Vaughn Grissom will make his Red Sox debut tonight against the Twins. Boston reinstated the young infielder from the 10-day injured list, optioning Bobby Dalbec to Triple-A Worcester in a corresponding move. Grissom gets the nod at the keystone and is hitting seventh against Chris Paddack.
Acquired from the Braves for Chris Sale, Grissom entered camp as Boston’s expected second baseman. Groin and hamstring issues (plus a recent bout with the flu) kept him off the field for the first five weeks. That paired with a season-ending injury to Trevor Story to leave the Sox very shorthanded in the middle infield. They moved Ceddanne Rafaela in to handle shortstop.
It’s been more of a revolving door at second base, where no one has produced. Boston second basemen are hitting an MLB-worst .179/.202/.299 over 125 plate appearances. Enmanuel Valdez and Pablo Reyes took the majority of those reps. Valdez was recently optioned, while Reyes has been designated for assignment.
Grissom, 23, brings quite a bit more offensive upside. He’s coming off a .330/.419/.501 line in Triple-A in the Atlanta system. The Braves’ loaded infield limited him to 64 big league contests over the past two seasons, but he turned in a solid .287/.339/.407 showing. Grissom collected 10 hits (eight singles and two doubles) over nine games on his minor league rehab stint.
Manager Alex Cora provided positive updates on a handful of injured pitchers this evening (link via MassLive’s Christopher Smith). Nick Pivetta is expected to return to the rotation during next week’s series in Atlanta. The righty tossed three innings in a rehab start with Worcester yesterday. While the results weren’t good — he allowed four runs on three hits and four walks — the Sox don’t feel he needs another minor league appearance. Pivetta dominated through two starts before a mild flexor strain sent him to the IL on April 9.
Brayan Bello and Garrett Whitlock are a bit further behind, but both are set to take steps in their respective recoveries. Bello, who went on the shelf on April 21 with lat tightness, will make one rehab start at Double-A Portland and could return to Boston by the end of next week. Whitlock is set to throw a bullpen session tomorrow, his first mound work since an oblique strain knocked him out on April 17.
Despite the injuries, the Red Sox’s rotation has been fantastic. Boston starters enter play Friday with an MLB-best 2.03 ERA. They’re ninth in strikeout rate and sixth in strikeout/walk rate differential. Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck have each logged around 40 innings of sub-2.00 ERA ball. Bello, Whitlock and Pivetta were each performing well before going on the IL. Depth arms Cooper Criswell and Josh Winckowski have stepped in effectively in their respective trio of starts.
The news wasn’t universally positive for Boston, however. Designated hitter Masataka Yoshida is heading for a second opinion after his recent IL placement, tweets the Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham. The Sox initially announced his injury as a left thumb sprain. It’s not entirely clear what the initial evaluation suggested, but news of a second opinion is at least somewhat alarming.
Yoshida started the season slowly but had begun to find his form before the injury. He’s hitting .275/.348/.388 over 89 plate appearances for the year. Injuries to Yoshida and Triston Casas led the Sox to go outside the organization for Garrett Cooper and Dominic Smith to split playing time between first base and DH.
Brandon Belt has to wonder what he did to offend Boston’s front office.
They probably thought, one Brandon Belt costs as much as 5 Garrett Coopers and 2 Dom Smiths combined. Let’s save that money for ownership since we weren’t actually trying to compete this year.
And the other 29 teams in mlb as well..its not like any team has fought for his services…bailey was with him in san fran..maybe there is something about belt that isnt common knowledge preventing teams …or maybe hes just oft injured and overpriced
The Mets offered an incentive laden deal which by Belt’s own admission he scoffed at and called an insult. It’s probably too late for him to get off his high horse now
Why do Iget the distinct feeling you work for the Sox FO?
Smith and Cooper were already playing in games in the majors and minors and could immediately impact the Sox roster. Belt, who is probably in nowhere near game shape would probably be a minimum of 6 weeks away from joining the roster. Team needs help now, not in the middle of June
Belt struggled against LHP last year. So, he is basically an older platoon bat limited to 1B and DH.
I don’t see the hype in Brandon Belt. We complain all the time about injuries and Belt is top on the injury list. He’s good for 20 homers a season if he plays, but that’s it. He hardly ever stays healthy enough.
Let’s Go! Rooting for Grissom.
Hard to believe that Dalbec, who was really hearing up, was sent down but Hamilton is still on the roster..
It is nuts
He struck out 8 times in his last 14 ABs. I mean he did have a decent game when they demolished the cubs but nothing else of note. Hamilton is still streets ahead of Dalbec in the box right now.
Hamilton also strikes out a lot, 13 in just 38 at bats. Hamilton is also an errors machine. 3 in just 12 games. Dalbec has 0 this year and plays 1b and 3b well.
Short has a .171 lifetime average and is hitting under .100 so far this year. He has only played 3 games at short this year and already has an error.
Dalbec has higher upside than both of them and yet again he is sent down just as he heats up.
I’m not saying Hamilton is good. But he’s not striking out almost 50% on the season or well over 50% as of late. Hard to have the hot or cold corner covered by someone 92% below league average with the bat.
“Dalbeck has higher upside” is a statement my brain cannot process. His upside is akin to a broken clock, which functions twice a day versus a nonexistent clock, which has never functioned. At least now he can go back to AAA and resume being a king., lmao.
“Dalbec was heating up” is hilarious.
Heating up like an empty Bic?
Farts – This is like watching an argument over which actress is hotter, Sandra Bernhard or Rachel Dratch.
Hamilton and Dalbec aren’t interchangeable, as they play different positions.
Hamilton is a lefty and Dalbec is a righty. And sure Dalbec has hit .286 over the last week, but that’s with a .357 slugging percentage and one extra base hit off a position player throwing 55 mph eephus pitches. That doesn’t exactly warrant being the 26th player on the roster when there is another guy that can come in in the 8th and steal an important base for you. I will never understand the Dalbec defense. We’ve had plenty of guys that hit well one year and fell off a cliff afterward. Will Middlebrooks, Michael Chavis, Travis Shaw, JBJ, Mike Carp, Daniel Nava. Sometimes they just get the one year.
@mookiessnarl and that single walk he had probably got his OBP around a hair below .300.
Snarl – Middlebrooks married Jenny Dell, so he’s still batting .300 every year.
Yup
You have to squint really hard and use your imagination to the nth degree to believe Dalbec is even a serviceable AAAA player. He’s been given every opportunity to succeed over the past few years, and he just hasn’t.
It’s going to be a long painful season
They’ve been shockingly good till this point, which is way more than I expected coming in to the year. This will fade, of course, but we’ve gotten to see a fair amount of positives, especially if you factor in the unexpected (injuries) versus the expected (lack of, uh, anything in the offseason). Not bad at all for the first roughly 20% of the season.
The only reason I won’t stay positive or y fans shouldn’t because then the owners win and they will still keep doing this garbage filling their pockets and raising prices well putting out a crappy or subpar teams instead of going after big names to compete for a WS they’ll just keep going cheap on players and charge fans 3x for the product we deserve
If everyone was healthy, it’s a competitive team.
No way there pitchers are having a great season right now but we all know they are nothing more then a bunch of 3’s and 5’s plus they haven’t played only a few good teams and the good teams they have have beat them easily and we don’t need to get started on the bullpen and fielding
The Yankees have spent about $90M more than the Red Sox this year and will pay about $60M in luxury tax. Let’s see what happens as they are only 2.5 games ahead of the Red Sox right now. Last year the Yankees spent $75M more than the Red Sox and paid $32M in luxury tax and only got 4 more wins. These are all CBT figures from Spotrac.
Garry – What does competitive mean to you? .500? Then yes this team could be competitive if the WHOLE team was healthy.
Now review who they have played!!
They went 10-2 versus LAA, PIT and OAK. The bottom of the barrel except OAK has suddenly improved now that Ruiz and others are playing much better. That didn’t happen early when BOS played them.
They went 4-2 versus CHC and SF average ball clubs while playing at home. Is that competitive? Sure.
In 7 games with CLE they went 2-5 playing in both locations. Is that competitive? NO. It’s an average non-playoff team getting beat up by a playoff team. That will be a familiar scenario throughout the season. NOT COMPETITIVE but also not healthy so maybe if healthy they break even? Not likely.
Last but not least, they played ONE good team and got swept by BAL. That’s reality. An occasional win at best versus a good team.
In the first 35 games BOS plays 12 games versus bad team, 20 versus average teams and 3 versus good teams.
In the next 40 games BOS plays 7 games versus bad teams, 10 games versus average teams and 23 versus good teams.
You will see that after 75 games that BOS truly is not competitive whether at full strength or not. They are a 5th place team in the AL East with some really nice young players but lack the skills to compete.
It’s on Breslow and ownership to find those players during the next off season or 2025 will be more of the same mediocrity. Without all-star hitters and quality defenders this team will be rebuilding from Bloom’s tear-down for years.
All= No offense but read the break out above as to who BOS has played and then rethink your comment. The Yankess should finish 10 games ahead of BOS or more as the tough part of BOS’s schedule kicks in. SEP should stick a big fork in BOS thanks to the new schedule and the concentration of Division teams in SEP.
Remember, If you make 1/2 billion and pay $32M in luxury tax then no matter what your record is, the Yankees simply make $32MM less in profits but a couple of hundred million more than BOS. That’s not a victory for BOS it’s a defeat.
Being frugal when you are playing with house money is a bad strategy. BOS will make big bucks and finish last. NYY will make much bigger bucks and might finish fourth or better. Neither situation is a cost effective one. Neither one brings great joy to either fan base.
Both franchises are in the toilet thanks to bad front office moves. BOS is worse off due to Bloom removing the 2018 roster and not replacing it with comparable talent.
Breslow has done some nice moves so far but it will take a half decade to build a competitive team at the rate money is being spent to improve the skill level. Enjoy the youngsters because that’s really all BOS has for the next several years unless something changes.
Suit : You are correct about the Yankees . The Yankees front office needs to go . My thing being a Sox fan is the Yankees are willing to spend. The Yankees aren’t using their money wisely , I think their ownership wants to win. To me Henry and co are all about the profits lately.
Bdog: haha. Yes, they should be fired. You may be right about the Red Sox, but I think it may be more about spending wisely than just cutting spending. I always thought bringing in Bloom from the Rays while still outspending the Rays was about trying to make better decisions about spending. I also think they are likely building for a window of contention based around young players such as Bello, Rafaela, Abreu, Casas, Mayer, Anthony and Teele. So, I think they may be holding off on signing free agents to contracts that would have them in decline when the young guys are entering their prime. Their CBT payroll is at $219.7M per Spotrac now which is $17.3M below the luxury tax threshold. So, maybe they have cut spending a little, but I think they should be very competitive at this level if they spend the money wisely. Having Theo Epstein back adds to my feeling that they are going in the right direction.
case – That’s simply not true.
Crawford has progressed very nicely from year to year and was dominant for stretches last year.
Same with Pivetta, he had a 2.20 ERA for half the season last year.
Whitlock was dominant in 2021 until injuries and deaths derailed his last two seasons.
Houck was dominant in 2020-2021 until injuries derailed his last two seasons.
Sure nobody is expecting them to be this good all year, but they have a lot of talent. It’s just a matter of staying healthy.
TF – Excellent post as always! The Cubs are a very good team, the Sox just caught them at a perfect time when the Cubbies had several key injuries.
But yeah, the chest pumpers bragging about beating up on Pittsburgh and Oakland are casuals who don’t understand not all teams are equal. You and I knew this stretch of games against good teams would show the Sox for what they really are. Let’s see if they have enough pride to avoid the sweep tomorrow.
Fever – Criswell vs Ryan. Tough match-up if Criswell pitches well. It wouldn’t hurt if they figured out how to set the line-up to maximize their offensive productivity.
1 – O’Neill (best hitter on the team) LF
2 – Duran (speed guy with good average) CF
3 – Devers 3B (s/b DH)
4 – Refsnyder (while he is hot) DH
5 = Abreu (While he’s hot) RF
6 – Smith/Cooper depending on SP (1B)
7 – Wong C
8 – Best available 2B
9 = Rafaela SS
The first four hitters should produce the majority of runs and the more on base the more potential runs so move Devers to 3rd or 4th and move the better athletes to 1 through 3 with O’Neill and Duran leading things off as righty lefty. Refsnyder at 3 makes sense and raises the chances for base runners for Devers who is a all or nothing at all guy.
The bottom of the order simply needs to create at least one base runner for the top of the order.
So none of you think the BoSox are a competitive team capable of playoffs if you didn’t lose the following starters:
1B Triston Cosas
2B Vaughn Grisham
SS Trevor Story
DH/OF Masataka Yoshida
SP Nick Pivetta
SP Brayan Belo
SP Garrett Whitlock
Key words their pitching staff is all injure prone by mid season I’d put money on it that everyone of them will be on the DL or had long stretches on it
case – Considering 3 of the 5 already are on the IL for a long stretch, you’ve got quite the advantage! LOL!!
But because I had a GREAT Derby Day yesterday and am therefore feeling lucky, I’ll still take that bet. I believe Houck and Crawford will avoid the IL this season.
Now nobody bash me for jinxing them!
Garry = Casas would improve the team significantly. Maybe as much as 5 to 10 wins. Grissom is an unknown. Story has been bad since he arrived in Boston. Rafaela is a step up. Yoshida is $18MM wasted dollars.
Pivetta, Bello and Whitlock would also all help significantly. The problem is the talent level started with a team of 66 wins. Then they got hurt and they have over performed so far. If they are two games above the talent level right now so the current projection based on strength of schedule is 68 wins. To make the playoffs they need 90 or more wins. Closing a 22 game gap is NOT likely even at full strength.
I’m hoping for a 2021 type year where many over perform but this team doesn’t have Bogey, JD and the other 2018 guys who carried the 2021 team. O’Neill and the youngsters will have to repeat the outstanding performances that JD and Bogey did in 2021. It could happen but it’s not likely.
Think about differentials. How much better is Casas than our current 1B tandem? How many wins does that translate to and add that to 66.l Guys like Criswell? How much is lost by using him instead of Pivetta? Less wins vs bad teams, possibly less wins versus average teams and no difference when playing good teams. That simply does add a lot of wins. Sorry.
If you plan your roster on everybody being healthy for the full season, then you are almost guaranteed to be disappointed.
They might be a .500 team if they get a little healthier. But there is so little depth on the club, any injury hits them hard.
It’s been a fun one so far if you haven’t noticed..
I have to imagine that all the work at SS for Grissom last year will help his athleticism and throws at 2nd. I know his defense is routinely brought up. From what I recall his defense at 2nd was never considered awful, he was just blocked, anyway.
He looks fine at 2b so far tonight
Rishi – I agree! He was brutal at shortstop, but not awful at 2B.
Only 368 innings though so a very small sample size.
Something in the water in Boston
Miami should go get Pablo Reyes for 2B.. Unfortunately, I don’t have much faith in new Miami GM leadership. They are always cheap and starting another rebuild. I hope someone tells them they can’t expect much if they only look for TB Ray offcasts.
Credit to the Sox for hanging around despite a roster that people assumed was bad. Meanwhile, Toronto’s perpetually over hyped squad is predictably underachieving yet again.
Just_thinkin – Great generalization but you aren’t really paying attention to who they have played to start the season you’ve only focused on the wins and losses. Compare the teams BOS and TOR have played by series and you’ll better understand the current standings and how much better TOR is than BOS.
BOS – SEA, OAK, LAA, BAL, LAA, CLE, PIT CLE CHC SF and MIN
TOR – TB, NYY, HOU, SEA, COL NYY SD KC LAD KC and WAS
TOR has had a far tougher schedule and with so many good teams out of the way they will be facing the weaker part of their schedule soon like BOS just did and the standings will flip=flop between BOS and TOR.
TOR isn’t over hyped, they had one the roughest parts of their schedule to start the season. They will climb quickly as they face weak teams just like BOS did and BOS will drop quickly in the standings as they face good teams just like TOR did to start the season.
TF – One of the most shocking things to me is the dramatic decline of Vladdy from his career year in 2021. The Jays dodged a bullet by not signing him to an 8-year extension 3-4 years ago.
Fever – I agree. The generational differences in approach and pride are huge. Senior Vladdy had less skills but much more heart. Bichette is well matched with his father and Biggio senior was far more talented and had far more heart. Each pair is very different and I really only like Bichette.
Bobby Witt is more my kind of JR. He’s better than Bichette.
TF – I have somewhat inside info on the situation up in ‘Toronto. Schneider is not well-liked in the clubhouse. He is considered to be an uptight hardass who has taken the fun out of the game.
As one example, he banned the Homerun Jacket that was a popular tradition for multiple seasons. To me that’s just plain silly.
Sure some of today’s antics are a bit much, like the scripted on-base celebration every time a player gets a hit. But let them have fun in their dugout, especially something as mild and tame as the Homerun Jacket which pales in comparison to the Red Sox Laundry Cart or the Twins Rally Sausage.
This Boston squad has come together well and despite losing some big names, is still relevant.
It hurts to think how much better they’d be if Gio and Story would’ve stayed healthy. We could be witnessing the emergence of an ace in Crawford. That kid is nails.
Pulling for Grissom and always praying Cora doesn’t have to make decisions in the late innings. He’s not real great at… managing.
swan – Part of being analytical is seeing how things would have played out differently under different scenarios.
You are assuming the Sox would be better with Story and Giolito.
Granted the infield defense would be much better, but did you ever consider the Sox were dead set on Rafaela being the starting CF? Do you know what that would have meant? It would have meant one of O’Neill, Abreu or Duran being benched or traded. In other words, it would have been a bad thing for the outfield.
Same with Gio. If he was healthy then Whitlock or Houck would have been relegated to the bullpen.
Just something to keep in mind, snowball effect.
You’re spot on with regard to Cora though!
swanhange – Really pulled a punch on that last comment. Cora is horrible. It’s ok to speak the truth!!
Dalbac cannot hit and should not be allowed anywhere near a baseball diamond. He is a strikeout machine and is a minor league Triple AAA player.
Al – Speaking of strikeout machines, I’m getting very concerned about Tyler’s concussion. Bad enough he’s struck out 2 or more times in 12 of his 23 starts, but he’s also struck out 6 times over the past couple games and struck out 12 times over his last 6 starts.
We were hoping he has a solid first half so he can be traded for something of value, but the way he’s going he won’t be generating much trade interest.
The Red Sox pitching has been excellent this year. The Breslow additions of Bailey, Willard, and Boddy have paid dividends very early on. It appears that Bailey has Houck becoming a monster similar to what he did for Webb in SF. Crawford is legit and I expect Bello to really benefit from Bailey and be similar to Houck with even better stuff by the end of the season.
One of the reasons that Boston has faltered the last two years in Cora’s misuse of the bullpen. This year the starters are going deeper into games which will tax the bullpen less and there are more quality relief arms in the minors then the last two years
Bruin – I totally agree with everything you wrote. The starting pitching has been much improved as we all expected, and Cora is managing the starting pitchers better. No more pulling them after 5 because of the 3rd time around crap. I also like how he lets them start the 7th to see how they look before pulling them, it’s a great way to build confidence and endurance/stamina.
Another big difference I see, he’s not resting his position players as often as usual. Duran and Rafaela have played every game, with Duran starting every game.
Whether Cora was told to change, or he changed on his own because he’s in a contract year, it’s good to see these improvements in his managing and his focus on winning.
I’m expecting that the Red Sox pitching is going to be getting some love from the prospect guys. There are multiple guys really breaking out in the system in Salem you have ERC and Paez. ERC has elite stuff I expect he gets the call to Greenville soon. Paez has had an excellent start he doesn’t have the pure stuff of ERC but he controls the strike zone and he throws strikes. In Greenville Perales had a rough start but he has turned the corner he is throwing well and has some of the best pure stuff in the system strike throwing is and can be a problem. Early has started pretty well except for one really bad start he has looked real good more of a control type lefty with good secondaries. In Portland Penrod, Dobbins, and Gonzalez have looked real good. Gonzalez and Perales both started slowly but are now hitting there stride the stuff is undeniable though. Penrod is older and should be in AAA now. He throws a a mid 90’s fastball with an excellent changeup to go along with a fast developing cutter/ slider. Hunter Dobbins has decent stuff mid 90’s fastball solid secondaries and he throws strikes another guy that should be in AAA. There is a guy in AA Portland Ryan Zeferjahn out of the bullpen he has been utterly dominant he seems to have taken to the new philosophy of throwing strikes he throws a 100 with a wicked slider. If he continues throwing strikes he will be in Boston before the end of the year. It’s a little less exciting in AAA Worcester but Guerrero and Benitez look like legit depth arms to me.
I’m really excited about what’s happening with the arms in the minors and that’s without Yordanny Monegro who was really good last year and went from Roomie Ball all the way to High A last year. He has been injured and working out down at the Florida Complex. He should be coming back soon and adding another quality arm. I was confident last year that the cupboard wasn’t bare in pitching despite what the so called experts think and now with Willard and Boddy in charge of the minor development I’m more convinced then ever we are going to see a rapid change in minor league pitching depth.
The problem with the Red Sox is that they cannot beat good teams. They beat the crappy teams but are not good against solid teams. They either get beat with pitching or hitting. They will probably be 500 at the trade deadline and then we will sell off the major pieces for prospects. It will be another wasted year in Boston while they learn in the minors and we hold out hope for 2025 with Breslow at the helm. Nothing to look forward to or any hope of competing with better teams.
The problem with the Red Sox are the injuries especially to the offense. This team looks a lot better with a healthy Casas and Story. Casas is a huge loss imo he’s arguably the best hitter on the team and he’s a huge loss. Having to put Abreu as your 4 hitter is a killer. I like him but he’s not ready for that and teams with good pitching will take advantage of that. I think a fully healthy offense coupled with the pitching depth and this team is very competitive but with the lineup that they have right now they are vulnerable. There’s also the fact that they have run into the hottest team in baseball right now. What happened to Casas was a killer he was posing mid 800’s and it didn’t even feel like he was hit yet he was just starting to really hit he’s a stud who takes a very professional at bat. His influence is undeniable and his bat an immense loss.
Bruin1012 – Nice summary above with respect to the minor league pitching.
As far as injuries go, that might move them from the 60s to the 70s in wins but that’s simply not the reason they can’t beat good teams consistently.
1 – They have Cora and he mismanages the line-up card, the alignment of the players, the in game decisions and the equal treatment of the players.
2 – Raw talent. Build a chart by position of the five teams in the AL East and then equitably rank the most talented player to the least talented player at that position and you’ll see the purge that Bloom did devastated the talent level. Bogey is way better than Story hopes to be and Rafaela is doing well at SS but ranks 5th. The catchers are weak despite Wong temporarily being hot. Boston needs Teel to climb out of the cellar at Catcher. Casas is competitive and getting better so that’s a plus position for Boston. Grissom is an unknown but at the bottom right now. Devers is probably the top hitter and by far and away the worst field so he is middle of the pack because of how much his defense hurts the team. The young outfielders and O’Neill are at the lower end of the outfield scale but in a year or two could be comparable to Betts, JBJ and Benny. The SPs have made the most progress by far and if they can do it for the whole year I think the pitching moves from the lower 3 to the higher 3 in the rankings. I like Hendriks so I think their bull pan looks good going forward but needs more dept to be comparable to the others. It’s bottom three right now.
The team is improving but it lost SO SO much talent under Bloom that it will take years to replenish the skills and without spending money, the all-stars are going to be sparse for at least a couple more years. Hopefully, a couple young guns in Houck and Crawford get consideration this year.
We are progressing out of the devastation but it’s not going to happen over night. And if Devers doesn’t move off 3B this team won’t win until his contract is up.
The key for this year will be extending that quality depth, including breaking in Abreu, getting Rafaela’s offense to the point that he is a positive, and bringing the big three prospects a step closer to the majors.
I expect Devers will move to 1B or DH once Yoshida’s contract expires. Wouldn’t shock me if they are forced to trade Yoshida a year or two earlier to facilitate that. In the meantime the defensive metrics suggest he isn’t unbearably awful.
Bruin – I think everyone here, even the casuals, would agree about how significant the loss of Casas is. You’re absolutely right, he was truly heating up and I really thought he had a chance at leading the league in homers.
It’s concerning he has already had three significant injuries in less than 3 years, none of which was the result of a collision.. Ankle sprain in 2022, shoulder bursitis last year, and now this. The Red Sox were wise in extending only a lowball extension offer to him earlier this year. This is one guy they shouldn’t rush to extend.