The Red Sox announced agreement with right-hander Cooper Criswell on a major league contract. He’ll remain in the AL East after being non-tendered by the Rays last month. The move brings the Sox’s 40-man roster count to 39. Criswell, a Frontline client, is reportedly guaranteed $1MM.
Criswell occupied a depth role for Tampa Bay in 2023. He made 10 appearances as a long reliever, tossing 33 innings with a 5.73 ERA. Criswell didn’t miss many bats at the highest level, striking out a below-average 17.9% of opponents. He generated swinging strikes on only 7.7% of his offerings while averaging 88.4 MPH on his sinker.
The 27-year-old had a better season in Triple-A. Working mostly out of the rotation, he pitched to a 3.93 ERA in 84 2/3 frames. Criswell’s 21.6% strikeout rate wasn’t much worse than average and he kept the ball on the ground for over half the batted balls he allowed.
While it’s not overpowering stuff, the North Carolina product has plus control. He has done an excellent job avoiding free passes throughout his minor league career and walked only 7.3% of batters faced at the MLB level last season. Criswell has a four-pitch arsenal that allows him to work as a depth starter or long reliever.
Since he has a minor league option remaining, the Sox can freely move Criswell between Fenway Park and Triple-A Worcester for another year. They go a little above the league minimum salary and commit a 40-man roster spot to a player they clearly identified as a depth target. Criswell has yet to reach one year of MLB service, so the Red Sox could control him well into the future if he pitches well enough to hold that 40-man spot.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the Red Sox and Criswell had agreed to a one-year, $1MM deal.
Ah yes cuz we need more RPs
This is Chaim’s fault
Red Sox fandom and blaming Chaim Bloom will be going on for a while.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=BXZFbGJxSlk
Video of the Bloom family to Boston fans in 2035 after Boston has a bad season
So at this point this is actually a VERY legitimate (albeit sarcastic) comment… but for real as things stand right now they have WAAAAYYY too many RPs projected for the ML and 40-man roster. There’s going to have to be some moves coming… whether that’s trading Houck or Crawford or even Whitlock or Wincowski… at this point something has to give…
Trading Houck or Whitlock over this guy is ridiculous.
Jeff – I wonder if the Red Sox might be ‘selling high’ on someone like Chris Martin or Kenley Jansen. Martin is 38 years old and only one remaining year on his contract. He had a 1.05 ERA in 51.1 innings. He would be a perfect fit for a win now team. Jansen has one remaining year on his contract as well. Houck was 5 years including 2024 of controllability.
How ridiculous it is really depends on the return, wouldnt you think?
In most cases, unless you’ve got a dupe like bloom moving a guy like mookie for un-necessary “salary relief” (they were under cbt just moving Mook, no need to attach price except preference) and a couple spare parts, you need to give quality to get quality.
There’s finite clubs willing to give anything of any value just to free up cash, let alone what you need most so it doesn’t often come together. That gets you back to give to get.
Of course it depends on the return but expecting this guy to take a spot over Houck or Whitlock is unreasonable
Not sure why this deal was made to begin with
This is a shameful waste of a roster position. Should have been a minor league contract at best. This guy has no fastball and a poor slider. Only a changeup that is MLB competitive. But wait, the Red Sox will change him into a MLB pitcher! Is Chaim Bloom really gone?
And yet, having an option remaining allows him to not take a 26 man spot once he gets sent down
Huh. Imagine that.
You still need mop-up guys able to ride the shuttle.
“Criswell was in the 90th percentile for extension & limited walks & hard contact last year. His ~88 mph sinker got hit hard, but his sweeper & cutter were effective.
Sinker 34% usage/.372 oppBA/50% hard hit
Sweeper 28% usage/.211 oppBA/14% HH
Cutter 25% usage/.242 oppBA/19% HH”
From Ian Candell – Soxprospect.com
Criswell obviously should be using the sweeper and cutter more as they were ‘elite’. Maybe Breslow knows something you do not!
It’s time we start pointing fingers at Henry, not Bloom
And maybe Breslow “knows something we don’t,” but the truth is we thought the same with Bloom and it hasn’t turned out. I’ll give him the benefit of doubt
“more to come”
I’m sure Red Sox fans will be waiting with baited breath.
Red Sox fans’ breath smells like worms, eh? I agree, though—this signing changes nothing.
joel is reminding you it’s ‘bated’ not ‘baited’ breath…
As in abate, or end.
“the more you know…”
Waste of $1mil
That’s a weird take… like he’s only 26 and has been decent even as a SP in the minors… my guess is the ML deal meant there was competition… I like that Breslow is willing to “get HIS guy” regardless of it is means outbidding other teams. now having said that if a month from now I’m only able to say that about dumpster diving bargains then there’s a problem… but the rule 5 trade, the trade targeting specific pitchers from the Yankees and Marineers… its a much better feel that Chaim just waiting until someone gets waived and claiming 100 different busted relievers.
Jeff – Is it? I’m not getting that vibe.
Why, and also why?
Criswell has an option left. So, I’m guessing he is AAA depth that they wanted. Not sure why he got a major league deal. Maybe they had to outbid another team. His $1M salary is not much more than MLB minimum. So, I’m guessing they view him as a guy who will go back and forth between MLB and AAA throughout the season. If this experiment fails, they haven’t invested much.
All in – Agreed, the Red Sox have three pitchers who have no remaining options (Llovera, Mata, Slaten – a Rule 5 must remain on the 26-man all year). Two of these will probably need to be traded before the end of spring training, so another AAA arm with options is not a bad thing.
The Red Sox will still need a starting pitchers or 2, a second baseman, and possibly a right handed hitter…..
all – Isn’t it more like you are standing in a hole created by Bloom and you yell to the GM to get you out and he tosses you a shoelace?
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE SO BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Guaranteeing $1mil… to a guy who projects as our 15th best bullpen arm… am I missing something here?
It’s a value signing! Haven’t you been paying attention to the off season 1 million is a better value than paying 30 million to a pitcher, lol.
It’s reasonable. They use 25 relievers a year . It’s what GMs spend most of their time on. The 35 man pitching staff.
Joely Rodriguez was #15 last year. Minimum is 720,000.
What I’m saying is typically anyone beyond your OD roster is on a minor league deal and if they come up then they get paid.
At some point you Sox fans have to acknowledge the issue isn’t the FO, it’s Henry.
Some of it is deff Henry but bloom just like Bill belichick destroyed the pats and left them in a hole for the next 5-10 years bloom did the samething.. fixing the minor leagues while destroying the major league roster..bill b destroyed the Patriots year after year and put them so far back I don’t think we will ever recuperate this one .. bill b has over $250 Mill too spend on free agents two years ago and tanked just like his drafting .. oh wait we are onna baseball site hahahahaha .. but bloom definitely helped management destroy this team
“The big league team will be in a hole for 5-10 years”
“He fixed the farm system”
Most prospects don’t spend a decade in the minors
Oh, I think many of us have been acknowledging it for a while now.
#CoopCrizzz
Hot Damn! Now we’re contenders!
World Series here we come!!!!
Again…. Why?
Depth & ‘value’ move. This FO loves the ‘value’ option. Creates ‘flexibility’ with ‘optionality.’ Of course, with an emphasis on ‘sustainability’ (just don’t call it ‘frugality’.)
Stop the insanity!! If he’s 1 million !! What’s RB worth!!! Move over S.O!!!
Aside from having a name that sounds like a kind of cereal, I’m not sure what’s special about this guy.
Breslow doing his best Chaim Bloom impression. Or as others said, maybe it’s John Henry…
12 games at an ERA of 6 gets you a major league deal?
Technically it’s a 5.73 ERA, but I easily know where you are coming from
Pitch to contact guys are great when they’re getting soft contact and quick outs.
It’s the games when the contact is hard that suck.
5th starter?
Shoe handler for Yamamoto!!
Craig Spendslow
Craig DollarStorelow
You always know it’s a minor signing when they specify it’s a major league contract.
I don’t know anything about this kid, and I have no love or hate for the Boston organization. However if I was a Boston Red Sox fan, I would be confused. These are not the type of deals that win you championships. I can understand if this was a minor league deal, but guaranteeing a major league deal to a guy with this track record? If I was a Boston fan I think I would be pretty upset right now too. If nothing else it seems to me it’s a waste of a 40-man roster spot, let alone an actual major league roster spot.
It looks a little odd, but not much invested. Not really worth getting upset about in my opinion.
All – I like you viewpoint. The positive is that it’s 30 times less painful than the Devers deal!!
Another great signing by Breslow. Please I beg you Breslow get out of the dumpster already!!! Do you really believe that Breslow is going to get Yamamoto. Please already! Breslow should be embarrassed about this signing of a guy with an ERA north of 5 and giving this guy a million dollars. This is the type of guy you invite to spring training on a minor league contract to try and make the team. God help us this year.
Al34 – It’s Christmas. This guy has a family. He hit the lotto. Hey, at least it wasn’t $30MM!!.
I guess you missed where ‘Moto and his reps have been visiting teams this week?
You’ve got to respect the player and HIS process, HIS timeline. If you reach out and the guy says, I want to hear presentations in xyz format, and you try to blunt force him into just doing something different, congrats, you just burned your bridge. Especially with the cultural differences in Japanese players as far as respect.
You can only move as fast as the player wants to. Make the deals you can and know you need, and, work the other deals as you’re able to.
I guess this is their response to losing out on Seth Lugo. Time to make some real moves now. The patience is waning.
You might consider that Breslow doesn’t like some of the reliever depth options that Bloom left him with, so he is going about bringing in replacements while the Sox and the usual suspects wait for Yamamoto’s decision to unfreeze the top of the SP market. I doubt the FO has lost sight of the need to bring in one or two top starters. (Whether they can outlast the bidding is a wholly different matter.)
Horace – My memory fails me often but I seem to recall another GM who didn’t like the roster he inherited either. How did that turn out?
Horace – completely agree! The Red Sox are waiting for Yamamoto(like the rest of the MLB), and I am sure, if and when another team offers an absurd amount, they will need to pivot to someone else. Last year Bloom was waiting on Eovaldi, but got tires of waiting, so he went with Jansen and Chris Martin. Eovaldi then decided he wanted to come back to Boston, but the money had been spent.
Hopefully Breslow acts before Montgomery signs elsewhere. He already moved to Boston as his wife is in residence at one of the local hospitals. I would sign him now and still wait for Yamamoto as well. If it is too much for a year so be it. Sale’s money comes off the books next year!
Cooper Criswell doesn’t sound like a Japanese name!
Team – Sounds more like Clark Griswold.
The guy was good enough to be on the 99 win Rays last year. But, he’s not good enough for the Red Sox fans. Lol.
RedStockings – Interesting way to look at it. A guy cut from a team that has never earned a ring should be automatically accepted by a team that has 4 this century which is the most in baseball.
Shouldn’t being picky be a new approach to acquiring players? Afterall, that didn’t happen in the last four season!!
“should be automatically accepted”
Did I say that?
RedStockings – Did I misunderstand what you wrote. It seemed like you were saying if he’s good enough for the 99 win Rays he’s good enough for the lowly Red Sox so he should be automatically accepted since a better team rostered him.
As I read you comment again, I still get the same meaning so my comment applies without you saying the words verbatim. If I’m wrong then what exactly did your comment mean? It sure seemed like a Red Sox insult to me..
He contributed one win and a 5.73 ERA in 2023 so it’s natural the reaction would be lukewarm.
What I like about this transaction is it shows one more of Breslow’s skills. He’s a genius, he’s a pitching guru, he’s a former player AND he’s an impressionist. Good one!! I thought you were Bloom when I read the transaction!!
After defining Bloom as a brilliant baseball guy and now upping Breslow to a genius baseball guy, maybe we should have sought an incredibly stupid guy? Oh wait, he’s in the dugout!!!
What a great off season. I keep waiting for Bill Murray to show up or at least Yogi Berra so he can say it’s like deja vu all over again!!!
How weird would it be if on Feb 11 we traded Sale and Devers to the Dodgers for Mo, Larry and Curly and offered to pay half of Devers’ salary for three years!!!
Deja vu all over again!!!!
Tf – I still feel like the moves so far this offseason are like the opening credits to a movie..these types of moves are needed to fill out a 40 man rostor
.this wont be it , when if ever was the term “full throttle” used by ownership when bloom was in charge?
Pool – I hope you are right. As a guy who spent many years managing projects, I tended to get the tough parts done first and let the incidentals be handled last but that’s just me. If handling the incidentals first is Breslow’s way then I think it’s fair for those watching to be worried because the big progress that you want up front is being pushed to the rear.
TF – Great Groundhog Day reference, love that movie!
This does seem like a waste of a million bucks. If he had more potential than his abysmal 2023 results show, I would think Tampa would have held onto him.
I’m still withholding judgment on the offseason until February or March though.
Fever – A perfect quote from Ground Hogs day. I can’t count the number of people who said the same about Bloom!!! How’d that turn out? hahaha
For me, if he simply moved Devers to DH I could say he made a huge impact on the win totals in 2024. It’s not going to happen but I could live with him failing everywhere else but moving Devers to DH and firing Cora.
Maybe someday. Ahhhh again more deja vu from Bloom!!!
I predict signing Criswell will be a stinker.
Most of us even gave Bloom a couple years before we jumped ship, and while I certainly see the similarities in Breslows first few months, it is only fair that we give Craig a couple years before piling on!
spitball – I have always struggled with the idea that giving a bad performer time to improve is a smart strrategy. In the real world, your company can’t fail because you hired the wrong person and kept him in place 4 years or even 4 months. Waiting until Spring Training is fine but by then we’ll have a pretty good read on how good he is. Dombrowski was a mover and shaker who brought 3 unprecedented division titles and a ring to Boston by adding big parts immediately then building on that. We need to see that initial big part pretty soon to start having faith. We’re still waiting on Bloom to do it and before you know it Breslow could be heading down the same path. How about not giving Breslow the same amount of rope to hang himself?? Let’s shorten the rope by 3 to 3 1/2 years!!
When exactly will Redsox Nation see this “Full Throttle” offseason? I don’t think you all understand that the end of the rope was our 3rd finish in last place in the last 4 years. The fact of the matter right now is 4 out of 5 is going to happen with this lack of effort in fielding a competitive team. Redsox Nation won’t stick around for it anymore. This is garbage! DO SOMETHING!
Sad thing is, John Henry needs to look at signing top free agents as an investment. I don’t mean the ridiculous Bogaerts-type contracts, but adding top players brings in more revenue via attendance, merchandise, television, etc. Boston is supposed to be one of the top-tier franchises but Baltimore, Atlanta and others are surpassing them. Looks like a return to 1961-66 for these guys. And Breslow is just a figurehead until they foolishly promote Cora.
The issue here is the disarray bloom left the major league roster in.
You’ve got 2 albatross underwater deals in Devers and Yoshida with a pair of terrible defensive dh-only types stinking up the left side of the defense. Your ‘cornerstone’ 1B is almost even worse defensively, which, is painful to say. Your catching tandem as it currently sits would both be backups or 3rd options on many if not most other teams.
And you expect it to be a desirable location for prime players interested in winning to come to.
The sox of the last few years put WAAAAY too much emphasis on Mayer, to the point if the kid doesn’t come up, and SOON, as a generational-level talent you have to admit placing so much weight on the future of the franchise depending on him was a catastrophic mistake in view of how the moves made in that deference really screwed up everything with the MLB club.
Let’s go back about 4 years now.
1) Mookie. Was the trade worth it? I dont mean the prospects (clearly not) but i mean both a) the quote ‘financial flexibility’ – what was THAT used for when you consider the guys bloom dumped for poor returns in the next season or two that also wouldve lowered the CBT and could’ve been done earlier, b) consider all that in addition to money that came off the books naturally anyways which, even if you were a 3rd time payor, wouldn’t the penalty to keep mookie’s production been better than what was obtained with what wasn’t lost?
2) How the story deal created expectations for other players as to what they should be valued at by the sox club, vis-a-vis how their stats compared to story. Let’s imagine bloom didn’t historically blow the Bogey situation with his insults and letting the guy become a FA, by low-balling him compared to what they gave story. Now you would undoubtedly have a better IF, Bogey at SS until mayer, IF he amounts to much which is still a big IF, takes over SS either Bogey bounces to 3B and Devers DHs, a win for the defense, OR casas becomes a DH, Bogey bounces to 1B, and you STILL are vastly better defensively. You also have Story hanging around as a strong, if overpaid, 2B – another keystone IF defensive position that remains…. a bit of a hole comparatively speaking to top-tier FA destinations.
Compare what’s out there in the FA class to the positional needs for Boston. Most of the best of it are guys who want too many years, too much money, for what they bring to the table compared to guys who aren’t *quite* ready yet on the farm you can’t block, all while knowing you can’t dole out overpays for guys whose salary you would need to eat to move when the youngsters are ready.
This isn’t, and was never a mlb roster that was ‘close’ to being a WS contender that needed a tweaking like when trader dave came to town… It’s a mlb roster that possibly needs a two season dissection and rebuild before top tier FAs take it seriously. Your only hope is this year you can lure a couple guys in who are OK with a two year plan knowing the financial resources and the farm hands that you can afford to have some hits, some duds with.
And, maybe Breslow surprises. Remember, some trade options aren’t unlocked until ‘Moto breaks the logjam as clubs would rather wait and see how offers come in one the upper level FAs are off the board.
GA – That was a masterpiece!!! OUTSTANDING.
TF – Wait a minute …. GASox writes a 10-paragraph post, and you write a 5-word post?
What is this, Freaky Friday but on a Wednesday? Did you share logins or something? Haha!
Maybe Freaky Wednesday, and, we ain’t talking t he Adams family
Frame it. It’s Beautiful
Crickets
Come on everybody, this is the move the Red Sox have promised from the start.
They need as many Relief pitchers as possible…. because Cora pulls the starters once they hit 75 pitches.
Y’all need to calm down, this is like a totally normal depth signing lol
Its Boston. The place is always burning down. Its the reason Free Agents choose Kansas City over going there.
Who tha fuugg is that???
Seriously this is a depth move it means very little. Realistically all of the free agents that Boston wanted are still out there.
The argument could be made that Nola was on their list but he clearly wanted to stay in Philadelphia. The Red Sox were interested in Lugo but not for three years so you gives a rats if KC signed him for 3 years good for him he got a good contract. The rest of the guys Boston is targeting are, wow, still available. I think before we condemn the guy we wait and see who he signs.
I mean seriously the moves that Breslow has done have been minor depth kind of moves he like nearly all the other teams are waiting on the biggest pitching domino to fall. It’s still early give the guy a chance he can’t force the market.
Bruin1012 – Four years ago you said the same thing and how did that turnout??
Set a realistic time frame for evaluating Breslow as a GM. Should we wait until we get nothing this first off season or he trades away the franchise player like we did with Bloom? What if on March 31, the roster has NO additional all-star quality players. Is it fair to say at that point he didn’t do his job and should be fired? Or are you still in favor of the crap you preached with Bloom that it takes time to build the farm system and upgrade the MLB roster? You realize Bloom did neither in fact he did the opposite with respect to the MLB team and the farm system. Jumping the farm system ratings by getting the 4th pick is not a guy building the farm system.
So please tell me as the first Breslow apologist, how long before it’s time to complain that he’s doing nothing to impact 2024 wins? Also, give me a guess as to how many all-star quality players he will add by opening day. Will he add a Sale-like top 5 SP? Will he add top flight hitter? WIll he add a top flight reliever so the elder stateman Jansen has back-up since he didn’t get hurt last year but he’s going to be an AARP member soon.
Being blindly optimistic one time is a mistake, being that way two time suggests you have issues. Based on the damage done by Bloom, this guy deserves a very, very short leash.
TF – Maybe John Henry is waiting until Cora joins the front office, so he can properly train Breslow. Hahahaha!
Congratulations Cooper Criswell!!!! You have joined the elite group of relievers under the Bloom/Breslow era that we got for no reason and likely suck. The Members are as follows: Hirokazu Sawamura, Hansel Robles, Austin Davis, Jeurys Familia, Kyle Barraclough (Though he was good in AAA), Ryan Brasier, Zack Weiss, Garrett Richards, Kaleb Ort, Justin Garza ( To a lesser extent ), Joely Rodriguez, Matt Dermody, Richard Bleier, Tyler Danish, Darwinzon Hernandez, Matt Andrese, Matt Hall, Zack Godley, Chris Mazza, Colten Brewer, Josh Osich, 2020 Marcus Walden, Brandon Workman, Ryan Weber, Austin Brice, and Connor Seabold. All players where when they come out of the bullpen, I feel an impending sense of doom and turn off the tv. Please comment below any others that I may have forgotten. There are so many.
Fenway – Outstanding and thorough!!
All I hope for at this point is Cora being fired and Devers playing DH. Nothing else matters if those things don’t happen. The team will suck like they have since 2019 when they had talent but injuries. They didn’t suck from a talent perspective they sucked from a managerial perspective and had lots of key injuries. They still won more than they can now. even with Breslow if he doesn’t fire Cora and move Devers.
With all those pitching busts identified I feel like it’s not fair to mention what started the whole avalanche of talent depletion. We got the farm superstar Jeter Downs, the journey man catcher Connor Wong and the future superstar Verdugo.for Mookie (I’m going to raise my career OPS+ in a pitcher’s part to show how wrong you guys were for trading me Betts and David I can’t keep my mouth shut Price. BOY DID FRIEDMAN EMBARRASS BLOOM before he was 4 months in the job!!! Nice Mentor!!! hahaha
Yes, even though they aren’t pitchers I’d like to simply remind everyone that the bullpen wasn’t the ONLY place Bloom failed. Wong, Downs and Verdugo are all busts as well.