured list and, in a corresponding move, designated outfielder Raimel Tapia for assignment.
The veteran Tapia, 29, was non-tendered by the Blue Jays last winter and signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox, who selected his contract prior to Opening Day. He’s appeared in 39 games thus far and tallied 97 plate appearances in Boston, batting .264/.333/.368 with a homer, four doubles, a triple and six stolen bases (in seven attempts). He’s drawn nine walks and fanned 19 times along the way, giving him slightly better-than-average rates in both departments.
Tapia has played all three outfield spots in Boston but has primarily been a left fielder in his big league career — most of which has been spent with the Rockies. He’s drawn solid, if unspectacular grades in left field and in center field, though defensive metrics aren’t particularly keen on his right field prowess. He’s been average or a tick worse across the board in the outfield this season per each of Defensive Runs Saved, Ultimate Zone Rating and Outs Above Average.
With some outfield versatility, above-average contact and above-average speed, Tapia has been a solid enough fourth outfielder in Boston, even with a glaring lack of power. That’s generally par for the course for the speedster, who has never topped nine home runs in a big league season and hasn’t been deemed a strong enough defender by any of the Rockies, Jays or Red Sox to run out in center field on a regular or even semi-regular basis.
Tapia can certainly provide value, but as a primarily left-field option without much power and with notable platoon splits (.105/.190/.105 versus lefties in 2023; .275/.305/.361 career), he’s perhaps a bit more limited than one might expect with a cursory glance at his batting line and 89th percentile sprint speed (per Statcast). It’s still at least somewhat surprising to see the Red Sox move on in this fashion, although with an all-left-handed-hitting outfield mix of Masataka Yoshida, Jarren Duran and Alex Verdugo, Tapia’s lefty bat might well have been deemed a suboptimal fit. The right-handed-hitting Rob Refsnyder offers a more natural complement in that regard.
The minor league deal Tapia signed over the winter contained a $2MM base salary, so any team that claims him or acquires him would need to be comfortable picking up the remainder of that prorated bill. Boston could always include some cash to help facilitate a trade, and a trade is surely the team’s preferred option, as Tapia has more than five years of MLB service and can thus reject an outright assignment while retaining the entirety of the salary still owed to him. The Red Sox will have a week to trade Tapia, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.
Tapia DFAd before Pablo Reyes..? Huh color me surprised
He’ll probably be DFA’d when Duvall comes back. Probably means that Duran is staying up with the big league club
@acell10 Any idea when Duvall is coming back? Soon, I hope.
He’s eligible to come off of the 60-day IL on Friday. My guess is he will be reinstated to the roster then. He’ll have had over a week in AAA at that point.
Shocking is more like it. Knowing injuries happen, I’d have sent Duran down. He’s come back to earth on both sides of the ball and will be playing less once Duvall comes back. Let him get consistency playing every day at Worcester.
Duran has proven all he has to in AAA at this point. there’s also a chance that Duvall DH’s a good portion of the week to spell casas (with Turner at 1B).
@acell10 – it might be time to send Casas down to AAA and recall Dalbec. He is absolutely destroying AAA pitching right now. I know Bobby struggles in the majors but he can’t be much worse, offensively than Casas has been, right? Plus it would give Boston another RH batter which they desperately need.
he’s much worse defensively. It’s nice that he’s crushing AAA but he had two plus years to prove he belonged. I’m not giving up on Casas quite yet.
Sending Casas down is not a sign of giving up on him. It could even be short term. Bobby D needs to show he can hit MLB pitching to either decide he’s worth keeping or to get a valuable part back. His stock plummeted since the August and September hit streek.
Sending Casas down is not a sign of giving up on him. It could even be short term. Bobby D needs to show he can hit MLB pitching to either decide he’s worth keeping or to get a valuable part back. His stock plummeted since the August and September 2021 hit streek.
That’s one way to look at it. Another is if they bring Dalbec up and he struggles again any meager trade value his hot hitting in AAA may have brought is right out the window You make a huge assumption that he will show anything if called up.
it might be time to send Casas down to AAA
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On a 7-, 14- and 28-day split, his OPS is .612, .775, and .766. It doesn’t feel like he is costing us any games.
Dewey – If the Sox went with a 12-man BP then Tapia would stay, but apparently the Sox value guys like Ort more than Tapia.
There are only 2 MLB teams currently going with a 12 man pitching staff on their active roster, Baltimore and the Cubs. Every other team is carrying 13 pitchers. But sure, try and make it look like the Sox are outliers here. It’s what you do.
Fever, some team has to take the lead in getting the pitching under control. I’d love an eleven man staff. That said, Duran looked good in the field at the beginning but he’s basically lost again out there. He’s got a horrible arm and doesn’t understand the importance of knowing when to throw where, etc. I’d rather have kept them both and in the short term that meant sending the player down that you could
King – Don’t put other words in peoples mouth, I never said the Sox are in the minority.
Apparently you never had a mother that said if everyone jumps in the lake does that mean you should too. Be a leader, not a follower.
There are only 2 MLB teams currently going with a 12 man pitching staff on their active roster, Baltimore and the Cubs.
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I had the same discussion with him last year. The basic construct for ML teams is 13 pitchers, and it was 14 until the MLB forbid it.
IRT BA, the reason they only have 12 pitchers is likely because Coulombe is out on bereavement. He last pitched on 6/2, so I’d bet on him returning.
My guess with the Cubs is that Steele just went on the DL. Bottom line is that the decision has nothing to do with Ort.
No, you just expect them, with their generally shaky pitching staff, to go with one fewer pitcher than virtually every other team just so you have something else to criticize the FO over. Get over yourself. You’re nowhere near as smart as the people running the team, and never will be.
Loving this little debate, but does it need to be pointed out that none (or few) of us are employed in the MLB/professional baseball because of our lack of intelligence in said field. We all love baseball, and sometimes that passion leads us into silly arguments.
100% correct, but this is also why I frequently fall back on current customs. Agree or disagree, a 13-man pitching staff is the standard. It isn’t a matter of valuing Ort more than Tapia. It is a matter of preferring 13 pitchers over 12.
Joe – Standards change. Doesn’t mean every team was dumb years ago when 10-11 was the norm.
If they can change in the past, they can change again.
King – You make no sense as usual. If they do what I suggest, why would I criticize them for it.
How do you know my IQ and theirs? You don’t, so stop making asinine assumptions. The FO has made a ton of dumb mistakes, they are not perfect. It’s scary you think they are.
Sure, everything changes. But if 30 out of 30 do the same thing, then the assumption should always be that it was a logical move.
Joe – Even if it is a logical move, that would mean what they were doing in the past was all wrong.
Many years ago all the owners refused to integrate. Other than KingKen67, who would have said “MLB front offices are smarter than us fans, so it must be the right decision”?
Majority doesn’t always equate to the right decision, it’s definitely possible an entire group can be wrong.
The times, they are a-changing.
They didn’t have analytics back then either. There’s so much data out there, and I’m willing to bet it proves 13>12
I’m good with experimenting though. Just not by wearing the staff down more
Many years ago all the owners refused to integrate.
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That has nothing to do with what I said. And it much more than just a majority. It is virtually 100%. Just from a positional perspective, having a LH #5 OF adds almost nothing.
In addition to Duran the team also has Wyler Abreu who is playing decently at AAA right now who provides much the same skill set as Tapia, and possibly a little more pop, should an injury require a move.
I don’t understand that in article after article HRs are given such importance. Not all players are HR hitters. It doesn’t take away from their value. There are a lot of other ways to score runs. Tapia has the speed to steal bases where a base hit could score him. Tapia has 4 doubles and a triple in a short amount of ABs. Is an out more valuable than that? At least he was getting on base.
Absolutely agree. If you want to see production, subtract HRs from RBI. Nothing more disappointing than a three hitter driving in 50 runs over 500 abs, when they had the teams best hitters batting in front of them. Tim Raines would be discounted today.
A voice from the 1990’s! While you’re technically right that there ARE other ways to score runs, it’s much too hard to string together 3 singles (or walks) in an inning with modern pitching. And even then you only get one run. The list of teams with the highest slugging averages and the teams which score the most runs are almost identical. There’s a reason for that. All those teams that have adopted exit velocity and elevation strategies are not stupid. They’ve done the math, and it’s not close frankly.
RBI has almost nothing to do with the hitter, and everything to do with how many of his teammates are on base when he hits.
Avenger – Because right now homeruns and pitcher strikeouts are the “in thing”, just like walks/OBP was the “in thing” during the Moneyball hysteria.
Dave Roberts was an OF’er who averaged 2 HR over his 10-year career. Without him, Sox don’t win in ’04.
It’s true, baseball front offices are sheep.
seam – It’s a combination of both.
Without question, if a hitter has a very poor BA or OPS with RISP then he will not drive in many runs. It’s not rocket science, FG just tries to make it out to be.
Fever – I’d say it’s even more than that. Team construction plays a role.
If you’ve got a team full of .230 hitters, who all hit 40hrs, they’re generally going to see 60-70RBIs each – nobody will be on the bases, and a lot of jacks will be solo shots.
If you’ve got a bunch of slow, lumbering, swing for the fences types there’s less men on base in front of them. Less guys who can go 1st to third or second to home. Less guys to take advantage of the deep sacrifice Flys that are hrs that didn’t quite make it. And, less guys forcing you to pitch from the stretch.
I think some MLB front offices are missing out on a golden opportunity with the new rules. With the limit on pick off attempts, that low power speedy on-base guy can be a much bigger threat. Get on base, steal second, then go 2nd to home on a single or tag and advance twice on two sac Flys to score. Manufacture runs.
You know, real baseball when strategy mattered.
Unfortunately, the Sox let J.D. leave. He’s tearing it up with the Dodgers. I don’t know if he left on his own or the Sox didn’t want him, but it was a bad move in hindsight.
JD is tearing it up with the Dodgers because he is able to work with Robert Van Scoyoc again. There’s a good article about it on FanGraphs. He doesn’t get to work with VS again if he stays in Boston and likely wouldn’t have found his power stroke again. I didn’t think I’d be happy with Turner, but I am. Decent moves and replacements that seem to be benefitting all parties. Happy for JD.
@elmedius- that clears up a lot. But how did it come about that he no longer is with the Sox?
I think I know what you’re getting at and yeah, all signs point to Bloom probably not being the best negotiator out there. I’m not a Bloom lover or hater though… my jury is still out because I can’t really tell how much of it is him. Remember that this is the franchise that risked pissing Papi off at the end because they kept taking him year to year when he wanted an extension. That wasn’t Bloom, I think that comes down to a philosophy that’s above him and is still in place. (I’m just grateful Papi was loyal and at the same time can’t fault Xander for taking the offer he did.. X man got PAID.)
But yeah, all signs were pointing to JD continuing to regress, so I’m sure whatever conversations took place weren’t great. I was downright mad when I saw what he signed for in LA and even madder when we signed Turner for roughly the same amount. Like I said though, Turners really grown on me and I’m happy with what he’s provided. I’m also thrilled that they seemed to hit on Yoshida when the consensus was that it was an overpay. I think a lot of GMs want that one back.
Youk drops little snippets here and there when he broadcast that have shed a lot of light into the business aspects of the game. There’s also agents involved… and the ATL/Freeman situation is a good example of that side overplaying their hands too. Hopefully things work out the right way between the team and Verdugo. Fingers crossed.
A part of me wanted JDM back but not for a DH only who looked like he was heading to continue his regression. I liked the Turner signing a lot, as he can play 1B, 3B and is insurance in case Casas flops.
Personally, I would love to see the RS send down Casas to work on his game while letting Turner/Dalbec man 1B and let Duvall be the full time DH for the time being,
With Hernandez in center. The SS experiment has to be over. Just realized Duvall even as a DH, needs to get his timing back and it could take a few weeks (not that we should expect HOF hitting like he did the first two weeks).
But how did it come about that he no longer is with the Sox?
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My guess is that Bloom prefers flexibility of having a DH with a glove. One can debate the preference for a good pure DH over a lesser hitter who can play 1B and 3B. Some teams will actually have a bench position for a backup 1B/3B. Having JT eliminates that need.
That’s how it was presented from the jump. The Red Sox wanted a guy who could DH AND play the field.
elm – If you believe JD was replaced by JT, which he basically was, then you can’t possibly be happy with a much older guy who is guaranteed 50% more salary and whose numbers have now drastically declined for SIX STRAIGHT YEARS.
The decisions to replace Nate and JD with Kluber and JT have ABSOLUTELY blown up in Bloom’s face thus far.
lamars – With both JD and Nate their ability should never be questioned, it’s their health that should have been the deciding factor.
I suppose the Sox medical staff could be blamed, but then who is responsible for them? Ultimately, Bloom is the guy responsible for Nate and JD leaving.
Great post, and I’d like to add, although I loved Xander Bogaerts, for what the Padres paid him, he was not worth it, but definitely miss him
Michael – Boston didn’t need to offer Bogey the money SD offered him to keep him. He’s worth $30MM a year at this point in his career but clearly in a few years that will need to be reduced. I suggested $100MM for 3 years and then $75MM for the next three years with a mutual opt out after 3 years. That way if Mayer is ready Boston could cut ties or move him to another position at $25MM if he’s still putting up 125 OPS+ or more. If not, they simply say good bye. Bogey could continue to improve so in 3 years $25MM might be too little so he could opt out for FA. It could have been a win-win for both sides and we wouldn’t have had to play Kiki or any of the other clowns at SS.
Fever –
I wasn’t questioning their abilities I was explaining why they let them walk,
Take Eovaldi, he only made 20 starts last year and was looking to get paid for a multi year contract. The FO wasn’t willing to offer $17 million a year so he walked. Same goes for JDM, his numbers fell off last year and he is a player without a position.
The FO felt like bringing in a guy like Turner who had similar numbers to JDM last year. And while he is 3 years older he can play 1B/3B and would be insurance if Casas struggled. Whereas JDM is strictly a DH these days.
JDM .274 avg, 16 HR, 62 RBI 76 R.341 OBO .448 SLG .780 OPS
Turner .278 avg 13 HR 81 RBI 61 R .350 OBO .4.16 SLG .764 OPS
Lamars – To be fair Bloom hung JD out to dry. JD became a lame duck player who was being forced out of a place he really liked to play.
LAMEDUCK JD 2022 – .274/.341/448/.790 OPS+ 117
HAPPY TO BE WANTED JD 2023 – .277/.314/.677/.947 OPS+ 147
JT in BOS 2023 – .265/.348/.416/.764 OPS+ 107
JT in LA 2022 – .278/.350/.438/.788 OPS+ 119
JD costs LA just $10MM and Turner costs Boston $10.85MM
JD is no longer playing in a toxic environment so his numbers rose
JT is now playing in a toxic environment so his numbers have fallen.
The players are comparable but the way the players are treated in both organizations is radically different. That’s something Bloom destroyed with his behavior in Boston along with Cora.
Letting JD walk when you pay a gloveless Devers over $30MM a year for a decade makes me want to vomit. Devers should ONLY play DH so neither JD nor JT were needed. The defense is now incredibly bad with Devers, Kiki and Yoshida on the left side of the field. These are all issues a good GM would fix but Bloom hasn’t. He created them by not moving Devers, by not signing Bogey and by letting go Benny.
The players let go during the off season devastated this team and if you can’t see that you simply can’t be judging things fairly. I don’t care why you have a bias, I simply need to point out what everyone knows.
BLOOM SCREWED THE POOCH worse than ever last off season!!!
They need someone capable of playing SS, particularly someone who bats right handed, more than they need a lefty hitting OFer. It’s not that hard to understand.
Never fear! Yu Chang is close to returning, so you’ll have your RH batting SS along with his .136 BA back in the lineup soon!
Regards,
Chaim Bloom
Tapia will be back as soon as Arroyo goes back on the IL
You don’t think another team is going to claim him?
Unfortunate since he’s been good for us but need a 40 man spot for when Duvall gets activated off the 60-day IL Friday.
The team who SHOULD be all over this is CLE. They have a hole in RF that no player in the organization is capable of filling at the moment. The FO is madly in love with Will Brennan, and he’ll get way more mileage out of the HR he hit off Sonny Gray on Saturday than he should. Tapia makes a lot of sense, but I’ll be surprised if the Guards even show interest.
As a Rockies fan and former (when he was a prospect) Tapia enthusiast, no. He’s just not good. Plate discipline is crap, no power, poor defender despite speed and a good arm. There are a million better options for Cleveland if it wants a useful corner outfielder who can hit.
I have only seen 1-2 Red Sox games this season, but he played well in both of them. I figured he may have finally turned the corner.
The guy he reminds me of most is Ben Revere, although Revere was better defensively. Both are good singles hitters that would have been stars in the 1970s and even into the 80s, but that skillset is just not really used anymore.
I don’t doubt any of that, but the FO won’t want to pay a penny above pro-rated league minimum for anyone they might claim to fill that spot. Tapia would give them the most bang for their buck in that instance. Sure, they need more power in the lineup, but they don’t value power – feel it’s over priced.
Guardians can’t have it both ways. They can’t penny-pinch AND refuse to use their organizational strength, which is pitching development, to improve run production. Go out on the market and trade a real pitching asset, one that teams really like, for a real corner OF bomber, who’s young and cheap. This can be done. What do the Cards want for Jordan Walker? There’s a price surely. What do the Rockies want for Brenton Doyle? Less than Walker that’s for sure. That’s how they need to think. Jose won’t be a star forever.
Love Ramirez. Anyway, there hasn’t been a lot of mega-deals this season. The only one I can think of is the Sean Murphy trade.
Go out on the market and trade a real pitching asset,
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I wouldn’t trade for Cleveland pitching. I don’t remember that ever working for the receiving team.
Milwaukee trading for CC Sabathia worked well. So did Cliff Lee to the Phillies. So did Trevor Bauer to the Reds. So did Carlos Carrasco to the Mets somewhat.
Lest we forget Kluber to TEX for Clase.
Brent Doyle? They might as well just keep running Will Brennan out there.
You can’t really blame anyone for that. A comebacker that breaks Kluber’s arm couldn’t have been foreseen at all. No one knows how well Kluber would have played without that accident.
2 of those are 15+ years ago
Bauer only worked for Cincy because he was cheating to finally get MLB to do something about an issue (it didn’t work at all the first half year when he wasnt cheating however, he was a disaster after the deal)
Carrasco has missed a ton of time and been mostly poor in NY, with an overall era 75 points higher than it had been recently in Cleveland
I dont see any of those very few examples being a strong point in favor of things working for the receiving team
Not a broken down old one. A young stud. Guardians have more of them than they know what to do with.
Doyle may be the best athlete in MLB right now. He’s got insane power too. Just figuring out MLB pitching.
You can pick apart anything if you truly want to.
Bauer won the Cy Young Award for Cincinnati under the rules that were played that season. Anything that happened to him in LA is irrelevant when talking about the Cincy/Cleveland trade.
Carrasco has not been mostly poor. He went 15-7 with a ERA under 4.00 in 2022. If that is your standard of “poor” then 90% of the pitchers in the league must qualify as poor.
As far as 15 years. The guy said he couldn’t remember a time when it worked. If you can’t remember 15 years ago, you have more important problems to worry about than baseball.
Seamaholic –
Did you just say with a straight face Brenton Doyle was the best athlete in MLB right now? He wasn’t even the best athlete in the minors or on his team.
Doyle is a great athlete, but him being on the Rockies make him look even better since most of them cannot run a lick.
Doyle may be a great athlete, but he is nowhere near the best athlete in MLB right now. It’s just not even close.
He is in the 99th percentile for speed. So he may not be THE best, but it is close because he is in the top 1% of all players.
What????? That absolutely makes no sense. But whatever works for you run with it.
How does it not make sense? The 99th percentile on speed means he is faster than 99% of all players. If he is faster than 99% of all players, that would put him in the top 1% for speed.
What exactly is confusing you?
None of that makes him as you claim, close to being one of the best athletes because he is faster than 99% of all players. Do you remember Billy Hamilton? He was the fastest player in the league and where is he now? Even as the fastest player in the league he was NEVER considered the best or close to being the best player in MLB.
Who is talking about the best player? We were talking about the best ATHLETE. That is not the same as best player.
And Billy Hamilton was probably the best athlete in the league at the time.
Hiflew –
Serious question, what besides speed are you basing Doyle as being the Best athlete? Do you know how many times the NFL had the fastest guy in the league and they couldn’t catch crap.
Being a good athlete doesn’t mean you have good hands.
Speed is probably the #1 factor in my opinion.
Just because that fastest guy in the NFL couldn’t catch anything, didn’t mean he still wasn’t the best athlete. It is just a different category.
I think our difference of opinion is that you are treating player and athlete as synonyms and I am not. Being an athlete has nothing to do with being a player. David Ortiz was not a good athlete, but he was definitely a great player.
Speed isn’t the #1 factor in what makes you the best athlete.
So who is the best athlete here Doyle or Acuna? You would say Acuna and it isn’t even close. Why? Not only is Acuna one of the faster players in the game, he hits for average, power and has an arm in the outfield.
It’s a reason why Billy Hamilton was labeled one or one of the fastest “players” in the league and never mentioned as one of the best athletes. Because just because he could get to the ball he didn’t have a great arm and was one dimensional. And if his SPEED couldn’t get him on base he was pointless.
Also the good arm is not so valuable when you are always missing the cutoff man or throwing to the wrong base, which I watched him do a lot for the Rockies.
The market is thin but I don’t think our FO is interested in a RF with 27 home runs in 8 seasons
Agreed. Plesac for tapia trade
From the outside looking in, rather surprising.
Yankees, put in a claim.
@pinstripes17- I was thinking the same exact thing. Nice speed and some surprising pop also. Maybe it’s time to release Franchy Cordero and sign another former Red Sox castoff?
Me three. Wouldn’t mind the speed off the bench and he would only see LF so you wouldn’t have to worry about his D in center or right.
Definitely a better option than Franchy. Saw Tapia much less than Franchy but for a spare outfielder, he’s clearly superior.
Tapia is picked up with a quickness! Way to many teams need a guy like him.
Marlins should definitely be in play for a claim.
It is surprising that players who have options were not sent down. perhaps he clears and agrees to remain in the organization. Bit of a head scratcher.. Can they remain high on Arroyo with his annual trip to the IL?
not really. Duvall is coming off the IL on Friday. they didn’t need another outfielder and that also means that Duran is staying up
IMO, Duran should go down. His hot start mostly based on an unsustainable Babip. Now that that has returned to normal, he has almost no value. 22 Ks in his last 45 ABs. I’d send him down and hope he can learn something.
Learn what at this point? he’s spent plenty of time in AAA. Let him continue to work on making adjustments at the big league level to finally see what you have.
The problem with Duran is his glove and speed. His glove sucks and despite speed, he doesn’t know how to steal a bag.
Well he is 7 for 7 this year in steals.
Huh? The man is 7 for 7 in steals. And yet he doesn’t know how to steal a bag?
I agree, Tapia’s numbers will assure him another roster spot very soon. And just a little house keeping, Tapia actually topped 7 HR in 2019 with 9 that season.
Astros are actually looking for better production vs RHP and can platoon him with Chas McCormick in LF and not need him in CF or RF.
Then they can send AAAA player Corey Julks back to AAA.
Looks like a cheap way to improve a weak area.
If the Red Sox have a need for a catcher and can clear another spot, they may have a match for Nido. Tapia could take Vogey’s spot. Vogey has power but hasn’t been showing it and he doesn’t have any defensive value.
Red Sox just let the rights for Alfaro go they have no need for Nido.
After seeing him play as a back-up with the catching deprived White Sox, I can’t believe McGuire is the Red Sox’ no.1. The team of Fisk and Varitek could surely do better.
McGuire: 93 PA 196 Innings
Wong: 135 PA 323 Innings
McGuire is the backup
avenger65
I can’t believe McGuire is the Red Sox’ no.1.
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That’s probably good since he is the RS #2.
The Yankees have been whining since ST about their need for a LFer. Trade Tapia to them.
Tapia would have to cut his hair to the Yankees…. not going to happen
He could always wear extensions when he’s not in a Yankees uniform.
This makes no sense…. they should have sent down Valdez and play Arroyo and Reyes at SS and put Kiki at 2B.
Cooper – Agreed, Valdez going down would have preserved depth, but the Red Sox will need a 40-man spot. Bloom also wants to see if Valdez can hit MLB pitching well enough to keep. This is clearly a trial/transition year for Casas, Duran, Valdez, Bello, Wong, Houck and Whitlock as starters, Sale and Paxton health, as well as some rookie bullpen arms who will be coming up.
Cooper – Be fair. Kiki can’t field and he can’t hit. Why is he playing at all with a sub .240 average and leading the team in errors? CORA is the one word answer. Nepotism. Not a good enough reason for not DFAing or trading Kiki. If he has any value anywhere, deal the chump.
KD17 –
Your hatred of Cora is messing with your thought process. Kiki was never meant to be the SS or play that much in the infield. Injuries dictated him playing out of position when we lost Story and Chang. Kiki is better suited in the OF or 2B and I hope we never have to see him at SS again.
lamars – I’m sure you meant my hatred of Cora’s decisions.
Who was the opening day SS? I rest my case. He was intended to play there but he was so bad Cora was forced to move him. His average is the big question mark to me. Why play a guy who for ten years has hit under .240? Is my thought process wrong for thinking that? I don’t think so.
To suggest Kiki is better suited ANYWHERE shows a complete lack of understanding of what it takes to play at the MLB level. He should have been a lifetime minor leaguer except his father had connections. Kiki sucks at any position because he can’t hit and he’s a below average fielder.
Sorry, if you are a kiki apologist that’s fine but I’m not buying.
Bruh stop it! This is what I mean when I say your hatred of Cora, Even with Kiki opening the season at SS he was never going to be the everyday shortstop. It was going to be Chang and unfortunately he went down with an injury on April 25th. Forcing Kiki into almost the everyday shortstop by default. Why? because Arroyo was much better at 2B than Kiki and Valdez wasn’t ready to take over at SS.
Kiki got into the league on his own merits and the reason Kiki has stayed in the league for so long is because he is a jack of all trades. The only position he hasn’t played is catcher. Granted he has never played more than 20 something games at shortstop in a season. But this year is different due to injuries and the FO not wanting to spend any money. Losing Story was bad enough and then losing Chang made it even worse.
Sorry, your hatred and lack of understanding why Kiki is at SS and not someone isn’t my fault nor does it make me a Kiki apologist.
lamars – You just apologized for Kiki playing SS when he’s not qualified THEN you went COMPLETELY OUTRAGEOUS in your apologist actions toward Kiki by suggesting a .239 hitter who can’t field is a “JACK OF ALL TRADES” hahahahahahahaha sorry I simply can’t stop laughing at that one!!!! WOW.
Next time use the whole phrase….. Jack of all trades and master of NONE!!! hahahaha. I rest my case on that one!! Thank you.
Also, Chang WAS NOT the opening day SS. He’s played 46 games at SS in his miserable 5 year career. His career average is .206 so he’s comparable to Kiki at hitting!! hahaha He was hitting .136 when he got hurt and I’m sure in time he could have matched his 2022 batting average of .150!! FYI… In 28 games for Boston he’s hitting .141. NOT .241 but .141.
He’s not MLB material any more than Kiki. They suck in all capital letters!!
Where do you come up with these ideas? They are beyond laughable. Thank you. I’m still chuckling about the MASTER OF NONE!!
The Tigers could probably use Tapia.
If Jonny doesn’t pan out, Tapia would be ok as a free agent at minimum salary for a team that needs little from that spot.
I thought Tapia would last until Duvall came back but i guess with Reyes’ ability to play the OF as well as 2B/SS he gets to stick around for a few more games
He isn’t their number one. Wong is. That’s probably why you can’t believe it.
Lot of immediate assumption towards releasement during designation in these similar articles. I’m sure Tapia will just take the assignment.
Face it. Tapia sucks as a MLB starter like almost every player on the roster. That’s on Bloom. Who cares if he’s DFA’d and another marginal player is brought in?
There are no meaty stories to read because there is very little meat left on the bone in Boston.
The one way-over-paid star is floundering. Three of the released players are flourishing elsewhere due to getting away from the toxic environment Bloom and Cora have created and nobody seems to care!!!
Maybe a disastrous June can get the changes needed. The quality of opponents are good enough to bury Boston by July 1. Lets make it happen so we can get some fresh air in the front office and the dugout.
I want to start reading about quality players coming to Boston again. There is nothing noteworthy about most of the players on the roster. Yes, reading about some of the great young pitchers captures my attention but other than that, everything is stale news. Arroyo is coming back. Big woop, he sucks. Kiki is taking his .230 average to CF. Who cares? He sucks. Cora keep switching Devers between 2nd and 4th in the order but can’t figure out that 3rd is the right spot. Who cares? We all know Cora is clueless and undeserving of his job.
It was fun when Duran got hot because he wasn’t a ten-year veteran on a two-week hot streak. He represented a potential future for Boston. JT is a nice player but he’s got one foot in retirement. Yoshida remains the ONLY compelling story on the hitting side of the house. If Verdugo follows his normal pattern, he’s due to tank soon and end up at league average by year end. That’s pathetic and that’s on Bloom.
With Sale out I hope we get to see Houck, Bello, PIvetta, Whitlock and Crawford get lots of starting opportunities. If Paxton stays healthy which is a huge if, then maybe Pivetta continues to relieve since Crawford needs to be observed more like Bello, Whitlock and Houck. This group is actually the future of the pitching staff unlike the hitting side where most are temps.
It’s a shame the front office and ownership make commitments that aren’t in the best interest of the organization. Committing Devers at 3B to satusft the DR Baseball Academy has cost Boston many wins and I haven’t seen any new talent from that organization that will provide value in the next five years. Promising Kiki a spot has cost Boston so many games and taken playing time from players with a future. Same for Arroyo, Wong, McGuire and others.
A new GM needs to come in and remove all the bandaids. Yes, the temps that got full time jobs when they shouldn’t have. Devers needs to DH so 50 balls aren’t mishandled by the 3B each year. Legitimate middle infielders need to be procured until Mayer and Yorke arrive (if they arrive). The organization put place holders to the future at 1B, 2B and SS and gave the future of 3B to a guy completely unqualified for the job. It’s a formula for disaster and that’s what we have.
The public displeasure with the current situation needs to be way more vocal.
Boom!
I agree KD either be the Red Sox and go get some real starters on offense at the deadline and maybe another top starter and spend some smart money to try and compete or just trade everyone over 30 and rebuild on the fly, might take another year or 2 but it’s better than a complete teardown. Which is probably what’s needed now thanks to the front office’s last 3 years worth of mystifying decisions. You can’t compete and try and do full rebuild at the same time. Should have kept Eovaldi, JD/Turner swap is a wash. A few real bullpen guys would have been nice, Brasier and Ort should have never played this year
thadeus – Couldn’t agree with you more. Everything you said could be done if we got a new GM but with Bloom, we are in for more dumpster diving and dozens of articles about marginal players and whether they should play ahead of other marginal players.
Should have kept Eovaldi, JD/Turner swap is a wash. A few real bullpen guys would have been nice, Brasier and Ort should have never played this year
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I totally disagree, if we kept and paid Eovaldi everyone would have lost their shyte and rightfully so. He wanted another pay day and I am so glad Bloom said no, no matter how well he is playing in Texas. As for JDM, the Turner signing was a great move by Bloom. While I love JDM he was a shell of himself last year and even if he was on the RS and putting up numbers like the Dodgers. Turner is the better fit as he can play 1B/3B giving the team flexibility and gives us insurance in case Casas bobms. Whereas JDM is strictly a DH.
As for Brasier, Bloom was right to bring him back this year. Brasier pitched 62.1 innings last year with 68 K’s. His problem was a couple innings where he got tagged, other than that he pitched great for the RS. This year however he has been a complete nightmare. 21.2 innings pitched and 17 ER’s to go along with 9 walks. Yike! Now with Ort I have no clue what they saw in him. Maybe if he had been left-handed I could understand it but he flat out sucks,
lamars – Not sure how you can come to the conclusions you make.
Nate NEVER had a BIG payday. He was a tier 2 SP in Boston making just $17MM a year. That’s $7MM more than a completely inept Kiki Hernandez.
JD and JT are NOT a wash. JD is 3 years younger, a better hitter and was a big reason why Boston took it up a notch in 2018 and won a ring. Show some respect for the guy who stepped in for Papi and made it work.
The reason Nate is better in Texas is because the coaching staff in Texas and Manager and GM in Texas are far better. Each of their acquisitions have improved under the new front office, manager and coaching staff.
The Turner signing COULD HAVE been a great move if they played him at 3B but they didn’t so it’s just Bloom sticking his finger in one of the holes in the dam wall.
Suggesting Brasier was a good move removes any credibility you might have built up recently. Brasier was a rally waiting to happen since 2018. He was on par with Barnes and so many other below average relievers the Red Sox have had under Cora.
To be polite I will just say you are in the minority in your opinions conveyed in your last response.
KD17 –
Evoladi wanted another pay day and we weren’t going to give it to him. And it looked like no one else was so he settled on a two $63 million dollar deal with Texas. Also, Kiki was already under contract so the $7 million more is a non starter especially when Evoladi is making $34 million this year.
JD and JT are clearly a wash. We got a guy that can play 1B and 3B giving the team flexibility while JD who is 3 years younger struggled in 2020 and 2021. At the end of last year Turner and JDM’s stats were identical which made the move even easier to depart from JDM. JDM has found his power groove with the Dodgers and I am happy for him.
Lastly, I will say it again, bringing Brasier back was the right thing. Besides a couple of innings pitched where he imploded he was our best reliever last year. Especially with Houck and Whitlock out. You act like a relievers stats are told by his overall ERA. Any reliever can throw 5 scoreless innings, but have 1 bad inning and give up 5 runs and there goes that lovely ERA.
Lamars – Do you read my responses? $17MM a year isn’t a big pay day for a guy with Eovaldi’s talent.
His contract with Texas is 2 years at $17MM a year. A brilliant GM signed him and a moron let him walk for that money.
If Brasier is a relative then I’m sorry but he sucked. Still does. Always will. The numbers don’t lie. Great moments surrounded by well below average inconsistent performances.
Relief pitchers are allowed an occassional bad inning. That wasn’t the case with Brasier. Putting him in was like playing Russian Roulette with 3 bullets in a six shooter. Give me the reliever who only has 1 bullet. Otherwise, he’s too risky.
Have the Red Sox and/or fans given up on 2023 yet?
The Astros are on record as looking for a bat to help them vs RHP. Because of the roster construction, that needs to be a LF/DH type or possibly a 1B.
Verdugo is having a great year and I’m sure the Boston fans love him but he now only has 1 year of control remaining and the Red Sox are very LHH heavy in the OF.
The Astros have Chas McCormick who historically has been about as good (1 bWAR every 190 PA to Alex’s 200 PA) and above average this year but not as good as Verdugo and only playing 2/3 of the time.
He hits RH, kills LHP but is slightly below average vs RHP and plays very good defense at all 4 OF positions. It looks like a match on paper. Best of all he has 3 more years of control left.
I think the Astros should keep him but he is the most likely guy to get traded for a bat.
I publicly (and to much vitriol and ridicule) said before the season started that the red sox would have every single problem they currently face, and, that they would struggle to hover around .500 on the season.
So far I’ve hit on every single mark, just to be dismissed as non-objective because I hate what bloom has done to the franchise since taking over.
I attacked his not prioritizing the IF. I said Kiki would be an error machine at SS. I said the old guys would be unreliable. I said Casas wouldn’t be knocking hrs left and right and would mire in low .ba with few HR. I said IF depth was weak, and defense would be poor. I said JDM would be both superior and cheaper than JT, plus coached his teammates with multiple guys crediting him for fixing holes in their games. I said Yoshi would have a tough defensive job in LF made harder by weak defenders in front of him. I talked about the rotation, the pen, the guys let go via DFA and waiver claim/trade instead of bundling for assets. I said the rule 5 guys should’ve been traded for usefulndepth. Blah blah blah.
But it was all because ‘he hates bloom’ not because I looked deeper at trends and could see the mirage being spoonfed to the fans.
*This* guy is watching them playing out the string hoping they play the kids and see who is worth keeping/developing and who ought to cut bait on.
IMO you listen to trade EVERY. SINGLE. GUY on the mlb roster. If there’s a clear upgrade offered weigh it and look at it.
Amd, prioritize shipping out of town most of the aging vets on 1 yr + 1 opt deals. Free the payroll.
GASoxFan – You know I look at the situation as you do and I get the cat calls about being a Bloom hater like you do. That’s the only way people who support Bloom can attack the truth, they try to obscure it or misdirect it to be something other than pure fact. Bloom has failed miserably, and it began in DEC 2019 and has consistently continued until now.
Astrosfn had a great suggestion.
1 – Verdugo IS NOT the super star Freidman made him out to be.
2 – Verdugo as a league average player isn’t as good as Benny was
3 – Verdugo for Betts made no sense since stripping Boston of Betts meant it would take 5 years to recover as I mentioned in early 2020 and has come true.
4 – During Verdugo’s tenure the team stunk so for all the folks out there who always argue BUT HE”S GOT 5 YEARS OF CONTROL …. WHO CARES IF THE TEAM SUCKS because of the deal!!
5= A smart GM like DD planned each position C-Vazquez 1B-Moreland until Dalbec or Casas arrive 2B= Pedroia (got sidetracked thanks to Manny Machado) with Holt/Duran bridging to the next 2B, SS Bogey 3B Was forced on DD because he’s too smart to allow a pitching staff to suffer because of one guy. So Devers as a 3B from the powers that be, Benny in LF, JBJ in CF until Duran arrived, Betts in RF, JD as DH. A rock solid line-up that would contend for years.
Bloom’s version – NOBODY at Catcher, Casas at 1B, Yorke at 2B, Mayer at SS, Devers at 3B, Yoshida in LF, Duran CF? Verdugo RF, JT as DH.
A much weaker offense that is years away from potentially becoming competitive. He has planned no bridging, he simply wings it. He dumpster dives to load the roster with cheap mulit-positional players, none of which are any good.
The true fans like GASOXFAN, FPG and others all have tried to stay positive while their favorite team got dissected by a clown pretending to be a baseball surgeon but it’s hard to watch the carnage. Bloom is the quintessential flim-flam man for those of you who are older like me. He’s the ultimate used car salesman. He makes promises he can’t keep. He reassures you the product is quality while it leaks oil, sputters when it starts and has a faulty carburetor that refuses to allow the car to accelerate. As he watches the car under-perform, he tells all that will listen that it’s part of the process and suggests to give it time, the car will be awesome for years, but he never mentions what year that will happen!
Every time I see him in an interview I think of the Music Man. He even looks like the con artist selling band equipment to the unsuspecting River City citizens. Red Sox Nation needs to take a page from the movie and run this clown out of town on a rail!!
I mean, most logical people figure the Red Sox would be around .500 this year.
This place is not filled with logical people. One side is extremely angry about the state of the Red sox, the other side is over the top optimistic.
Not a whole lot of people here who just like watching baseball.
Oh I am one of those that is extremely upset with the state of my Red Sox. But I wasn’t upset when they let Bogey go. For that price see ya, I wasn’t upset when they let JDM leave. I loved me some JDM but looked like he was headed for another regression and could only DH. I wasn’t upset when they let Eovadli leave, sure he is on fire in Texas but who says he was going to do that here and for that money. I was confused as to why they let Waca leave and brought in Kluber instead.
I love watching baseball because I have MLBTV and I can watch more than just my RS and Giants.
As a Red Sox fan I have come to realize Bloom isn’t as bad as he is made out to be and the #1 factor is ownership is calling the shots not him. Management has made it abundantly clear they don’t wish to raise payroll. So our expectations should have been held in check after we were given this information. The moves Bloom has made so far have bettered the team on a limited budget. The Yoshida signing was an absolute steal, letting Wong take over and not resigning a fan favorite in Vasquez, signing Duvall, Turner and improving the bullpen. And somehow still managing to make the team competitive in the best division in baseball, the AL East.
Nah, I know it takes a miracle for us to make the Wild Card but as long as the team is competitive I am happy, And no one can predict injuries. Just look at the Brewers, a team that should easily be running away with the division but injuries have taken a toll on the team,. They have to be glad the rest of the Central is pathetic, Pirates excluded of course.
Yeah, Bloom is obviously doing exactly what he has been asked to do. Field a somewhat competitive team while trying to keep payroll in check.
Now, that doesn’t mean he is a great GM., but it’s pretty obvious the Red Sox are trying to play the young guys and not sign anyone to expensive long term contracts. Except Devers, but after Mookie and Bogey they had to do that. Agreed on Bogey though, what an awful contract that is going to turn out to be.
Sycophant – If my realistic pessimism from watching the team get torn down puts me in the extremely angry group I am ok with that. I don’t predict .500 for this team since last year’s team won 78 games and this team is far worse. This team got the advantage of the new balanced schedule so that gives it a few wins more but it doesn’t make up for the talent lost in the off season.
So one can be angry, realistic and love watching baseball!!
And that’s cool, I can respect that.
Believe it or not, you aren’t one of the people I was talking about. You obviously love the sport.
I am more speaking of the guy who comes in and takes a big dump on everything but has no real perspective.. You definitely have a perspective whether one agrees with it or not.
Guys, anyone who is buying into the excuse ‘bloom is working with limited payroll’ hasn’t looked around.
They’re spending up to the CBT limit. Fangraphs has boston CBT number at over $221m. That’s not a team being restricted on spending.
fangraphs.com/roster-resource/payroll/red-sox
It’s not a problem with WHAT they spend, it’s a problem with HOW they spend.
Sycophant: But KD17 doesn’t have a realistic perspective and while he might love the sport, his ability to discuss it in any rational way is lacking., his agenda is clearly rooted in some deep seated resentment towards bloom, cora and Devers and it completely clouds his judgement or ability to engage in a rational discussion.. Perhaps you respect his opinion but 95% of what he says is long winded crapping on the all three of those things to varying degrees. When someone tries to engage him and disagree, he immediately belittles them with insults and God forbid you push back.
GASoxFAN – Dead center in the middle of the target. Wasted payroll from getting rid of guys who are still owed money or eating money in deals. Bloom reduces the CAP for the team, spends on bad players up to the limit and even over the limit for bad players and some folks do blame ownership not Bloom. Wake up people this hot mess is on BLOOM only. The money has always been there. Bloom is simply missing the brains to effectively use it. FIRE HIM FOR UNDER PERFORMING and lets turn the corner from this disaster.
KD – for right now I’m taking what enjoyment I can from every game I see.
I agree that Bloom is every bit of a cancer to the organization. It will be interesting to see if the massive overpay to Devers’ extension equals that of Sale in terms of ownership reaction and disappointment, and, if a high dollar team in ’23 failing to make even the expanded post season draws the same reaction as what occurred during ’19. (Even though the 2019 roster was VASTLY more talented than the ’23 version.)
Nonetheless…. There’s still lots of baseball to be played. Enjoy it.
GA – I’m with you. I loved seeing Duran hot, I’m happy to see Verdugo play better than he has since we got him. I’m shocked that Yoshida is putting the ball in play as well as he has been. Shows you how dumb Cora is. yoshida is the prototypical 2 hitter who should be followed by Devers. The run production would be so much higher. While Verdugo is hot he’s a great choice for lead off considering the limited skills of the team. JT and Casas hitting 4 and 5 works since the alternative choices aren’t good. The bottom of the order has been productive considering their skills but it’s hard to believe it will last. So we need alternatives or we’ll see the bottom 3 in the batting order hitting under .200 some time soon.
My favorite part of this season was seeing Sale being Sale despite Cora and the rest of the pitchers (the young ones) doing so well. Even Paxton has looked much better than expected. I’m all smiles with regard to the pitching. Too bad Cora doesn’t understand the game and his pitchers well enough to use the bullpen in an appropriate way every game.
It’s not a problem with WHAT they spend, it’s a problem with HOW they spend.
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The problem is less the spending and more the almost complete lack of development since Theo left. The guys from our farm contribute very little compared to other teams.
No, the season isn’t over and injuries have really hurt this team. But we get a healthy Duvall back, Chang isn’t too far off and Story will be back mid July. Now if Sale is lost for the season then yes it is over.
Sale is unfortunately the key. We’ve done a crappy job of developing players over the past, well, since Theo left. Right now, we have one cheap player that we developed that has a bWAR of 1.0 or better (Bello). IMHO, you need to develop at least one starting position player and one starting pitcher every year. We aren’t close to that.
It’s possible that Casas, Duran, Houck, and Crawford might develop further, but as of right now, we have a net 1.4 bWAR from those four, and only 2.4 bWAR from our development team.
Joe,
If you look at the last 4 years or so, anyone who built a team around Sale being the key cog would not only be playing with fire, but, it’s fair they should’ve made a better plan and using a renaissance performance from Sale to be the difference maker was a poor decision.
Sale SHOULD’VE been looked at as a bonus, if you have a successful squad and he gives you something, great, you just went to another level. Not to be expected to become a key contributor.
Andrus and Iggy were available to sign: Andrus for Dalbec now? The Sox had the chance to pick up two legit SS’s as late as ST.
Thou Mayer is not a Wander Franco yet, he may be the defensive SS they need now just like Wander was when they brought him up.
Bloom has no excuse other than running the Sox on the cheap. Henry sees his franchises sinking: The Globe, Penguins, Manchester, Racing cars and now the novelty of ‘The Bloom’ Wilting on the Sox vine.
Paxton is the one positive this season so far. Sale was a close 2nd.
Whitlock, Houck, Crawford and Bello are all ‘want to be starters’. Why because that’s where the money is and frankly who else do they have? Where are the ‘Grown-up’ decision-makers: Bloom and Cora? Those 4 guys have been trotted out there for close to half the 60 games(28). Their combined Starting ERA’s 4.62 –not very good. Throw in Poor-D they ave close to 5.5. They probably get 5 inns on average but by then they have given up 5 runs. Paxton when he’s stretched out may get to 7 inns.
Without your best short guy–Schreiber–maybe a play out of the Rays playbook–
A pen starter 1 day every 6 or 7 games.
With 102 games left–the Wild Card is still within reach.
Reinforcements are on the horizon but Bloom and Cora need to do their part.
BP–Schreiber 18 Games-ERA-2.12—on IL–Huge LOSS
Garza—-8 Games ERA– 1.00
Bernardino 14 Games ERA 2.70
Martin. 17 Games. ERA 1.62
Wink. 21 Games. ERA 2.27
Sheriff. 5 Games. ERA. 2.70
Jansen. 20 Games. ERA. 3.86
Added BP arms–Kluber, Pivetta
madmc44
Andrus and Iggy were available to sign: Andrus for Dalbec now?
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Andrus has a 44 OPS+, which is about as bad as it gets. And a -0.5 bWAR.
Honestly am I the only one thinking “Shotime” is what this team needs to shakeup Fenway?? We got the money, we ain’t Tampa! That gives you your number 1 starter/Big Papi DH with good returns for the next 5 years or so at least, should give u a championship if they fill out the roster right along with their future nucleus which should be cheap so it would work out where they can afford him…Why not Boston??? If not, there are others still available like Burnes or Beiber etc….Or trade for Baltimore or Cincy’s surplus infield prospects who are pretty much ALL better than what the WOOSox are trotting out every day. Are they waiting to fall further behind in the wild card? Why wait til the deadline to make some trades?! There is no urgency in the front office it seems, it’s never too early, overpay to get it done if that’s what’s needed to get it done, I mean it’s that or a full rebuild either way down the line here coming up pretty quick!
Thadeus – YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!
Urgency has been void since DD left. Bloom has proven to not be the answer.
Cora is a cheater. Nothing more needs to be said but he also has no baseball acumen to run a ball club. He’s a people pleaser not a savvy baseball mind like you would want for a manager.
With the structure of the current roster and contracts there are several opportunities for making the 2024 team much better. Boston is stuck with the albatross signing of Devers who is proving why he wasn’t worth $30MM a year. Five years from now he will make the Panda deal seem like a minor mistake.
I say hire a GM like Texas did with Chris Young, who is incredibly baseball savvy and is smart enough to bring in a guy like Bruce Bochy. Then strip the roster to ONLY quality players and try to move Devers for a bunch of prospects and use his money effectively. $230MM is a lot of money to build a team and Boston’s ownership can still make over $300MM a year if they spend to the CAP.
So who should Boston keep going forward?
1 – The young pitchers – Houck, Bello, Crawford, Winchowski, etc
2 – Yoshida since he hasn’t proven he’s not worth $18MM per year.
3 – Duran, Dalbec and Casas to see if they can develop into above league average players going forward
4 – The bullpen Jansen, Martin, Schreiber etc.
Who should go?
1 – KIKI – PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 – Arroyo, McGuire or Wong keep one as the back-up, Duvall, JT, Kluber
Keep young players with potential but put them in AAA and make them earn a spot on the MLB roster.
Here is a quick wake-up call on how close the farm system is to helping:
1 – Mayer age 20 – AA – hitting .150
2 – Yorke age 21 – AA – hitting .292
3 – Bleis age 19 – A – .230
4 – Jordan age 20 – Hi-A – .314
5 – Anthony age 19 – A – .246
6 – Bonaci Age 20 – Hi-A – .340
7 – Hamilton Age 25!! – AAA – .267
8 – Romero Age 19 – A – No at bats yet
9 – Rafaela Age 22 – AA – .269
10 – Valdez Age 24 – MLB – .244
This is the Red Sox future and so far in 2023 the players on an uptick include Yorke, Jordan and Anthony. Players not off to a good start include Bleis and Rafaela the two players Bloom pushed into the limelight with his recommendations to the prospect services.
If you go to the history of performance of players that end up all-stars at the MLB level Boston has NO PLAYERS who have dominated at the lower levels of the minors like the players who made big impacts in the majors like Bogey, Betts and even Benny.
We put the organization on HOLD for Bloom to reformulate the minors yet 4 years later we are not better off than we were under DD but we did fail and get good draft choices and at this point, those choices have not proven to be wise ones.
Maybe give Mayer time at AA before you pin .150 negative average stat? what is he 3 for 20? He is #3 prospect in all of baseball….. by next year he will be probably the #1 prospect.
Cooper – I was simply showing where everyone was without making excuses for anyone. Mayer is highly ranked but your numbers are a bit high. MLB has him at #5 because Bloom has ties with them. Baseball America has him at #8. Rotowire has him at #24 because they actually update their numbers more often and they use a merit system as opposed to BA and MLB who use a political system. Either way he’s a top prospect who has yet to put up numbers to justify his ranking, much like Downs and we all know how that turned out.
Despite being the fourth pick at age 18 in ROK ball he put up very unimpressive numbers. .275/.377/.440/.817. Good numbers for a later round draft pick mediocre numbers for the fourth pick in the draft.
At 19 his A line was .286/.406/.504/.910 and Hi-A .265/.379/.449/.828.
Both are solid numbers for a guy drafted later than he was but for the fourth pick of the draft…. very average.
At age 20 in 2023 he started at Hi-A with .290/.366/.525/.890 which is very good for a normal 20 year old but he’s the fourth pick in the draft!!
Mookie was a 5th round pick at age 20 in Hi-A he hit .341/.414/.551/.966
Those are numbers a 4th pick could be proud of!! FYI.. by 20 Devers was in the majors hitting .284!! So all I’m saying is that Mayer is a good prospect but he hasn’t lived up to his 4th pick in the draft status yet the services are giving him the benefit of the doubt and letting hm coast on his laurals.
FYI… the SIX games at AA have produced .130/.222/.174/.396. These numbers suggest it might have been premature to promote him which further supports the idea that he’s a good prospect but not a great prospect destined to be an all-star like so many suggest.
Can he improve and take a sudden jump to greatness? SURE. Could he also fail miserably as an over-hyped prospect like Downs and Swihart? SURE. We are all hoping for the jump to greatness but realistically his past performances so far don’t suggest greatness they suggest an above league average player like Benny. He projects to be better than Verdugo and far less than Mookie or Bogey or Devers. He’s the star of Bloom’s farm system upgrade which he created by losing badly in 2020.
That’s why I don’t subscribe to Bloom having helped the farm system. I don’t see it being any better off than when DD was here and clearly Bloom has yet to prove he knows how to use over-rated talent to get missing pieces on the MLB club like DD did.
Thus, BLOOM IS HIGHLY OVER-RATED as a GM and a builder of Farm Systems.
KD – I find the idea of the ‘prospect rankings’ to be fundamentally flawed since they generally aren’t based on merit – a performer at AAA ought to carry more weight than a performer at A ball, and, their frequent inaccuracy is explained away by the fact its a ‘guess at potential.’
Let a kid become a top 20 prospect when he’s in AAA. To anoint him as such as an 19 year old, when so many ‘top prospects’ flame out makes a mockery of the system.
Its not being anti-mayer, or, penalizing him since ‘he’s bloom’s guy’, I just don’t buy the hype until I see the skills translate.
Heck, every year we see guys who DESTROY even AAA pitching – think JBJ, even think Dalbec… doesn’t mean they’re going to rake at a HOF level in the majors.
I think comparing Mayer to Wong or Swihart at this point is wrong – Wong wasnt comparatively THAT well regarded going into the draft. Swihart was screwed up in his development by boston, pure and simple. You’ll never know what he mightve been.
So far, in hype vs results, Mayer projects like Moncada so far to me. Problem is, deeming Bogey expendable (cite to insulting extension talks, signing Story) after drafting Mayer, Bloom is forced into riding that horse for better or worse, even if the skills never translate which we won’t know for another 3 years.
There are no perfect systems, but there is always data that can be used.
JBJ’s first foray into AAA more or less predicted the type of hitter he’d be, with some power and swing and miss component. And he was mostly exactly what was predicted.
This stuff can generally be ferreted out at every level. Like you say, it is less meaningful in A-ball. But it generally revolves around K/W, power and age per level. Guys with poor K/W’s generally fail. Guys with good K/W, but no power, generally fail. But it also matters at what age they are at that level. Dalbec doing damage in AAA at age 28 is almost meaningless.
Another case is someone like Moncada. His ranking was huge, but he had a 64/27 K/W in AA, and 102/49 in AAA, with 12 HRs in 309 ABs. That’s about 23 HRs and 200 Ks per 600 ABs. In my recollection, do you know how often 200 Ks in AAA, no matter what type of power, leads to success at the pro level? Almost never.
So there is definitely a guessing element to it, but just like with most projections we make in life, there is some predictability to it.
For all that is wrong with the Red Sox….. they are 31-30 and would be in first place if they were in the AL Central. And they haven’t played Oakland yet….lol
Cooper – Their record has fallen to .500 or less in all but 2021 since Bloom arrived. Are they a good team? Compared to what he inheritied ABSOLUTLEY NOT. Compared to the rest of baseball they are average.
Do they have the talent to make the palyoffs? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Could they finish near .500 in last place in the AL East? If things go well yes!!
Is that something fans should be happy with? NOPE!!! The fans should be storming the castle asking for the heads of Bloom, Cora and the whole coaching staff.
Clean house, bring in a GM with a track record of success in big market situations and have him fill out all the positions below him without interference from ownership. In essence, bring back a DD equivvalent to rebuild what Bloom broke. Use the Texas Rangers as the model for turning things around quickly.
Cooper – and if boston were in any of the other 4 divisions in baseball besides the AL east or Central, they’d be barely clinging to 3rd or 4th place at 31-30.
Oakland isn’t going to give that big a bump to them. It’s not like it’s a divisional foe.
With the payroll bloom spent, a majority of which he allocated himself, there’s no excuses left.
For all that is wrong with the Red Sox….. they are 31-30
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That’s about right. I predicted 86.5 wins, which is more or less in reach, depending on Sale. Without Sale, we are pretty much sunk. Even with Sale, we still need at least one to give us dependable starts between Houck, Whitlock, Pivetta, and Kluber. All four are between 5.46-6.25.
GASox – Great post, well said!
It’s really starting to feel like 2020 again.
Meanwhile Wacha pitched another gem, Nate and JD are doing awesome, and how are their replacements Kluber and Turner doing?
The errors are through the roof! Casas and Devers and Valdez tonight, did you see Wong’s headscratching throw on the little league HR?
Cora and Bloom are both gone, they have to be.
Tapia just needs to focus more. CONCENTRATE. Love the dude, and is more than capable of playing in the MLB. Hope he finds a home elsewhere.