Orioles general manager Mike Elias spoke to reporters (including Roch Kubatko of MASN Sports) ahead of today’s game against the Rays, offering updates on several injured players. First and foremost, he expressed optimism regarding starter Grayson Rodriguez, who landed on the 15-day IL last week. Elias described Rodriguez’s right lat/teres injury as “pretty mild” – much less serious than the similar injury he suffered in 2022 – and said the team is hoping to have him back in the rotation by late September. The young right-hander has a 3.86 ERA across 20 starts this season, and Elias made it clear that the Orioles are still hopeful he will play an “enormous” role for the team come October.
Discussing his club’s minor league rotation depth while Rodriguez is out, Elias named Cade Povich, Cole Irvin, and, interestingly, Brandon Young of Triple-A Norfolk. Povich, 24, is a top prospect and has a spot on the 40-man roster, while Irvin, 30, has six seasons of MLB experience. Young, 25, doesn’t have Povich’s prospect pedigree or Irvin’s big league resume, but he is enjoying a strong season; he has a 3.82 ERA and 2.92 FIP across 20 games between Double-A and Triple-A. Barring another injury, the Orioles rotation is set with Corbin Burnes, Zach Eflin, Trevor Rogers, Dean Kremer, and Albert Suarez. Still, Young is a name worth keeping an eye on.
Elias also provided some good news about several Orioles relievers. Jacob Webb hit the IL last week with inflammation in his right elbow, but tests revealed no structural damage. The club is hopeful his IL stint will be a short one, perhaps no longer than the minimum 15 days. Webb has pitched well for Baltimore since joining the club last August. In 71 2/3 innings, the 30-year-old has a 3.14 ERA and 3.98 SIERA as a middle relief option for manager Brandon Hyde. The Orioles are also planning to have Danny Coulombe back in late September. Coulombe, who has a 2.68 ERA over the past two seasons, has been out since June, when he had surgery to remove bone chips in his left elbow. Finally, Elias touched on Félix Bautista’s rehab, explaining that things are “going really well” for the star closer as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. He will not pitch for Baltimore this year, in the regular season or the playoffs, but he is set to throw off a proper mound next week as he prepares himself for a full and healthy 2025 campaign.
On the position player side of things, Elias noted that there is “still time” for Jordan Westburg to get back on the field before the end of the regular season. The All-Star infielder has been out since he fractured his right hand on July 31. He has 18 home runs, an .815 OPS, and 2.8 FanGraphs WAR over 101 games this year. Elias also expressed hope that Heston Kjerstad won’t be out for “too much longer” as he continues to recover from a concussion. The GM acknowledged that it’s “pretty mild” as far as concussions go, but the team is still taking his symptoms “really seriously” and will not bring him back until they make sure he is “totally out of the woods.” The Orioles had previously optioned Kjerstad back to Triple-A, but placing him back on the injured list reverses the option.
In additional injury news from around the AL East…
- Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas is reportedly “close to returning” from his rib cage injury, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive. He is currently on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Worcester, and Cotillo suggests Casas could be back in the majors as soon as Thursday. Boston will need to activate him once he maxes out his minor league rehab time on August 18, but it appears the slugger could be back in the lineup a few days sooner. Casas hit six home runs over his first 22 games this season before suffering his injury, and his big lefty bat will undoubtedly be a huge boost to the Red Sox’s lineup.
- Meanwhile, Trevor Story is about to take what manager Alex Cora describes as a “huge step” toward returning this season, according to Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic. The shortstop, who has been out since April after undergoing shoulder surgery, will take batting practice on Monday. His surgery seemed to be season-ending back in April, but Cora now believes the two-time All-Star will be back with the Red Sox before the end of the year. Story himself suggested that his return has gone from “a maybe” to “a reality.” He is already ready to return defensively, and he is making excellent progress swinging the bat. He says his swings have felt “really good” with “no hesitation or hold back.”
- Finally, Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt told reporters (including Mark W. Sanchez of the New York Post) that it is “very realistic” to expect he will return to the club before the end of August. The right-hander has been out since May with a right lat strain. Over his first 11 starts, Schmidt pitched to a sparkling 2.52 ERA and 3.64 SIERA. Meanwhile, since his last appearance, Yankees starters rank second-last in the AL with a 5.22 ERA. Their problems go far beyond Schmidt’s injury, but it will surely help to have him back in the fold. It’s not clear how manager Aaron Boone will arrange his rotation once Schmidt returns, but Boone was reportedly “thrilled” with Schmidt’s performance in a live batting practice session earlier today (per Joel Sherman of the New York Post). There will be a job for Schmidt when he’s ready, even if he has to push a more established arm – like Marcus Stroman or Nestor Cortes – out of the rotation.
The news on story and casas is great, too bad the red sox dont have an extra starter ready to come back too
They were too cheap to get a starting pitcher after their idiotic gilito signing
They only had to keep Sale and sign Flaherty or Lorenzen and their staff would be 30-40% better. So far, Breslow has been a flop.
That’s true I forgot about those two
Not only “gilito”, but that Giolito guy was a bad signing too. So go enjoy a gelato.
I’m more irritated by your idiotic Giolito spelling.
The Red Sux are going nowhere, so the point is moot!
They should be careful with Casas and tell Story to rest up until next March. Why tempt fate at this point. The Sox is dead.
Getting Casas and Story back would be huge for this team for the stretch run. I do kind of feel bad for Dom Smith as the likely odd man out when Casas comes back as Smith has played his best ball of the season lately
What I find kind of comical regarding Smith, is he can’t hit lefties.. Period and just to throw this out as an example. Hamilton, struggles vs them, but never gets AB’s vs them, but is a constant base threat and no worse defensively at his defensive position, yet many sox fans drool over Smith. It’s gotten really weird last few weeks all this love over a less than replacement level player.
John – I totally agree, the way certain Sox players are loved by some here is indeed weird. Basically they are front office suckups who feel obligated to praise every front office move.
As for Story, this feels like deja vu all over again. Just last year he rushed back from injury and batted only .203 with a .566 OPS therefore it’s reasonable to expect much of the same with this year’s return.
From everything ive read his teammates genuinely love him its not just here and elsewhere in red sox nation…you seem to be in the minority not liking this guy…so what he cant hit lefties lol no reason to not like him
I don’t think anyone here is “drooling” over Smith, i think we would gladly let him go tomorrow if it means getting Casas back in the lineup but he’s been a solid if unspectacular player filling in.
As for not hitting lefties; this has been a team problem all season and a reason getting Story back is important.
Rsox – I disagree on the importance of having RHB in the starting lineup all the time.
Why? Because literally 75% of all MLB pitchers are righthanded, so having a predominantly lefty hitting primary lineup with a predominantly righty hitting bench makes the most sense.
Why insert a RHB into the everyday lineup if it will potentially help only 25% of the time while potentially hurting the other 75% of the time?
In Story’s case he has better power numbers against righties. You don’t need to have a RH hitter in the lineup everyday but this lineup is susceptible to left handed pitching so the extra thump will help, especially compared to the Grissom’s and Gonzalez’ we’ve been putting out there
Rsox – I know it would never happen, but I’d really like to see Cora lose the 13th pitcher and get another position player on the active roster.
Did you see what happened Friday night? Cora pinch hit Jansen for Yoshida because he wanted a RHB against the LHP, but then Houston swapped out the LHP with a RHP, so what did Cora do? Before Jansen even saw a pitch, Cora replaced him with Valdez. The end result was one of Cora’s 4 bench players was removed from the game without even getting a chance to play, and there was no backup catcher for the remainder of the game. Crazy!
So I totally agree with you, the heck with L/R matchups …. let the better overall hitters swing the bat. But I don’t expect Story to contribute much offensively, I think his main objective will be to solidify the shortstop position by getting Rafaela/Hamilton/Gonzalez/Sogard out of there which will also help Devers at 3B because he won’t have to cover so much ground with Story playing defense. Devers having to work with a revolving rotation of shortstops certainly was a difficult challenge for him as it would be for any 3B, so the stability of having Story at shortstop every day will be a huge benefit.
This is why i don’t understand why they cut the September roster limit to 2 extra players. I get not wanting 40 players and box scores looking like spring training games but at least 5 additional players for September would make more sense than just 2
Rsox – I’m glad you asked, as I’ve written elsewhere about this exact subject.
The reasons for the September roster cut are twofold.
One, it benefits MLB financially. Less MLB minimum salaries to pay out, and less service time being accrued.
More importantly though, it maintains the integrity of competition in September. When the active roster limit was 40, teams that were out of contention were basically conducting another spring training camp against teams that were still in contention. No team should benefit in postseason positioning by playing against a bunch of minor leaguers and independent leaguers in September. So I actually like the rule.
And just imagine what Cora would do with 12 additional players in September, it would be a 20-man bullpen with 10 pitchers pitching in every game!
I’m not high on Story. He really hasn’t produced offensively since he got to Boston, strikes out way too much.
Left out Fever same constantly CHEAP/teams were the ones pushing for the reduced September roster cuts. Have to wonder what kind of ridiculous trade off the mlbpa asked for in return. Maybe an extra sushi chef in the clubhouse? It would fit par for the course with some of the nonsense the players have asked for and traded away during negotiations with trivial bs.
Remember, not that many years ago when would see near 40 man entire rosters on a bench during playoff runs? Only and inept union would give away the right to service time rights, moreso when amount of teams in PO has doubled.
John – Big news, MAT just promoted to AAA.
They are hyping the heck out of it to distract from the big league team.
Maybe I just don’t spend enough time in the comment sections to see what you’re talking about but what I find comical is that there seems to be this vocal contingent of Sox fans who go out of their way to hate on Smith for some reason. This is where maybe I just haven’t seen it and thus have a blind spot, but I haven’t seen any of these comments elevating him to folk hero status that I always see the hater side complaining about, so are you sure “all this love” is not something made up in your head, or perhaps something you are projecting onto others?
Nobody is asking to have his number retired or to put him on the All Star team or to be elevated above an obviously more useful player like Casas or Gonzalez. Regardless of how you feel about Smith, I think we all can agree we have PTSD from the Bobby Dalbec Experience which is to say we are grateful to Smith for sparing us from having to endure any more of it. For a random JAG who’s never been (and still isn’t) anything special and was picked up off the waiver wire in May, he’s filled in admirably in the wake of Casas’ injury compared to what we’ve gotten used to seeing the last several years and his play in July has absolutely helped keep the team afloat and in the mix for what could be our first playoff appearance in 3 years.
Why is it such a bad thing to some of you guys to appreciate that? How miserable of a person do you have to be to refuse to like a guy just because he isn’t a superstar?
Dirty – Speaking only for myself, his offense is below expectations (.706 OPS and 93 OPS+ compared to his career .721 OPS and 98 OPS+). so it would have been nice if he was at least at replacement level offensively. I didn’t expect him to be a superstar, but I certainly wanted better offense than what he put up …. especially with the good hitters he’s been surrounded by in the Boston lineup, it’s not like he’s playing for the ChiSox.
Defensively he has made SEVERAL egregious errors that directly led to losses, something that shouldn’t happen with a 1B. He simply lacks the instincts you’d expect from a veteran player. For instance the other day he knocked down a line drive, and as the ball trickled a few feet away he simply gave up on it instead of running after it and then racing for the bag. This is something the Sox announcers repeatedly talked about as it was replayed over and over. He’s simply not a good player. He did hit better than Garrett Cooper (yet another crappy player the front office suckups loved at the time), but that’s a mighty low bar to compare with.
And for me, the fact Dom was signed as a free agent at minimum salary is totally irrelevant. The Red Sox came into this season with virtually no depth because they were too damn cheap to pay for it, so Dom doesn’t earn brownie points for basically coming free.
there seems to be this vocal contingent of Sox fans who go out of their way to hate on Smith for some reason.
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Some Red Sox “fans” hate everything about the RS, about Fenway, about Boston, and about Massachusetts.
Your criticisms are fair. Not saying you have to love the guy, by any means. He’s totally an imperfect player, that’s why he was available. And I agree the only reason he was pressed into duty is because the front office is too inept to have had better plans and they deserve all the criticism in the world for that. Lord knows I’ve heaped on plenty. That’s not a reason to love him but it isn’t necessary to hold it against him either. But he’s done better (not amazing, but he essentially *is* the replacement level player and his production has been roughly in line with that) than the other stiffs like Dalbec and Cooper et. al and seems like a good and well-liked guy by his teammates so I have no problem tipping my cap to the guy. I don’t even feel that strongly about him myself, I’m satisfied with his body of work given the circumstances but I’m not looking for him to suddenly become part of the team’s plans. Just seems odd to me that some have so much mental energy to pile on to a replacement level player for being replacement level.
Dirty – As someone who has a pulse on RSN I can say with near certainty it’s an accumulation of unhappiness with how we’ve been treated the past 5 years and especially the past year.
Red Sox announced a week ago no more fees of any kind on any ticket purchases the rest of the year, that’s how bad attendance is with Sox fans. Road teams fans will always help sell seats at Fenway if their team is contending, otherwise it’s a mauseleum. Red Sox owners have run the team in the ground, probably will be at least 2-3 more years before they try to contend again.
I’m totally with you on that front. They’ve given us plenty to be PO’ed about and I am. I suppose where I differ is that I am still bitter enough about how they did Pedro, Lester, Betts, and Bogaerts, plus the dumb Story contract, not trading guys they knew they weren’t going to keep in ’22 so we could at least accelerate the process, lies about “Full Throttle” and all that, that Smith – or having a lack of a better plan B – are still pretty low on my list of grievances. We absolutely should’ve had a more compelling guy to give a look to over him, but I’m holding that more against the FO than Smith himself.
The surprising wild card contention has placated me a little bit, but I’m far from satisfied with FSG or the front office. I want to believe in Breslow and I don’t hate all of the moves he’s made, unlike Bloom, so I’m hoping all that plus the kids being ready to start coming up means Henry will quit being a tightwad and greenlight some real spending again. But I’m certainly not holding my breath.
DirtyWater048 mins ago
lies about “Full Throttle” and all that, that Smith – or having a lack of a better plan B –means Henry will quit being a tightwad and greenlight some real spending again. But I’m certainly not holding my breath.
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I don’t think teams have Plan Bs at 1st. They don’t get injured often to warrant the investment.
I?RT ‘Full Throttle’, stupidest thing ever. This is why only the manager and GM should talk with the press. There is a certain art to saying nothing.
But past that, it is on Henry. In 5 years, we’ve gone from 1st in payroll to 12th. Even at a level of 5th, that’s still another $37M we could’ve spent this year.
To an extent that’s true and you make a good point, though at the same time to not have anyone else in the organization beyond the starter capable of giving professional at-bats and playing an acceptable enough level of defense so that if the starter goes down you have to resort straight to cycling through nothingburgers like Cooper and Smith screams ineptitude on the personnel department IMO. Maybe you don’t need to have somebody significant enough to be called an actual “plan B” but you should also not have no one at all. This is why you don’t draft only middle infielders, what good is it to hoard a hundred guys who can play the keystone and none who can hold down first base?
Dirty – I try not to be bitter about anything, because I don’t want to allow it to take away from my enjoyment following the team. But believe me, I don’t forget. To this day I still express unhappiness with how Bronson Arroyo was treated …. and Don Orsillo …. and Pudge Fisk …. and Wade Boggs ….. the list goes on and on. And I’m with you, I hold the front office 100% accountable for Smith, same as Giolito and Story. They took the money when it was offered, can’t blame them for that. I’d do the same thing.
The Sox were also in contention in 2023 and 2022, so being within 3 games now really isn’t a surprise to me. You’ve got to be really, really bad to be out of contention before Labor Day.
When the bottom line drops below a certain point, the spending will pick up …. guaranteed. Probably won’t be until 2026 though.
Since July 1, Smith has hit .264/.323/.505 with 14 R and 12 RBI. Those aren’t “Wow!” numbers, to be sure, but he has done a credible job and you don’t have to be a suck-up to acknowledge that. It doesn’t mean that he has suddenly become a starting player or anything silly like that, just that he has found a nice run of success.
Over that same span, Hamilton has hit .220/.289/.349 with 10 R and 8 RBI in similar playing time. He is a better defender at a more valuable position, and clearly a superior baserunner, but not somebody I would hold up as an obvious improvement over Smith.
I agree that neither should be facing lefties. Smith has hit .256/.289/.419 against lefties this season while Hamilton has hit .238/.273/.333. Abreu is hitting .186/.255/.279 against them. All three have an almost identical number of PA (44 to 47) against lefties this year.
Yoshida has *not* been platooned to the same degree, with 80 PA against them, and has hit .203/.288/.333.
Put the four together, along with McGuire and Valdez, and it is easy to see why LHP do well against the Red Sox. Even the big bats of Devers and Duran are of course stronger against RHP.
tff – I always appreciate when you bring in stats, thank you!
I think the main question here is, are you satisfied with Dom’s overall performance in a Red Sox uniform?
As for your last paragraph, the notion that Sox hitters struggle against LHP is a myth which I can easily debunk.
Ready?
The Red Sox have the SECOND BEST OPS IN THE ENTIRE LEAGUE AGAINST LHP!!!
They have a .758 OPS against southpaws, second only to Baltimore!!!
Just because the W/L record against LHSP is not that great, it doesn’t mean they struggle to hit against them!
They also have the 2nd-most HR, RBI and Walks in the league against LHP.
I think Dom is better than Valdez or Dalbec. Not much of a role for him once Casas returns, as long as Casas and
Yoshida remain healthy. But if Smith is released, and Casas aggravates his injury, that would leave the team in a bad spot.
Not sure what being “satisfied” means in this context? He is both literally and figuratively a replacement level player, a guy who was free for signing at the point they realized they needed somebody better than Dalbec.
As for the stats… Fenway makes any offense look better than it really is. While they happen to be second in the AL in OPS and/or wOBA, they are seventh in MLB and 11th in park-adjusted wRC+. Against RHP they are second in MLB before park adjustments and 7th with park adjustments. It is a pretty significant gap between the two.
In late innings (7th onward) they have a .694 OPS against LHP, just 13th in the majors, with a MLB-high 29.2% strikeout rate. Those numbers ought to be intuitively obvious from watching the games?
The platooning is the reason that their overall performance against LHP holds up as well as it does. Both Refsnyder and Romy have done great work. But the platoon starts to break down in the late innings, and you end up with key left-on-left matchups against relief specialists. And the Red Sox have NOT handled those well.
Part of why their W-L is weaker against LHSP is that they use up their RHH in the middle innings, leaving the remaining lefties exposed in the later innings. It’s a real issue, though I agree it doesn’t exactly show up in the numbers you were citing.
Also worth noting that the Red Sox have 1356 PA against LHP, the highest in the AL. (There are more LHP in the NL.) The Yankees have 1220, the Orioles 1207, the Rays 1053. Part of the reason why the Red Sox numbers vs. LHP aren’t worse than they are is that opposing teams stack lefties (and lefty relievers) against the Red Sox to a greater degree than they do against other teams. While there are plenty of teams which hit RHP better than LHP, the Red Sox numbers get dragged down more than most.
If you look at the split OPS relative to the overall OPS (Baseball-Reference reports that on their splits pages), you see that the Red Sox have the fourth lowest tOPS+ vs. LHP in the AL The team that loses the most against LHP is the Yankees, but I’m not going to cry for THEM. Just wish the Red Sox had more LHP to throw in those series.
Those aren’t “Wow!” numbers, to be sure, but he has done a credible job
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As I’ve been saying for a long time, “some” Red Sox fans are among the stupidest fans in baseball. Dom is well-liked and has done a fine job as an emergency replacement.
What I find kind of comical regarding Smith, is he can’t hit lefties..
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I’m not sure why that is comical. Almost no lefties hit lefties as well as they hit righties. And many aren’t particularly close.
And, FWIW, Smith has a higher OPS against lefties this year than he does against righties. In fact, his splits against lefties for his career show almost no difference.
Now see, that’s what is comical.
Interesting! I tend to look at wOBA, which effectively weights OBP a little higher, but I see that you are right.
Might be misleading, though, as his PT against LHP has mostly come during his hot streak. So he likely still shows a modest split.
Rsox – How many games you think Duran will get suspended? Sox are trying to brush it under the rug, but they are partially to blame. Embracing the whole Eff-em thing was a bad look, they need to stop the low class stuff and remember their are wives and kids at these games.
And Boston is the wrong city to rile up the LGBTQ crowd.
The Blue Jays suspended Kevin Pillar for 2 games for yelling a homophobic slur at Jason Motte back in 2017 so i would guess that would be the benchmark. MLB did not get involved beyond ordering Pillar to complete their sensitivity (for lack of better word) training in which Duran will likely have to complete himself. I’d guess probably 2-3 games
Rsox – I think the team not handing down a suspension is a mistake, it shouldn’t be left to MLB to discipline.
And I think directing it at a fan is worse, and the climate for this sort of thing is very different from 7 years ago.
Red Sox will probably get a LOT of heat for going lightly on a star player. Can’t imagine them taking it this lightly if the player was Valdez or Sogard.
I expect a couple of games like the Pillar situation. The Sox aren’t going to handicap themselves even more than they already are with disciplinary actions
I have a feeling Stroman wouldnt be very happy to be pushed to the bullpen, but he has been terrible lately. I wonder if Nestor is the one to go to to avoid any issues in the room, not to mention we could use another LHP in the pen and Nestor hasnt been exactly great either.
Stroman has been streaky his entire career. I’d put Nestor as long man after Gil to limit his innings.
Nestor is almost a lock to go to the pen once Schmidt comes back. Assuming Gil sticks in the rotation for the remainder of the season, Stroman probably goes to the pen in the postseason
But are story’s at bats imaginary too?
Who is Trevor Story?
Some guy who stole a lot of money from the worst red sox gm in history
Mi,
Stole? Boston offered him the contract.
Maybe we should call the first 6-7 years of most MLB players’ careers stolen since they’re largely underpaid.
That would be fine if he played for 6 seasons for Boston.
Nosferatu,
Boston got their savings on Betts, Bogaerts, Devers, etc., etc., etc.
Every team gets rich off the pittance they pay to pre-arb and arbitration players.
Pittance?
I get it teams get way over performance from pre-arb players all the time. The big problem I see is I’m almost certain long term contracts are offered. Just rarely accepted.
Is “relative pittance” better? If someone’s performance in an open market was worth eight figures a year and they got less than a million per year for their first three years, I’d certainly call that a relative pittance.
Do you have any evidence to support your “almost certain” claim long-term contracts are offered? When they are, they often favor the team, which certainly holds significant leverage as a long-term entity vs. a player with a limited career span. If a player deems an offer fair, he’ll accept. If he doesn’t, that’s his right. Sometimes it works out well for one side or the other, sometimes both. At least the players have that level of control, the option to accept or not – if an offer is given.
Receiving full paychecks that aren’t earned is theoretcly stealing
Nice theory, but a contract is a contract.
How about paying minor Leaguers less than minimum wage and not paying them at all for spring training? Aren’t those violations of labor law?
gbs – With all due respect, major leaguers don’t get paid for spring training either. Their paychecks begin in April. Do they get paid extra for extra innings played? Or for games that get rained out after 1-4 1/2 innings are played? I think you are confusing contract/salary labor with hourly labor.
Players are not hourly, they get paid for the completion of a job … not by the hour.
As for the low pay, they are receiving free training and exclusive opportunities for advancement to the majors …. that has a lot more value. Unpaid and low paid training is not that uncommon in other careers besides baseball.
FPG,
Spring training games bring in lots of revenue, and players certainly are working, so I don’t know why they don’t all get paid.
The trivialities of extra-inning and shortened games over a 162-game season pale in comparison to a six-week spring training.
Paying minor leaguers less than minimum wage, regardless of whether it’s “for the completion of a job” clearly was a violation of labor law. It’s why MLB got Congress to pass a law specifically allowing it and why the league and new minor league collective bargaining arm negotiated to prevent it…for now (MLB is working to undue that).
Players are required to attend this “free training” as part of their job, so why shouldn’t they be compensated?
gbs – Regarding your last paragraph, because the players agreed to it in their contract.
Why shouldn’t interns and apprentices get fully compensated?
I’m a salaried worker not on a contract, I was required to fly out of state for migration training. No additional compensation given, and I haven’t a legal foot to stand on if I demand compensation.
Many servers make below minimum too …. and also farm jobs, where I’m from most kids 14 & 15 harvest tobacco for below minimum pay. It’s the law. If you want to make an argument to change the law, that would basically nullify most existing contracts and other labor agreements. And you know the farm job kids would get replaced with illegals.
FPG, did you pay for your training and related travel expenses, or did your company?
Well let’s start a GoFundMe for these poor struggling MLB players trying to squeeze by on a minimum of about 800k while we working people are living the high life. Some of you wankers on here are just unbelievable and have no grounding in reality.
teddyj,
What about the billionaire owners who expect the public to build them ballparks? Do you have the same contempt for them?
teddyj1 hour ago
Well let’s start a GoFundMe for these poor struggling MLB players trying to squeeze by on a minimum of about 800k while we working people are living the high life.
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If you want to make $800k, why didn’t you become a professional baseball player?
Gbs – Company provided, just like minor leaguers.
FPG,
Unlike your situation, minor leaguers aren’t paid during spring training, for their work, travel there, or housing. I imagine your trip was fully charged to the company.
Just some fat guy….
Does he play for Toronto?
Yeah, just another guy when you consider that
“There are 8 million Stories in the Naked City.”
Oooh I see somebody is a fan of Jules Dassin.
Rififi, Never on Sunday, Topkapi, Brute Force … and married to Melina Mercouri. Who wouldn’t be a fan?
Brandon Young doesn’t surprise Os fans. Fangraphs likes him a lot and he Johnson and Brnovich all came off TJ and pitched reasonably well at Bowie. He was promoted to AAA and has pitched well. The other 2 stayed at AA.
Pretty likely he will get a Septenber audition.
Brnovich feels like he has been in minors forever.
Young deserves a shot on merit alone, but I believe he needs to be added to the 40 man this offseason too, which gives even more reason to give him a go.
FPG…. Oh my just saw comment on Ort… to quote MR BRIGHTSIDE … I just can’t look it’s killing me!!! The SS Redsox is taking on water.. Houck is doing a Matt Clement/ Crawford a Robin Roberts/ bullpen a Joe Sambito- Calvin Schraldi … continuing to tread water but waves getting bigger… still holding out for one more long win streak… I’m playing my must win card today…
olm – Yes Ort throws 100MPH, but striking out a bunch of Red Sox players ain’t that big a deal this year!
They have struck out 27 times in just the last 2 games!
And they have the 3rd-most strikeouts in MLB this year, even more than the lowly Athletics, Pirates, ChiSox, and Marlins!!!
I predict a win streak against the Rangers ….. but in Baltimore all bets are off!!
Red Sox bats got a lot of holes , I would have guessed leading the majors in Ks. Pitchers don’t miss many bats lately either
Teddy – Can you believe 40 strikeouts in this 3 game series, this is why they strand so many RISP. It’s sad.
Casas has looked good down at Worcster his swing is aggressive there doesn’t appear to be any holding back in the games I’ve watched. He looks ready to come back. I’m not real sure why Story needs to rush back he would be a defensive upgrade like he was last year but he’s likely to need a lot of time to get his timing back offensively and will probably really struggle. I think they should just let him fully heal over the off-season.
There is a nice base forming for this Red Sox team. Boston is going to need to get some pitching in free agency this off-season. They really need a horse to front the rotation that guy is not Lucas Giolito. I expect that all of Mayer, Anthony,Teel and Campbell will be in AAA Worcster to start next season unless any of them are moved for controllable starting pitching. Mayer should be ready to step in if anything happens to Story next year at short. This would keep Rafaela in center where he belongs.
There’s a real nice team forming here for next season Breslow has a lot of decisions to make but the starting pitching needs to be addressed. I do believe that next year we will start to see quality starting pitching prospects arrive in AA Portland but unlikely to be helpful next year.
I hope Story is back for September. I want teams to see he can hit so he has trade value in the off-season. He’s just too injury prone at this point to be reliable. As they say in football, your best trait is availability. We’d have 6 or 7 more wins if we didn’t trade Sale. To be fair I think Breslow thought this team was going to absolutely suck so he thought he’d move salary while filling a need at 2nd. We needed rotation help more than bullpen help though. Is James Paxton better than replacement? Meh….I am excited to see a middle of the lineup of Casas, O’Neil, and Devers. That has the potential to be a lot of fun.
bum – I like your thinking on Story, build up his value so he can be traded. With his injury history it’s not like he can be the fallback guy if Mayer bombs.
As they say in baseball, the best ability is availability ;O)
Don’t pin Sale entirely on Breslow, ownership told him flat out that they didn’t plan to contend this year or next year. So from Breslow’s perspective, trading Sale was not a horrific decision …. however it was the timing, the return and the $17M cash that made it a horrible trade.
Just imagine how much the Sox could have gotten at this year’s trade deadline for Sale!!!
Casas and Story could be an upgrade to the lineup which could give them top to bottom ability. The bullpen needs to get healthy and sorted into appropriate roles for each guy. The rotation is their huge weakness, but if they can squeeze 5-6 innings out of Paxton, maybe get Winck lengthened a bit, maybe go to a six man to try and rest Houck and Crawford a bit more …
This is somewhat a team of mystery with their starters going forward, how much more do they have in them? The bullpen could turn it around and make this a fun team down the stretch.
I guess we’ll find out by the end of August.
Xander is hitting .353 last 30 games where’s all the haters now
Who’s “hating” on bogaerts? The only comments I see is that he was overpaid (which he was). Even the padres regret that contract.
Mi – The haters always disappear eventually because love conquers hate!
I like the Bosox position players and prospects. But they have a lot of 2025 holes to fill. Even subtracting O’Neill, Pivetta, Martin and the Jansens, that frees around $40m in tax space and they have to replace the production. Unless they can get the production they’re paying for from Giolito, Yoshida and Story, it will be hard to find the FA $$$$ without going over the luxury tax.
The Red Sox have $135M-$154M obligated in 2025 depending on which site you look at. The first tax threshold will be $241M. So, the Red Sox have $80M-100M available to spend next year.
And they won’t spend much if at all.
Purse you tell it like it is I like that
I looked at Cot’s. They had the lower number. The higher number came from soxprospects.com
legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/al…
soxprospects.com/payroll.htm
Yeah, I can’t tell which is more accurate either. The one on soxprospects.com seems to be the highest, so hopefully that is the worst case.
This paxton injury is a monster blow..doubt anyone had him going to il this fast in a pool
They were done for the season before the Paxton injury. Fun fact, we went into August 11th last year with a 61 and 55 record. We are currently 61 and 54. Hm… doesn’t seem so different to me.
Friedman is laughing his butt off right now
What happened to Paxton?
He ran to cover first base and came up limping. Might be a calf injury.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Red Sox end up with the same record as last year… this team is no different. I can take the rebuilding excuse for one or maybe two years but there’s no excuse for their failures this year. I used to like Cora a lot but he has mismanaged a lot of games down the stretch. It was time to let him go and now we are stuck with him for three more years. This team is incredibly streaky. They have great moments, bad moments but can’t put it together. The fact that we have a completely different lineup against left handers shows how flawed this team really is, injuries or not.
I know Casas is talented but people treat him like a Greek God. Remember he was horrible the first half of last year and nearly lost his job. He shouldn’t be considered the sole producer in this lineup.
How do you like all the great acquisitions ramirez Sims Garcia paxton the cheap owners get what they deserve they were full of dung about improving the team at the deadline just like they were during the winter worst owners in beisbol
The others I can see but Simms was a joke. FIP close to 5.00 in the past three years. The other guys seem decent but they don’t move the needle in any way and all we have been doing is swapping sub-par relievers for the past two years without developing any kind of stability.
A more accurate description for Casas is he was terrible in April, He was league average in May, He was well above league average in June, He was other worldly in July, well above league average in August and the same in September. He was only really bad as he was making his adjustments in April that’s the only month he really struggled. This is nothing new he did that throughout his minor league tenure he would normally start out slowly upon his introduction to league then raked before being called up to the next level. Once he got to the bigs he struggled for a month then began to take off this time there is no higher level for him to go to so once he adjusted he just continued to rake and I expect that’s what will happen for the next 10 years.
He did start hitting in months after April,but he was still considered a pretty shaky player throughout July, especially on defense.
This was mentioned in an article from boston.com last year
He was still considered shaky through July. I read it in an article from boston.com. His defense was also questionable then, even though he started hitting
Chaim offensively slash lines:
April .137/.284/.301 62 WRC + 62 aweful one of the worst in April
May .257/.338/.429 105 WRC + league average big improvement over April
June .286/.375/.476 130 WRC + a well above league average hitter
July .348/.442/.758 216 WRC + absolutely elite that month.
August .294/.400/.518 145 wrc + a very very good big league hitter
September .265/.368/.490 132 WRC + a well above average hitter
2024 before his injury
.244/.344/.513 WRC + 129 he started slow but still a well above average hitter
Offensively he had only one truly bad month and that was April in 2023. Defensively he had a bad year but was much better at the end if 2023 then the first few months. Basically if you throw out that horrendous April Casas has been as effective offensively as Devers.
Except for this season Devers is having a career season this year offensively.
Thanks for that. He definitely would get us a couple more wins, but Casas alone wouldn’t save this team
I’d love to see a middle of the lineup of O’Neil, Devers, and Casas I believe it will be lethal. That isn’t the only direction though the Sox could take, Seattle is really deep in the starting rotation. Rodriguez has taken a step back this season, Cal Raleigh has been carrying that team. Theoretically they could keep Dom Smith for now, and maybe trade Casas for one of those starters. The team 100% needs an Ace, we need that shut down pitcher that protects the bullpen from over use. I’m sure there are other clubs that would be interested too…
No way we trade Casas. Offense is as much an issue as pitching. We don’t have guys who know how to hit in the clutch
We have a young team, they just need to be told to walk more really. More baserunners mean more points, Moneyball was right about that. We are OK on offense though without Casas, this team is an Ace away from being a 90 win squad. That’s what makes the Sale trade just really hard to stomach. I think we’d have 68 or 69 wins right now if we never traded for Grissom. Hell it might be more wins than that just by saving the bullpen in wear and tear as well.
I disagree. The offense isn’t great. We have lost plenty of one run games where the offense wasn’t able to cash in. They are young and inexperienced. Our offense is hurting really bad, especially against lefties. I also don’t think one ace gets us to 90 wins… we need some clutch hitters
They lost one run leads because the bullpen didn’t hold. Boston coming into tonight scored 578 runs so far this season for 8th place. That kind of production is good production not great, it is above average. With that offensive pop if they had average pitching too, or slightly above average they’d be a playoff team. The losses most of them especially recently is because of the lack of depth. Dude’s are either injured or at their innings max for a season, that’s why an Ace is much more impactful for this team. We’ve had a giant hole in the 8th inning because of Martin’s injury and Liam Hendricks been out all season.
I do agree the bullpen can be better, but the offense needs work and I don’t think one front line pitcher gets it done. I think it’s asinine to trade Casas. I do agree anyone is expendable, and I don’t think Casas is a supergod, but he’s a good batter and just as many times as the bullpen has blown games, we’ve been behind by a run or two and the offense can’t capitalize. There have been major holes in this lineup, especially against lefties. We can’t live on Dom Smith production every day moving forward.
If we had a healthy Chris Sale, we would still be fighting just to stay in wild card.
We shouldn’t trade our lethal bat… trade Wilyer Abreu, Yoshida if we can and eat the contract, but trading Casas at this point? Who replaces him? With our luck, the ace gets injured, then what do we do?
Casas is the best case closed
Bruin10123 hours ago
A more accurate description for Casas is he was terrible in April,
========================
He really wasn’t. His BABIP was .152 in April.
They are getting swept at home by a team with all its stars injured but Henry doesn’t care because astros fans filled half the park
I absolutely love negativity.It makes my day.Here i was enjoying the fact that the Sox aren’t in last like i was told so many times in the preseason.But here i am supposed to hate they are winning games.I am waiting to see if Giolito has a good year next year,That way i can come back to this post.Tell people oh really.the Sox will fail.I love that from fans.Negativity makes everything better when something good happens.
What a winner you are satisfied with not being in last it’s no surprise you are in Tampa where nobody gives a dung about baseball go root for the Marlins while you’re at it they will make you happy too because they won’t lose 120 games that makes you happy right oh you fake sox fans are hilarious jajaja
Mayer, Teel, and Anthony are going to Worcester big news for Red Sox fans the future gets a little bit closer.
Nice they are keeping them together.
I’m wondering who’s getting the call up from Greenville to Portland? I’m guessing García has to be one of them maybe Mikey Romero should be interesting perhaps Allan Castro.
The Password!
Yeah, those would be the three. They look good to me, unless the organization wants them working on something specific?
Will the Password be protected from the Rule 5 draft????
Romero got hurt I believe. Haven’t seen him in the lineup lately. Haven’t checked for today.
All it’s a good question but he’s broke out so much this year and they traded a lot of guys they were needing to protect my guess is yes with his elite exit velocities and improved plate discipline someone takes a chance on him but it would be unusual to protect a guy that started in A ball at the beginning of the season.
Concussion protocol I think it was Lugo who cut in front of him on a ground ball missed the ball shielded Romero and the ball bounced into his face. It must of been a delayed thing because he looked ok in that game hasn’t played since.
Bruin: Yeah, they probably won’t protect him, but I would like to keep him.
Thanks. I didn’t know what happened to Romero. Nothing was on the internet.
Also Don’t sleep on Castro getting the call he has been really good since June and even better since July. He has a very mature plate approach and he’s growing into his power he should get the call to Portland.
I just read that in the Rule 5 draft, no position players have been taken with less than a full year in AA since 2020. So, probably no need to protect the Password from the Rule 5 this year.
Makes sense, as nobody thinks they are ready for the majors, and bringing them up to ride the bench would do nobody any good.
I’ll trust Breslow to get it right. Good news is that they have a lot of flexibility to work with.
Tff – While there’s benefits to keeping them together, since they all don’t progress at the exact same pace it kinda sucks that one or two of them were likely held back to keep them together.
All three had stuff to work on and are on track for 2025. Rest is up to them. Sucks for the WooSox fans who had to wait.
There is only a little over a month left in the AAA season. So, the promotion makes sense. I thought the promotion would come later as I was thinking the AAA season went to the end of September, but it doesn’t.
Six weeks even. Could be enough.
Anthony has 15 HRs, Teel has 60 RBIs and Mayer was leading the league in hitting. So, looks like they are ready to be promoted. I think I was distracted by what Campbell has been doing.
It is 6 weeks. I read it wrong. I guess 6 weeks could be enough.
Oh god, here we go again. “Elias named Cade Povich, Cole Irvin, and, interestingly, Brandon Young of Triple-A Norfolk.” “Interestingly” isn’t a pitcher. There should be no comma before it. Conjunctive adverbs shouldn’t have commas on either side of them in nearly all cases.
Troll, way to conveniently forget to mention the 176 division one baseball games that Teel has played putting him on par games wise with Mayer.
Let’s also dispel your statement “ this is the first year he has positive results”. Let’s see as a 19 year old in A ball he hit .286/.406/.504 that’s positive results no matter how look at it. He was then promoted to High A as a 19 year old he slashed .265/.379/.449 so he held his own as 19 year old at High A. I would say that is positive results as well. He then started as a 20 year old and before his shoulder injury he torched High A to the tune of .337/..414/..582 an outstanding .996 ops. He was clearly not the same after the shoulder injury but as a 20 year old he was brought up to AA Portland and he really struggled for probably the first time in his life in AA he hit .189/.254/.355 but wait there’s more the same league High A he absolutely torched before the shoulder injury he slashed .191/.264/.404 more statistical evidence that his injury affected him. Fast forward to this season he has hit a league leading .307 with a slash line of .307/.370/.480 in a very difficult offensive environment in Portland and the Eastern League in general. It’s easy to see why he’s a top 20 prospect in literally everyone’s eyes except KD17 eyes who says he’s a slug. Enough said.
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