The Red Sox lost first baseman Triston Casas for a yet-to-be-determined but significant period of time yesterday, as the 24-year-old slugger was diagnosed with a left rib fracture. Manager Alex Cora said at the time that Bobby Dalbec would get the bulk of playing time at first base in lieu of Casas, but it seems the Sox are also mulling the possibility of going outside the organization. Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reports that Boston has had some initial talks about bringing veteran C.J. Cron back to the organization.
Cron, 34, was with the Sox during spring training but was granted his release in late March after he triggered an opt-out clause. The veteran slugger saw action in just six spring games and went 3-for-15 with a pair of walks. He remains unsigned.
Middling as those small-sample spring numbers may be, Cron has a long and generally productive track record at the big league level. He’s a career .260/.320/.471 hitter who’s hit 25 or more home runs in four different seasons, including a 29-homer campaign as recently as the 2022 season with the Rockies. Cron hit .260/.304/.476 and popped 11 homers in 56 games with the Rox last season before being traded to the Angels — his original organization — at the deadline. He slumped to a .200/.259/.260 line in 15 games post-trade, however, and twice hit the injured list due to lower back troubles over the final two months of the season.
Cron has had four IL placements due to back and neck injuries since the 2021 season, and he missed the majority of the shortened 2020 campaign after damaging a ligament in his knee while fielding a grounder — an injury that eventually required surgery. It’s been a tough few years on the health front, but Cron has typically been a productive bat when he’s been on the field. Given the fact that he’s still unsigned after opting out of a minor league deal, one would imagine the cost to sign him would be affordable as well.
There are other options for the Sox to consider if they indeed go outside the organization. Fellow veteran Brandon Belt remains unsigned despite a hefty .254/.369/.490 slash and 19 home runs in 404 plate appearances with the Blue Jays last year. That performance checked in 38% better than league average, by measure of wRC+ (138). The Cubs also just designated veteran Garrett Cooper for assignment despite a rather productive 41 plate appearances to begin his season (.270/.341/.432, 118 wRC+). Cooper has punched out in more than 30% of his plate appearances and benefited from a .391 BABIP, which could be red flags for the Sox and other interested parties, however.
For now, it’ll be Dalbec getting the looks at first base, though it’s hardly a surprise that the Sox aren’t comfortable simply handing him the keys at first base. The former hit 33 home runs in his first 156 big league games from 2020-21 but has since batted just .198/.268/.337 (65 wRC+) in 441 plate appearances — all while punching out at a glaring 37.2% clip. Even more concerning is Dalbec’s start to the 2024 season. The 28-year-old has taken 35 plate appearances and gone 1-for-32 with 18 strikeouts.
I’ll let Red Sox vent on this rumor.
Lord – I’m guessing you meant Red Sox fans? LOL!
Personally I will allow the great Bill Murray in the movie classic “Meatballs” to express exactly how I feel about Cron rejoining the Red Sox:
“It just doesn’t matter! It just doesn’t matter!”
Yes. I left out a word!
C.J. Cron should already be a no brainer. He was in camp and is a proven bat. The Red Sox seemed to be paralyzed in making any moves no matter how small or large.
Cooper is a better option than Cron.
I agree if for no other reason than the relative health of Cooper vs Cron. The Sox are in this position because of a flood of injuries to begin with. They don’t need their solution to be someone who very well could wind up on the IL himself with back issues.
Cooper is injury prone himself
they need someone who can play for 2 months tops. By then they will know if they are a contender at the deadline, and will trade for a more legit solution this year (or Casas will be healthy by then). I get not wanting to go all in. But i would be price checking guys on teams with a surplus of big league bats (Os, same division, but with balanced schedules divisions matter less- and they have too many corner OF/1b types and really have no big league needs- so would likely be asking for a few interesting guys in complex/rookie/low A that are 2-5 years out either way.
Casas will not be back in two months, guaranteed. I’d be willing to bet he doesn’t see the field again this season.
James, with all due respect, the RS will on a last-place deserted island come the deadline. They will be sellars galore. Everyone, including Dalbec, is on the table to help them collect pitching prospects.
How can G Cooper, Cron or Belt, NOT be a good addition to the White or Red Sox. Chisox should be all over, all of them. Maybe one of them could work out of the bullpen too lol.
Garrett Cooper is ready to play. He will be signed by a MLB team by the weekend.
Cron was in camp but *barely*…
Only 6 games and 17 plate appearances, and even those were a month ago. He is in NO way prepared or ready to jump in and play.
If you sign him, it’s got to be a minor league deal and he better spend at least 4 weeks or so building up to speed.
Even a player without his extensive and disastrous health record this decade would be asking for trouble.
Meanwhile, before puffing up his batting line from those whopping six games too much, look at what dalbec did in major league spring training this year as well.
GASox – As further proof Dalbec is cooked, look at his 2024 ST numbers compared to prior years:
2024 – .718 OPS
2023 – .814 OPS
2022 – 1.052 OPS
2021 – 1.164 OPS
Even in his first ST he put up a .775 OPS
Goose – In all fairness to Breslow, he is waiting until May 1st to see if any suitable players opt out of their contracts.
But really though …. it just doesn’t matter.
Why sign a free agent, which costs additional money when you can have Pablo Reyes, Dalbec, or even Valdez or Hamilton play over there.
Next time Breslow needs to be proactive when creating the roster. These depth issues were very obvious to anyone with a brain this past off-season.
Joe – In all fairness to Breslow, he’s not running the show yet and he was told they would be going Full Cheapskate this season with likely a lower payroll.
Can’t wait until next year to find out what it was like behind the scenes the past few months.
I try to give Breslow a long leash here due to him being brought on late and this is his first time in the role. However, since they let DD go, there had been a lack of urgency to win actual baseball games. Maybe that will change next year.
Belt still as a free agent is mind boggling
I seems a shame that such a good hitter is effectively being forced into retirement.
He’s not being forced into anything. He’s just not getting offers he likes. If he were willing to sign for 5 mil he’d have had ten offers. He was looking for a raise and for a limited player like belt most teams just decided to try cheaper internal options and put their money elsewhere. He’s the victim of teams managing their assets better.
Or.. or you give Jamie Westbrook a LONG overdue call up!!
I for one did not enjoy watching Westbrook play the field during ST. But to echo the sentiments of many commenters, unless they’re going to go after Belt, I’d rather plug the holes with young guys in the organization and see if you can stumble upon an unsung Jeff McNeil kind of figure. If Westbrook is good you get him for at least 6 years; if C.J. Cron is good you trade him at the deadline for a nobody. I’d rather take my chances with the former!
Belt is coming a season with an .858 OPS / 136 OPS+. He’s better than Cron, but I can see the hesitation since he’s not the ideal solution for rampant injuries.
By the time Belt would be game ready, see JDM with the Mets, it would be too late
Some guys can roll out of bed and hit line drives
Both cron and belt have health concerns, and, based on those track records id imagine neither can play defense at this point worth much because of it, let alone the versatility you’d like.
Sox don’t need yet another DH, they need a fielder.
What I’d like to hear about are pending May 1st opt-out/upward mobility clauses from the guys remaining from the minor league deals with ST invites that could become available.
Might be a better idea to see what of those guys are out there a week from now where you could at least get *some* defense out of whoever you brought in.
GASox – What you think of Choi? He would be entertaining and popular for sure.
As a full figure man also, I endorse this choice…
Fever – if he ends up leaving the Mets and only cost pro-rata mlb-minimum, he’s not bad extra depth for Henry’s budget. But I wouldnt pay anything but cash for him, not even a lottery ticket prospect.
His glove still looks like it’s there in Syracuse, but, the bat is likely every bit as bad (or worse) than dalbec’s. His AAA numbers haven’t been great swinging through stick and I’d expect some further suppression making the mlb-jump based on recent years plus his minors line.
Really the biggest issue is you’d still need to carry dalbec since jiman isn’t a 3B. Put Casas on the 60-day and it opens the slot.
Maybe the *biggest* tie-breaker to me is just how much payroll breslow has for mid-season acquisitions from Henry. If it’s only a couple million, I’m not sure I’d gamble using a healthy chunk of that on Choi. There’s no guarantee some other team would claim him if you did a release after Casas returns. If Casas returns.
GASox – Excellent analysis as always, thank you!
I seriously doubt there will be mid-season acquisitions that increase the overall payroll, even if the team is still miraculously in contention by then.
One thing I don’t understand, why does the team often wait so long to transfer players from the 10-day IL to the 60-day? They waited until long after Story went under the knife before moving him, and certainly they already know Casas will be out at least 2 months. So why not open up the 40-man spot now?
Fever – the *one* reason I can think of, and, it’s fairly thin but does exist- leverage, and money.
Think about it. If you were a front office executive and looking to add various depth throughout the season on low cost, low probability moves like every team does, you always look to pick up guys who opted out, or were released, or whatever, to a minor league deal for depth right?
Well, if you happened to have a sweet 40-man slot open, every agent is going to insist their guy is given that 40-man slot because it’s there. Except, two minor league players, one on the 40man, one not, earn different salaries.
So, by holding that 40 man spot occupied, you could sign a guy to a 40 man deal to stash in the minors as depth, and, say ‘well, we will add your guy when a spot opens and we need him.’
Otherwise, they’re going to ask for it right?
Red Sox fans: why is Dalbec even on the roster at this point?
Just—because the janitor is busy.
We ask ourselves this every day.
Because internal options are better than investing in winning.
Dalbec had a really good ST against other mlb players, not just the b-squad and st-invite only types, following a strong showing at AAA.
He also plays good defense, having been arguably their best infielder this season defensively if you like his impeccable fielding pct that came with a good number of assists and few DPs while lining up at both 1st and 3rd, zero errors, repeat, ZERO errors for a squad that was leading mlb in unearned runs.
He’s also the cheapest salary possible for a highly stingy owner in John Henry of late.
Last of all, he had options left while representing the only mlb-caliber backup defender who played good 3B defense coming out of ST.
I’ve been clowning on Dalbec for the last couple days, but you’re absolutely right, GA—his defense at 3B is a welcome reprieve from the other options available.
think – It just doesn’t matter.
Now that I think about it …. the Sox should adopt “It just doesn’t matter” as their new motto for 2024. They could even have Bill Murray come and throw out the first pitch before one game.
Has anyone reached out to Carlos Quintana??
Olm – He’s busy filming the new James Bond movie.
It almost makes too much sense for an interdivison trade with the Os who have a surplus at 1b/corner OF- Ohearn, Montcastle, Stantander are taking up 2.5 lineup spots (with Adley taking the other half of the DH time); Heston will need playing time, Mayo is MLB ready and will need playing time. Hayes becomes another part of that backlog when he is healthy.
Ohearn or Mountcastle for from lottery tick prospects makes sense guys like Asencio, Monegro, Arias… Or even guys still in complex or deeper in rookie leagues. The Os need to solve a logjam now- even if it creates a new logjam in 3 years. Basically be like the Rays.,
James – Funny, when I began reading your first sentence I coulda swore you wrote “It almost makes too much sense for an intervention”. LOL!!!
O’s and Red Sox are in the same division
I think the issue here, besides being in the same discussion, is that Baltimore works probably be looking for minor league pitchers which Boston isn’t exactly known for.
Also the red Sox aren’t interested in a long term replacement at 1b and they don’t trade prospects hardly at all. It just won’t happen.
So you want boston to make the sort of decisions that led to the Os being one of the worst teams in baseball for the past decade
They were one of the better teams in baseball from 2012-17. 2018 began the decline and 2019-21 were miserable. But how does a three year stretch of bad equal a decade in your mind? We’re a few months away from them being good for as long as they were bad with what looks like a potential dynasty on their hands. But yeah, ok…you’re not too bright.
We can agree to disagree 6 seasons of at 500 or below records including 3 well over 100 loss seasons make them one of the worst teams in baseball over a 10 year stretch..im sure there were others as well but they were in that conversation ..regardless of how they have done the past 2 seasons..it doesnt erase the rest and its not like they won anything outside the draft lottery to this point…i was merely pointing out that was avoidable and they should not have put fans through that..and fwiw we all knew that trade proposal was a troll job..wake up
How about taking Jose Abreu off of the Astros’ hands for a couple of bags of baseballs and seeing if a change of scenery would turn things around for him? He’s got a .986 OPS at Fenway.
He doesn’t make league minimum. Not happening in Boston
Astros aren’t paying abreu’s full salary for nothing of particular value coming the other way and the red sox wouldn’t even want to give up more than a single baseball for him unless the astros did.
He’s old. possibly, and dare I say closer to likely, 5 to 10 years older than officially listed. Its debatable whether his bat or defense is worse at this point, amd that’s not a good thing.
Abreu may be almost out of baseball soon. That’s to say nothing about Henry having no interest in adding appreciable salary either. Even a new mlb-minimum contract on the books would require the entire front office to visit the blood bank once a week to make ends meet.
Love that this racist nonsense has showed up in another comment section.
How much cash is Houston sending with Abreu?
Abreu, Astros pick up the tab to Boston for Dave Winfield’s dinner.
CJ Cron(as is Garrett Cooper)is a massive upgrade over Bobby Dalbec. And the fact that a no-impact scrub like Bobby Dalbec has gotten almost 1000 Plate appearances with the Rsox is a strong indicator of how far their(and MLBs) overall talent has fallen. There’s no way a guy like Dalbec would have gotten this many PAs on the Red Sox(or any team really) of 10+ years ago.
Jared Walsh is out there too
I don’t care who they pick up, but Bobby dalbec is probably the worst offensive player in baseball. If they don’t get someone, it’s pure negligence.
And we thought JBJ had the market cornered on no-bat, glove-only ML’s. Come to think of it, he’s available on loan from the Long island Ducks!
They’re actively trying to lose if they don’t sign Belt/Cooper/Cron
Time to “LURE” Joey VOTTO from the BLUE Jays!!!!!!!?????? Most SIGNS point to YES
MLBTR needs a better list of available, experienced MLB players who are free agents or are playing on minor league contracts and waiting for an opportunity. Yesterday, the Contract Tracker was still showing Crohn on a minor league contract with Boston, but he had been released at the end of Spring Training and was NOT on the Worcester roster.
The RS need to remember that there is little to no chance of the team making the September run, so don’t give up anything of value in a trade. I have no trouble for this to be Dalbec’s last hurrah. If it takes two months, then use it constructively for the future. I don’t think he will hurt them too much in the field. They can also use Reifsnyder there.
Why is Yoshida benched again? Not hitting that poorly. Seems like they are either giving up on him, or he’s hurt.
I believe he’s been ill or a minor injury
surprised that they haven’t stated that, or given any reason.
Persky – You are right, it’s odd how secretive they’ve been about his absence. I wouldn’t think it’s disciplinary. We will have to wait until next year to find out.
He has been hit twice since Friday though.
Is Kavadas really THAT bad? He’s got a 1.089 OPS at AAA right now. I do think he’s likely a AAAA guy that won’t hit better than maybe .215, but he was 10th in the minors last year in BBs. Dude can get on base and mash in the instances he does make contact.
I just don’t understand what the point is of keeping him down at AAA when your primary 1B is out for quite awhile and his backup can’t hit or get on base. This is the perfect scenario to give him ABs and see if he’s capable of hanging with MLB pitching.
Even if he can’t… at least there’s the chance he *might*. Dalbec hasn’t hit for 3 years now so we know he can’t.
Anyone is better than Dalbec. I don’t care if he plays 3B too, He strikes out ALL THE TIME !!!! Here’s an idea, let the pitcher hit and the DH can hit for Dalbec. He is terrible !! Im sure he is a real nice guy, but HE CANT HIT MLB PITCHING !!!
Cron, Cooper, Belt ANYONE is better.
Rant over.
They should consider playing Yoshida more
Nope
Can Cron hit outside of Coors? I’ll bet no.
The Sox need to consider what they are going to do with Connor Wong once Teel is MLB ready. I’d have Wong playing all over the place, his bat is to strong not to be in the lineup everyday. Having Yoshida is becoming a PITA. Maybe Wong could get some reps at first.
Stick with Dalbec. He will start hitting and will provide power from the right side. He’s an excellent defender and will surprise everyone.
Taijuan Walker & Darrick Hall to the Red Sox for Kenley Jansen & Bobby Dalbec
Adams is incompetent. “Middling as those small-sample spring numbers may be” is not proper English. You can’t just leave “as” out to begin the sentence. Grammar isn’t optional.