The Red Sox have shut down Corey Kluber from baseball activity, the team informed reporters (including Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe). The right-hander suffered a setback while rehabbing from shoulder inflammation that sent him to the injured list five weeks ago.
It’s unclear if Kluber’s season is finished. He at least seems likely to be moved to the 60-day injured list once the Sox need a 40-man roster spot, as it’s hard to envision him being ready for MLB action before the third week of August — when he’d be eligible to return from a 60-day placement.
The 2023 season has been a frustration for the two-time Cy Young winner. Kluber struggled over nine starts, posting a 6.26 ERA in 41 2/3 innings. The Sox bumped him out of the rotation. Unlike Nick Pivetta — who has thrived in somewhat shorter stints — Kluber has continued to scuffle in relief. He’s allowed 14 runs in 13 1/3 innings out of the bullpen, largely on account of six homers surrendered.
Kluber’s contract has an $11MM club option for next season. Whether he’s able to make it back to the mound or not, that’ll get bought out. He’ll return to free agency during the upcoming offseason.
That is sad. He is a good guy. I enjoyed when he pitched for Cleveland.
Father time stops his march for no man.
You can debate on the extent to which the decline was foreseeable, and, whether he still has much more left in the tank. But it’s always nice to be able to see guys go out on top, and not struggle to hang around
Father Time stops his March for no man? That doesn’t make sense because plenty of guys put it off for a couple of years and are successful at a time when most guys hang it up. So Father Time definitely is halted in his tracks even if just momentarily before continuing his March later.
The fact of the matter is that it takes a while for the mind to catch up to the body. If I had a decent year and I think I can do it again and someone’s offering $10 million, I’m going to go for it. Why hang it up?
The time to hang it up would be when you’re failing such as this year for Corey kluber. Wasn’t he decent last year for the Rays? And who really does go out on top? I think most of them go as long as possible and when it’s over, it’s over. But why quit early when you can still play ball, mentally you think you can contribute, and get paid for it?
It’s not sad – this dude has made $85 million and has had a mlb career. It’s the opposite of sad.
Great signing by the Red Sox…..
No buyout for ’24.
Baseball thanks the Red Sox
Sometimes it’s truly amazing how a guy can just absolutely dominant for a good number of years like Kluber did than just fall apart.
Klubricked
Absolutely gonna 60 day him to get the roster spot. I also have a hard time believing this was some sort of a setback. He’s cooked and it was probably a handshake deal to let him avoid getting DFA’d. The money is already sunk anyway.
Strong – How would either party benefit from him not being DFA’d?
I would think he’d want the opportunity to pitch better for a new contract, no?
By saving face and allowing him to do so if he has come to the realization that he’s done.
Strong – I get what you’re saying, but I don’t think we can make the assumption that he’s mentally prepared to retire.
He had really good results just last year, most pitchers won’t call it quits after just one bad year.
He’s only 37, not tremendously old for a pitcher.
And we don’t know how much his health has affected his performance. If it’s strictly an injury that goes away this upcoming offseason, I think there’s a high probability he signs with a non-contender hoping to flip him for a prospect midseason … much like the Pirates did with Hill.
kluber is breaking down but teams keep signing him.
Wasn’t he decent for the Rays last year? At least he’s been an Innings eater with 31 starts last year or the year before, which provides value.
Gary – Yep, he had a 4.34 ERA and led the league in fewest walks. I had no issue with signing him as a #5 starter, but not for that ridiculous $10M contract Bloom gave him.
Good. That relieves the Sox of having to consider dumping a more useful pitcher to get him back on the roster. And just think, the Sox could have signed Wacha for half the money….
They could have brought both Wacha and Rich Hill back instead of signing him.
Half the money for Wacha? he signed a 4 year deal and the Padres that could be for up to could be on the hook for anywhere from 20-40 plus million. and if he makes more than 30 starts this year it will be the first he’s done that since 2015.
Oh thank god. Last thing the Red Sox need is Kluber getting Klobbered. He had a great career. No need to keep going. There is nothing else to prove at this point.
It’s the trade deadline and Kluber is out for the rest of the year so it’s time to step up and get Verlander with his high price tag. Negotiate the 2023 number to stay under the cap and then in 2024 there is room for him to be at the top of the rotation with Sale. Paxton is far more risky than Verlander and his price will go way up in 2024 but Boston has the money to make it happen if they want to or they can count on Bello, Houck and Whitlock to fill out the rotation behind Sale and Verlander..
Nobody should have expected them to be this close and without a big gun addition like Verlander, they may not make the playoffs wasting yet another season. With Verlander, they might win the division and have the depth to win it all..
Verlander doesn’t fix the 2023 Red Sox.
Infield defense is a concern, as is consistent play. They can lose a series to the lowly As and sweep a 2 game set against Atlanta within a week’s time.
All season long its been more of the same.
Marching orders have to be add around the edges and avoid the big deal unless it somehow nets someone young and with at least 2 or more additional seasons attached.
GASoxFan – The defense has been broken and can’t get better until some key players get moved to positions they can perform at. There simply is no chance for fixing defense in 2023. Nothing they can do will fix all the holes.
So look to what wins games. Pitching and Defense. So fix something that can be fixed by getting a top of the rotation guy with a proven track record and hope the hitting can off set the bad defense.
Marching orders are never clear with this GM. Unpredictable is the only word you can use for a guy who needs pitching in 2021 and gets Schwarber. They still need pitching but I believe you are correct that meaningless fringe players will be added. With all the empty seats, a Verlander might fill a few if fans think someone is actually trying to win again.
@crash. No way the Red Sox have the team to win it all.
Mercenary – You might be right but teams that advance usually have big time starting pitching especially in a short series. Verlander and Sale have experience at winning big games. Paxton is pitching well but I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop or an injury. Bello, however, can compete at the back end of a short playoff rotation.
Devers, Story, Turner, Casas in the infield is bad defense but great hitting.
Duran, Verdugo and Duvall is good hitting and better defense than the infield.
Yoshida as the DH. Sale, Verlander, Paxton, Bello as the SPs.
This team with Verlander can beat TOR, TB, NY and LAA. Can they beat TX or HOU? Only with luck and great performances. Can they beat the NL in a WS contest, yes but ATL would be an uphill battle.
Again, you may be right but with Verlander they have the top of the rotation they are missing right now. With Story healthy and playing SS the weak bats fall out of the order but the defense is sub=par. A trade=off that might work.
Remember, I say this as a possibility not a certainty nor a likelihood. Lots needs to go perfectly for it to happen but without Verlander, they will struggle in a short series. Also, who knows if Sale can return to form before the post season.
Crash – Sale has experience at winning big games?
His 6.35 ERA in 10 career postseason games says otherwise.
And Sep/Oct is the only regular season month he has has a losing record for his career.
Fever – Misleading information.
In 2017 Sale pitched against a cheating Astros team and pitched 9.2 innings and gave up 9 of his 24 earned runs in the post season. Kinda skews the results when you have a situation where the other team is banging trash cans and feasting on your pitches.
Check this out versus likely opponents
NYY his BA against is .231 and their OPS is .631
HOU .175 BA against and an OPS of .498
TB .202 BA against and an OPS of 6.18
TOR .212 BA against and an OPS of .634
That’s a career of big games against excellent opponents.
Sale spent 2010 to 2016 with the CWS and had no post season games but to suggest he never pitched in a big game seems like an odd perspective on what a big game is. Apparently it’s only playoff games.
If you want to shrink the sample size to 10 games and then try to suggest those represent his big game tendencies that’s your choice. Two games against a cheating Astros team, 5 games in 2018 when he missed a bunch of time with injuries and then again in 2021 when he was injured. I can agree that if injured or if the other team is cheating he hasn’t performed well in post season games. I would also say that the sample size and injuries discredits any comments about post season performance.
Sale has started 253 games in his career against many great teams and has done extremely well when healthy. So for me, if healthy, Sale is still the best Boston pitcher based on his career and seeing him healthy earlier this year.
Pitching great does not always lead to winning,
Crash – I certainly agree with your last sentence, the only reason I mentioned record is because you specifically wrote “winning big games”.
Sure Cora’s team cheated against Sale in 2017, but when you’re a power pitcher you should be able to blow the ball right by the hitter even when the hitter knows what’s coming.
And what about the 2018 postseason in which he had a 4.12 ERA?
What about the 2021 postseason in which he had a 8.00 ERA?
Most big regular season games are in September/October when the team is contending, correct? Well that’s why I wrote how those numbers are his worst over the course of his entire career. He has had a longstanding reputation for simply tiring out toward the end of every season, not surprising considering how slender he is.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s one of the greatest pitchers the Red Sox have ever had. It’s just your labeling of him as a “Big Game” pitcher that I disagree with, when “Big Game” is defined as either postseason or late regular season while in contention.
Numbers don’t lie.
Fever – It’s 10 games of an injured Sale. The point is we haven’t seen the Sale from earlier this year since 2018 before the post season.
Your point that his fastball should not have been hit when Houston knew each pitch is just wrong. These are professional hitters. The best in the world. 99 isn’t blowing anyone away if you know it is coming.
Big games are only post season games as you define it. I look at big games as games where you are going head to head with a worthy opponent. deGrom vs Scherzer, Kershaw vs Sale etc. Big games for me are ones that show the level of skill exhibited against the highest competition. Gibson vs Koufax was always a big game whether in April or September. But that’s just my viewpoint. You don’t need to agree.
I had hoped to see Ohtani pitch this year against Sale because to me that is a big game. Something special where two giants in the game go head to head. Again, it’s my definition and you have yours.
I guess if that stats of a pitcher with over 300 starts can be narrowed to 10 games to make a point, someone is going to do it. Seems like a petty attack on a great pitcher of this generation. Technically irrefutable but completely misleading.
Crash – I said late regular season games in September and October are also big …. and I said it twice! LOL!
Was Sale injured in the 2021 postseason too? Nope!
Well I look forward to Sale coming back, and if he’s healthy he should be strong with all the time he’s had off.
2021 Sale pitched in 9 games. No injuries? I’m confused. He was off two years and was coming back from Tommy John surgery. and threw 9 games. That’s 2 less than in 2023 so far. Also, his last start of the regular season he went 2.1 innings and came out. Does that sound like a healthy Sale?
Clearly, you have issues with Sale. I stand by the fact that a healthy Sale with no cheating is better than anyone Boston has to offer on the mound.
Yes you did declare Sep/Oct starts as big starts but that doesn’t make it true it’s just your opinion. If a Sept start is against a below .500 team I would argue it’s not a big game. It’s just a September game against a bad team. Also, if the standings are tight and you are playing the Yankees in July and August those are big games too. Your rule of thumb is just a rationalization for bad mouthing Sale. He’s pitched in and won many big games in his career even if you don’t want to acknowledge the facts.
Crash – Correct, no injuries during the 2021 postseason.
Like I said, there is no definitive definition for the term “big game” so I guess we will have to agree to disagree. It’s rather surprising you refuse to acknowledge he has a history of tiring late in the season.
As always, I have links to back it up.
masslive.com/redsox/2017/11/how_the_boston_red_sox…
But after the All-Star break, the Red Sox ace saw a dip in his numbers, something that’s happened in past seasons.
By the time August and September rolled around, Sale seemed to have lost some gas. He posted a 4.09 ERA in 11 starts from August through September. In five of those starts, he allowed four or more earned runs. He’d allowed four earned runs in just three of his first 21 starts.
Fever – For his entire starting career in Chicago he pitched like Max Scherzer with his max effort. It led to an annual dead arm period after the all-star break but his numbers were tremendous for each year.
That has nothing to do with big games. Each game in April and September count as a win. The month shouldn’t suggest bigger games. The competition should.
The timing of the article you linked is late 2017 after he tailed off as usual. There was no injury per se and the dead arm cost him the Cy Young that year. In 2018, he was an even greater lock for the Cy Young until the manager and front office decided to figure out a way to “fix” Sale’s August dead arm by putting him on the IL and sitting him a month in July.
It cost him the Cy Young and he never regained his form after the mistake made by management. His post season was heavily impacted by the bad decision made in July. Sale is who he is. He’s a max effort pitcher who runs out of gas and then regroups to finish the year. His year end numbers have been great until Boston chose to “fix him”. After that fix in 2018 he was never the same until 2023. This is what happens when people try to fix something that isn’t broken. The 2018 decision has cost Boston millions and millions of dollars by messing with their best pitcher since Pedro.
What always bothers me is how fans don’t comprehend what actually happened and they take cheap shots at Sale. Other teams would love to have him on their roster. Even now. Like many other pitchers in history I would pay high prices to see Sale pitch just like seeing Ohtani or Bob Gibson. Special pitchers should be treasured not trashed.
Win it all? What team are you watching? This team is flawed, defensively, pitching wise and Bloom has to go for them to get back on track.
Boxscore – Completely agree but Verlander is a post season monster. The team seems to be riding a lucky streak like in 2021 so why not do something to boost their chances? Good GMs make those moves. Look at what Texas just did to improve their chances of taking their magical season to a better conclusion. I’m not at all happy with the composition of the team but I do want them to give fans a glimmer of hope but not if it means the front office doesn’t change. It’s a double edged sword. Wishing for winning and a new front office. I think a big part of Red Sox Nation is feeling the same thing.
He’s done
nice signing Chaim
Nah Kiké for 10 million takes the cake.
That was money well spent
Mango – Paxton & Kluber have a combined 1.1 bWAR at a combined $20M (including Paxton’s 2022 salary when he didn’t pitch)
Wacha & Eovaldi have a combined 5.4 bWAR at a combined $23.5M
Aren’t both Wacha and Eovaldi injured right now?
wacha formally and I believe Eovaldi has missed a start or two recently
Carton – Yes, Eovaldi missed his last start and Wacha hasn’t pitched in 4 weeks. Trying to find starters that make every start is a rarity these days. Still, current year WAR is the best way to compare each pitcher’s value.
But Bloom is a genius or something say his supporters. No facts just slavish devotion. A true cult.
kind of like you with your hatred of him. No matter what moves bloom makes him dumb!
This guy stole money this year for what he gave Boston. It was a real bad deal for the money.
Welcome to baseball. Happens every year to almost every team. You a Yankee fan? Hope not because you would post the above every week LOL.
Kluber is suffering from a strained neck, watching gopher balls fly over the wall.
I think the Klu bot is done
Kluber is cooked. DFA or 60day just keep him away from the mound. We need Sale, Houck, Whit, Story & McGuire to return & a decent Snell/Montgomery type arm. They can play & beat anybody with health!
I think it may be a mistake to buy big at this point. No matter what, I call this season a win just for the fact the young players got at bats / innings pitched and showed that 2024 is looking good.
I am not a big Bloom guy, but the dude has had a much better year this year than last, and a had a really good week. I would prefer the Sox look to next year by focusing on moving the likes of Duvall and Turner for major league ready prospects or a middle infielder. Worry about filling out the rotation and pen in the off-season.
Take the progress and build on it for a strong run next year. And for the love of all things baseball… stay under the threshold!!!
Exactly. This team is going nowhere til they can Bloom.
DBH – Well said. Next year hitting and fielding need to be better aligned. If Devers stays at 3B then the rest of the infield needs to be above league average fielders. If Yoshida is in LF then CF and RF need to be near gold glove players. Pitching needs good defense.
@CnB, I would hope Devers is at DH next year. If they do keep Turner, he can play 3rd. I hope they trade players though and give the mlb ready prospects some innings this year. I would just go into spring training mode now. Who knows, maybe they still a wild card spot with return of the IL bunch.
I know I am in the minority here, but that’s cool
Crash – It’s hard to envision the fielding improving much next year. Yeah hopefully Story will be healthy enough to play SS every day, but does anybody honestly think Devers or Casas or Yoshida will become good defensive players? I’m not ragging on them, as I really like all three, but facts are facts.
The lack of fundamentals is also a major concern with this team, so many mental errors that remind me of the old Oakland moneyball teams.
Did you see the triple play the other day? Absolutely shameful, never should have happened.
FPG. Casas might improve with the glove over time after he has settled into a routine. .I think fundamentals are a league wide problem. Teams just don’t prioritize it anymore. It is all launch angles and mph. Hitting and D just don’t rate nowadays. Sad
DBH – Valid point, fundamentals can’t have metrics assigned to them therefore most teams probably don’t care about them. It’s moneyball all over again, decisions being made purely by statistics. No more Captain Intangibles, real or perceived.
As for Casas, I dunno… 378 career games at 1B leads me to believe there won’t be much if any improvement. Not a great work ethic, kinda spacey, and an unusual body all work against him.
The then Indians shot film of Kluber’s delivery during his peak years from just outside the mound. The view was pointing up from the ground at his arm as he released the ball, in slow motion. The torque on his arm was so extreme, it was almost painful to watch. Not surprised he has arm problems.