NPB standout Shota Imanaga will be posted for Major League teams this offseason, and MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam reports that the Red Sox have “heavily scouted” the Japanese left-hander. Imanaga has a 3.17 ERA over eight seasons and 990 2/3 innings with the Yokohama DeNa Baystars, though North American fans might know him best from his work with Japan’s national team in this year’s World Baseball Classic. Imanaga had a 3.00 ERA over six innings and three appearances, and was the starting pitcher (earning the win) in Japan’s gold-medal game victory over the United States.
MLB Trade Rumors readers are also familiar with Imanaga from our NPB Players To Watch series, as Dai Takegami Podziewski has regularly written about the southpaw as Imanaga looks to be on the verge of heading to the majors. Imanaga will draw plenty of attention from pitching-needy teams, and the Sox certainly figure to make rotation upgrades a major part of their offseason plan under their next head of baseball operations. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the top name available among NPB pitchers this winter, but with at least ten MLB clubs (including the Red Sox) interested in Yamamoto’s services, it is possible Imanaga might be something of a solid backup plan for teams that either can’t land Yamamoto or can’t afford his big price tag.
More from Fenway Park…
- Cubs assistant general manager Craig Breslow might be joining the Red Sox front office as the head of pitching development, as per Peter Gammons (on X). The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma (also via X) has a contradictory report, saying there has been “zero contact” between the Cubs and Red Sox involving Breslow. A veteran of 12 MLB seasons, Breslow has been working in Chicago’s front office for the better part of five years, becoming the team’s director of pitching in October 2019 and then receiving the AGM title in 2020. Breslow spent parts of five seasons pitching for the Red Sox and he hails from Connecticut, plus Gammons notes that Breslow and his family live in nearby Newton, Massachusetts.
- Justin Turner told MassLive’s Chris Cotillo that he hasn’t yet decided about whether or not to exercise his $13.4MM player option for the 2024 season, as his focus is still on finishing the rest of the schedule. As to the possibility of staying with the Sox in general, “I love playing in Boston and I’ve had a great experience here so obviously, it would be fantastic if I was still here,” Turner said. Even at age 38, Turner is still a very solid bat, hitting .278/.348/.463 with 23 homers over 600 plate appearances in his first season with the Red Sox. It figures that the Sox would love to bring Turner back, though they might have to sign him to a new contract altogether — as Cotillo notes, the odds are high that Turner will take the $6.7MM buyout of his option and test free agency again in search of a bigger deal.
- Kenley Jansen is back on the active roster, as the Red Sox activated the closer from the seven-day COVID-related injured list today. (Righty Zack Weiss was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move.) Like Turner, Jansen was also a productive signing from the 2022-23 offseason, joining the Sox on a two-year/$32MM deal and delivering 29 saves and a 3.63 ERA over 44 2/3 innings in his first season in Beantown.
- The Red Sox rank 27th of 30 teams in second base bWAR this season, as Boston’s second basemen have combined for a sub-replacement level -0.1 bWAR. The Athletic’s Chad Jennings looks at how the Sox might address the position next year, and how perhaps the easiest solution would be to give Ceddanne Rafaela some regular time at the keystone. The top prospect has played a few games at second base already, and while the Sox prefer to see what Rafaela’s glove can do in center field, using Rafaela at second base in at least a part-time capacity would open up center field to see if Jarren Duran can build on his promising 2023 campaign. As for Boston’s other in-house second base options, Jennings writes that the club hasn’t yet decided on whether or not to tender Luis Urias a contract this winter, as Urias is set for at least a minimal arbitration raise on his current $4.7MM salary. As Jennings notes, the next front office boss will probably be the one making the call on Urias, and it is possible the Sox might non-tender the infielder and then look to re-sign him at a lower price.
It would be nice to see Turner return next season. It’s unlikely he would duplicate his numbers from this season but it seems like he’s the veteran presence they’ve been missing since Big Pappi retired
Concur with the observation – two points – Does he want to return to a messy, unstable & chaotic rebuild situation as mentor & informal clubhouse leader and is he interested in a full time DH job on a non competitive team to round out a better than average career.
That was kind of his role this season, was pretty obvious even when he signed that’s what he would be doing. He seems to enjoy the role so maybe there’s a chance
Rsox – I’m fine with Turner as full time DH but then Yoshida won’t be able to split time there.
As for Breslow I’d love to have him in that role, hope it’s true.
Agree Fever. What remember about breslow is he was one of those super smart guys, who had a very good memory and able to translate it into helping his team mates when he was with the Sox before, Josh beckett as an example.
Was very surprised he never became a pitching coach after he retired and as some know.. An Ivy leaguer and not some useless “sports medicine” type grad, like Lavarnway who went to Yale, but breslow’s field was molecular Biolology if remember correctly.. Probably amongst the smartest of people in the game.
Turner has been around and knows what to say. There seems to be zero chance he picks up his option. As long as he stays healthy (a big if,), 80% of his production is worth more. Add in his leadership role (such surprised me after 2020 on the field celebrating with a positive COVID test) and he should at worse be able to redo and sign another similar deal.
John – Great post, you have an awesome memory yourself.
What are your thoughts on Naehring as POBO? It would be a promotion so the Yanks couldn’t prevent an interview.
Johnsilver: How do you relate molecular biology smarts to bb smarts? Apples and oranges, dude.
Wasn’t thrilled when they signed him, but love him on and off the field. A true bright spot. Every team needs a JT.
I like this new wave of Japanese pitchers. Imanaga’s struggles in the WBC would concern me but being a lefty makes him worth a shot. I’m curious how many years he’ll get. There seems to be a lot of mid tier pitching available this offseason
Dodgers?
Are we just shouting out team names randomly? Alright… Reds?
It was not a random guess, since Turner was a longtime Dodger. I assume the poster was simply suggesting he could return to the Dodgers. They said it for a good reason.
How about giving a little more than just naming a team instead of making random strangers make assumptions on their point?
The Sox really need to make a wise signing for CBO we’ve already seen with Bloom how jumping the gun by believing the hype with a flavor of the month choice can seriously burn the franchise.
As far as Turner goes even though he brings leadership, he’s old and most I’d go is 1/17 if he elects FA. If he wants 2 yrs… Cya! Japanese starting pitchers are a real risk as they are used to more days rest. Do a deep dive on them and you won’t find too many real success stories. Tanaka for NYY was probably the most consistently solid signing so far in a real mixed bag of mostly bad signings.
I’d be willing to give the same contract they gave him the first time. Even if he regresses, it’d only be one extra year. He offers value off the field anyway
Boxscore: Senga seems to have adapted well to less rest. These guys are young. They don’t need extra time to recuperate from their previous start.
When did Duran become a so valued a piece to a ground-up rebuild that you would displace and possibly stunt the progress of a tooled rookie to an unfamiliar position?
Sawx are a freaking mess of misfit square pegs in round holes puzzle pieces.
Duran has likely achieved his highest market value so time to dump this wannabe CF”er with training wheels along with a few other square pegs for some potential pitching or draft choices—-Unless Henry and the money guys are going to open up the wallets for the new & potentially improved front office ….It’s going to be a long & painful road to building a solid team capable of competing this division…..it’s been four extremely painful years with Blooms chaotic clown act so I’m down lighting candles as my last resort..
Rafaela isn’t that big of a prospect.
yea he was. Rafaela was a top 100 guy this past year consistently. Duran on the other hand had much less fanfare
Duran was a futures game allstar and the lgbtprc championship series mvp and a mlb top 100 prospect
Top 100 doesn’t mean you’re that big of a prospect. Not dissing him, I think he can be good, but “displace and stunt the progress”
Rafaela hasn’t earned anything yet.
There are roughly 9,000 “prospects” across minor league baseball any given year.
So not only is making the Top 100 list a big deal, it’s a massive deal – regardless of how many of them make it big in the show or not.
Rafaela also made the futures game. I can’t speak to the garbled mess of letters that you typed after that.
I’m not really sure Duran earned anything quite yet either.. not “dissing” Duran either. He had a nice season but Rafaela has way more upside both offensively and defensively than Duran. CF is important and Duran is still too much of an adventure out there. I’d much rather sell high on Duran.
No one said it wasn’t a “big deal” so I’m not sure what you’re talking about.. I said he wasn’t that big of a prospect, and he is’nt.
There are still a lot of questions about whether Rafaela will make it as a starter in MLB.
Read a few scouting reports perhaps.
I’ve read plenty of scouting reports. Rafaela is a bigger prospect than you’re giving him credit for. Gold glove caliber defender at multiple positions with the potential to hit for solid power and average. The questions you speak of could apply to almost every prospect and still would apply to Duran at this point in his career.
Perhaps you need to work on your reading comprehension if that’s your take away from said reports.
How big a prospect is he? I know all that about the defense and the “potential to hit for solid power and average”
Perhaps my reading comprehension is bad, so please explain what I am missing.
He is a good prospect, not. a can’t miss prospect.
Speaking of reading comprehension, I wasn’t replying to you by the way
your post was immediately below mine and I got notification you replied to my comment. . next time specify the person you are replying to in your comments if you don’t want the wrong people replying. He’s currently ranked third overall in a top 5 farm system.
Elite defenders at multiple positions with solid average and power are hard to come by. to pull a page out of your playbook. I never said he was can’t miss. I said he is better than you were giving him credit for. H
My bad then, I was trying to reply to the guy who said it was a “Big deal” he was. a top 100 prospect.
With that said You have absolutely no idea how good I think he is.
The only thing I said initially was “he isn’t that big of a prospect” He isn’t. That doesn’t mean he will be successful, or he won’t.
It means anointing him a success before he has achieved anything is patently ridiculous.
Trading Duran is fine by me. Trading Rafaela would be fine by me as well.
This whole conversation is based around you thinking a top 100 prospect is a big prospect. I don’t.. We are basically arguing semantics. I never said one thing about his game. More than enough said,
Many, if not all, of the scouting reports say Rafaela has no control of the strike zone. It’s still unclear what his ceiling is.
Breslow could be a good add. Heard him speak, smart guy. Then again Bloom’s a smart guy too and we all know where that got us. They’ve been doing a lot wrong with pitching development for a good while now, so maybe some new people can help right the ship there.
I think the writer hit the nail on the head with Urias, gotta get him out of here if he’s going to hit his weight for nearly $5 million. Could be interesting to see Rafaela get a try at second. Also had a thought that if he has gold glove outfield ability than right field might not be a bad place for him either. All depends on where his bat will take him (so far not so good).
Imanaga would be a decent possibility if they didn’t have to go bananas on money, He’s not a kid. Adding Breslow to the organization and retaining Turner would be positive. On the other hand, why are they demoting Weiss and keeping that bum, Llovera? Oh, wait. I know why.
turner was great this year, but if he come back, he needs to be bat off the bench who can spell those Casss at 3rd and Dalbec at 3rd.
Devers needs to move to DH.. He is terrible at 3B.
Putting Dalbec at 3rd gives the Sox the other RH bat needed in the line up.
And for those who say Devers is too young to DH, tell that to Papi who became a primary DH at 24!
For once the Sox can go into the off-season without needing to sign a position player. They can spend all the money on pitching!
15 million for Turner off the bench. You just said that.
Yeah someone needs to tell him Bloom is gone.
I said if he comes back.. I would prefer he doesn.t.
As for the Bllom comment, you are going to play a guy only because he is a vet making more money? Congrats, you are think like Cora!
If he exercises his option, it is 13.4 million. He will make that no matter how you play him. So you are going to make the team worse in the field because of it? Seems legit.
So you are going start him, likely at DH, right? leaving Devers at 3b and Yoshi in the outfield, right? Or will you play the 40 year old as an everyday fielder? Sounds like a good idea, right?
You just said that, right?
Dbh… doesn’t he have a buy out of 6.5 or where about … so he only would need some one to offer 10-12 and he’d be well above his opt in salary.. I like him a lot… good presences and all but beginning to have a log jam of potential DH/ 1b.. where does everyone play… Dugie ( hate to see it) gone… Duvall… gone.. yoshi can play LF at home.. Bobby D?? If yoshi becomes Dh maybe Dugie can stay.. or Bobby d at third?? Raffy DH ??? Either way without better starting pitching it won’t matter..
I agree with you, Olm. I would run an OF of: Yoshi in LF, Duran in CF, Abreu in RF (his arm will play well there.
IF of Casas 1b, Story 2B, Ceddanne SS, Dalbec 3B Devers to DH.
Better would be trade Yoshi for a 2b or reliever.
PUT ALL into pitching. Run that to the Allstars break, adjust from there.
and no Ohtani. I don’t want to see 25-30% of payroll going to 1 player who will be a dh. We don’t need more dhs haha
Yup as much as I would have loved to have the pitching/ hitting ohtani the only hitting one is to great a gamble. Sick though as a team will still pay 300 plus ( same token just paid Raffy that) both Dh… hell save the money and go after the best reliever in the 2nd half.. You know who !!! Wish Dugie stays.. have Ref/Abreu bench.. nice call of Bobby d to even out all the lefties… one thing for sure.. it will be interesting!!
I can’t see JT getting a higher offer than $14 M which he is guaranteed without going to the open market. Where are you going to play him? 1 B, 3 B or DH?
Moving Devers to DH might improve the Sox overall defense and make him a more productive hitter without worrying about being a defender.
For a community that would like to hold itself out as a home for baseball fans who are more knowledgeable, engaged and well-read than the riffraff, many of the comments here are no better reasoned than anywhere else that baseball is discussed on the net. It’s like the loudmouth callers you hate to hear on local sports radio, who call in every day, to pronounce this guy or that “a bum”.
Forget about which players look like they’re “giving their all”, “leading in the clubhouse”, “love playing for the local fan base”. Look at actual performance on the field, because “their all”, “leadership” and “love for Boston” have zero impact on performance on the field.
The Red Sox have four current DH-level players. Four guys, who, like Michael Jackson, wear a glove on one hand, for no apparent reason.
By defensive measures of range, arm strength, and outs above average, Masataka Yoshida ranks 514th of 518 qualified MLB players for 2023. The man shows every evidence of being an above average contact and line drive hitter, but any outfield with Yoshida in left is severely handicapped.
Tristan Casas, seems like a nice guy, may well become an above average power bat, has no business at first base + he’s currently ranked 496th in defensive efficiency; about the only first baseman in his class of inept first base play is Vlad Guerrero.
We’re well aware of Dever’s shortcomings at 3rd – he comes in at 477 on the list, reflecting his horrendous range, and propensity to throw the ball away. “Trickles under his glove” would make a good nickname for Rafi, but it’s a little too long.
The Sox have an atrocious defense, no amount of improved starting pitching, or middle relief is going to overcome the awfulness of what they display on the field. Justin Turner is another DH only player; keep him in the e lineup, and you are forced to run out a horrendous third baseman, first baseman and left fielder, every single game.
It doesn’t matter how much Turner likes or hates Boston, whether he’s willing to play for $13.5m, or whether he’s the best clubhouse guy in baseball; if the Sox plan to be competitive next season (and into the future), they need to solve the problem of too many DHs/not enough quality fielders. Can Casas improve, maybe. Is Yoshi going to ever offer more than a popgun arm and zero range, unlikely, can Rafi ever focus his attention and learn to make even the routine plays? Who knows.
I see comments here like “we need Schwarber”, the worst defensive outfielder in baseball, or “never should have let .240 hitter Hunter Renfroe go (another overrated outfielder, with zero range, and a powerful, but utterly random arm). Those kinds of comments are not worthy of a quality discussion among knowledgeable fans.
And don’t even get me started on “let’s all make utterly random guesses, apropos of nothing, about who Joe Blow will surely sign with, because he loves bowling, lomo saltado, and knitting baby booties for his nephews.”