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Red Sox Select Matt Dermody

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June 8: Dermody’s contract has now been officially selected, per a club announcement, with Chris Murphy optioned in a corresponding move.

June 7: The Red Sox are calling up left-hander Matt Dermody to start tomorrow night’s matchup with the Guardians, tweets Ian Browne of MLB.com. Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe first noted that Dermody had a locker in the Boston clubhouse. He’s not on the 40-man roster, so the Sox will have to formally select his contract before the game.

Dermody signed a minor league deal with Boston over the winter. He’s worked primarily from the rotation with Triple-A Worcester, starting eight of nine appearances. While the southpaw’s 4.50 ERA isn’t eye-catching, he’s posted solid peripheral marks.

The 32-year-old has punched out just under a quarter of opposing hitters against a meager 4.7% walk rate. He has induced grounders at a decent 45.3% clip. A lofty .346 batting average on balls in play and middling 67.8% left-on-base rate have inflated his run prevention figure despite his other solid numbers.

Of course, Dermody isn’t a lock to carry over those decent rate stats against big league hitters. This will be his first MLB start. Dermody has only ever worked out of the bullpen at the big league level, with virtually all of that experience coming six years ago for the Blue Jays. He carries a 5.60 ERA with an 18.2% strikeout percentage in 27 1/3 MLB frames.

Dermody still has a pair of minor league options remaining. The Red Sox can send him back to Worcester at any point without exposing him to waivers. It’s possible this is just a spot start, although Boston has a rotation vacancy after losing Chris Sale to the injured list last week. The Red Sox turned to swingman Kutter Crawford today, but he was tagged for three runs in as many innings while taking the loss to Cleveland.

Boston already has an opening on the 40-man roster after designating Raimel Tapia for assignment on Monday. They’ll only need to create space on the 26-man active roster to accommodate Dermody’s promotion.

Best Deadline Rental Returns In Recent History, #9: Blue Jays Get Santiago Espinal For Steve Pearce

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With the trade deadline now less than two months away, we at MLBTR are setting our sights backwards for a bit to highlight past trades. With an arbitrary cutoff point of 2017, we’re counting down the top 10 returns that a team got when selling a rental player in recent years. We’ve already rounded up a few honorable mentions and highlighted the #10 entry. Now let’s move on to #9, with eight more still to come. If you disagree with our rankings, let us know! It’s all part of the subjective fun!

In 2018, the Blue Jays were in between eras. The previous core that took them to the ALCS in 2015 and 2016 was essentially gone. José Bautista bounced from Atlanta to the Mets to the Phillies in what would eventually be his final season. Edwin Encarnación was with Cleveland. Josh Donaldson was still technically on the team but spent most of the year on the injured list and eventually got flipped to Cleveland in a waiver trade as the season was winding down. The Jays leaders in WAR at Baseball Reference and FanGraphs were Justin Smoak and Randal Grichuk, respectively. The club and its fans were looking forward to a new core formed by prospects like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette though they wouldn’t debut until the following season.

As the Jays got to June 29, they were sporting a record of 38-43. Though that was just a few games below .500, they were already well back in the postseason race. The Yankees were at 53-26 while the Red Sox were 55-28, leaving the Jays 16 games back in the AL East. One of those clubs was also a lock for a Wild Card spot, of which there were only two at the time. With the Mariners and Athletics also off to good starts, the Jays were already 13 games back in the Wild Card race.

The trade deadline was still a month away but there was little reason for the Jays not to consider selling. Steve Pearce was an obvious candidate to move, as he was an impending free agent in his age-35 season. The Jays had signed him to a two-year, $12.5MM deal going into 2017. Pearce had long been an effective role player in the majors, carrying himself well at the plate while also having enough defensive versatility to play first base or the outfield corners. He had also had brief spells at second and third base, though 2016 was the last year for him at either of those spots.

Of course, as a role player, there were weak points to his game as well. For one thing, he was best utilized in the weak side of a platoon, as a right-handed hitter who fared much better against lefties. He eventually finished his career with a robust .264/.347/.491 line against southpaws that translated into a 126 wRC+. His output against righties was .247/.324/.410 for a 100 wRC+, or league average.

Another issue with Pearce was health, as he had made frequent trips to the injured list for various ailments in his career. The 102 games he played with the Orioles in 2014 were the most he ever tallied. Those injury concerns continued into his time with the Blue Jays, as he only played 92 games in 2017 thanks in part to a calf injury that cost him over a month. In 2018, he landed on the IL in early May with an oblique strain and didn’t return until June 22.

Nonetheless, the Red Sox were intrigued enough by Pearce to acquire him just a week after he came off the injured list. The Jays included $1.66MM in the deal, a bit more than half of what Pearce was still owed for the remainder of the campaign. That was surely important to the Sox at the time as it kept them from going more than $40MM beyond that year’s luxury tax line, as doing so would have meant their top draft pick in the 2019 draft was pushed back by 10 spots. The club did eventually go over that line by acquiring Nathan Eovaldi and Ian Kinsler at the deadline, but the Jays eating some money in the Pearce deal kept the Sox shy of that line for the time being as they contemplated their options.

In exchange for giving up Pearce and a bit of money, the Jays received infielder Santiago Espinal. A 10th-round draft pick of the Sox in 2016, his prospect stock was on the rise at the time of the deal. In 2017, he had hit just four home runs in 123 Single-A games, slashing .280/.334/.358 for a wRC+ of 102. In the first half of 2018, he already had seven home runs in 65 High-A games, leading to a .313/.363/.477 slash and 136 wRC+.

Espinal then went through Double-A and Triple-A in 2019 before making his major league debut in the shortened 2020 season. His .267/.308/.333 line that year wasn’t especially impressive, but he got strong defensive grades playing mostly shortstop, as Bichette spent close to a month on the injured list with a knee sprain.

At the very least, Espinal seemed like a solid depth piece but he moved a bit beyond that in the next two seasons, earning fairly regular playing time. In 2021, he was frequently optioned to the minors and also spent close to a month on the injured list due to a hip flexor strain but still got into 92 games. The club had signed Marcus Semien to play second base and bumped Cavan Biggio to third, but Biggio made multiple trips to the IL due to back issues. Espinal filled in admirably with a .311/.376/.405 line, stealing six bases and getting good defensive grades at the hot corner. He finished that year with 1.9 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs and 2.4 according to Baseball Reference.

Going into 2022, Semien signed with the Rangers and the Jays acquired Matt Chapman to play third, moving the Espinal/Biggio tandem over to second base. Espinal ended up essentially as an everyday player, getting 491 plate appearances in 135 games. His .267/.322/.370 line amounted to a wRC+ of 99 while he also swiped another six bags and continued to be graded very well on defense. He was selected to the All-Star team that summer and eventually tallied 2.3 fWAR and 2.2 bWAR.

Espinal started 2023 slow and just came back from the injured list this evening, but the Jays have to be quite happy with how the trade turned out. They exchanged a 35-year-old role player and impending free agent for a prospect who has become a valuable supporting member of their new competitive window. He has already tallied 4.3 fWAR for his career and 5.0 bWAR and can be retained via arbitration through 2026.

Of course, the Red Sox have no regrets about their end of the deal. Pearce stayed healthy for the remainder of 2018 and went on a tear. He hit seven home runs in 50 games for the Sox down the stretch, slashing .279/.394/.507 for a wRC+ of 143 as Boston went 108-54, their best record in franchise history. They then cruised through the postseason, beating the Yankees 3-1 in the ALDS, the Astros 4-1 in the ALCS and the Dodgers 4-1 in the World Series. Pearce hit four home runs in that postseason run and produced a line of .289/.426/.658. Three of those home runs came in the World Series, including two in the final game, leading to Pearce being named MVP of the series.

The Sox re-signed Pearce for 2019, but he got into just 29 games while dealing with back spasms in what ultimately proved to be his final season. Nonetheless, this looks like a trade that worked out extremely well for both sides. The Sox got a complementary player who caught fire at the right time and helped them win a title. The Jays, meanwhile, weren’t in a position to take advantage of that explosion but turned it into a solid piece of their future.

Red Sox Designate Raimel Tapia For Assignment

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The Red Sox announced Monday that they’ve reinstated infielder Christian Arroyo from the injured list and, in a corresponding move, designated outfielder Raimel Tapia for assignment.

The veteran Tapia, 29, was non-tendered by the Blue Jays last winter and signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox, who selected his contract prior to Opening Day. He’s appeared in 39 games thus far and tallied 97 plate appearances in Boston, batting .264/.333/.368 with a homer, four doubles, a triple and six stolen bases (in seven attempts). He’s drawn nine walks and fanned 19 times along the way, giving him slightly better-than-average rates in both departments.

Tapia has played all three outfield spots in Boston but has primarily been a left fielder in his big league career — most of which has been spent with the Rockies. He’s drawn solid, if unspectacular grades in left field and in center field, though defensive metrics aren’t particularly keen on his right field prowess. He’s been average or a tick worse across the board in the outfield this season per each of Defensive Runs Saved, Ultimate Zone Rating and Outs Above Average.

With some outfield versatility, above-average contact and above-average speed, Tapia has been a solid enough fourth outfielder in Boston, even with a glaring lack of power. That’s generally par for the course for the speedster, who has never topped nine home runs in a big league season and hasn’t been deemed a strong enough defender by any of the Rockies, Jays or Red Sox to run out in center field on a regular or even semi-regular basis.

Tapia can certainly provide value, but as a primarily left-field option without much power and with notable platoon splits (.105/.190/.105 versus lefties in 2023; .275/.305/.361 career), he’s perhaps a bit more limited than one might expect with a cursory glance at his batting line and 89th percentile sprint speed (per Statcast). It’s still at least somewhat surprising to see the Red Sox move on in this fashion, although with an all-left-handed-hitting outfield mix of Masataka Yoshida, Jarren Duran and Alex Verdugo, Tapia’s lefty bat might well have been deemed a suboptimal fit. The right-handed-hitting Rob Refsnyder offers a more natural complement in that regard.

The minor league deal Tapia signed over the winter contained a $2MM base salary, so any team that claims him or acquires him would need to be comfortable picking up the remainder of that prorated bill. Boston could always include some cash to help facilitate a trade, and a trade is surely the team’s preferred option, as Tapia has more than five years of MLB service and can thus reject an outright assignment while retaining the entirety of the salary still owed to him. The Red Sox will have a week to trade Tapia, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.

Red Sox Expected To Promote Chris Murphy

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The Red Sox are planning to recall Chris Murphy during their upcoming series with the Guardians, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive (Twitter link). It’s not yet clear whether he’ll make a start or break in out of the bullpen but the Sox lost Chris Sale to the injured list last week.

In either case, Murphy is in position to make his major league debut. It’s a great birthday present for the left-hander, who turns 25 today. Murphy is already on the 40-man roster after the Sox added him to keep him out of last winter’s Rule 5 draft. They’ll only need to make an active roster move whenever he’s formally promoted.

A University of San Diego product, Murphy has spent the past few seasons in the middle ranks of the Boston farm system. Baseball America has slotted him between 12th and 15th among Sox prospects four years running. He checked in 13th at BA and 11th on Keith Law’s ranking at The Athletic last winter. Both outlets credit him with a solid four-pitch arsenal headlined by his changeup. BA and Law each suggest he has a back-of-the-rotation caliber repertoire but might be better suited for long relief thanks to inconsistent control.

Even a swing role would be strong value for a player who signed for $200K as a sixth round pick in 2019. Murphy has had a spotty showing through ten appearances with Triple-A Worcester this year. He’s allowed a 7.71 ERA in 39 2/3 innings. A .385 average on balls in play surely hasn’t helped matters, though he’s also walked nearly 13% of batters faced. He is coming off a scoreless three-inning outing last week in which he allowed only one baserunner with a trio of strikeouts.

Murphy is an upper minors pitcher who’s already on the 40-man roster and capable of covering multiple innings. He’s in his first of three option years and can bounce between Boston and Worcester without being placed on waivers. Even if his initial MLB stint is a spot start or relief appearance, he’s on the organizational radar as a depth option.

Best Deadline Rental Returns In Recent History: Honorable Mentions

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The calendar has flipped to June, and more than one-third of the season is in the rearview mirror. While there’s still plenty of time for the standings to change in dramatic fashion — just ask the 2022 Phillies or 2019 Nationals — the “early” portion of the season is a bit behind us. As the weather heats up and playoff pictures begin to take a more definitive shape, the baseball world inherently turns its focus to a few things: the looming All-Star Game, the upcoming amateur draft and, of course, the annual trade deadline.

June trades of note are admittedly rare — particularly over the past ten years or so — but we’re fast approaching the portion of the season where trade needs, potential trade candidates and many other deadline-adjacent minutiae begin to crystallize. It’s common for fans of rebuilding and/or underperforming clubs to begin to wonder just what sort of returns their favorite team might be able to eke out for veteran players with dwindling club control.

Some of the most common questions we’re asked in chats at MLBTR these days center around what a team might be able to get for a certain player — rentals in particular. Names like Lucas Giolito, Cody Bellinger, Jordan Montgomery and Jeimer Candelario were just a few readers asked me about this past week. To be clear, it’s not a given that all or even any of those specific names will change hands in two months’ time (or sooner), but it’s obviously a hot topic that’s on people’s minds.

As such, it only seemed natural to take a look back through recent history and look at some high-profile trades of rental players and see which panned out the best for the team selling off the veteran player in question. Over the next couple weeks, we’ll roll out a look at the ten “best” returns for rental players in recent trade deadline history.

A few caveats of note! At times, it can take three, four, five years or even longer for a team to begin reaping the benefits from such a deal. An immediate return isn’t always apparent, particularly when you’re only selling two months of a player or players. As such, we’re not considering trades completed at last year’s deadline for our top ten, even though they could well prove excellent as soon as 2024 or 2025. It’s simply too soon to evaluate those swaps. Also, these rankings are subjective; they’re not based on a hard-and-fast WAR criteria or anything of the sort. If you think we should’ve ranked No. 7 higher and No. 4 lower, let us know. It’s all part of the fun.

While I said we’re omitting last year’s deadline from our top ten, that doesn’t mean we’ll completely ignore the results of the 2022 deadline. To kick off the series, here’s a quick look at three honorable mentions from 2017-21 as well as a handful of 2022 trades that will be worth keeping an eye on in the years to come. Present-day impact of these 2022 trades has either been minimal or nonexistent, but each brought the “selling” team some nearly MLB-ready help that could be impactful as soon as this season. These honorable mentions and 2022 swaps aren’t ranked — they’re just sorted alphabetically by the last name of the player who was traded.

Let’s begin!

Honorable Mentions

Orioles acquire RHPs Dillon Tate, Cody Carroll and LHP Josh Rogers from the Yankees in exchange for LHP Zack Britton (7/24/18)

Two-thirds of this return for Baltimore wound up making little to no impact, but the acquisition of Tate, a former No. 4 overall draft pick, wound up paying dividends. Though Tate isn’t the rotation piece the Rangers hoped for when drafting him or the Yankees envisioned when acquiring him for Carlos Beltran, he’s emerged as a quality setup man at Camden Yards. The O’s gave Tate just ten starts after the trade before moving him to the bullpen, and while his rookie effort in 2019 left plenty to be desired, he’s since pitched quite well.

Dating back to 2020, Tate has a 3.65 ERA in 158 innings of relief, adding 25 holds and eight saves along the way. Tate’s 19.1% strikeout rate is below-average, but his 6.8% walk rate is better than average and his 57.9% grounder rate is outstanding. In 2022, he pitched to a pristine 3.05 ERA through 73 2/3 frames, tallying five of those saves and 16 of those holds. A forearm strain has kept Tate out of action this year, however.

Tate isn’t peak Britton and likely never will be, but trading two months of an elite reliever and winding up with six years of club control over an above-average reliever isn’t a bad outcome for Baltimore. As for the Yankees, they got the tail end of Britton’s prime. He notched a 2.88 ERA in 25 innings down the stretch and re-signed on a three-year deal with a fourth year option (that had to be exercised after the contract’s second season to prevent a Britton opt-out). Britton posted a sub-2.00 ERA in both 2019 and 2020, but he pitched just 19 innings over his final two years in New York due to injuries.

Rays acquire LHP Jalen Beeks from the Red Sox in exchange for RHP Nathan Eovaldi (7/25/18)

Few could’ve predicted what an impactful trade this would end up being at the time it was made. At the time of the swap, Eovaldi was in his first season back from Tommy John surgery and had pitched 57 innings of 4.26 ERA ball for Tampa Bay. He’d long intrigued teams with his power arsenal but was inconsistent and carried a career ERA that more or less matched that season total.

Eovaldi took off in Boston, however, tossing 54 frames of 3.33 ERA ball as the Sox marched to the postseason, where he cemented his status in Red Sox lore. Eovaldi was a star that October, tossing 22 1/3 innings of 1.61 ERA ball with a 16-to-3 K/BB ratio. Those are impressive numbers on their own, but they only tell part of the tale. Eovaldi won his first two starts of the playoffs before moving to the bullpen and picking up a pair of holds. But it was Game 3 of the World Series, where Eovaldi gutted out six innings of relief in an 18-inning marathon and finished out the game, that many will remember. The Dodgers wound up winning when Eovaldi’s 97th (!) pitch out of the bullpen was deposited in the seats by Max Muncy, but he saved the Boston bullpen with six innings of one-run ball that night. The Sox went on to win the World Series in five games.

As for the Rays, they came away with a lefty who’d come up through Boston’s system as a starter but would be used in a jack-of-all-trades role in St. Petersburg. Beeks has served as a long reliever, a setup man and an opener in parts of five seasons with Tampa Bay, totaling 258 innings of 4.12 ERA ball along the way. He’s been the type of versatile arm whose value can’t be neatly encapsulated in what looks like an otherwise modest WAR total. Beeks has handled just about any role the Rays could ask, and he’s generally been effective in doing so. He’s not a star, but he’s been an important member of their pitching staff for a half decade now and is still under team control through the 2024 season.

Tigers acquire RHP Reese Olson from the Brewers in exchange for LHP Daniel Norris (7/30/21)

The 23-year-old Olson made his big league debut on Friday when he stepped into the Detroit rotation to take the spot of the injured Eduardo Rodriguez. As far as debuts go, it was nearly as good as a young pitcher could ask for. Olson carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before being tagged for a pair of runs and departing five frames of two-run ball in the books.

Olson isn’t regarded among the sport’s top 100 prospects and isn’t even universally considered to be among the Tigers’ top 10 prospects, but he’s missed bats consistently in the upper minors and is regarded as a potential long-term rotation piece if he can improve upon the command of his fastball. Scouting reports at Baseball America, FanGraphs, The Athletic and MLB.com praise Olson’s secondary pitches, particularly his changeup, which he’s begun using effectively even in right-on-right situations.

Detroit has seen a lot of turnover in the baseball operations department since this trade, but former GM Al Avila, AGM David Chadd and others will be in line for some praise if the Tigers get a viable big leaguer in exchange for two months of the veteran Norris, who was sitting on a 5.38 ERA in 36 2/3 innings at the time of the deal. Norris had been tough on lefties, and the Brewers surely felt they could coax a higher level of performance out of him with some tweaks. That didn’t happen, however, as Norris was rocked for a 6.64 ERA in Milwaukee, walking 15 of the 63 batters he faced (23.8%) and serving up five homers in 20 1/3 frames (2.2 HR/9).

2022 Deadline Swaps to Watch

Pirates acquire RHP Johan Oviedo, INF Malcom Nunez from the Cardinals in exchange for LHP Jose Quintana, RHP Chris Stratton (8/2/22)

Yes, technically this isn’t a pure rental. Stratton had an additional year of club control, and that surely factored into the return. But he was also sitting on a 5.09 ERA at the time of the deal, and this was largely a trade centered around getting Quintana to land some much-needed rotation help in St. Louis.

The Cardinals got just what they wanted out of this deal — and then some. Quintana stepped into the rotation and not only solidified the staff but pitched to a brilliant 2.01 ERA in 62 2/3 frames down the stretch. The lefty was so excellent that St. Louis wound up tabbing him as the Game 1 starter in last year’s National League Division Series. Quintana had signed a one-year, $2MM deal in the offseason and was acquired as a back-end starter but pitched like an ace. The script doesn’t get much better for the acquiring team.

That said, this trade also has the makings of a winner for Pittsburgh. The 25-year-old Oviedo has been inconsistent but shown flashes of brilliance with the Bucs. He’s throwing fewer fastballs and more breaking pitches — particularly more curveballs, which has been an extremely effective offering for him through 11 starts. Oviedo’s 4.50 ERA in 58 innings looks pretty pedestrian, but he’s upped his ground-ball rate and improved his velocity even in a rotation role. He’s allowed one or zero runs in six of his 11 starts this year. The Pirates can control Oviedo for four more years beyond the current season, and if he’s a legitimate starter or even a multi-inning relief piece, that’ll be a fine return for their modest Quintana flier. Nunez, meanwhile, hit .286/.381/.476 in Double-A following the trade and is at .255/.338/.369 in 160 Triple-A plate appearances this year.

Cubs acquire RHP Ben Brown from the Phillies in exchange for RHP David Robertson (8/2/22)

Robertson was one of the most in-demand relievers — or trade candidates in general — at last year’s deadline, and the rebuilding/retooling Cubs needed to get their return right. So far, it looks like they’ve done just that. Brown is out to a sensational start in the upper minors this year, pitching to a combined 2.63 ERA with a 35.5% strikeout rate against a less-appealing 11.7% walk rate. Baseball America ranked him sixth among Cubs prospects heading into the season, and The Athletic’s Keith Law called him a “heck of a get for two months of a 37-year-old reliever.” FanGraphs currently has him ranked 87th on their top-100 prospect list, and MLB.com moved him into its top-100 just this morning.

Despite Brown’s wide-reaching acclaim, the Phillies might not even regret making the swap. Robertson struggled with his command following the trade but still posted 22 1/3 innings of 2.70 ERA ball and saved six games for Philadelphia down the stretch in a tight Wild Card race that saw them edge out the Brewers by exactly one win. The Phillies needed every single victory, and if they’d held onto Brown and targeted a different reliever(s), who knows whether they’d have reached the playoffs? Were it not for Robertson — who pitched 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball in the playoffs — the Phils may never have experienced J.T. Realmuto’s NLDS inside-the-parker, Rhys Hoskins’ four-homer NLCS, or Bryce Harper’s iconic NLCS-clinching bomb.

Angels acquire OFs Mickey Moniak, Jadiel Sanchez from the Phillies in exchange for RHP Noah Syndergaard (8/2/22)

This trade might not have gone as well as the Phillies hoped. Syndergaard was decent down the stretch, pitching to a 4.12 ERA in 10 appearances, nine of them starts. He started just twice in the postseason and made one relief appearance. Syndergaard pitched like a fourth or fifth starter but saw his already diminished velocity and strikeout rate step even further back following the trade. Again, the Phils needed every last win to get to the playoffs, though, so it’s hard to say they’d definitively have done anything different. They won six of Syndergaard’s nine starts and also picked up the victory in the lone game they used him out of the bullpen, when he tossed two scoreless frames.

At least thus far, Angels fans can’t complain about the return. Moniak isn’t going to sustain a .429 batting average on balls in play, but he’s hitting .327/.340/.694 in 50 plate appearances. The BABIP and a 34% strikeout rate scream for regression, but the former 1-1 pick has already hit as many homers through 50 trips to the plate with the Halos (four) as he did in 167 with the Phillies. He’s played good defense, run well and given some hope that he can carve out a role moving forward.

Red Sox acquire INF Enmanuel Valdez, OF Wilyer Abreu from the Astros in exchange for C Christian Vazquez (8/1/22)

Trading Vazquez was part of a disjointed Red Sox trade deadline that saw Boston trade away their longtime catcher and lefty reliever Jake Diekman while also acquiring Eric Hosmer and Tommy Pham. It wasn’t clear that their 2023 roster was improved, and the decision to hold onto other trade targets while adding Pham’s salary left them just over the luxury tax line (thereby reducing their compensation for qualifying offers extended to Xander Bogaerts and Nathan Eovaldi).

Digression aside, the swap might prove beneficial to the Sox in the long run. Valdez has already made his big league debut, and although his bat faded after a hot start, he’s still sporting a passable .244/.292/.422 batting line (91 wRC+) in his first 97 big league plate appearances. He’s picked up four homers, four doubles and three steals (in four tries) while subbing in at second base in the wake of a slew of middle-infield injuries. Valdez posted absolutely massive numbers in 205 Double-A plate appearances last year (.357/.463/.649) before moving up to Triple-A and hitting .265/.327/.488.

Abreu, meanwhile, was added to the 40-man roster over the winter and is hitting .264/.379/.479 in 40 Triple-A games so far. He’s regarded as a potential plus outfield defender, and his success in Triple-A and status on the 40-man roster mean the Red Sox could possibly have two MLB contributors within a year or so of trading Vazquez.

It’s hard to say anything moves the 2022 Astros made “didn’t work out,” as the team won the World Series in the end. But Vazquez took a backseat to Martin Maldonado both in the regular season and the playoffs, hitting just .250/.278/.308 in 108 regular-season plate appearances following the swap (plus .235/.316/.235 in just 19 playoff plate appearances).

Upcoming Club Option Decisions: AL East

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Last week, MLBTR took an early look at offseason option decisions facing teams in the National League. We’ll continue our division by division series by checking in on players in the AL East whose contracts contain club or mutual options for next season. The Rays are the only AL East team not slated to have any option calls to make.

Previous entries: NL East, NL Central, NL West

Baltimore Orioles

  • Mychal Givens: $6MM mutual option ($2MM buyout if team declines, $1MM buyout if player declines)

Givens has bounced around in journeyman fashion over the past few seasons. The middle reliever returned to his original stomping grounds in Baltimore on a $5MM free agent guarantee. He hasn’t had any chance to get into a rhythm yet, however. He opened the season on the injured list with left knee inflammation. He was out until late May and made four appearances, allowing six runs in four innings while working with diminished velocity. The O’s put him back on the IL last week, citing inflammation in his throwing shoulder.

Boston Red Sox

Kluber signed a $10MM free agent guarantee with Boston over the offseason. He’d been a reliable innings-eating veteran for the Rays last year. Kluber hasn’t been a Cy Young-caliber pitcher for quite some time, but Boston envisioned him as a stabilizing mid-rotation presence in a starting staff full of unproven or injury-riddled options.

It hasn’t worked out that way. Kluber was tagged for a 6.26 ERA through his first nine starts. His strikeout rate dropped to a career-worst 17.7% clip, and he served up home runs at an untenable 2.38 HR/9 pace. The Sox bumped Kluber out of the rotation two weeks ago, pushing him into multi-inning relief. He’s tossed three innings of two-run ball in his first bullpen appearances in a decade.

An injury to Chris Sale could get Kluber another rotation opportunity, but he’ll have to pitch much better than he did in the first two months of the season for the Sox to entertain an $11MM+ option. The option price would escalate by $500K if Kluber makes 20 starts and an additional $750K apiece at 25 and 30 starts (which look unlikely based on the bullpen move).

The Sox signed Rodríguez to a $2MM free agent deal at the beginning of last offseason. He suffered an oblique strain in Spring Training and was knocked out of commission for six weeks. The 31-year-old has returned to pitch in four games but surrendered nine runs. He went back on the 15-day IL over the weekend with shoulder inflammation. This appears on its way to a buyout.

Rodríguez isn’t the only veteran lefty reliever who’s battling injury problems. Bleier landed in Boston via a change-of-scenery bullpen swap that sent Matt Barnes to Miami. While the soft-tossing southpaw is inducing ground balls at a strong 51.5% clip, that’s below the career 61.5% grounder rate he carried into the year. He’s never missed bats. The 36-year-old is a grounder specialist with elite control. He’s been uncharacteristically prone to hard contact in his early stint in Boston, contributing to a 5.85 ERA through 20 innings. The Sox placed Bleier on the 15-day IL due to shoulder inflammation a couple weeks ago. It’s early but trending towards a buyout as well.

New York Yankees

Donaldson is playing out the final guaranteed season of the four-year free agent deal he signed with the Twins in 2020. The Yankees took on the contract in the 2022 trade that also brought in Isiah Kiner-Falefa. (That trade converted a ’24 club option into a mutual option.) It’s a move New York would like to have back, with both Kiner-Falefa and Donaldson underwhelming in the Bronx.

Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP, had his worst offensive showing in a decade last year. He hit .222/.308/.374 over 546 plate appearances while striking out at a career-worst 27.1% rate. Public metrics still loved Donaldson’s defense at the hot corner. Despite some offseason speculation the Yankees could try to offload some of his contract, they didn’t seem to come close to finding a taker and opened this season with Donaldson back at third base. He played only five games before suffering a right hamstring injury that cost him almost two months. The Yankees activated him from the IL over the weekend, and he promptly hit two home runs in his return — followed by an 0-for-4.

With a hefty $6MM buyout, there’s only a $10MM net call on the option. That’s not an outlandish price for a solid everyday player, but Donaldson’s offensive drop-off, age, and recent injury history all raise questions about whether he should be a regular on a team with playoff aspirations. Barring a summer offensive outburst from the three-time All-Star, the team is probably buying this out.

Toronto Blue Jays

  • Chad Green: Team has three-year, $27MM option (if declined, Green and team have conditional options)

Green signed a complex free agent deal as he works back from May ’22 Tommy John surgery. He’s making $2.25MM this year. At season’s end, the Jays will have to decide whether to trigger three consecutive $9MM options (essentially a three-year, $27MM contract for 2024-26). If the team declines, the right-hander would get a $6.25MM player option for next year only. If Green passes on that, the Jays would have to make a call on a two-year, $21MM option for 2024-25.

With a year removed from surgery, Green recently progressed to throwing batting practice (via MLB.com injury tracker). A post All-Star Break return to MLB action is on track. While guaranteeing Green $27MM based on a couple good months after Tommy John surgery seems unlikely, the Jays were at least open enough to the possibility to sign him to the contract in the first place. There haven’t been any notable setbacks in the four months since they put pen to paper.

The Jays acquired Merrifield from the Royals last summer. It was a buy-low move while the former American League hits leader was scuffling, and he’s gotten on track north of the border. Merrifield has a .292/.339/.413 batting line as a Blue Jay. That includes a .299/.349/.399 showing in 2023 that has locked him in as Toronto’s starting second baseman.

While Toronto has gotten what they’d wanted from Merrifield, it’s hard to envision them exercising this option. The $17.5MM price point is lofty, particularly when considering the market has tended to devalue contact-oriented second basemen. The Phillies bought out a $17MM option on Jean Segura last winter, for instance; he found a $17MM guarantee spread over two years from the Marlins on the open market. The Brewers did exercise a $10MM option on Kolten Wong but promptly traded him to Seattle in a buy-low flier for Jesse Winker. An $8-12MM per-year salary for Merrifield is more reasonable, particularly when considering that he’ll turn 35 next January.

  • Yimi García: $5MM club option ($1MM buyout); option vests at $6MM with 49 appearances or 49 innings pitched in 2023

García signed a two-year guarantee with a club/vesting option over the 2021-22 offseason. The option would vest at $6MM if he combines for 110 innings or 110 outings between 2022-23. García threw 61 innings in as many appearances last season, leaving 49 more to check off.

He’s well on his way to doing so. García has made 26 appearances and tossed 24 2/3 innings entering play Monday. He’s 23 outings or 24 1/3 frames shy of triggering the vesting provision. Unless the veteran righty sustains a notable injury, he should clear that threshold.

Even if García doesn’t vest the option, it’s not out of the question the Jays would bring him back. There’d be a $4MM difference between the club option price and the buyout. García was solid in year one, working to a 3.10 ERA with a 23.5% strikeout rate. A massive .368 average on balls in play has led to a 6.20 ERA thus far in 2023, but García’s peripherals are strong as ever. He’s striking out 26.5% of batters faced while inducing grounders on half the batted balls he allows. He’s averaging 96 mph on his heater. His ball in play results figure to stabilize.

Note: Austin Voth signed an arbitration contract that contained a 2024 club option. He’d remain eligible for arbitration next season even if the option is declined and has accordingly been excluded from this list.

Joely Rodriguez Dealing With Bicep/Shoulder Discomfort

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  • Joely Rodriguez was warming up in preparation of entering tonight’s Rays/Red Sox game, but Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe) that Rodriguez had to halt his warmup due to soreness in his bicep and shoulder area.  More will be known once some tests are run, but it certainly looks like Rodriguez could be headed back to the IL.  An oblique injury in Spring Training already delayed Rodriguez’s season debut until May 17, and the left-hander has struggled to an 18.00 ERA over his four innings and five appearances.

Red Sox Release Jorge Alfaro

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TODAY: MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo reports that the Red Sox are granting Alfaro his release. Going forward, Alfaro figures to re-enter the free agent market as a quality depth option for catching-needy clubs.

June 1: Veteran catcher Jorge Alfaro has exercised an opt-out in his minor league deal with the Red Sox and is planning to test free agency, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. The Red Sox technically have 48 hours to add Alfaro to the roster before granting him his release. However, manager Alex Cora expressed comfort with current backstops Connor Wong and Reese McGuire last night and implied that the Sox weren’t likely to make any changes behind the plate, so it makes sense that Alfaro will explore other opportunities after a strong start to his season in Triple-A.

Alfaro, 30 next week, has gotten out to a hefty .320/.366/.520 start in Worcester this season. He’s connected on six homers, 13 doubles and even a pair of triples, adding a perfect 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts as well. Despite that hot start, Cora’s comments last night seem to suggest that Alfaro’s next big league opportunity won’t come with the Red Sox — at least not at this time. An injury in the next couple days could change that, but otherwise he appears quite likely to return to the market and look for an opportunity elsewhere.

The combination of Wong and McGuire have provided passable offense despite bloated strikeout rates, with McGuire’s sky-high BABIP in particularly making him something of a regression candidate. That duo hasn’t provided the defensive value the Sox hoped entering the season, however. McGuire is just 1-for-22 in terms of halting stolen bases, while Wong ranks among baseball’s worst pitch framers and pitch blockers, per Statcast.

Alfaro is just 5-for-35 in throwing out opposing baserunners this season, but Baseball Prospectus gives him average grades in terms of both pitch framing and pitch blocking. Alfaro doesn’t have a strong big league track record either defensively or offensively — he’s a career .256/.305/.396 hitter in the Majors — but there are so many teams in search of catching help that he could quickly find another opportunity elsewhere. Speculatively speaking, the Guardians and Padres are among the postseason hopefuls receiving negligible contributions behind the plate in 2023, but there are certainly other clubs that could take a look if (or perhaps when) Alfaro returns to the market.

Red Sox Extend Rob Refsnyder

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The Red Sox announced today that the club had agreed to a one-year contract extension with outfielder Rob Refsnyder with a club option for the 2025 season. As noted by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, Refsnyder’s deal will earn him $1.85MM in 2024, with the 2025 option being valued at $2MM. Speier adds that the deal includes performance-related bonuses and escalators.

A fifth-round pick in the 2005 draft, Refsnyder made his MLB debut as a member of the Yankees in 2005. While he impressed with a 16-game stint where he slashed .302/.348/.512 with a 130 wRC+ in 2015, subsequent cups of coffee in the big leagues didn’t yield nearly as promising results, leaving the Yankees to designate the then-26-year-old Refsnyder for assignment. He ended his Yankees career with a slash line of .241/.312/.332 in 92 games with the club. Refsnyder would spend the next several seasons making brief, unsuccessful appearances with the Blue Jays, Rays, Rangers and Twins despite consistently putting up consistent numbers at the Triple-A level, where he has a career slash line of .298/.379/.450 in 487 games.

Things began to turn around for Refsnyder when he arrived in Boston last season, however. In 90 games with the club since the start of the 2022 season, Refsnyder has posted a .299/.393/.457 slash line, good for a wRC+ of 139. While Refsnyder’s sky-high .387 BABIP during that time indicates success at this level is likely unsustainable, though his 10.9% walk rate, 24.4% strikeout rate, and .158 ISO all indicate that Refsnyder can at least be a solid fourth outfielder in the big leagues nonetheless. Currently, Refsnyder sits alongside Raimel Tapia on the Red Sox depth chart, coming off the bench to spell primary outfielders Alex Verdugo, Masataka Yoshida, and Jarren Duran.

That performance earned Refsnyder additional job security in the form of a contract extension that appears to be a win for all parties. Refsnyder, who landed a $1.2MM contract to avoid arbitration this past offseason, was set to be arbitration-eligible for the final time in 2024 but now has a guaranteed big league salary headed into next season. Meanwhile, with the 2025 club option the Red Sox secured themselves an additional year at what is sure to be a discounted price should Refsnyder see continued success over the next two seasons.

Red Sox Place Chris Sale On Injured List With Shoulder Inflammation

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The Red Sox have placed starter Chris Sale on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder. Corey Kluber was reinstated from the paternity list to take the active roster spot.

Sale left last night’s start in the fourth inning as his velocity was dropping. The Sox announced afterwards that he’d head for imaging. Sale addressed the Boston beat this evening, saying it’ll be around a week before he receives an official diagnosis (via Chris Cotillo of MassLive). He said he doesn’t believe he’ll require surgery but it looks unlikely he’ll be back when first eligible a couple weeks from now.

Injuries have become unfortunately familiar for Sale over the past few years. One of the sport’s most durable arms between 2012-18, he’s battled health concerns since entering his 30s. He lost all of 2020 and most of ’21 to Tommy John surgery. Sale’s 2022 campaign was marred by a number of issues. He lost the first half of the year to a stress reaction in his ribs. Two starts into his return, he fractured a finger on his throwing hand when he was struck by a comebacker. Sale’s season officially ended in August when he broke his wrist in a bicycle accident.

This year’s 59 innings are already the most he’s logged since 2019. The seven-time All-Star has a middling 4.58 ERA through 11 starts. His underlying numbers are quite a bit better. Sale has punched out 28.5% of opponents and kept his walk rate to a tidy 6%. He’d had the results to match in May, posting a 2.42 ERA while holding batters to a .183/.224/.355 line in 26 frames.

Boston will have to proceed without arguably their best starter for at least two weeks. The Sox have run with Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock, Brayan Bello and James Paxton alongside Sale in the rotation. Kluber and Nick Pivetta each recently moved from the starting five to the bullpen. One of that duo — presumably Kluber, the more recent of the two to slide to relief — is likely to step back into the rotation.

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