The Red Sox announced that infielder Romy Gonzalez has been placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to April 11) due to a left wrist sprain. This move comes a day after another IL placement, as Boston sent right-hander Isaiah Campbell to the 15-day injured list Friday due to a right shoulder impingement. Infielder Bobby Dalbec was called up from Triple-A to replace Campbell, while righty Cooper Criswell was promoted today from Triple-A in Gonzalez’s spot.
As manager Alex Cora told The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey and other reporters, Campbell kept his shoulder discomfort private but his attempts to pitch through the issue had disastrous consequences. Campbell allowed eight earned runs over two innings of work in relief appearances on Wednesday and Thursday, quickly halting what had been a positive start to Campbell’s Red Sox tenure. Acquired from the Mariners for Luis Urias back in November, Campbell had a 2.08 ERA over his first 4 1/3 innings and five appearances in a Boston uniform. The righty will now be sidelined for at least the next two weeks, and the severity of the impingement isn’t yet known.
While Campbell worked out of the bullpen, Criswell will act as a spot starter in today’s game against the Angels, filling in after Nick Pivetta went on the 15-day IL earlier this week. Today’s start will mark Criswell’s Boston debut after signing a one-year, $1MM free agent deal with the club after the Rays non-tendered the right-hander in November. There’s some full-circle significance in facing Los Angeles since the Angels drafted Criswell in the 13th round in 2018, and he made his MLB debut in a Halos uniform in 2021. After tossing 4 2/3 innings in cup-of-coffee fashion over the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Criswell got a longer look with Tampa last season and posted a 5.73 ERA over 33 innings, often working as a bulk pitcher behind an opener.
Gonzalez is another offseason acquisition, picked up from the White Sox on a waiver claim in January. Gonzalez played in two games with Boston before hurting his wrist in a fall during Wednesday’s game. X-rays were negative on Gonzalez’s wrist, but an IL stint has been deemed necessary to give the infielder some time to fully heal up.
Dalbec’s addition can shore up the infield mix to some extent, but Gonzalez is now the fourth infield option on Boston’s injured list, joining Trevor Story, Vaughn Grissom, and utilityman Rob Refsnyder. Story will miss the entire season in the wake of shoulder surgery, while Grissom (hamstring strain) and Refsnyder (broken toe) have started minor league rehab assignments. Grissom and Refsnyder are tentatively on pace to be activated off the IL in late April, though Grissom’s timeline is a little uncertain since injuries prevented from playing whatsoever during Spring Training.
The impact of so many missing infielders is evident in Boston’s glovework, as McCaffrey notes that the defense has essentially fallen apart since Story was sidelined. The Red Sox are near the bottom of the league in Outs Above Average (-5) and Defensive Runs Saved (-7), and their 16 errors is tied for the most in baseball.
Three of those errors came in yesterday’s 7-0 loss to the Angels, and the lineup was also missing Rafael Devers. Due to nagging soreness in his left shoulder, Devers has missed Boston’s last two games and will also sit out of today’s contest.
“I’ve been feeling it since Spring Training,” Devers told MLB.com and other media yesterday. “But every time I was swinging, I was feeling it a little bit more and more. So for me, I think like two or three days [off] could be enough. I hope it doesn’t keep bothering me after these two or three days, but that’s something I can’t control. That’s why I’m just trying to keep working to get stronger, to get my shoulder back in a good way.”
It’s safe to say that Devers’ shoulder has contributed to the third baseman’s slow start, as Devers is hitting just .184/.326/.395 over his first 46 plate appearances. This relative lack of production has contributed to the lineup’s inconsistency, as the Red Sox have had trouble scoring runs despite hot starts from Tyler O’Neill and Jarren Duran.
When you find a tender Romy that is right for you, make it official.
Haven’t heard Tenderoni mentioned in a minute. Time to bust out the 90s hip hop tracks.
It was 90’s r&b… But close enough I guess
I only heard it mentioned in 90s mixtapes. Like from the NFL crew. I never listened to Bobby Brown. But, you right.
Does anybody really pay attention to a reliever’s ERA after just 4 innings?
Announcers were expecting Winck to start today, but I figured the Sox were anxious for the Cooper Criswell era to begin.
Dalbec is hitless in his last 25 PA’s with just one walk and 16 strikeouts. He is not a major leaguer, his presence shows how the front office did nothing to build some depth.
Rafaela should be playing middle infield at least until Grissom debuts, but Cora refuses. Winning is still not a priority with him.
Will Tek be given an opportunity as interim manager at some point this season? Seems more likely with each passing day.
I am very confident the Sox win today, but don’t ask me about tomorrow. LOL!!
After Winck was stretched out in his last game, I was expecting them to start him as well. Was the only way that leaving him out to hang for 60 pitches on Opening Day made any sense.
Not sure why I expected them to make sense…
You might be on to something with that suggestion for Rafaela. Romy *might* be okay, but he isn’t available. We’ve already seen far too much of Hamilton.
Fan many years, like half a century plus of this team. How they went into the last offseason and did nothing to add ANY depth, MLB/Milb levels was a joke. Nothing but worst of retread category were added, alongside Cambell and that was (to me) moving a DFA guy in Urias.
My thoughts are go ahead and full blown chuck it all now, forget trying to sell the extra 1k hot dogs each night at fenway and call up Meyer now, Teel and Yorke to AAA. Get rid of the dead weight.. Like hamilton, Jacques, Refsnyder, dalbec wasting 40 man spots and put guys on who *might* be able to help down the road, such as Zach Kelly, Luis Guerrero, Cam Booser. Possibly Chase meidroth.
We might see some of those guys come up, but I think Mayer’s job is to succeed in AA this year.
Mayer is not ready Putting him against big league pitching right now would serve nothing but to derail his development.
Dirty – Mayer is nearly a year older than Holliday Jackson, and he’s hitting .400 with a 1.111 OPS. Looks like he will be promoted to AAA soon, but skipping AAA is not unheard of.
Xander debuted at Age 20 in 2013 after starting the year in AA and playing in just 60 games in AAA.
Same thing with Devers, debuted at Age 20 in 2017 after starting the year in AA and playing only 9 games in AAA.
My interpreter would bet Mayer is called up by the trade deadline.
AAA these days is largely retreads and lesser talents. The top prospects mature at AA then come quickly to the majors – so yeah, Mayer could be up in as little as half a season if all goes well. Certainly nobody blocking him.
TFF – Excellent post!
The only question is who will go in the outfield to make room for Anthony. Sure if Ref is healthy he would be a likely candidate, but in order to give Anthony real playing time it would have to be Tyler hopefully …. I would hate to see Duran traded.
Fever – Anything is possible with the Red Sox but 6 decent games at AA is not enough to move him to AAA let alone the MLB. Devers couldn’t field but was a decent hitter. Mayer is a decent fielder but not so great hitter. Which would you rather have?
Boston makes mistakes ALL THE TIME so guessing he’ll be called up is simply predicting the front office will make the mistake. Isn’t the more important question “Will it set back the player in the long run?” I hope it doesn’t but I don’t find him to be that talented so I think it will set him back.
We should see Anthony next and Rafaela should be at SS.
TF – I’m thinking sometime before August, not right now. I’m guessing they want to re-establish some of Tyler’s value so they can trade him.
BTW – Of all the horrific things ownership has done, this probably takes the cake …..
John Henry and Tom Werner refused to attend Larry’s funeral on Thursday. Henry claimed to be “not feeling well” and Werner took off for England, although no confirmation of when exactly he left. Both are getting absolutely roasted everywhere for this despicable behavior. Talk about a lack of appreciation and respect, remember Werner co-owned the Padres with Larry.
And for the record, these are some who DID value Larry enough to attend his funeral:
Theo Epstein
Jason Varitek
Jim Rice
Michael Dukakis
Michelle Wu
Bill Bradley
Linda Henry
In 43 games at AA last year Mayer slashed .189/.254/.355. He’s off to a nice start this year and I do hope it keeps up and he eventually proves to be as good as advertised. But one good week at the plate isn’t enough to convince me he’s turned a corner and is ready to jump to the next level. If he’s still playing like this come Memorial Day, we can talk.
And I agree with the sentiments of everyone else, AAA is not really a necessary step anymore. The best prospects are all at AA, so if he continues to tear it up there (personally I want to see a couple strong months and then I’ll be more convinced) I don’t need to see him waste any time with the WooSox. They’re better served for if he needs to go back down and work on some tweaks or plate discipline or anything after getting called up, but my hope obviously is that they just give him the proper seasoning so that he never has to get sent back down.
Yes and Mayer was hurt for those 43 AA games last year. I also think they won’t start Mayer’s time service clock until next year.
Okay, sure. At the end of the day we’re talking about two sample sizes that are so small as to be irrelevant, so injured or not last year I don’t see any case to be made that he’s ready. He is a somewhat recently-turned 21 year old with barely 200 at-bats above A ball – and a .648 OPS in those at-bats to boot. If everyone who’s ever had one good week in AA meant they were ready, MLB would have to double active rosters to 50 guys.
Dirty – I don’t think anybody is saying he’s ready right now.
What they are saying is he will likely be called up prior to August. If you look at the Red Sox official website, they have him projected for this year … no different than many other established prospects websites.
Even if he is truly not ready by then, there are other factors that play into his possibly coming up sooner than you expect.
1) Shortstop is a gaping hole and Cora would prefer having Rafaela play CF instead.
2) The Red Sox may fall out of contention by then, therefore it’s a perfect time to break in rookies.
3) The Red Sox could use Mayer’s hyped name and prospect status to sell tickets and generate much-needed interest.
I’m not even saying a summer call-up would be best for Mayer, I’m just saying there’s a good chance unless he gets injured or really tanks.
If he earns his way up I don’t mind if he gets called up over the summer. The reply I got from all in the suit seemed like we weren’t on the same page about his current readiness. I am just clarifying I don’t think he’s ready right this second – if he shows us a couple of good months down at AA then that’s a different story.
DW: Anything is possible, but it looks like we agree in opinion.
For sure, Mayer needs a minimum of half a season at AA before it makes sense to bring him up. Beyond that, we’ll have to see how he progresses.
Dirty – I totally agree with you, he’s not ready right now. And with the Sox trying to give the perception they are competing, having a third rookie position player breaking in at the same time is not a good look.
Also I saw his comment about service time, it makes no sense. Even if Mayer were to be called up today, the Sox would still own him thru 2030 unless he finishes Top Two in ROY this season.
BTW – My interpreter told me Vegas has Mayer listed right now as a ROY candidate.
All – The clock is nearly irrelevant if a player is a future star. Awards reduce the time controlled.
Most players get a minimal number of games at each level and if they front office wants to rush them then the sum of all minor league games should be no less that a minimum set by the organization. It’s not smart to do that but Boston has proved in the last four years they aren’t smart.
Why start their service clock?
Moley – He would need 172 days this year for the Sox to lose a season of team control (unless he finishes Top 2 for ROY). If he were promoted today, it would already be too late for 172.
John – Is today’s lineup another example of Cora showing his displeasure with the team that was given to him?
Reyes and his .399 OPS batting 2nd.
O’Neill batting 3rd with his .143 BA since April 6th, but whatever.
Dalbec batting 5th!!! Are you freakin’ kidding me?
And they are facing Anderson who hasn’t given up a run in 14 innings this season. It’s the same old Cora, nothing has changed.
How is Dalbec still with them? This organization is irrelevant
Moley – Not only is Dalbec still with them, he’s batting 5th today!!
He K’d 30 percent of the time in AAA
Good call on Rafaela — got the start today at SS, and it sounds like Cora might be making that a semi-regular thing. Hoping that switching back and forth doesn’t mess with his development at all. Gets Abreu’s bat in the lineup as well — you aren’t going to sit Duran or O’Neill for sure the way they are going.
TFF – Today’s lineup was the best possible one, I was very happy with it. So glad to see Dalbec benched and Casas batting cleanup as he should.
But now with the O’Neill injury, if he’s out for any extended period of time the Sox will likely go back to Rafaela in CF and the middle infield will continue to suck.
But again, it’s not just the middle infield. Casas made another unofficial error, Abreu made an awful throw, and O’Neill didn’t bother to call off Devers which resulted in a nasty collision. This is a team that completely lacks fundamentals, their heads are not in the games. They have the most errors in MLB, have been shutout the 2nd-most number of times.
The schedule doesn’t get easier again for a while, they have 12 straight against good teams right now. The offense sucks, only the starting pitching has been a bright spot.
So no defense, no offense, rampant mental errors in the field and on the basepaths…. How about that pitching!
It’s honestly kind of impressive that a team that has placed such an emphasis on trying to draft and develop position players and find pitching elsewhere (given they never made any serious attempts to trade for or sign impact pitching, no, I couldn’t tell you where “elsewhere” might be) has managed to produce such a large quantity of “position players” who are not capable of playing respectable defense at any position on the diamond!
That;s not entirely fair… Chaim Bloom focused on position players in the draft, but his picks are only just reaching the upper minors — Mayer, Anthony, and Teel are the headliners, but there are a few other draft picks with potential as well.
The guys we’ve seen thus far have been either the product of Dombrowski’s drafting. Groome in 2016, Houck in 2017, Casas in 2018, and no first-round pick in 2019 because they were naughty. Pitching and power — Dombrowski wasn’t big on things like athleticism and defense.
They’ll figure it out, but they need to get more talent to the majors *and* show a willingness to spend money again. If you run the payroll like the Oakland A’s, that’s about the results you can expect.
They need to bring Craig Grebeck back
Yes Davey drafted them, but it was Bloom & Co’s job to oversee their development once he took over, no? He doesn’t get to draw a line of demarcation and say “I didn’t draft these guys, I’m not going to devote any resources to completing their development before we promote them”, as far as I’m aware. Whatever effort was put into polishing these guys’ gloves was either bad/wrong, or insufficient. Maybe both.
Also – Yoshida, Valdez, Reyes, Hamilton, Refsnyder, Arroyo, Hernandez, Chang, and Urias were all acquired by Bloom’s front office, not Dombrowski’s. So even if you hold him completely blameless for Devers and Casas and Dalbec, that still places a huge share of the blame squarely on the shoulders of Bloom for the team and particularly the infield being such an inept mess in recent seasons. And the reason we even have heard half of those names before are because of the moronic contract Bloom gave to Story, and the doubly moronic decision he repeatedly made to not find any true defensively-adept backups for the middle infield despite Story’s inability to stay on the field and second base having resembled something of a black hole since Pedroia had to retire.
Absolutely agree, their organizational pitching development was badly lacking under Bloom. The fact that we’ve seen such a noticeable difference under Breslow and Bailey, in so little time, is damning of their predecessors.
Not sure there was any saving Ball or Groome, though, and Bloom wasn’t drafting pitching.
TFF – What’s hilarious is the Cora suckups insisting he’s not responsible for the lack of defense, the mental errors and the lack of fundamentals. But yet they always give him “credit” for anything positive.
If Cora isn’t responsible for all that I listed above, then what’s the point of paying a manager millions? Eliminate the position and have the front office make the lineups and pitching changes.
When you look at today’s managerial role, it’s not nearly as involved as it used to be. Analytics and a bloated front office and bloated coaching staff has taken away most of the manager’s responsibilities.
Dirty – Agreed! I think a lot of the problem is their focus on players who are jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none. They point to Mookie, but he’s a rare exception. So far we haven’t seen Rafaela perform at Mookie’s level when he was the same age.
And they are trying to convert Yorke to an outfielder as well, sometimes that type of change has a negative impact on all aspects of the player’s game.
TFF – Just curious, you wrote Dombrowski wasn’t big on athleticism and defense …… but you failed to mention Rafaela and Duran?
I totally agree with you on the spending! It’s been pointed out many times, all too often the Red Sox think it’s easy to replicate what has worked at times for others. I’d like to see them become leaders, not followers. A blend of cost effective young homegrown talent and proven veteran talent is the best approach, otherwise they will continue to see their revenue drop as fan interest wanes.
Moley – Heck I’d settle for The Brock Star!
And here I thought Yorke was supposed to be a relatively quick riser because his plate discipline and his bat, He’s been holding his own perfectly fine at AA, but of course the geniuses in the brain trust would rather give run at second base to an endless parade of stiffs than let him have a look. And the knock on him when he was drafted is his defensive range was kind of fringy, but yeah better convert him to join the logjam in the outfield, having 7 guys who can sort of technically play the outfield is way more important than having anyone capable in the middle infield. Sounds like a slam dunk!
Dirty – Superb post!
And doesn’t it appear Rafaela is not yet ready for the majors?
In just 24 CG’s hes got 4 errors already, with a .594 OPS in 145 PA’s.
I know they stuck with Casas last year, but he was never this bad and the Sox have much thinner depth this year.
Meanwhile Turner is absolutely raking and Duval has solid numbers as well. It sure does seem like the Sox intentionally tried to tank last offseason by refusing to maintain adequate depth on the roster.
Dirty – As soon as they traded for Grissom I figured Yorke was toast with the Red Sox.
I like Cora fine, he has some positives as a manager, but a big part of his job is helping keep the team’s head in the game. I suspect he was leaning heavily on Story’s leadership, which led to a bit of panic in the clubhouse when Story went down.
Regardless of all the above, they didn’t have the talent to contend WITH a healthy Story and Giolito. Probably the best outcome for this season is to have the kids work on their fundamentals. They’ll need to do better if they are ever playing on a contending team.
Rafaela was an unheralded IFA signing and Duran was a mid-round pick. I said Dombrowski wasn’t (and isn’t) big on athleticism, not that he never drafted players like that.
Kyle Schwarber in the outfield, really?!?
In contrast, Bloom never met a high school shortstop he didn’t like.
Yorke is a limited talent. He hasn’t done all that well at AA, so I really doubt he would be a help in the majors right now. He played 2B all of last year, but at this point his best path to the majors is as a utility player. And a bit of OF proficiency may help there.
Meidroth is also limited (i.e. future as a utility infielder), but at least he is defensively smoother.
TFF – Interestingly, Baseball America has Yoeilin Cespedes as the starting 2B in 2027. I don’t know that much about him, is he that good?
I am torn on Rafaela. On the one hand, he held his own enough in last year’s little bit of runway that he got to deserve a look this spring, and I like letting guys play through youthful rough patches if there are signs that they can handle it and aren’t so hopelessly outmatched that there’s no way for them to learn and improve on it. To that end, considering the horrific top line results at the plate so far, some of the underlying and ancillary things like his walk rate and K rate are encouraging because they aren’t far out of line from what he was doing in the minors, and looking at his Statcast numbers, his barrel rate is pretty decent for a guy who is still figuring out major league pitching – and comparable to Betts in his first few years. On the other hand, his hard hit rate, some of the swinging strike figures, and the errors do worry me a bit. Since his glove was always expected to be his calling card, this is where I feel it’s Cora’s job to pull him aside and teach him to calm down and focus on the fundamentals. While managers aren’t as involved as they used to be in the analytics era, that’s one place they can and still should be actively involved. But all that said I’d at least let him play out the month of April and evaluate where we’re at come May. He might be better off working on pitch recognition down at AAA.
Totally fair. I figured he still might have a shot to some playing time if only because Story has been made of glass ever since he arrived here. Could envision he still ends up in a Brock Holt type situation where he isn’t officially a starter but still makes it into 100+ games due to injuries, with Grissom sliding over to short on those days when Yorke has to man the keystone.
And TFF – maybe Yorke has a future in the big leagues, maybe he doesn’t. Why don’t we find out? He can’t possibly be any worse than the revolving door of guys we’ve been playing up the middle.
DW: Great observations. I was wondering myself about Rafaela and I noticed that his BABIP is quite a bit lower than normal for him. So, he may be having some bad luck.
Not that much bad luck – Rafaela’s xBA from Statcast is just .187. He isn’t hitting many ground balls, either, so his speed isn’t counting for much.
He is a bit like Tim Anderson offensively. Would need to dramatically improve his plate discipline to be better than that.
That’s another concern, but maybe one they can fix if they tweak his approach a bit? He is hitting too many fly balls and doesn’t have enough power for that to be a good thing. He needs to live on a steady diet of line drives and grounders for his speed to play, and if he ever in the best case scenario were to grow into enough pop to manage double digits in home runs that would just be gravy. But my hope for a panned out Rafaela is something like: elite defense in CF, batting average around .280-.300, and a ton of doubles, steals, and runs scored. I’m not ever expecting much in terms of power or run production but some scouting reports I’ve read haven’t entirely given up hope for those areas.
Dirty – His biggest issue is his lack of patience, he swings at everything. He has to learn to take pitches that are outside the strike zone, and foul off balls that are close.
I would be very, very surprised if he ever hits over .280 in a full season but he’s gonna have plenty of time to find out. Right now he’s looking like a good change of scenery candidate, a better manager and coaching staff could help him.
Like I said, hope was the operative word there haha. I know he’s very aggressive, but he’s also shown a knack for making a lot of contact in the minors and if everything works out perfectly then that’s something I’d hope continues in the show. He’ll never be an OBP machine because the walks will be few and far between, but if he’s able to hit his way on base that’s fine.
News flash: every major league pitcher placed on the IL.
Yayy, more strikeouts from Blobby Dalbec…this team is sunk
Bill – So true about Bobby, 16 strikeouts in his last 24 AB’s ….. maybe he’ll be the first MLB player in history to have a 67% strikeout rate over 500 consecutive PA’s.
I was thinking Dobby Balbec, but I like yours better.
Fart – I like yours better. Blobby doesn’t really apply, he’s not fat.
Let’s get an MLBTR poll going
IM – Remember Jose Offerman’s anagram?
I just remember him being called Jose Awfulman.
Jose Offerman = Major Offense
Fat – Ironically Offerman was touted as the first Moneyball player 3 years before Beane’s Moneyball.
Dan Duquette justified replacing Mo Vaughn’s offense with Jose’s because Jose’s OBP the prior year was .403 and his salary was a lot less than Mo’s in 1999.
The following year Duquette signed Manny, so it worked out quite well considering how much Manny produced in Boston and how little Mo did after leaving.
Bring back Reggie Jefferson and Morgan Burkhardt
Moley – I never understood why Reggie retired so early. He killed RHP with a career .869 OPS and he wasn’t that bad overall, take away his rookie season and he had a career .838 OPS against all pitchers.
There’re only 1.5 back in the wildcard with 148 to go. Still time to catch the O’s for the final spot to get in the postseason.
Jimmy – Problem is, they aren’t playing the White Sox or Marlins very often this season …. I think only 10 games combined.
That’s means 138 against everyone else.
Lesson: never hide an injury
It’s just a flesh wound.
hayzee – And he has a whole lotta flesh.
Either he was overthrowing, or the Sox want him to work on his game in the minors. Time will tell.
Seriously, that comment you make about overthrowing makes me wonder because the rate of minor league pitchers getting hurt seems to be considerably lower than in the majors. If that’s true, someone should look at why that is. You’d think they’d be overthrowing in the minors to get to MLB.
Coop – It’s about service time. Getting injured in the minors keeps you from being promoted. Once in the majors if you go on the IL you still accrue service time.
It’s becoming increasingly apparent how weird it is that Breslow had such faith in Trevor Story’s health that he didn’t bring a single other pure shortstop into the fold as a depth option. All of Grissom, Hamilton, Reyes, Rafaela, Dalbec, Gonzalez, etc. are utility infielders who are really better suited as second basemen (or, in Rafaela’s case, in the outfield). I’m not as bothered by the lack of competitiveness in a year that was clearly always tabbed for rebuilding, but this seems like such a massive oversight that it makes me question the basic competence of the front office.
Hindsight’s 20/20, I guess… but, like, even signing Elvis Andrus to a minor league deal or something like that would have been achievable at no significant cost to the organization or to the development of the team’s young core. All of the last four games might have been winnable with an actual shortstop on the field.
crocus – I agree about Story, he’s had a significant number of injuries over his entire career. But there’s no reason why Rafaela isn’t filling in for him right now. Mayer will likely be called up sooner than expected, until MAT is promoted it’s not a rebuilding year …. it’s a “thank you for your money, fans – now don’t bother us” year.
The last 4 games winnable with Story? They got shut out yesterday with no hits after the third inning.
They coughed up a 5-0 second half lead with Martin on the mound.
They lost the home opener by 6 runs when they had just 2 hits.
It’s not just shortstop that is the problem, Rafaela already has 3 errors and Casas already has 2. O’Neill has gone stone cold and is swinging at pitches in the dirt.
There’s a LOT wrong right now than just shortstop.
Hey Fever— I agree that this roster has holes up and down, but I also think something Dave O’Brien said on broadcast is (for once) true. He was observing that with Story at SS and the infield defense looking significantly better than it had last year, the starting staff was trusting their stuff and pitching to contact, which is how all 5 of them managed to get through 5+ innings the first time around. But the errors that have been made by Hamilton, Valdez, & co. this time around have led to at least 20 unnecessary pitches being thrown by starters each game. Then you start leaning too heavily on a bullpen with heavy upside but limited experience and you’re bound to run into disaster—which they have.
In other words, I’m not sure the pitching staff looks nearly as patchwork with competent defense behind them. Both the raised pitch counts and the psychological inability to believe you can pitch to contact are horrible for a staff’s long-term outlook.
That being said…. with the looming IL trip that Devers is going to take, the inevitable downturn in production from Duran and O’Neill, Kenley’s bad back, and the “””mild””” injury to Pivetta’s arm… yeah, it’s gonna be a long season.
crocus – I definitely agree with Dave.
Just like one hitter can transform a lineup (see what Soto has done for the Yanks) I do agree Story’s presence helps the pitchers. Not so much the offense, or the defense at 1B and OF and catcher (there was a Catcher’s Interference too).
Overall I still like the pitching staff when they are healthy, but even when Story was playing the starting rotation wasn’t pitching to contact. That’s why Bello’s first two starts saw him last just 5 innings, Pivetta went 5 innings and 6 innings, Whitlock went 5 innings and 4 innings, and Crawford went 6 innings and 4 innings.
The only thing I disagree with in your final paragraph is Duran, I don’t think there will be a downturn. I expect at least an .800 OPS from him this season.
Didn’t mean to shade Duran! He’s one of the more convincing young talents on this team and I love the energy he brings on the basepaths. It’s been a long time since one guy’s speed really felt like it changed the game for a Sox team. Last I can think of is… Ellsbury? (I like Duran better than Ellsbury.)
Totally agree with you about the corner defense (Casas and Devers are rough on the eyes) and the strikeout-forward staff. But then, with defense like ours, who in the world could justify pitching to contact?
crocus – Totally agree on Duran, the way he frequently turned singles into doubles last year while also stealing bases was indeed reminiscent of prime Ellsbury. He is the first true leadoff hitter the Sox have had since Ellsbury (Mookie to me belongs in the 3-hole, but that’s a different discussion for another day).
BTW – Anthony has been tearing up AA. Yesterday he hit 2 homers, reached base 4 times and stole a base. His OPS is now 1.093 !!! I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets called up this year too, and Tyler is flipped by the deadline.
It’s just a shame that both kids will be coming into such a crappy environment.
Their offense is all or nothing. They don’t have good “hitters.” That includes Story. They have a few sluggers. But they don’t string together hits & walks to keep the line moving because there is rarely a line. If they don’t hit home runs they don’t create much of a threat. We see them score 2-3 runs early & then they go silent & have an impossible time catching up. And we know there are real holes all over this roster. All phases. This is going to be a long, long road.
Dave – I totally agree!! One aspect that made previous Red Sox championship teams so successful was their patience at the plate, their willingness to take or foul off bad pitches. This year’s team is the opposite, swinging away as if they are anxious to get the at bat over with.
You look at what the Yankees are doing now, it’s no coincidence they have soared to the top of the majors in Pitches Seen at 4.18 and are 4th in the majors for OBP.
How about Nick Ahmed, too? A below average bat, but certainly an adept SS. But at less than $1MM, he seems like a good, durable, affordable option for any team. The Giants came in and scooped him up, and he seems to be doing well there.
That Ahmed pickup is looking awfully smart for them, I agree!
I thought the Red Sox were going to be pretty competitive this year, but not much has gone their way starting with the Giolito injury.
I will be shocked if the Red Sox win any games when the infield consists of 3 of the 4: Hamilton, Reyes, Dalbec.Valdez. The defense isn’t there, and neither is the offense.
Are you shocked? They won today with all 4 playing
I am shocked they scored 7 runs with that offense, and that Criswell only gave up two runs.
Bobby Dalbec is a fine human being and a great baseball player. The other players are just ganging up on him and the Red Sox never give him a chance or support him. He deserves better chance and he will be MVP.
Signed Bobby Dalbecs mom
Stan – Here’s the latest update on Dalbec:
30 AB hitless streak
19 strikeouts in his last 28 AB’s.
The good news is he still has 24 hitless AB’s to go before tying the ML record.
Calling Refsnyder an infield option is really pushing it. David Ortiz was more of an infielder than him.
Refsnyder has played numerous games at second base you mook,
He hasn’t played second base since 2017. The Sox would put Connor Wong there before him.
Story has company in the training room now
See if a team that will give him 500 at Bats will trade for Dalbec.I love when you get out or go 0-4 and get sent down.I know i would build a routine if i was in an out of a lineup.
Agreed. The man makes the team, and then play him part time. Even then, he was used more as pinch hitter.
Does Cora hate him? Dalbs is obviously in his own head right now, expecting to fail. And what does Cora do? Has him bat 5th, while Mac is hitting 8th.
Let Dalbec hit 8th and give him to find it again. And for God’s sake, stop bringing him in as a pinch hitter! Just tell him he is up to play the field nobody cares if he hits. Heck he might accidentally get a hit then!
DBH – I totally agree! Players should bat in the lineup based on merit, but Cora has a habit of putting the worst hitters in the most critical lineup slots. I know part of it is because of his obsession with L-R throughout the lineup.
Is use to think it was the right-left thing, too. But then then you would have Duran, O’Neil, Devers, etc. Now I just think it is Cora trying to prove how smart he is
DBH – Or Cora sending a message to the front office that he’s not pleased with what he was given. He’s probably like “Well if they are gonna insist on Dalbec being on the roster, I’m gonna stick it to them by using him in the 5-hole.”
He’s probably toast, imo. He struck out a staggering 169 times in 413 ABs in AAA at age 28. That projects to about 250 Ks in 600 ABs, and probably closer to 270 if he was in the pros. He’s Michael Chavis’ doppelganger.
I’m just commenting to let everyone know how angry I am about the Red Sox.
It’s hard to even explain how angry I am.
I’m mad.
Oh.
Full throttle
What an absolute mess this team is ! After an impressive season opening road trip we come home and S*&T the bed. ERRORS galore!! What’s going on here. The infield coach should be shown the door. And I’m beginning to believe the manager too. This team has ZERO depth. When you have Bobby Dalbec as your backup 3rd baseman, you have a problem. They put out a AAA infield last night. The only quality Util INF is Pablo Reyes and he is being over used. Story really was the glue keeping this INF together, and now with Raffy having a bum shoulder they are lost.
How about checking in with Miami and seeing if Tim Anderson is available. I know, he has issues but he isn’t that far removed from an All-Star season & may come cheap, at least for this season. You can’t piece meal SS this early in the season!
I’m so p’d off right now at this team.
OK I’m done venting.
Just when it looked like hey maybe they’ll give us a reason to watch this year, a giant pelican by the name of reality emerges from the sky and takes a four and a half pound dump right on top of us. Maybe next year…
Dirty – Thanks for the visual …LOL!!
Sorry but winning 5 out of 6 against the Angels and A’s didn’t impress me. I said all along the Orioles would be the true test, and it proved exactly what we expected. The Red Sox are not yet a bottom-5 AL team, but they aren’t a playoff-caliber team either.
Oh yeah. I was never expecting playoffs and winning some games in Oakland and Anaheim didn’t change that. But it did have me hopeful they’d at least be watchable. Baltimore came in and made a quick, thorough dispatching of that notion though.
Dirty – It’s even more disappointing they played so crappy on Patriot’s Day.
Their #1 SP on the hill, best possible lineup, facing a Guardians team that played extra innings Sunday and then had to fly into Boston for an 11AM game. Pitiful the Sox not only lost, but got shutout 6-0.
And did you hear Cora making excuses for the collision. Watch the video, Alex …. neither player said a word when they were going for the catch.
Yeah you should stop watching..
And posting,
Let’s make a deal, I’ll do that and you stop breathing.
fenway – Trust me, you don’t want Tim and Tyler on the same team.
They won today.
hayzee – I said this morning I was very confident they would.
Tomorrow could get quite ugly though.
Dalbec is breaking out on Sunday. Just watch.
hayzee – I hope you’re right.
See that, he walked! What an accomplishment.
Fun fact: Bobby’s lifetime OPS is less than 50 points below Error in Judgement’s postseason OPS. Practically the same, he said whimsically.
hayzee – Bobby is on fire!! He’s up to 33 hitless AB’s … only 21 away from the record!
GO BOBBY GO!!!
Redsox will be fine as long as they solidify SS. If they dont then its a long season
The next solid SS you see will be Mayer, and he is at least half a season away. It will be a long season.
Fever – Remind me again. A pop fly to short left field in Fenway and who gets to call off the other player?
Ultimately who gets hurt due to complete incompetence by the worst defensive 3B in the history of baseball? The hottest player on the team, O’Neill!!
Fire Cora and move Devers to DH.and trade Yoshida for a 3B. It’s the only way this team starts in a new direction and wins more than 66 games.
TF – I know who you want me to say, but the answer is the outfielder. :O)
All outfielders can call off all infielders, because they have the play in front of them and they have the momentum if a throw is necessary.
Shortstop can call off all other infielders.
Centerfielder can call off all other outfielders.
You know that collision reminded me of Beltre smashing into Ellsbury! Gotta give credit to Devers for staying in the game after running into a mountain like O’Neill.
One way or another, Cora will not be manager of the Red Sox after this season. So there is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel!!
Fever – Can’t give credit to Devers since the back of a head is hard but the face is very dangerous in a collision. Plus, I am superstitious and hate to see a hot player get taken down by bad defense.
Lets hope he is back soon!!! Let me guess, no error? hahaha Why even use score keepers? The accuracy is gone. Why not just declare 15 errors for Devers in 2024 and never keep track? If there are 50 misplays, it’s no different than now.
Fans should take the issue of inaccurate errors to the political commissioner so he can crack down on accuracy. I think 30 to 50 real errors charged on Devers might speed up the process of moving him to DH..
TF – Errors are never given on collisions. I do hope Tyler is back soon, if anything so Rafaela can shift to shortstop.
Did you see tonight’s lineup? I think it’s as good as can be, Devers 2nd and Yoshida 3rd and Casas cleanup. Sox should win as Bibee sucks …..
TF – You are very fortunate to not be watching the games, they are so painful!!
Abreu made another huge error in right field, and Casas inexplicably decided to try and steal third base …. the look on Cora’s face was priceless!! Of course he got thrown out by a country mile.
Kenley is showing his age, he got roughed up. Of course Joely got shelled as usual. Devers left the game with a knee injury and Whitlock left with an oblique issue.
Good thing the front office prepared for injuries by ensuring there is depth on the team ….. NOT!!
I still don’t agree with your prediction of 66 wins, only because I think Casas will have a monster offensive season and a couple others will have good seasons, but if forced to guess I’d say they are ticketed for 70-75 wins. Time will tell.
And on a positive note, because I am a glass half full guy, Abreu did make another great catch in right field. He reminds me of Rafaela, both can make sensational plays but then they will botch the routine ones.
Fever – I have the MLB channel and app so I do get to watch a lot of Red Sox games and if you ask me the season takes me back to The Natural when Redford has to sit in the locker room and listen to the guy talking about how to win but nobody is doing anything until Bump Bailey runs through the wall and Redford plays.
You have a terrible owner like in the movie, you have some talented kids who are being played out of position, you have no defense and you have lots of injuries. Abreu is just like Rafaela and Duran when he came up, experience doesn’t exist when it relates to Fenway so year one is all about learning the details of HOW to play defense in Fenway. I hold nothing against these young guys. Devers, Yoshida and the catchers, they need to be replaced on defense.
Devers has been healthy for the majority of his career and his character suggests that if the team is tanking he’ll be ducking games or coming up lame or sicks far more than in the past.
66 wins is a system of guessing the future. I don’t claim to know what the total will be, just that the quality of opponents got better and the quality of the team got worse. So far, nothing contradicts with that premise which means an excellent draft pick like in 2020.
I agree about Casas. The trick is how do you string players around him in the order who can consistently hit. JT was excellent at it and so far O’Neill has been an excellent replacement. Too bad we didn’t keep both!!! Duran looks like he may become a perennial potential all-star so that is great but Rafaela and Abreu are still raw hitters. We haven’t seen Grissom but his minor league stats were about batting average like Yoshi so we’ll need to see if he develops any power or speed.
Like you I am positive about the young guys, but until Cora is gone, Devers is off 3B the two biggest obstacles will continue to exist and block progress in winning.
Houck, Bello, Pivetta and Whitlock need to continue to work hard to improve their locating of the ball and game plan with the pitching coaches. It sure would be great if all the Sox needed was ONE top of the rotation guy to go with the four younger pitchers. That reduces the money issue in 2025.
TF – That’s great to hear, I thought you had said baseball was taking a backseat to other things going on in your life.
Now that there’s a draft lottery, no guarantee the Sox get another Mayer. I think it’s a moot point though, they are not as bad as the ChiSox, Rockies, Marlins etc.
I’m thinking Pivetta is a goner, if the Sox had interest in keeping him they’d have made a competitive extension offer to him by now. Once he hits free agency I don’t see the Red Sox outbidding others, especially with next offseason’s free agent pitcher class so thin.
You’ll be happy to know Baseball America has projected Devers will be at DH in 2027 when Cespedes takes over 3B, so only three more years to go!
“who gets to call off”
———————-
Did ONeill call him off? How do you know?
You are right. Always assume the two time gold glove player doesn’t know what to do and the worst 3B in the history of the sport never heard him. Sound logic.
How about we dont assume anything? That to me is ‘Sound logic’.