The Red Sox announced today that the club had agreed to a one-year contract extension with outfielder Rob Refsnyder with a club option for the 2025 season. As noted by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, Refsnyder’s deal will earn him $1.85MM in 2024, with the 2025 option being valued at $2MM. Speier adds that the deal includes performance-related bonuses and escalators.
A fifth-round pick in the 2005 draft, Refsnyder made his MLB debut as a member of the Yankees in 2005. While he impressed with a 16-game stint where he slashed .302/.348/.512 with a 130 wRC+ in 2015, subsequent cups of coffee in the big leagues didn’t yield nearly as promising results, leaving the Yankees to designate the then-26-year-old Refsnyder for assignment. He ended his Yankees career with a slash line of .241/.312/.332 in 92 games with the club. Refsnyder would spend the next several seasons making brief, unsuccessful appearances with the Blue Jays, Rays, Rangers and Twins despite consistently putting up consistent numbers at the Triple-A level, where he has a career slash line of .298/.379/.450 in 487 games.
Things began to turn around for Refsnyder when he arrived in Boston last season, however. In 90 games with the club since the start of the 2022 season, Refsnyder has posted a .299/.393/.457 slash line, good for a wRC+ of 139. While Refsnyder’s sky-high .387 BABIP during that time indicates success at this level is likely unsustainable, though his 10.9% walk rate, 24.4% strikeout rate, and .158 ISO all indicate that Refsnyder can at least be a solid fourth outfielder in the big leagues nonetheless. Currently, Refsnyder sits alongside Raimel Tapia on the Red Sox depth chart, coming off the bench to spell primary outfielders Alex Verdugo, Masataka Yoshida, and Jarren Duran.
That performance earned Refsnyder additional job security in the form of a contract extension that appears to be a win for all parties. Refsnyder, who landed a $1.2MM contract to avoid arbitration this past offseason, was set to be arbitration-eligible for the final time in 2024 but now has a guaranteed big league salary headed into next season. Meanwhile, with the 2025 club option the Red Sox secured themselves an additional year at what is sure to be a discounted price should Refsnyder see continued success over the next two seasons.
Ah. The future HOF’er finally getting his dues.
Yeah, because every team has 26 hall of famers on it.
Yes, the immortal Rob Refsnyder. Where have you gone?
He’s proven he belongs. Remember the argument of Ref or Swihart?
dewey – No, I don’t. LOL!
When was this? They were never on the Red Sox at the same time, or any team for that matter.
He’s living the dream. Good for him.
Who would’ve thought he’d rock a Red Sox hat for his HOF plaque.
I’m good with it, him and Tapia are nice platoon players.
It’s the infield that really needs to be shored up.
This isn’t much above league minimum. After how the OF was a crush to get something, anything, settled last offseason, this is cheap insurance against Verdugo leaving town and having no warm bodies to step in.
This move is fine, as long as it isn’t the only OF move to be followed by an offseason ignoring the needs there.
Verdugo has one year of arbitration left after this season so Refsnyder doesn’t really do much there but it gives the Sox a consistent bench bat that hits lefties well and with 3 LH starting Outfielders thats a big plus
Solid role player at little cost there is no downside here.
He’s been about as solid as they come as a backup since getting here.
Alright! I’m happy for him!!
> Speier adds that the deal includes performance-related bonuses and escalators.
I like riding escalators
There’s a zero percent chance he was drafted and debuted in 2005.
Correct!
Draft: Drafted by the New York Yankees in the 5th round of the 2012 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ).
Born in 2005, and also a fifth-round pick in the 2005 draft, Refsnyder made his MLB debut as a member of the Yankees in 2005, retiring in 2005 after winning the 2005 World Series and being elected to the Hall of Fame by the veteran’s committee in 2005.
Yes, saw that error right away. Also, wish they give his current age in the write up.
Also, wish they give his current age in the write up.
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He is apparently 39.
It STILL hasn’t been corrected.
the first player in history to make his mlb debut at age 14 it would seem!
I really wish they freaking proofread these articles better. And if you make that typo yourself, how do you not catch it right away as someone who knows baseball?
Yet again, it’s more important for MLBTR to be “FIRST!!!!” than accurate?
The rookies writers here don’t have a baseball background they were hired for writing skills and familiarity with advanced stats.
Writing skills?! Hardly.
Chaim Bloom strikes again. Unnecessarily wedding the team to a 32 years old career quad-a journeyman for over the next 1 and a half season. Might as well extend Yu Chang while they’re at it.
The money he will be getting is a rounding error for most teams. Under $4 mil if all goes well for a solid OF who absolutely destroys lefties. Good signing.
Yeah but did they really need to hold a presser to announce the signing? IMO it just shows how disconnected Bloom is from this major market.
I mean, the press covered it.
Unless you plan on getting rid of Ref, then how is this a bad deal?
Weird thing to be sour about when the major league min is $700K and Refs has very solid numbers for a utility man.
This has less to do with Refsnyder and more to do with Bloom bashing
Weird thing to be sour about
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Some of our “fans” are completely weirded out. Ref is a perfect player for us. Almost minimum wage righty in an outfield full of lefties.
And one of the few players on the team that can read the strike zone.
Compare and contrast to Profar, and you will come to the conclusion that Refsnyder has the wrong agent. Every contract is “unnecessary”, but this looks to be a solid deal with little downside for the team.
with little downside for the team.
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I know you have to give to get, but the option year is very nice.
Yeah, great comparison. You really know your stuff.
Refsnyder had an OPS of .881 last year. and .791 this year.
He has the highest OBP on the team.
Yu Chang had an OPS of .596 last year and ..515 this year.
I think he was making a sarcastic comparison:
“Way to go, you extended a crappy player. Why don’t you extend this other crappy player?”
I do not think he was trying to imply that the two players had anything in common.
In my opinion, Refsnyder is a good role player and worth the money based on what players get paid today. Know your role!
I know he was being sarcastic. It was just so dumb I decided to pile on.
Man y’all will tear down Bloom for anything. What exactly is wrong with retaining a platoon piece (that has been highly productive) on a cheap contract?
Bloom could sign the next Willie Mays and people here would gripe about him. Onward, keyboard warriors and amateur GMs!
“387 BABIP is likely unsustainable”….yes but to challenge the typical bias (again and again)…is the high BABIP because he’s been hot and is going to come down some or is it the ever evoked phantom called “fluke” due to balls falling in and finding holes an abnormal amount of the time? A theory making the least amount of unnecessary assumptions is likelier to be accurate. It’s important because the implication is always that it’s a fluke which means he’s not really that talented.
I think BABIP is a useless stat on its own, but if you couple it with exit velocity, it gains meaning.
For example, if a player continually hits 12 hopper ground balls to first base, his BABIP should be low. If you’re hitting 95 mph rockets all around the infield with a low BABIP then that player is very unlucky and a lot of those rockets should start finding their way through for base hits.
My point is that a .387 BABIP doesn’t mean anything if we don’t know how hard he is hitting the ball.
but if you couple it with
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This is something everyone should learn in kindergarten. Most stats are relatively useless without context.
What I am curious about is what happens when they start throwing more strikes to him. He currently has a 21/15 K/W. There is no way that pitchers will continue to walk him at that pace, forcing them to give him better pitches to hit.
Wasn’t he still under club control through arbitration in 2024 anyway? That’s not really an extension.
It is a buyout of his arbitration year(s) which, in effect, is an extension because they didn’t have to tender him. They locked him into the end of his arbitration eligibility.
I understand what you’re saying, but to me, an “extension” extends the years of control a team has on a player. This didn’t do that.
It’s an extension of his existing contract, which expired at the end of this season. It’s true that he would not have become a free agent unless the Red Sox failed to tender him a new contract, but it’s still an extension of the existing contract.
Technically it does, since they now have an option on his first FA year.
Happy for him even if it’s for the Sox. No friggin idea what the hell Cashman was doing shifting him to 2b and forcing him to stay there and ever since they put him back in the outfield he was able to relax and hit a bit.
His bat his equal or better than Mcneils….prove me wrong.
Now extend Verdugo.
Guy’s gonna carry the Sox to the playoffs. Move over Ohtani!
He was drafted in 2012 draft and made debut in 2015. He was 14 years old in 2005.
The legend lives on!
Not mentioned are his splits against LHP this year:
62 PA: .365/.468/.481/.949
Super cool for Rob and family. All that hard work and perseverance paying off in a big way. Love to see success stories like this. Hope he gets that option picked up. Keep grinding, keep pushing for what you want.
good for him. took some time but he figured it out. wish him well against every team but the yankees
Edit this article to Debuted in 2015, not 2005.
Not a bad deal as he’s okay but not sure why Chaim Bloom is obsessed with him.
He does absolutely terrorize left handed pitching. Some versatility. I get where you’re coming from, but I can see why the Front Office would look to make a little move like this. It’s a lot like Dylan Moore’s recent contract.
not sure why Chaim Bloom is obsessed with him.
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I know you feel the need to always be critical, but in what bizzaro world does that statement make sense? He signed a guy for one year for $2M and that is an obsession?
@JoeBrady
The fact that Cora and Bloom often start him constantly and put him in the leadoff role… that is beyond utility if you ask me.
He has batted leadoff a handful of times all year. . He’s only played 35 games out of 59. I don’t see how that’s starting “constantly”. He is on pace for around 200 at-bats.
Have you noticed since he’s been starting, we have been losing? Obviously it’s not the A team out there but still…
Go get your money, Ref!
2012 College World Series MVP with the Arizona Wildcats and still in the bigs eleven years later. Most Minor Leaguers never make it to MLB and of those who do only a fraction reaches arbitration. Yet Refsnyder persevered and that in itself is an accomplishment.
The Legend of future first ballot Hall Of Famer Rob Refsnyder continues!
Casual.
You feel better now, little man?
Angry casual.
You do seem like quite an angry fella. Must be really tough. Liking your own comments and what not. Bye now, Angry Joe. Say hello to my good friend, the Mute button. Have a day as wonderful as you are. 🙂
Angry verbose casual.
He persevered. He deserves the extension. He stuck with it and I congratulate him.
Can’t believe he’s still playing