Red Sox infielder Yu Chang went unclaimed on outright waivers after being designated for assignment on Tuesday, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. According to Cotillo, Chang has decided to accept the assignment and report to Triple-A Worcester.
The righty-hitting infielder could’ve elected free agency, since he has more than three years of MLB service. Players with less than five years of service time would forfeit their guaranteed salary in rejecting an outright, however. Chang is guaranteed $850K on the offseason pact he inked with Boston. With roughly $238K still to be paid out, the 27-year-old will head to Triple-A.
Chang was pushed into regular shortstop duty early in the season thanks to Trevor Story’s elbow injury. Chang played well defensively but was in a massive slump at the plate for a few weeks. His regular run was cut short when he broke the hamate bone in his left wrist on a swing, costing him around two and a half months.
Boston reinstated Chang from the injured list in early July. His offensive struggles continued, as he managed only a .180/.219/.361 line through 65 trips to the dish. Story’s return this week pushed Chang off the roster entirely.
Over parts of five big league campaigns, the Taiwan native is a .204/.265/.359 hitter. Public defensive metrics have rated him highly throughout the infield, but Chang has never found a consistent footing at the plate. He owns a .260/.333/.426 mark over five Triple-A seasons. Chang joins Christian Arroyo — himself outrighted off the roster just last weekend — David Hamilton and Enmanuel Valdez among the middle infielders in Worcester. If the Sox don’t re-select his contract before season’s end, Chang would reach minor league free agency in the fall.
Yu Chang clan ain’t nothing to **** with……
Oh wait that was Wu Tang clan my bad
Yu Chang clan ain’t nothing to **** with……
Oh wait that was Wu Tang clan my bad
Chang remains in the Red Sox organization. He is a very solid defender, plays all 4 infield position above average defensively, and although he has a low OBP he did hit 6 HRs in roughly 100 ABs….. glad to have the depth in AAA.
Exactly, nice option to have for depth. He’s not a roster cornerstone by any means but can’t hurt to have him when needed
Doesn’t every team have backups to the major league Squad in Triple A or double A? You think you’d want a guy that can perhaps hit a little better or has the potential to as he improves.
Sure he’s Major League ready depth on the defensive side but it would be nice to have a guy who’s potentially a regular performer at the major league level rather than a bust at the plate.
Of course you always will want to look for the upgrade Gary, but, right now the two choices are Chang, or no Chang.
It wasn’t a choice between keeping Chang or taking someone else.
This offseason? Sure, better depth will be nice, if bloom will search for it. But for now boston is better with Chang in the minors than without him
“every team”?
The answer is no.
Why do Red Sox fans think every other team has unimaginable depth ready and waiting to fill in for injuries. We saw this same thinking last week with Alfaro. “Every team” has good depth at some positions and weak depth at others.
Okay agreed but hopefully you have a young guy who hasn’t been in the show for 5 years and you know he’s a .200 hitter. That’s what I mean. You have someone you’re developing. But yes having a major league ready Defender has its positive side, we all see that.
“having a major league ready Defender”
You mean 4 or 5 major league ready defenders right?
1) Kiki was suppose to fill in, no one knew he was that bad defensively at SS. He mustve been too busy shopping at the Nike store to practice is my guess.
2) Mondesi was suppose to spell relief by June, but never recovered from injury.
3) Yu Chang
4) Trevor Story
5) Pablo Reyes (Bloom got lucky here, but if he listened to the haters, they should never have picked him up—Go look at the MLBTR comments the day he was acquired.)
And you think that “every team” has more depth than that? Come on.
Well, Houston seemed to be calling up pitching depth this season. They suck at first base, but you can’t have everything. Isn’t that right, Mets fans? Padres fans?
“Houston . . . They suck at first base”
So first base is Houston’s weakness. Just like SS is Boston’s weakness. Yet, the haters in Boston wont accept that every team has its weak position(s).
Last year, it was 1B in Boston. That was the key reason for all of their problems, even though they had a similar depth situation there (Dalbec, Cordero, Casas, Hosmer). They cant comprehend that every position is different and every year is different. There is no way to know with certainty, who’ll get injured, who will perform and who wont. Yet they think GMing is easy. After all, they do it all the time with Strat-O-Matic.
Chaim Bloom, is that you?
Is that you Lou Merloni? Or are you just another one of his Sheeple.
3 games out of playoffs in August. Thats not what you predicted last off-season.
Can you say Baaaah.
Rsmith – They have 13 series left after they get through this patsy part of their schedule.(DET and WAS) 1 is against KC and 1 is against CWS. that’s all the easy series left in the season.
So you ask who are the other series against?
2 vs BAL, 2 vs TB, 2 vs NYY and 1 vs TOR so 7 against the AL East,
2 vs HOU, 1 vs LAD, so 3 against two of the top teams in baseball
3 games out of the playoff picture is meaningless unless they can beat better teams after playing the weak teams they are facing now.
Prior to this GM, Boston was never looking up to make the playoffs they were watching teams trying to catch them so 3 out of the extended playoffs is not a good situation it’s just a better situation than most expected.
Strength of schedule should always be considered so 11 tough series after they finish with DET and WAS and 2 easy series means a well below .500 finish which means falling farther out of the race not closing the gap you think is small. It’s not. The gap is huge considering who they have left to play! Always check the strength of schedule. It dictates wins and losses.
“They have 13 series left after they get through this patsy part of their schedule”
Dont they have a winning record against teams with winning records? After they get through this “patsy schedule”, (which every team in the league has at some point), they should be fine.
Red Sox are 61-55 team ATM with a 36-28 record against ‘Over .500 teams’. Are you saying ‘after getting Story, Sale, Houck, Whitlock and possibly COREY KLUBER back, they are going to be play worse against good teams? I would gladly bet the opposite.
Trollfree-
When I’m calculating what it takes for a team to catch the one I follow, or, when I look at who my team needs to catch, I dont go by the half games.
Boston is 4 behind in the win column of Toronto. That means it takes 5 more wins than Toronto gets from here on out to actually PASS them.
So that’s the benchmark. Make up 5 more wins. Then, while you do it, you’ve got to recall Toronto played more games than Boston, who played more than Seattle. So, if Seattle wins its 2 extra games as everyone heads to 162, you may be looking upwards at them too.
It’s not as easy as 3 wins
18 teams are over .500, and two more teams are 2 or less games under .500
When 2/3 or more of ball clubs were over .500 when you played them, it’s a misleading stat. Not all teams over .500 are created equal either.
When the Gm called and the phone rang in the clubhouse … Yu Chang?
Is his walk up music “Everybody Yu Chang tonight?”
LurchFest was last weekend. The guy that played him was from my area. His son made an appearance
When you say Yu Chang, he says yes.
I didn’t even know there was such thing as minor league free agency
Yanks – Any player with at least six full seasons in the minors becomes a minor league free agent.
He’d become a minor league free agent because he’s eligible for major league arbitration but isn’t on a major league roster?
Yu DFA’d 🙁
Can’t keep burying too many guys in AAA. The prospects won’t get enough playing time.
Yu Chang’d teams again?
Can’t hit a curve… anyone surprised he wasn’t claimed? Time to move on
No team in their right mind would claim him. Infielders who are all glove and no stick are as plentiful as weeds. CLE, PIT, and TB all pulled the chain on this guy last year because they know he’s never gonna hit. Only BOS looks at him like a rare gem and covets his skillset.
Yu Chang = César Izturis.
Maybe he will manage to play for 8 teams over 13 yrs in the majors. As much as people love to hate on players for being “crap” — I’d happily take a career like Izturis’, playing a kid’s game and making millions.
Hope Chang tweeks something in his swing and pitch selection down on the Farm and can make it back.
Solaris – Sadly you’re right. Bloom brings in a bunch of bodies at league minimum, which is all they are, and hypes them up. Some of the fans buy it, just like their overhyped prospects.
Still better than that clown, Kike.
“BOS looks at him like a rare gem and covets his skillset”
Boston DFA’d him.
It’s funny how many of these DFA announcements stir such exciting discussions about who is the worse among those DFA’d or still on the roster. It speaks volumes to the skills of the GM to procure quality players for the team. All these guys should have been minor league players waiting for true MLB players to get injured to get their chance. Instead, they were part of a dumpster full of guys to pull up and throw away. A very different approach to depth than most GMs.
Someone should accumulate a complete list of all the bad acquisitions for 2023 and the other 3 years and on a slow story day we should rank the dumpster dives to see who really is the worst bad player acquired by year!! There are so many to choose from it could be a lengthy task!!
all of those guys were called up/playing because of injuries to “true” major league players…
KD – Not true. Why is Urias on the active roster right now? Who did he replace? The Sox have no injured position players right now, not counting Mondesi who was expected to miss most of the season when he was acquired and was supposed to eventually fill in for Story.
FPG: more trolling huh?
Que?
Acel – Great post, I completely agree! And guess what? I already have a list going of crap players Bloom has acquired all season. It’s quite impressive for it’s unimpressiveness. LOL!!
Here’s just the active, retained and IL salaries that Bloom is on the hook for in 2023:
Kike
Barnes
Bleier
Brasier
Tapia
Hosmer
Alfaro
Scott
Sherriff
Littell
Faria
Kluber
Mondesi
Rodriguez
Mills
Kelly
Ort
Llovera
Barraclough
Urias
I won’t include Houck and Whitlock because they should be back soon, and I didn’t include players that were acquired but never actually played for the Red Sox.
This is what happens when you rely on players who don’t have a history of performance and/or health.
And as the Sox blow yet another golden opportunity today, losing at home to the lowly Tigers while the Jays and Yanks also lost, one has to wonder if the Sox will be hopelessly out of contention by Labour Day.
Fever – Outstanding list of less than MLB players acquired by the GM to play at the MLB level. Bravo!! You have so conclusively proven my point. Thank you!!
I recently started compiling a list of the worthless minor league players acquired by year and subsequently got dropped or simply never got promoted. It’s huge!!
Thanks! Yeah I didn’t have time to go back prior to this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bloom sets a new non-Covid record for most players used in a season.
I would
The Cubs used 69 players in 2021
Red Sox are currently at 53.
Syco – With all due respect, I did specify non-Covid. Which means 2021 doesn’t count.
FPS Seattle had 67 in 2019.
You’re not close.
Numerous teams have had far more players in a season than this years Red Sox.
I might as well add the players currently in the minors, and add 2023 Luxury Tax Salaries, and add their 2023 WAR with the Red Sox.
Might want to bookmark this ;O)
Kike $8,897,879 WAR -0.6
Barnes $4,875,000 WAR 0.0
Bleier $0 WAR -0.1
Brasier$2,000,000 WAR -0.3
Tapia $2,000,000 WAR 0.4
Hosmer $1,750,000 WAR 0.0
Alfaro $100,646 WAR -0.1
Scott $46,452 WAR 0.0
Sherriff $30,968 WAR 0.2
Littell $15,484 WAR -0..1
Faria $7,904 WAR -0.1
Kluber $10,000,000 WAR -0.9
Mondesi $3,045,000 WAR 0.0
Rodriguez $2,000,000 WAR -0.2
Mills $727,500 WAR 0.0
Kelly $723,500 WAR 0.1
Ort $543,480 WAR -0.3
Llovera $255,486 WAR -0.4
Barraclough $720,000 WAR 0.1
Luis Urias $1,541,409 WAR -0.2
Dalbec $65,807 WAR -0.1
Garza $212,905 WAR -0.4
David Hamilton $61,936 WAR 0.0
Jacques $220,647 WAR -0.3
Nick Robertson $11,613 WAR -0.1
Valdez $178,066 WAR -0.4
Arroyo $2,000,000 WAR -0.2
Chang $850,000 WAR 0.1
Dermody $3,871 WAR -0.1
Gudino $11,613 WAR 0.0
Caleb Hamilton $54,194 WAR -0.1
Lamet $7,742 WAR -0.1
Wow, what a list!! Crazy that Bloom is paying Mondesi over $3M even though it was common knowledge he would miss more than half the season. Tapia at $2M is another head scratcher. And $1.5M for just 2 months of Urias? Seriously?
To summarize:
32 players
-4.2 Combined bWAR
$42,959,036 Combined 2023 Lux Tax Salary
WOW!!!!!
For every $10M Bloom spent he got -1 .0 bWAR for it!
WOW!!!!!
Fever – 2 grand slams in the same game!!! WOW. Beyond impressive data!! Too bad ownership doesn’t have anyone on staff with your skills to inform them of the inadequacies of their current GM!!
Thank you for your efforts. Red Sox fans need to know this.
Cherry picking and lies.
1) Cherry Picking: I dont see a single current starter on the list. You cherrypicked every bad player. You could make this list for every team in the league, and get the same results. — Start with the Yankees, Giancarlo Stanton and Carlos Rondon, would cover the payoff of everyone of those Red Sox players, with plenty left over.
2) Lies: Barraclough isnt making $700K this year. Many of the players on that list wont make what you listed. If Barraclough plays a month in the majors he doesnt get $700K.
But sure, whatever reaffirms your Confirmation Bias and helps you sleep at night.
Thanks and you’re welcome!
What a waste of time. I can do that for every large payroll team.
Yankees-Rodon-$27M -0.4 bWAR.
Your turn.
I thought we had an agreement.
I’ll give you a pass and not show how what you wrote is false. Being in the MLB doesn’t mean you have the skill to be in the MLB. My definition of a true MLB player is a guy with MLB level talent.. Players without that talent level can make the majors but that doesn’t change their skill level, it just means someone made a mistake – the GM and his advisors
pointing out a logical fallacy isn’t trolling.. Again I’ve never trolled you. If that’s your definition of MLB talent I’ll indulge you and say you’re partially right if you judging certain positions but in the case of the SS being replaced (Story) he is a legit major league talent no matter how you define it.
Also per this “agreement” you were to acknowledge when you are wrong so I hope you’ll abide by that as well.
“Being in the MLB doesn’t mean you have the skill to be in the MLB.”
Is absolutely wrong. The sentence contradicts itself. Are you trying to make some ‘heavy’ statement?
RSmith – It’s the simplest of statements and you don’t understand it.
That’s why I choose not to discuss things with you. I don’t like explaining obvious things. There are no winners when I’m forced to do that.
“That’s why I choose not to discuss things with you.”
Yet youre discussing it right now with me. You love contradiction yourself.
Its the simplest concept and YOU cant understand it. You cant say one thing then in the next say the opposite in the next sentence and think youre making sense.
Example: If a virus struck the nation and killed everyone under the age of 60, and MLB put together a league, then every one of those 60yo player in the league, would have “MLB skills”, just by being capable of playing in the league.
Just a fact: If youre in the League, it means you have the skill to be in the league.
Any response is trolling if it’s done by you based on your history.
you’re violating the agreement KD. I have no history of trolling anyone unlike yourself or FPG. your opinion is not fact. I have not trolled you then or now. Please remember that. I was responding to a baseball comment that you made.
Acell10 – So you aren’t going to stop trolling. Fine. I shouldn’t have expected anything less. I’m not interested in your reaction to anything I write as I’ve mentioned countless times. If your trolling must go on because it’s your obsession then continue by all means. I have better things to focus on than a stalker like you. You should have shown some class by honoring our agreement.
KD my apologies for forgetting sensitive you are. Replying to a comment in a public forum isn’t stalking and it isn’t trolling. You need to stop throwing around inflammatory and false terms like that.. I have not trolled you once. I responded to a baseball comment with one of my own. Your opinion isn’t fact.
You again refuse to abide by our agreement and insist on not admitting you’re wrong. It’s a shame you cannot expect as much from yourself as you do of others with more proof being your failure to honor our agreement. Secondarily you continue to attempt to bully people in this forum for doing nothing more than disagreeing with you. You should have shown more maturity by honoring the agreement we made.
Is that who it is acell? KD17.
Ive never once once had a conversation with “Trollfree”. But, yet he seems to know me.
Clearly he has a history at MLBTR, and needs to change his name, because he’s ashamed of past posts. KD17 has made many an idiotic posts, so that makes sense.
Trollfree:
Then why make all these insults, and responses with more insults. Things youre saying are just baiting responses. That would make you the troll.
Sorry you cant self-reflect.
KD is having a mental breakdown.
Mission Accomplished hahahahahahaha
I’m like the Pied Piper to these trolls!!!
Any comment is like catnip!! hahahaha
You’re weird.
RSmith
Is that who it is acell? KD17.
============================
Acell10 is a long-time and valued poster.
Acell11 is the poster formerly known as KD17/Pullabloom/Trollfree and at least two other names, maybe more.
Kind of ironic that someone changes their name this often, and then uses the name “Trollfree”.
JB
What threw me off was the short posts (That couldn’t be KD). But he didn’t let us down with that last comment of 200 words.Lol. Who does he think reads all that dribble.
“MissionAccomplished”
Thats not trolling?
What a tool. At least I’m confident enough to stay with one name.
It’s the only way to learn, or at least a very good way. It’s one of the reasons I offer to make “honor” wagers. Folks will remember their mistakes, and learn from them.
FWIW, my pre-season wish-list was an abomination. I have no problem owning up to it.
Good field, no stick.
Just to throw it out there for all ….. If you throw stats and quote WAR specifically continuously, then I have no time for listening to your arguments. I’m not saying WAR doesn’t have value, but it is not the end of all means. I’ll take a good well thought out discussion based on what you see with your eyes over someone quoting subjective stats always. Just my opinion………
“but its not the end of all means”
Then what is? I agree WAR can be deceptive, especially if a player is playing out of position and his defensive stats drag his WAR down.
But, what stat does it better, or do we never compare two players? Comparisons is 75% of the talk here. Conversations have no meaning if someone dismisses the other persons point of view simply because they used WAR.
WAR can be deceptive, but if someone uses it for comparisons and I disagree, I just point out the factors that skewed the WAR.
Reggie….I don’t disagree with you, but just like Fever says…. its overused. WAR doesn’t measure advancing a runner from 2nd to 3rd with no outs…. I’ll take that guy everytime over the guy that strikeouts or pops out to SS.
Cooper – I agree with you about WAR, it’s totally overused. But sometimes you need to back up what you see … and it’s the only stat that encompasses both offense and defense.
Fever – It’s the only ESTIMATION that includes defense and offense but as I detailed the calculation is completely bogus. The defensive metrics vary from company to company by significant amounts and the offensive values don’t match across the industry. The data is purely speculation by each company that produces a value. Also, like multiple meteorologists guessing tomorrow’s weather,it’s all theoretical and a pain in your knee could just as accurately predict a storm tomorrow.
Cooper – Thank goodness for people like you on this site!! Thank you for what you wrote. I’ve dug into WAR including the multitude of assumptions, the constants that are one company’s opinion and the theories of how to measure distances on balls in play. For anyone to consider it the gospel of baseball stats is a travesty.
A fact in the stats world is a straight forward calculation from base input numbers like AB or H. A WAR estimation is just that. Hundreds of assumptions built into a theoretical what if analysis that has no more accuracy than you saying Player A is better than Player B based on my baseball expertise.
It’s like football simulations that say Running Back X will run for 98 yards on Sunday because they ran 100,000 simulations and that is the average. He gets hurt on the first play and the guess is completely wrong. WAR being used to predict things is fine but must be taken with a grain of salt like any prediction. You can’t bank on it and it’s not accurate, it’s a best guess based on one company’s assumptions.
Batting Average, On Base Percentage and Home Runs are facts that are accumulated with 20-20 hindsight accuracy Predicting any of the three is once again a guess and like WAR is based on one company’s or one person’s viewpoint.
Here is the real rub when you talk about WAR in the past not as a predictor. The base data that is factual like AB, R, H etc are part of it but so are the myriad of assumptions that go into the predictive.version of WAR. So to suggest past WAR is accurate because it uses the facts accumulated in baseball is wrong. It’s still just one company’s opinion or one person’s opinion about a players past performance.
So, is there any real value in predictive or past WAR values? Not really unless you think the hundreds of assumptions are more right than what you think and since they are annually proven incorrect there is no reason to believe in predictive or past WAR values.
Again, thank you for what you wrote!!!
I’m not saying WAR doesn’t have value, but it is not the end of all means
=============================
It’s a bit like calculating odds in a poker game. I can tell you the odds of a pair v AK, or the odds of a lower pair against a higher pair. But there are also 3-4 more calculations to be done before making a decision.
But you still need to know the initial set of odds. You can convince me that a 3.6 player is better than a 4.0 player because of different circumstances. But convincing me a 2.0 player is better than a 4.0 player will need an almost impossible set of circumstances.