Rangers third baseman Josh Jung has been out since early August after undergoing surgery to stabilize a fracture in his thumb, but the standout rookie could be back in the lineup as soon as next week, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. Jung has been cleared for full baseball activity and is slated to take live batting practice at the team’s spring complex in Arizona. If that goes well, he could jump right back onto the roster for Monday’s series opener against the visiting Red Sox.
Jung, 25, was one of the front-runners for American League Rookie of the Year at the time of his surgery, having batted .274/.323/.489 with 22 home runs in 461 plate appearances. He’ll likely still appear on some Rookie of the Year ballots, but the roughly six-week absence has given current favorite Gunnar Henderson some runway to take a notable lead in terms of counting stats. Regardless of his standing in ROY voting, Jung’s return will be crucial for a Rangers club that has received awful production at third base since his injury. Texas third baseman have posted a disastrous .155/.238/.216 line in Jung’s absence.
More from the American League…
- The Twins announced this morning that they recalled Bailey Ober from Triple-A St. Paul, and Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes that the 6’9″ righty will be plugged back into Minnesota’s rotation. Ober pitched just 108 1/3 innings in 2021 and 72 2/3 innings last year due to injuries, so this year’s jump to 145 1/3 innings (MLB and AAA combined) has been significant. Ober indeed looked to be hitting a wall when he was optioned; he notched a spectacular 2.74 ERA in his first 15 starts but followed that up with 34 innings of 6.09 ERA ball. The Twins only had him make one start during this Triple-A stint (five innings on Sept. 9) and otherwise kept him fresh by throwing bullpen sessions and live batting practice. Ober took the demotion in stride, admitting to Nightengale that he was surprised but also adding that he “can definitely see [the Twins’] perspective on things.” Ober is under club control for another four years beyond the current season and has a 3.75 ERA in 53 career starts for Minnesota. Lefty Brent Headrick was optioned to Triple-A in place of Ober.
- With the Red Sox firing chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom yesterday, Boston’s front office is in transition. While it’s far too early in the process to have a definitive idea about who’ll replace Bloom at the top of baseball operations, some immediately speculated about manager Alex Cora. Cora has previously voiced a desire to lead a front office at some point in his career, but he shot down the notion of moving anytime soon. Speaking with reporters (including Sean McAdam of MassLive), Cora stated he didn’t intend to leave the dugout imminently. “I think it’s too soon. … I’m 48 next month and I feel very comfortable with what I’m doing.” He reiterated that being an executive at some point down the line is still of interest.
Cora? Um, no. He can’t manage a team or a pitching staff. What would make you think that he could even REMOTELY be a GM???
Promote the manager of the losing team while firing the POBO? Sounds more like a White Sox move.
Isn’t that what the White Sox did with Ken Harrelson years ago?
They did it with Chris Getz this year. Except he was the director of player development, which somehow seems worse.
My bad. Harrelson wasn’t a Field Manager.
Bussy – Red Sox announcers started today’s broadcast by revealing last year Bloom was offered prospects for Sale and the other team (Rangers) was also willing to take on his entire contract.
Saw statement from Bloom just now during game… while things didn’t work out .. no one can say he wasn’t a class act… Good look Chaim
oirntiant – Sorry but I can. He wasn’t a class act. What he did to the 2018 roster is unforgivable. The Vazquez trade? Seriously. The guy has the smile of a used car salesman and the sincerity of a con man.
The sooner we stop discussing how bad he was the better.
Bloom lied, often.
He lied about the money saved on Mookie going to sign other homegrown players.
He lied about Xander’s extension being a top priority.
He lied about acquiring talent at the deadline if the Sox were playing well.
Good riddance to him.
The rumor now is Bloom did not interact well with other GMs and agents. Not sure if he was not a good communicator or he was an unrealistic negotiator, but it seems he would start deals and not close them. So, I’m not sure he lied. He may have been bad at completing deals.
suit – I have provided direct quotes in the past for all three examples of lies that I listed above. Yes, he lied. Often.
And throughout his tenure most of us have commented on his arrogance, or at the very least his lack of people skills.
Bloom totally disrespected Xander, one of the classiest players in the game.
Bloom pulled his offer to Eovaldi without any type of warning or advance notice.
Look at his history of free agent negotiations, 90% of the in-demand players he pursued refused to sign … even when Bloom offered similar if not more. The only ones he landed were huge overpays, such as Yoshida and Martin and Jansen and Story to name just a few.
Bottom line, agents and other teams didn’t want to deal with him.
I guess the question is: If you intend to do something and it doesn’t work out, does that make you a liar? I don’t think we can call the guy a liar from this far away. If Xander is insulted by an offer, that does not mean Bloom intended to insult him. Also, if Bloom did not attach a date to the Eovaldi offer, he can pull it anytime.
suit – I talk about this all the time in the real world, because I was raised to be a man of my word.
If the person truly intends to do something, and makes an honest effort, then no it’s not lying. Making lowball offers to Xander was dishonest of Bloom, just like promising talented player acquisitions if the team performed well in July. He was just dangling the carrot, or holding the football to be pulled away at the last minute, and the team quickly realized that when Bloom did nothing to improve the pitching.
Fever, you really think Bloom had control? He likely did with small money trades but he was hired with a vision and whose lying now is ownership. Someone mentioned the Vasquez trade. It looks like Boston won that deal. The minors outside of pitching is stocked. As for Betts, they could have gotten more but including Price at half his salary cost them big time. Do you think that was Bloom’s idea or ownership’s. He never got in my view to bring a big money decision to ownership. Ownership has no choice to overpay for Devers but is that on Bloom? How many teams let their GM decide on $200+m contracts? Do you think Cashman had total authority to spend on Judge?
dewey – I was the one who mentioned Vazquez, he has the 5th-worst OPS of all MLB players with a minimum 300 PA’s.. Combined with his poor defense, that was a great trade by Bloom no matter how the prospects turn out. Abreu certainly looks promising.
Sorry but I wait until we can see which MLB players are produced by the farm system before rating them. Some rank the Sox farm system 16th, hardly stocked. And look how wrong many were ranking Dombrowski’s farm system before he left.
As for Devers, who was mainly responsible for both Betts and Xander being let go? Somewhere along the line somebody decided Devers was the only one to keep. They could still be right eventually, we won’t know for at least another decade.
Henry is partially to blame for the major decisions, I’ve said that countless times. He must have rubber stamped the Mookie trade, so he shares the blame with Bloom.
Okay I stand corrected then… whoever wrote his statement is a class act… possibly Ben Stein??
Sox should fire the cheaters ass too!
Would love to see them bring in Varitek.
Ober, Ryan or Maeda as 3rd starter in Twins playoff rotation?
Cora over Bloom ! April Fool’s Day well in advance!
Forever Jung (pronounced young)
Bailey is back from being Ober the Hills and Far Away
Wonder who “some have speculated” actually are? Who would speculate on something so obviously idiotic?
Sestanovich of the Braves FO would be a good fit for Sox.
Cleon – I know articles here can be ambiguous at times, but it seems like this one stated people speculated about Cora’s future as manager … not speculated that he would move up to the front office.
My guess is Henry will be looking for an experienced POBO this time. Personally I would go with Click.
Thanks, thats a fair point. I read it as Cora moving into GM role, but yeah, returning on his current contract is probably still an open question. New Pres/GM will probably get to make that call.
Whatever happens,wishing the Sox luck,especially finishing ahead of Yankees.
Cleon – I think making the call on Cora will totally depend on what type of POBO ownership hires.
If it’s another rookie like Bloom, my guess is Cora stays.
If it’s a seasoned executive, I can’t imagine them agreeing to have their hands tied with regard to the manager position.
I’m guessing it was Cora speculating it!! Probably in a poorly lit garage somewhere.
Is there a big need for bilingual GMs who know how to pamper over-paid players who need to feel good about themselves? Or should the new GM have baseball acumen which would immediately rule out Cora.
Looking at the attendance at the games these days I think the owners better think long and hard about getting a guy with successful experience for a big market organization.
The owners should also buy a one way ticket that is non refundable for the manager to go anywhere that isn’t Boston. The non-refundable part is key because he’s the kind of guy who would take it and cash it in and not leave and say that he did. A man of integrity!!.
Troll—LOL at your post. You hit the nail on the head. Spot on!
I guess this means John Henry is going to put in the money that is going to allow the Sox to win? Bloom was an idiot but his biggest mandate from Henry was build a competitive club while being cheap. Bloom did that, Sox are around .500 and now 12th in MLB in payroll. It takes a few stars and then depth to win. Is John Henry going to spend what it takes to land Ohtani or Yamamoto? This team needs a big time Ace who goes deep in games. The Japanese pitchers haven’t been tainted with pitch counts and all that crap, we need innings eaters and a mandate to Cora telling him they are going 125 not 100 pitches.
kingburn – WHAT?
Bloom built a competitive club that is at .500 after four years? That’s not my definition of competitive.
Cheap? Bloom exceeded a CAP that went up by $30MM and still finished last in the division. The owners NEVER mandated cheap. They mandated moving Mookie because he refused the home town discount and had the nerve to confront them on diversity issues related to the minorities, specifically the black players. It’s no coincidence that the two best black players were given away as soon as Bloom got hired. Ownership didn’t want to deal with the issue. They had more than enough money to give Mookie a $8MM dollar raise from $27MM to $35MM as his agent requested.
This team needs TWO big time aces. Bello, Houck and Crawford are excellent 3, 4 , 5 SPs with Pivetta long relief and Whitlock being the fireman when starters get in trouble.
After doing what ownership did the past four years to the fan base, i could see the new GM landing Yamamoto and Snell. Then we could hope that Sale gets 15 to 20 starts and pitches like his old self because Cora is gone. Couple that with a few positional changes to improve the defense and this team can compete with BAL, TB and TOR in 2024. NY needs more than we do to return to greatness.
I like your thinking on the pitch count but I don’t like the idea of Cora being part of the club EVER AGAIN. Let the cheater manage little league in his home country if they will take him. I wouldn’t want him to be a manager for my son in little league!!
I think John Henry wanted to be more like the Rays. So, he hired Bloom from the Rays and he acted like a guy from the Rays. Let’s see what John Henry wants now.
Suit – Does that mean John Henry wanted to be competitive with a low payroll and low revenue year after year? As the saying goes, it takes money to make money.
Fever: The Red Sox payroll has been consistently over $200M, so no low payroll. I think the Red Sox revenue is just fine too. Actually, John Henry may be trying to emulate the Dodgers (who hired a guy from the Rays) and Bloom delivered the Rays and not the Dodgers. So, maybe Henry hires someone from the Dodgers now.
Suit – That’s what I was getting at, I don’t think the Rays with their pitiful revenue are the team Henry wants to emulate.
Dodgers is more reasonable.
Fever: I was thinking that the Red Sox could build from within like the Rays, but unlike the Rays, they could afford to retain their good players. That would make the Red Sox an even better organization than the Rays. That should lead to plenty of success and lots of revenue. So, I never thought the Red Sox emulating the Rays player development would cause the Red Sox revenue to plunge to the Rays revenue level. I don’t think that would happen in Boston.
suit – Well the Rays did finally open the wallet and give a massive contract …. to Wander. Haha!
All – Other than the fact that Bloom was from the Rays what evidence is there that Henry “wanted to be more like the Rays”.?
The reason I ask is because Boston increased spending under Bloom so that’s not very Ray-like. Boston did no prospect trading like the Rays did after Bloom came to Boston where the Rays got Arozarena and others so that aspect of the Rays was not followed.
I really don’t see ANYTHING that suggests Henry wanted to be more like the Rays other than him hiring a front office guy from the Rays. I think Henry was hoping Bloom was the brains behind the Rays success but that turned out not to be true.
“Like the Rays”? I’m not seeing it.
Especially since the Rays spend roughly $80MM a year and Boston increased DD’s greatest spending of $203MM to over $230MM Nothing similar there!
I think Henry has consistently provided enough money to whatever GM has been in place during his tenure. He’s influenced some of the actions of the GM when it involved internal politics and he’s asked for hometown discounts from all players but overall Henry doesn’t dictate much to the GM.
It’s always been up to the GM to seek out talent and then ask for money to go get it. DD was outstanding at it. Bloom sucked at it. Cherington never hesitated to ask but made some terrible decisions and Theo like DD did an excellent job providing Boston with many quality players.
We need the next GM to provide the quality resources that DD and Theo provided and we need to stop talking about a lack of money from ownership because it’s never been an issue other than the request for home town discounts to star players.
KD: The Rays strength is player development – identifying good players and developing them. They win more than a lot of teams with less money than a lot of teams. The Rays may be the best in MLB at player development, their problem is they often can’t afford to retain their good players and they trade them before they hit free agency. So, I thought it was a good idea to get a guy from the Rays (Bloom) and bring the Rays player development philosophies to Boston which would be like the Rays with a much larger budget.
If the Rays could double their player payroll, don’t you think they would be a monster? I think they would. So, I was ok with giving Bloom time to do player development like the Rays. I assume the Rays player development is different than the Red Sox player development and it would take time for Bloom to change player development in Boston. So, I viewed the Bloom hiring as a long-term organizational change and not about winning now. I thought it would really pay off, but it would take some time.
This is what I thought was happening, why I supported it and was willing to wait for it to happen. Can you see how I was looking at things?
Suit – How can you say Bloom improved player development when so many players perform horribly when they arrive in Boston, and then they perform great immediately after going to another organization.
Brasier 7.29 ERA with Bloom
0.77 ERA with Dodgers
Diekman 4.23 ERA with Bloom
2.43 ERA with Rays
Springs 7.97 ERA with Bloom
2.94 ERA with Rays
Do you know Bloom has NEVER drafted a pitcher higher than 99th.
Do you know the ONLY Bloom pitching prospects the Sox have right now are two in A ball.
Never have I seen a head of baseball ops ignore pitching as much as Bloom did, it’s one of his biggest faults.
Fever: I’m not saying Bloom succeeded with player development. I am saying that implementing the Rays drafting and player development philosophies must have been the reason for hiring him. I don’t see any other reason to hire a guy from the Rays to run things. There are minor league coaches and major league coaches. It looks like the major league coaches were lacking. Did Bloom hire the wrong coaches? Was he unable to get the coaches he wanted? I don’t know the reason for the major league coaching problems. I also don’t know how the minor league coaching has been doing.
I think Bloom drafted very well. Bloom drafted 12 pitchers out of 20 rounds this year and 13 pitchers out of 20 rounds last year. So, Bloom was focusing on pitching. Some teams do not draft pitchers with their top picks because they want to have the best chance of hitting on the top picks (I think Bloom follows this kind of thinking). Pitchers are more risky as you never know who needs TJ surgery. So, I think a lot of pitchers are in the farm system and we need to see who succeeds.
suit – Sorry, but when somebody never drafts a pitcher higher than 99th in four years then he is absolutely not focusing on pitching. I understand that pitchers can be more volatile than position players, but I think even you’d agree the pitching was one of the biggest problems with this year’s team along with the defense.
Fever: It looks like focused on pitching to the extent they were willing to risk it at each round of the draft. I don’t see anything wrong with drafting position players in the top rounds as they are less risky. I actually don’t know their draft philosophy. It may be to draft the best player available whether it’s a pitcher of position player. I never thought Bloom was in win-now mode as I thought he was building the farm system before switching to win-now mode. So, I expected flawed teams that would fail and get him good draft picks.
Part of me would really like to see Jason Varitek get a shot at managing this team, but not at the expense of letting Cora run the front office. It may be best to cut ties with him as well and start over from scratch
@Rsox. I have honestly thought the same thing at times. I think it is nostalgia for 2004 team lol.
Pedro has done well with Bello, so I daydream of him as pitching coach. Maybe Clemens as a personal coach for Houck. Tek as manager. Manny as hitting coach, Papi the bench coach lol. Cowboy is 1st base coach, Lowell 3rd base Coach hah.
Maybe for a game it would be fun.
Surrounding this team with champions instead of a nepotism filled cheater would be good. Who knows?? can’t be worse than what we have now
DBH – You forgot:
Carl Everett as Mental Skills Coach
El Guapo as Strength & Conditioning Coach
BH Kim as Head of Public Relations
I know you’ll get all those references ;O)
In all seriousness, you mentioned Mike Lowell who is widely regarded as a future managerial candidate. He’s very well respected, intelligent, and bilingual which is a huge plus.
GUAPO!!! I loved the dude!!! Haha
Can we have Tek in Boston and Arod for the NYY? The umps can sit back and let the managers argue it out. Long as Tek brings his glove I’m good with it.
Cora in the front office . God help us !! His first move would be to bring back kike.
Player-Manager Kike!
Milt – If a sequel to the Moneyball movie is ever made, Kike will be the guy dancing on a table to loud music in the clubhouse after a loss.
B dog – If Cora was in the front office the accountants would have to inventory everything each week!!! Then count the Sweet n low and check his pockets as he goes home for the day. Also, listen for sounds of cans banging because it’s a diversion during a robbery!!!
Unless Cora has a mop, he’s not going to the front office.
Troll: awesome analysis. Lol. I enjoy your baseball perspectives . I am really digging your sarcasm lately. Keep up the good work.
Casas is having a better season than both Jung and Henderson. He should be the ROY
Toll Free…. just in case you missed it:
ESPN’s Jeff Passan noted on a radio appearance Thursday that many teams in baseball view Bogaerts’ 11-year, $280 million deal with the Padres as underwater already. I’ll do one better: within minutes of news of Bogaerts’ agreement going public, a Red Sox-connected person texted that it was “the worst contract in baseball.” Kudos to Bloom for not letting emotion take over on that one.
With said….. Toll Free….. you have been SPOT ON with all your postings on Cora!
Cooper – Thanks I’m glad you liked my Cora comments.
As far as Bogaerts goes, it’s a bit early to evaluate an 11 year contract that is slightly over 5 months into it but everyone is welcome to guess what he will do and whether it will be a good, bad or simply fair contract.
Bogaerts has had an excellent career so far and my belief is that he will continue producing at a high level for many years to come. In fact, I believe he wills stay closer to his $25MM annual salary from a production perspective than Devers will stay close to his $31MM annual salary for a longer period of time.
In 2023 Bogey’s numbers are close to his career numbers as a Red Sox.
BOS – 10 years .292/.356/.458/.815 with OPS+ of 117
SD – almost 1 year .273/..343/.424/..767 with OPS+ of 115 (not a bad adjistment yr!)
FYI Devers 2023 stats are
BOS – 7 years .281/.343/.511/.854 with OPS+ of 125
BOS – 2023 .273/.348/.510/.859 with OPS+ of 127
In 2022 I often wrote about what Bogey should be offered considering the situation.
I proposed a 3 year contract for $100MM with a mutually agreed upon opt out prior to the second 3 year contract for $75MM. This suggestion addressed a couple of key issues ignored by Bloom.
1 – Mayer was to be the SS by 2025/2026 so the 3 year opt out gives Boston a way out after 3 years if Mayer is ready and if Bogey gets better and is worth more than $33MM a year he could opt out and go for more money after 3 years. It’s a win-win and 2023 would have given BOS a quality SS which they sorely lacked.
2 – Bogey could have moved to 3B if Mayer got ready early and then the left side of the infield would have been much, much better defensively and Story could play 2B which he appears to be very good at.
11 years didn’t need to be on the table to Bogey. Bloom just had to offer him a fair market value contract. This is the same issue that he had with Mookie from a numbers perspective. Mookie’s situation had far greater baggage so the two aren’t comparable in any other way other than both players seeking fair market value.
I wouldn’t have offered Bogey 11 years, nor would I have offered Devers anything more than 6 years. Both players should fade roughly at the same time despite Devers being younger. The big difference is body type and conditioning. It was argued that Mookie wouldn’t provide value for 10 years and I argued it shouldn’t be a problem at all because he’s the baseball version of Tom Brady when it comes to conditioning. After four years, Mookie is maintaining or improving his numbers which makes perfect sense to me but so many argued against it happening. I believe Bogey will follow a similar path and have at least 6 more productive years. Devers, however, is far too similar to Pujols and Miggy when it comes to size, shape, ethnic background/culture, family and ages when their careers started. Miggy and Pujols dropped off dramatically after their 33 year old season and both were better athletes than Devers.
Devers contract starts at age 27 so 28, 29, 30, 31 and 32 should be his peak years where he might earn close to $31MM with his production. That is 6 years of being productive and 4 of not being productive if he matches two of the greatest players of this generation. I’m not optimistic.
Bogey will finish his 6th year of his contract at 35. I believe his numbers will continue to be similar to what he’s historically produced until then and beyond for a year or 2 due to his conditioning.
Nobody can predict injuries so both could be completely derailed by a severe injury but given decent health, I believe Bogey remains the more productive player after the first six years of his contract.
Obviously, it’s just my opinion and we’ll have to wait to see whether his deal is good, bad or fair just like Devers. The Red Sox connected person over-reacted to Bogey’s contract because there are are too many worse contracts to make such a statement. If he simply said it’s bad, that’s a fair opinion. The worst is a hyperbole so maybe he’s a marketing guy!!
Bloom’s job was to resign Bogey and he failed so no kudos are deserved. There were NOT just two choices. The GM has the flexibility to figure out something that will please both sides and be good for the club. A shorter contract with a mutual opt out would have allowed both sides to re-evaluate in 3 years which is how long it will take to have Mayer join the MLB as a productive player. The GM needs to get things done not be a guy who stands fast with a do it my way or hit the highway perspective.
Bloom failed to understand that part of his job.and our roster reflects that failure.
Cooper – I don’t remember you being around when Xander was offered $90M prior to the 2022 season, at the time Xander wanted only $160M. THAT is when Bloom made it clear he had no interest in retaining Xander.
Nobody wanted Bloom to match or beat SD’s contract, but $160M would likely have been a bargain.
Fever – a much more accurate way of describing Bloom’s offer to Bogey is to say it converted the final season 20m option to guaranteed money, and, added an extra $10m. Because that’s it. Vested an option and added $10m
And that’s why it was so insulting.
GASox – You’re absolutely right, I need to keep that in mind.
And the fact Bloom’s lowball offer came immediately after Story’s $140M contract made it even more insulting.