The Red Sox announced a series of roster moves today. Left-hander James Paxton and catcher Danny Jansen, both recently acquired via trade, are active with the club. To make room for those two, the Sox designated right-hander Chase Anderson and backstop Reese McGuire for assignment. That opened two roster spots and they used one of those to claim right-hander Yohan Ramírez, recently designated for assignment by the Dodgers, off waivers.
McGuire, 29, has been with the Red Sox since 2022, generally serving as a light-hitting backup catcher but with strong defensive grades. He has seven Defensive Runs Saved in his career while each of FanGraphs, Baseball Prospectus and Statcast consider him to be a strong framer.
But when he steps out from behind the plate and stands beside it, the results are less impressive. He has a career batting line of .252/.300/.364, which translates to a wRC+ of 79. He’s been even worse this year, with a .209/.280/.295 batting line and 59 wRC+.
That production likely inspired the Sox to go out and get Jansen, pairing him with Connor Wong behind the plate. Since McGuire is out of options, he’s been nudged off the roster entirely. He’s making a fairly modest salary of $1.5MM and can be retained for another year via arbitration. His poor results this year mean that he won’t be in line for a huge raise, so perhaps some club will be interested in him as a glove-first backup.
Anderson, 36, is a veteran who signed a modest $1.25MM deal with the Sox for this year. He’s been in a long relief role with the Sox, tossing 52 innings over 27 appearances. He’s allowed 4.85 earned runs per nine this year. His 8.5% walk rate is around average but his 15.6% strikeout rate and 32.5% ground ball rate are well below par. If it weren’t for a .229 batting average on balls in play, he probably would have allowed more runs across the plate.
The Sox will have until Tuesday’s trade deadline to deal either McGuire or Anderson, though they probably won’t find much interest in either, which could lead to both players being on waivers. Anderson has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency while retaining all of his salary. McGuire has more than three but less than five years of service, meaning he would have the right to elect free agency but would have to forfeit his remaining salary to hit the open market. That means he might stick with the Sox as non-roster depth if he passes through waivers unclaimed.
Ramírez, 29, has tossed 43 2/3 innings this year between the Mets, Orioles and Dodgers, frequently bouncing around due to his out-of-options status. In that time, he has a 5.98 ERA, 22.1% strikeout rate, 8.5% walk rate and 44.4% ground ball rate. All those rate stats are pretty close to league average, so his .339 BABIP and 60.8% strand rate might be pushing his ERA up a bit. HIs 4.18 FIP and 3.77 SIERA point to better results going forward.
Since the righty is out of options, the Sox will have to install him onto the active roster, meaning someone from their bullpen will have to be optioned whenever he reports to the team. He can be retained for three more seasons after this one if he hangs onto his roster spot.
Out with the old blue jays, in with the new blue jay
Can’t wait for the Jansen battery.
High – B-b-but Anderson is soo valuable as a mopup innings eater! Or so the front office suckups say. LOLOLOL!!
Didn’t the last week demonstrate that? Cora got away from using Anderson to eat innings, instead spreading them around more, and at this point the whole bullpen is in collapse. In some sense it all dates back to the 8th inning on the 19th, though of course the problem (and Anderson’s role) has compounded in subsequent games.
Tff – The way Cora manages (and the NESN guys have talked about this) requires all the relievers to be good because he WILL “run out” of relievers in high leverage situations.
If he managed the bullpen better, THEN he could afford to carry a mopup-only stiff like Anderson.
You aren’t looking at the innings picture, which is a huge part of helping keep the relievers effective.
Prior to the ASB, the Red Sox saw 67 relief appearances of 2+ innings in 96 games. Heck, they had 12 relief appearances of 3+ innings.
Since the ASB, a dismal stretch of 9 games in which they’ve needed a LOT of innings, Cora has only allowed his relievers to work 2+ innings once. Harder to count them, but there have been a lot of mid-inning pitching changes as well, and those are always tough on the pen.
Anderson and Horn had previously been used in a multi-inning role. Prior to the break, Horn threw 2+ innings each time out. Since the break he has averaged less than 1 IP/G. It is a very different role, and both times Horn has appeared in back-to-back games he has given up runs (1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K). Anderson is a bit more versatile, but 15 of his 23 appearances prior to the ASB were for 2+ innings. Since the ASB he has pitched four times for a total of three innings.
Or consider last night — the game was more or less a loss after 6 innings. Logical move would be to hand Criswell the ball for the last three, saving your arms for the next game. Instead he burned Booser (getting him up three times before he finally got in the game) as well as Weissert. I’m not saying that Criswell would have necessarily outpitched them, but the WHOLE POINT of a long reliever is to eat those slop innings.
Cora has fallen in love with L/R matchups, playing every game like it is Game 7 of the World Series. But during the season you play 6 games a week (or more). In the post-season you rarely see more than three games in a row. There is a HUGE difference in bullpen availability and workload between the two situations, and you have to manage them differently.
At this point Jansen is your long reliever, the only guy allowed to pitch 2 innings at a stint. How backwards is that?!?
tff – I couldn’t agree more, in fact I’d give you 5 thumbs up if I could.
And when even the NESN announcers say the exact same thing, you know it’s a valid criticism of Cora.
Having Ramirez forced on the active roster really scares me, hopefully it’s for a very short time because some or all of Slaten, Martin and Hendrik all return. It’s their biggest need right now IMO.
I really doubt they will catch the Yanks, they have the 5th easiest remaining schedule in MLB and they’ve got Stanton returning. But they should be able to catch KC if they play better defense and the SP get back to their early season performance.
Alex Speier talking about it on Twitter. It is an “open secret”, I guess?
Torching the bullpen over the last 9 games is going to make it difficult to play SEA and KC competitively. They didn’t need to beat the Dodgers or Yankees. They *do* need to beat some of the teams coming up, or they will rapidly fall out of contention.
tff – Randy seems to be re-engergized, but the rest of the Mariners offense doesn’t really scare me. Of course their starting pitching does, glad it’s only 3 games with them.
KC concerns me more, Bobby & Sal have potent bats and Melendez absolutely kills Sox pitching (1.408 OPS in 65 PA’s).
If Texas falls out of contention that would be huge, as the Sox have 6 games remaining against them.
Anybody can be a mop up guy.
TB – Not really, you need to be able to pitch more than 2 innings in a game and not be good.
Goodbye Reese. We still meeting at the Home Depot parking lot later?
What do u plan to do together?
Cut the guy some slack, it’s not like u haven’t creamed ur self in public…
in the stripped club. straight “jorking it.” and by “it,” haha, well. let’s justr say. My peanits
It’s one thing to bring it up when he first joined the Sox but it’s old now. While I’ve never been in that position, most of us did things we regretted. We just didn’t get caught. I’d be surprised if he wasn’t picked up and goes to Worcester. That would be great to have him should an injury occur.
Not making fun of him. If anything, getting arrested for that gives him unlimited aura and I would love if my O’s bought low on him
most of us did things we regretted.
==========================
LOL! I’d be running the world right now except for my seemingly endless ability to shoot myself in the foot.
If I had ever been arrested for what he did, I would have needed to switch careers.
tff – All I know is I’m tired of being reminded about McGuire every time I drive under a highway sign that says “Cover and secure your load”.
Grabbing some wood?
Reese will get another whack it somewhere
Pretty stiff competition.
Circle Jerk?
Dollar Giant, the crème da la crème of jacking lots.
Paxton allowed them to release Anderson, so in that sense it’s an upgrade. Thank God.
Reese is going to drown his sorrows at the local Dollar Tree parking lot. Sweat pants optional.
What’s wrong with sweatpants lol
Not a thing, that’s why they are optional.
Two good relief pitchers please. Por favor. S’il vous plait.
Reese will end up traded. Catchers regardless of ability are always a need
I would like the Blue Jays to pick him up as he is a better defender than Jansen was and he would be a good compliment to Kirk.
If they wanted him they probably would have asked for him to be included in the trade
True Dusty but he would have cost the Jays the remainder of his salary But if they can nab him after he is released they only have to pay the prorated of league minimum. Also Reese is better than Brian Sevren
Now that they can get Reese, absolutely.
Both Rockies catchers and Kelly from Detroit are still out there. Not sure if any contenders need a starting catcher but a quality veteran back up is always nice. Pretenders always need one too
A stroke of bad luck for Mcguire.
Got tossed off of the roster.
he’ll console himself today by celebrating palm sunday
The legend of Reese has ended
Was fun while it lasted when he was a new red sock
How is Reese gonna afford tinted windows now?
Might want to invest in an old van
If his sock is red when he’s done, he should probably see a urologist
While the McGuire jokes are old and stale, that was a pretty good one.
+1
Chase Anderson had to hold the record for most DFA’s of all time.
I still remember the uproar when the Pirates practically gave McGuire and Harold Ramirez away. Both ended up showing flashes brilliance but never sustained it.
But both are still in the League and Drew Hutchinson (whom the Jays gave up to get them) is not.
Oh, it was still a terrible trade for the Pirates, by any measure… but at the time McGuire and Ramirez were made out to be irreplaceable. They weren’t, but the Pirates still should have gotten something more than the metaphorical ham sandwich for them.
Totally agree they never got enough in return especially considering Francisco Liriano was also in that trade and got flipped the next year for Teo
Just don’t tell him to beat it, he may end up confused.
Has it been reported what was said between Quantrill and McGuire at the game yesterday? Maybe Breslow decided the jerk off was too much of a distraction?
“Jerk off”… pun intended?
reading lips it’s clear that quantrill said “go jerk off in a parking lot”
here for the parking lot self-pleasuring jokes
Well, you’ve “come” to the right place.
Heard he has quick hands behind the plate.
Jays might as well pick him up.
Upgrading to Jansen and Paxton doesn’t move the needle much but it’s in the right direction. Really need some injured guys to be back in August, a few more maybe in September. A lot to sort out when they return, but can also be an upgrade.
Totally unrealistic but a guy like tanner scott would be huge..the pen is in serious trouble even with martin…cant count on hendricks till we see him
Hayzee – It’s the Ramirez acquisition that really sucks.
Bailey is good but he’s not God, he can’t work miracles.
Ramirez? What am I missing?
Hayzee – Scroll up. Lol!
Hafta admit the fact Breslow already jumped on the 3 things they were seeking (RHB, SP, RP) does not bode well for additional higher quality players that fit those same needs.
Maybe the starting pitchers getting through five innings without getting torched
My thoughts exactly. Both are minor upgrades, but neither will impact our ability to add another RP, or another SP, or another RP.
I imagine Criswell will be sent to Worcester to make room for Ramirez. Winckowski can take Anderson’s place as the long man out of the pen
Rsox – So what you’re saying is Ramirez replaces Anderson.
Not good.
If Ramirez is the “big” reliever acquisition this really sucks.
I hope he’s not, but for the moment that is the move i see happening
Rsox – Let’s hope at least two of Slaten, Hendriks or Martin is close to returning.
Damn , Criswell has pitched the only decent game by a starter since the AS break
Ted – I would hope Horn gets sent down before Criswell.
Reese McGuire was caught sitting in a car outside of Cal Quantrill’s house for 25 minutes
Did you keep the meter running?
Reese McGuire is “coming” to a parking lot near you.
I wouldnt be surprised to see someone take a shot on McGuire. You could do worse as a backup catcher.
Otto – Agreed.
The McGuire move is essentially 15% stat-related. The other 85% has to do with “the incident”.
Not sure about that to be honest. I think it’s more about swapping out his lefty bat for a righty (Jansen).
McGuire is always getting jerked around!
Thoughts and prayers to his career. Hope he enjoys the time off to spend with himself.
All you guys on here have choked it a time or two and I’m sure in some weird places
I haven’t done it in weird places, just the regular places.
– Church pew
– Under the stairs
– Behind Denny’s
I have railed my girlfriend in the park on a blanket though. That could have gone bad.
It would be absolutely hilarious if the Rockies picked up Reese….
Is this new catcher really better than Reese McGuire? Not sure I’m sold. Seems like a pretty insignificant deal to me.
Spanky batted lefty. Jansen bats righty. So what you’re gaining is more R/L balance in the lineup, at what projects as a relatively insignificant cost.
Remember, so far Breslow is trading from the margins on the roster to both make room for college draftees to get some work in and clearing impending rule-5 issues
I guess it makes sense. I don’t like how we have a different lineup against left handers. I bet if you look, we have lost a ton more games against left handers than right handers. When all your reserves are left handing specialists, I think that’s kinda dumb
We hit righties 37 OPS higher than we hit lefties. I don’t think it is the end of the world, since we face more righties. but Jansen figures to be a decent upgrade over McGuire, plus being able to DH & PH.
And I still wonder if Wong still owns a 2B glove.
I think Houck has thrown too many innings and is running out of gas. His last two pitching performances have been awful. The way this team is playing they may still be sellers at the trade deadline. Houck is in completely new territory with his innings pitched.
Agreed, and getting him right is key to any playoff hopes. They could have gone with a six-man rotation for a bit, which might have helped a little. Next best move is to give Houck a DL stint, missing two starts but hopefully coming back strong after that.
Al – Not a chance. Did you see how bad Houck was on 11 days rest in Colorado? Nearly the entire pitching staff has sucked the past few weeks, they aren’t all tired.
One factor is the high heat and humidity, of course it will make the ball travel farther than when it was cold in April and May.
Another factor is Bailey’s new approach isn’t so new anymore, teams have learned and adjusted.
How is a pitcher going to build endurance if they never pitch more innings?
Hey here’s a thought, how about Houck and the others stop throwing max effort so often. You can’t treat every member of the starting rotation like a one-inning flamethrower.
I believe Anderson is that arm being designated.
I guess they do need to move another BP arm. Hopefully Horn, they don’t need three lefties in the pen.
Not tonight me buckos down 7-2. What have we won 2 games since the Allstar break. Leaving too many men on base and making a stuff like Rodon look good.
Al – I’ve come to expect guys like O’Neill choking in big situations, and I expected guys like Wong to regress …. but the defense has suddenly gotten even worse. O’Neill made 3 glaring errors in the outfield last weekend, he’s a long way from his GG days. And what about Rafaela getting picked off 3B because he was so focused on chatting with the coach that he didn’t realize he was standing off the bag? Dumbest mistake I’ve ever seen on the field …. and I’ve seen plenty.
So many ads now
low – I think the ads are so in-your-face now that it’s turning away people who want to check out MLBTR.
I mean, give them a chance to like the place before expecting them to cough up money.
If Danny Jansen is our right handed bat and we got rid of Reese McGuire for him, I think that’s a problem.
I thought this team was going somewhere in the long run (future years) but it looks like nothing. Same old, same old. Even I’m tired of Cora.
@CBP, it all depends on where you stand on the deadline. If your in the “go all in” camp then this isn’t good.
But if you are in the, “minor tweeks with an eye on ’25” camp like me, this is good news.
Breslow is minor improvements that make the team more balanced this year without completely selling out the future. Reese is a solid back up who has been starting. Now we have a solid defender first guy behind the dish who hits righ handed. Who knows, maybe Reese isn’t claimed.
Paxton can haul some innings, which is needed.
If the young guys catch their 2nd wind, they can still make a run at the wild card. If not, we’ve not lost any valuable prospects and have plenty of pieces that can be cut at the end of the year to protect the high number of rule 5 guys on the farm.
I think it would be best to get the next wave of talent up to Fenway to give them a stress free test.
If Breslow continues to make smart moves without caving to fan pressure, or even pressure from inside the FO, 2025 can be the kick off to the next decade.
Sox are in a good place, much farther along than most of us gave credit.
2025, bro. Save me a seat in the “okay, let’s do this” section.
Agreed, looking like a “minor tweaks with an eye on ’25” trade deadline. I do like the way things are setting up for next year, especially if they can get a couple of their kids some experience in September (and if Henry opens his pocketbook a crack).
And it could have been much worse for your group. I wanted a complete sell off of the expiring contracts lol!
What did this team do over the All Star break? Run a marathon each day? Oh wait, that was my friend. But he stinks at baseball. They have just fallen on their faces and are laying down still.
Are you ok? Can you get up? Well then let’s go.
Yohan Ramirez And his 5.98 ERA should be a big help to the staff. They need an impact player not throwaway garbage like Bloom and his “Rube Goldberg” cheap fixes and throwing it against a wall and seeing if it sticks. Paxton is a “Handle with Care Glass” guy. I don’t know too much about Jensen but Ramírez is a throwaway. Come on Breslow get out of the dumpster already and pick up an impact hitter and bullpen help. I don’t know how you expect Paxton Yohan Ramirez and Jensen to propel us into the playoffs.
Al – Give him 28 more hours, then pass judgement.
But in the meantime, don’t hold your breath for a truly good acquisition. Alex Speier already reported the Sox refuse to trade any of their Top Ten prospects so acquiring an impact player seems doubtful.
They told McGuire to beat it