Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Red Sox Rumors

NL Notes: Mancini, Doolittle, Martinez, Taylor

By | at

Cubs right-fielder Seiya Suzuki is currently sidelined with a “moderate” oblique strain. The club has yet to provide an estimated timeline for his absence, but Suzuki has already withdrawn from the World Baseball Classic. It’s unclear if he will still be injured when Opening Day rolls around, but Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reports that the club is looking to use Trey Mancini as the right fielder for any time Suzuki needs to miss.

Mancini was primarily a first baseman coming up through the minors but starting playing the outfield corners with the Orioles due to Chris Davis having the cold corner spoken for. That’s allowed Mancini to log 2,480 1/3 innings of outfield experience, but most of that came in the 2017-2019 period. Mancini missed the 2020 season while in treatment for colon cancer but has primarily been at first base since his return. That was the only position he played in 2021 and he only spent 248 innings on the grass last year.

Mancini’s outfield defense hasn’t been especially well graded in his career, but it’s possible it would only be a part-time solution anyhow, with Suzuki eventually coming back to retake the position. In the meantime, the alignment could allow the club to have both Mancini and Eric Hosmer in the lineup, with the designated hitter slot available for one of the club’s many younger infielders. Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner should be in the middle with Hosmer at first, but the third base and utility/backup infield positions figure to be shared by Patrick Wisdom, Nick Madrigal, Christopher Morel, Zach McKinstry, Miles Mastrobuoni and Edwin Ríos.

Some other notes from around the National League…

  • Lefty Sean Doolittle is in camp with the Nationals on a minor league deal, looking to return to health after he dealt with an elbow sprain last year that eventually led to an internal brace procedure. It was reported a few weeks ago that he seemed on track to be ready for Opening Day, but that might no longer be the case. Doolittle tells Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com that there was no real setback, just that the club’s medical team advised him to take a better-safe-than-sorry approach. “Nothing specifically happened,” Doolittle said. “I think when we started to look at what it was going to take to ramp up, and where I was at, I was ahead of schedule probably by almost a month. I did have some days when I was a little more sore than I had been throwing in the offseason. Nothing bad, but we started thinking about it. We’re so far ahead, let’s slow it down a little bit.” It seems that he may no longer be an option for Opening Day, but the slowed-down approach is fine by him. “Let’s be smart about it. It’s not a race,” he added. Manager Dave Martinez is onboard with the plan as well. “When he’s ready, we want him to be 100 percent ready,” Martinez said. “We need left-handed pitchers in our bullpen. When he’s healthy, he’ll be that guy.” Doolittle had a 3.02 career ERA through the end of 2019 but has missed significant time in two of the past three years, in addition to posting a 4.53 ERA in 2021. The Nats’ only southpaw relievers on the 40-man are Matt Cronin and Jose Ferrer, neither of whom have MLB experience yet. Once Doolittle is fully healthy, he should have a path open to get back on the roster.
  • It was reported in mid-December that the Red Sox were interested in a reunion with slugger J.D. Martinez, but he agreed to a deal with the Dodgers that very same day while the Sox agreed with Justin Turner the day after. However, it doesn’t seem as though Boston’s interest was ever that strong, at least according to Martinez, who spoke with Rob Bradford of WEEI about the situation. “The way they made it sound was that they were in on it,” Martinez said. “During the season we never talked. Just basic talk with Chaim, and stuff. It was one of those things where we never moved forward with it.” The alignment of his deal and Turner’s doesn’t seem to have been coincidental. “A situation occurred where at the time they had the offer out to JT… Everybody talks… This was an offer that came up seeing if it was something I was interested in doing. Obviously, it was a little bit of a pay cut, but if I held up maybe I could have gotten more. We were confident about that. But at the same time I wanted a team that was going to be in October, be in the swing of things all year and give me a chance to win.” MLBTR predicted Martinez to secure a two-year, $30MM, so it’s possible he’s correct that he could have gotten more than the one-year, $10MM deal he ultimately agreed to. However, it seems he placed a priority on competition by moving from a Boston club that won 78 games last year to the 111-win Dodgers.
  • Sticking with the Dodgers, they will have to consider backup plans at shortstop now that Gavin Lux is out for the year. Miguel Rojas will now be the atop the depth chart there, with super utility player Chris Taylor behind him. Manager Dave Roberts tells Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times that Taylor will play shortstop about 20-25% of the time. Taylor says he’s ready for the move, having started an infield throwing program prior to the Lux injury. “I’ve been throwing from the infield and the outfield,” Taylor said. “I was trying to anticipate something happening. So I was prepared.” Getting part-time work at shortstop will be nothing new for Taylor. He only got one inning there last year but averaged more than 250 innings per year over the previous four seasons. He’ll be looking to bounce back from a down year at the plate, as he missed a month with a foot fracture and hit .221/.304/.373 for a wRC+ of 93. Moving Taylor in from the grass on occasion will subtract from an outfield mix that’s a bit more uncertain for the club than in recent years. Mookie Betts should be excellent in right, with Trayce Thompson, David Peralta and Jason Heyward potentially taking the other spots, as younger players like James Outman and Andy Pages try to break in.

Whitlock Not A Lock To Be Ready By Opening Day

By | at

Right-hander Garrett Whitlock is still on the mend from September hip surgery, though Red Sox skipper Alex Cora indicated this morning there’s a possibility he won’t be ready for Opening Day (Twitter link via Ian Browne of MLB.com). Whitlock has been throwing off a mound but is not yet performing pitchers’ fielding practice, and Cora stated that if the right-hander isn’t ready for the start of the season, “he’s not going to lose too much time.”

One of the best Rule 5 selections in recent memory, the 26-year-old Whitlock has pitched 151 2/3 innings for Boston over the past two seasons, logging a sharp 2.73 ERA with a strong 26.8% strikeout rate against a brilliant 5.3% walk rate. The Red Sox have used him far more out of the bullpen than the rotation, but he’s slated to get a look as a starter in 2023, joining the likes of Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, James Paxton and Nick Pivetta in the mix for rotation work. Fellow righty Tanner Houck and top prospect Brayan Bello are both options to step into the rotation, should Whitlock need to miss any time early in the season.

Red Sox Sign Daniel Palka To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Red Sox announced Friday that added first baseman/outfielder Daniel Palka has been added to camp as a non-roster invitee (thus indicating he’s inked a minor league deal with the team). He’ll add some left-handed pop to their bench mix.

The 31-year-old Palka has spent parts of two seasons in the big leagues, smashing 27 home runs as a rookie with the 2018 White Sox while hitting .240/.294/.484 along the way. Palka’s 34.1% strikeout rate, however, was a major red flag, and he fanned at an even higher 37.6% clip in 2019 while hitting just .107/.194/.179 in 93 plate appearances before losing his spot on the roster. He struggled through a tough season in the KBO in 2020 before rebounding with the Triple-A clubs for the Nats and the Mets over the past two seasons.

Palka’s big league success is limited, but he’s a .261/.349/.486 hitter in parts of six Triple-A seasons and, as evidenced by his 27 homers in 449 plate appearances as a rookie, has plus raw power. He’s graded out as a sub-par defender in the outfield corners, and the Mets played him more at first base than in the outfield in Triple-A last year.

The Red Sox are set with Masataka Yoshida and Alex Verdugo in the outfield corners, Triston Casas at first base and Justin Turner at designated hitter. However, they’re thin on first basemen in the upper minors, unless Bobby Dalbec is optioned, so Palka will provide an option in that regard while also hoping to play his way into a bench role this spring.

Red Sox, Tanner Houck Discussed Extension Last Year

By | at

At some point last year, the Red Sox and right-hander Tanner Houck had some talks about an extension, though it doesn’t seem much progress was made. “Conversations, but nothing came of it,” Houck told Chris Cotillo of MassLive. “We’re pretty happy with where we’re at right now. There’s no reason to rush into anything.”

Houck, 27 in June, has pitched in the past three major league seasons, oscillating between the rotation and the bullpen but generally getting good results either way. Overall, he’s tossed 146 innings with a 3.02 ERA, striking out 27.6% of batters faced, walking 8.7% of them and getting grounders at a 49.3% clip. Getting into the splits, he has a 3.22 ERA as a starter and 2.68 as a reliever. He’s actually racked up more strikeouts out of the rotation, a 28.5% rate compared to a 25.9% rate out of the bullpen. But his .300 BABIP as a starter is a bit above his .274 mark as a reliever, and his 70.5% strand rate out of the rotation is a few ticks below his 77.3% mark from the ’pen.

In addition to that strong body of work, Houck also comes with the pedigree of being a first round pick, selected 24th overall in 2017. He is currently between one and two years of MLB service time, meaning he’s still shy of qualifying for arbitration and isn’t slated for free agency until after the 2027 season, when he’ll be 31. There would be some risk in committing significant dollars to Houck since he fought lingering back issues last year and ultimately required surgery, but all pitchers generally have some injury flags on their profiles and there’s usually a point at which clubs are willing to take the risk.

It’s unknown exactly what kind of contract structures were floated, but the talks didn’t advance enough for the Sox to put forth a formal offer. “We never really even got that far,” Houck said. “(It was) a conversation. We talked here and there.”

It’s possible that the Red Sox were looking at Houck the same way they viewed Garrett Whitlock. A Rule 5 pick of the Yankees, Whitlock made his MLB debut in 2021 with 73 1/3 innings out of the Boston bullpen with a 1.96 ERA. Going into 2022, there was some consideration of returning Whitlock to the rotation since he had spent much of his minor league time there. In April of last year, before the campaign really got going, the two sides agreed on an $18.75MM extension that covered his remaining years of control, while also potentially giving the Sox control over two free agent years via club options. If Whitlock eventually emerges as a viable rotation candidate, that will turn into a bargain for the club, given the salaries typically earned by free agent starters. But it was also understandable why Whitlock would want to lock in that guaranteed money, since he was a relative late bloomer, just about to turn 26 at that time.

Houck is in a relatively similar position, showing plenty of potential but still not fully established and with huge paydays still a few years away. It doesn’t seem as though the ship has sailed on an extension, with Houck expressing openness. “If the opportunity on both sides is right, I’d be willing to, but both sides have to feel comfortable with an agreement,” he said. “I think it really depends on the individual person,” he elaborated. “If you’re willing to bet on yourself and believe that you can sign that bigger contract, then take the shot, in my opinion, if you’re a betting man. If you’re not and you like the security, it’s perfectly fine. There’s nothing wrong with it either way, but as an individual, I think you have to be okay with it.”

For 2023, Houck seems to have a blocked path to the rotation for now, though there will be many variables. Chris Sale and James Paxton could be at the front of the rotation, though neither has pitched much in the past three years due to injury. Corey Kluber is coming off a healthy season with the Rays but had three injury-marred years prior to that. Nick Pivetta has been the most reliable of the bunch though his status is now a little murky as he’s dropping out of the World Baseball Classic, per Cotillo, as he recently had COVID for a third time and isn’t recovering as hoped. Then there’s Whitlock and his nine career starts and younger guys like Brayan Bello and Brandon Walter.

The club has said they plan to stretch Houck out this spring but perhaps move him into bullpen role if he doesn’t have a spot in the rotation by Opening Day. Given all the uncertainty in the rotation, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see him get pencilled in as the starter at some point this year. “It’s not my decision. I’d love to start; that’s what I’ve done my whole career,” Houck recently told Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. “But I’ve got to help the team win in whatever way possible.”

John Henry Discusses Payroll, Offseason, “False Narrative” Around Red Sox

By | at

Red Sox principal owner John Henry addressed several topics related to his team in e-mails with The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey and The Boston Sports Journal’s Sean McAdam, and in both Q&A responses, Henry pushed back against criticisms of the club’s offseason.

“There’s been a false narrative that we somehow stopped spending — completely unsupported by the facts — that we no longer sign free agents, that we are uninterested in or incapable of winning despite our track record….I don’t think anyone realizes there are 30 teams in these sports every year that are all doing everything they can to win,” Henry wrote in his response to McAdam.  “In a particular year some clubs are criticized because they aren’t ’going for it’ when they are going every single thing they can short of destroying their futures to win. You always have to keep an eye on the future.  And every team (maybe not the Mets) has a budget.  It’s so easy to fall as we did in 2022 to mediocrity.  We needed to make changes but we haven’t lost our way.”

In regards to Boston’s own budget, Henry told McCaffrey that the Red Sox weren’t going to increase spending into the $300MM range as response to how teams have operated this winter.  The Mets’ whopping $355MM projected payroll leads baseball, and the Yankees and Padres have also opened the checkbook to a large extent this winter, even if both teams are wary of hitting particular luxury-tax penalty tiers.

It has been a busy winter at Fenway Park, with a long list of notable players (i.e. Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha, Rich Hill) departing in free agency.  Bloom has been quite active in adding replacements, with such players as Masataka Yoshida, Justin Turner, Kenley Jansen, Chris Martin, Corey Kluber, Adam Duvall, Adalberto Mondesi, and Joely Rodriguez among the notable names brought aboard in signings or trades.  In addition, the Red Sox also locked up a cornerstone piece in signing Rafael Devers to a massive extension that will keep the slugger in Beantown through the 2033 season.

Naturally, Henry pointed to the Devers deal as proof that the Red Sox were still open to extending their in-house stars, as well as making long-term commitments to players into their late 30’s.  “Clubs, fans, media can all wish players had fewer options and that clubs had unlimited budgets, but players — including those you most want to extend — are often going end up going to free agency,” Henry wrote to McAdam.  “Clubs need depth.  Every MLB club faces these issues and it isn’t something we enjoy.  I hated losing Xander as much as anyone on the planet, but players going to free agency isn’t a new phenomenon.  We are faced with difficult choices each offseason.”

With an estimated payroll of just under $193MM, the Red Sox are hardly pinching pennies, and yet that total represents a significant drop from their 2022 year-end payroll of around $221MM.  Boston’s luxury tax number is now down to roughly $217.8MM, under the $233MM threshold and also a reduction after the Red Sox just barely surpassed the tax line in 2022.  The front office’s decision to stay over the tax line last season drew plenty of criticism, as the Red Sox didn’t make the playoffs, and their status as Competitive Balance Tax payors cost them in terms of draft compensation for Bogaerts and Eovaldi.  Because the duo rejected qualifying offers, the Red Sox would’ve received compensatory picks sitting 61st and 62nd overall in the 2023 draft order.  Instead, those picks are 119th and 120th overall.

Henry also used the “false narrative” terminology in his response to McCaffrey, saying that Bogaerts’ decision to sign with the Padres was one of “the biggest factors” in some of the discontent expressed by Red Sox Nation.  In response to the widely-publicized incident of Henry, president Sam Kennedy, and chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom being booed during the team’s Winter Weekend fan event, Henry seemed to imply that media negativity exaggerated the situation, rhetorically asking “did anyone report the standing ovation at the end?”

With all this in mind, Henry didn’t address or seemingly didn’t recognize the chief criticism most Boston fans have about the team’s offseason — not a lack of spending per se, but rather the nature of that spending.  Rather than pursue another major name to replace Bogaerts, the Red Sox instead spread their money around to multiple veteran players on short-term contracts.  The biggest deal to a new player went to Yoshida (an unknown quantity against MLB competition), and the size of Yoshida’s contract also drew surprised responses from multiple rival executives.

Time will soon tell if Bloom’s strategy has paid off, and obviously a lot of fan criticism will diminish if the Sox get back into contention in 2023.  Henry wrote in both e-mails that “no one was happy with” with the team’s 78-84 record last year left, including ownership.

Going into the new season, Henry feels “we are in much better shape than we were after 2021,” when the Red Sox advanced to the ALCS.  That year marked the one winning season of Bloom’s three-year tenure as chief baseball officer, but when asked by McAdam about Bloom’s job performance, Henry noted that “baseball operations is more than one person….So a better question is: how is the organization doing?”

“As I said, we haven’t gotten the kind of results you would have expected for the amount of resources deployed over the last four years with the exception of 2021.  We’ve been building depth, but we saw little depth last year in the major leagues.  You should see some depth this year and improvement.  We have had setbacks with injuries already this season, but we expect to be competitive.  We are at a different stage than the Yankees are, than Toronto this season….It will be interesting.”

Red Sox Sign Marcus Wilson To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Red Sox have signed outfielder Marcus Wilson to a minor league contract, as per MILB.com’s official transactions page.  Wilson has been assigned to Double-A Portland.

There is plenty of familiarity between the two sides, as Wilson was a member of Boston’s organization for most of the 2019-21 seasons.  The Sox initially acquired the outfielder from the Diamondbacks in an April 2019 trade, and then designated him for assignment to open up some roster space for moves at the 2021 trade deadline.  The Mariners claimed Wilson on waivers, and his time in Seattle resulted in his first taste of Major League action.  Wilson appeared in three games with the M’s this season, and though he struck out in four of six plate appearances, he at least banked his first official hit, walk, and run as a big leaguer.

After opting for minor league free agency following the season, the 26-year-old Wilson is now back with the Red Sox.  A second-round pick for the D’Backs in the 2014 draft, Wilson has experience at all three outfield positions, though he has spent much more time as a corner outfielder than as a center fielder in the last two seasons.  He has posted respectable numbers at the plate in the minors (including a .230/.355/.441 slash line and 30 homers over 792 PA at the Triple-A level), but Wilson’s offensive productivity has been limited by his propensity for strikeouts.

Wilson gives the Sox a known quantity as minor league depth as the team sorts its outfield mix.  Alex Verdugo and newcomers Masataka Yoshida and Adam Duvall look to earn most of the everyday at-bats on the grass, while utilityman Rob Refsnyder, top propects Jarren Duran and Ceddanne Rafaela, minor league signings Greg Allen and Raimel Tapia or (when they’re not in the infield) Christian Arroyo or Enrique Hernandez could all be in the picture for outfield work.

Pitching Notes: Bello, Bautista, Severino, McCullers

By | at

With pitchers and catchers having now reported to their respective spring training sites, there’s a fair bit of news around the health of a number of pitchers around the sport.

Red Sox right-hander Brayan Bello will take the weekend off throwing, and hopes to be able to throw again Monday, per Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal. Bello apparently felt tightness in his forearm this week. Any time tightness and forearm are mentioned in the same sentence regarding a young pitcher there’s a fair bit of concern, but Bello says he believes it’s due to throwing a higher number of breaking balls of late.

In any case, he’ll be shutdown temporarily and the Red Sox and Bello will be hoping he’s good to go next week. Bello figures to compete for a spot in the Red Sox’ starting rotation this year. The 23-year-old made 11 solid starts (and two relief appearances) last season, working to a 4.71 ERA with a 20.5% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate.

Here’s a few other injury tidbits from around the sport:

  • Orioles closer Felix Bautista told reporters, including Jake Rill of MLB.com, that he expects to be ready for opening day. Bautista has spent the winter rehabbing left knee and right shoulder injuries, and has thrown four bullpen sessions since January. He’s believes he’ll be ready to get into spring matches around March 15, and will need four or five spring innings to get up to speed. Bautista was dominant for the Orioles during his rookie year last season, pitching to a 2.19 ERA across 65 2/3 innings, striking out batters at a quality 34.8% clip.
  • Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. has been shut down temporarily following him experiencing some soreness in his throwing arm (via Mark Berman of Fox 26). There’s always a bit of concern there particularly given McCullers’ injury history, but manager Dusty Baker gave reporters a promising outlook “he’s just getting treatment. He’s feeling pretty good. He’s feeling better.” McCullers is into his eighth season with the Astros. A forearm strain suffered in 2021 limited him to just eight starts in 2022, but he still worked to an impressive 2.27 ERA in those handful of appearances.
  • Yankees starter Luis Severino is entering his walk year, so naturally hoping for a strong, and healthy, campaign. After missing the bulk of three-straight seasons, Severino returned to make 19 starts last year, working to a 3.18 ERA. A lat strain sidelined him for two months of the season, but the Yankees were unsurprisingly happy to exercise the $15MM club option they held over the 28-year-old ahead of the 2023 season. While the significant injury history won’t help, a full season of ~30 starts of his typically excellent output could set Severino up for a big payday next winter. “Health is always the question with him. I feel like he’s done everything he needs to this offseason. He’s been around Tampa. He’s been at the complex. He’s getting his work in. Physically, he looks like he’s in a good spot. I think everything we’ve wanted out of him this offseason, he’s answered the bell. He’s ready to go this year. We feel good about the way he’s reported,” pitching coach Matt Blake told Brendan Kuty of The Athletic. The Yankees are depending even more so on a healthy season from Severino after the news that Frankie Montas will miss the majority of the year as he recovers from shoulder surgery.

Tim McCarver Passes Away

By | at

Long-time major league baseball player and broadcaster Tim McCarver passed away today, per multiple reports. He was 81 years old.

“Tim McCarver was an All-Star, a World Series Champion, a respected teammate, and one of the most influential voices our game has known,” reads a statement from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. “As a player, Tim was a key part of great Cardinals and Phillies teams in his 21-year career. In the booth, his analysis and attention to detail brought fans closer to our game and how it is played and managed. Tim’s approach enhanced the fan experience on our biggest stages and on the broadcasts of the Mets, the Yankees and the Cardinals. All of us at Major League Baseball are grateful for Tim’s impact on sports broadcasting and his distinguished career in our National Pastime. I extend my deepest condolences to Tim’s family, friends and the generations of fans who learned about our great game from him.”

A native of Tennessee, McCarver was signed by the Cardinals as a 17-year-old catcher in 1959. He got brief stints in the majors over the next few years before cementing himself as a major leaguer in 1963. He got into 127 games that year and hit .289. The next season, he held that batting average fairly steady at .288, helping the Cardinals win the pennant before defeating the Yankees in the 1964 World Series. McCarver caught every inning of every game in that series and hit .478 along the way.

He would be a mainstay of the Cardinals for the next five years as well, winning another World Series in 1967 and making the All-Star team in 1966 and 1967. He was traded to the Phillies prior to the 1970 campaign and stayed with them until a trade to the Expos midway through the 1972 campaign. He returned to the Cardinals in 1973 and part of 1974, then went to the Red Sox for a time before going back to the Phillies. He would stick in Philadelphia for the later part of his career, from midway through the 1975 season through the 1980 campaign. While he served as Steve Carlton’s “personal catcher,” the Phils won the National League East division in three straight years starting in 1976. He technically retired after 1979 but returned to the club late in 1980 so he could become the 11th player in history to play in four different decades.

For many baseball fans, McCarver is more recognizable as a broadcaster than as a player. He joined the Phillies’ broadcast team in 1980 and stayed with that club through 1982. During that time, he got his first experience of nationally-televised games with NBC’s Game of the Week. He then started calling Mets’ games, a gig that he held from 1983 through 1998. That period of time also saw him work with ABC on Monday Night Baseball and work on the World Series for the first time in 1985.

McCarver would also have stints working on the broadcast teams for the Yankees and Giants, as well as national gigs for CBS and The Baseball Network. But arguably the most significant development of this part of his career when was Fox acquired the rights for the World Series in 1996. They installed McCarver on the team with Joe Buck and he stayed there through 2013, eventually working the World Series in 23 different seasons. His last season with Fox was 2013, and he would call Cardinal games on a part-time basis in the years after that.

McCarver played in 1,909 major league games, racking up 1,501 hits, 97 home runs, 590 runs scored and 645 runs batted in. He won a pair of World Series titles, made a pair of All-Star teams and caught a pair of no-hitters. He then spent close to four decades as a broadcaster, including a lengthy stint as one of the most recognizable voices of the game.

We at MLB Trade Rumors join others in extending our condolences to his family, friends, fans and all those throughout the baseball world who are mourning him today.

Red Sox Sign Yu Chang To Major League Contract

By and | at

The Red Sox announced Thursday that they’ve signed infielder Yu Chang to a one-year contract. Chang’s Major League deal will place him on the 40-man roster, and Boston has placed injured shortstop Trevor Story, who’ll miss at least the first half of the season after undergoing an internal brace procedure on his right elbow, on the 60-day IL to create space. Chang will earn $850K on the deal, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reports.

Chang, 27, has seen major league action in each of the past four years, providing plenty of defensive versatility but struggling to do much at the plate. His career batting line currently sits at .213/.279/.360, production that’s 23% below league average by measure of wRC+. In that time, he’s played all four infield positions and generally been graded well at each of them.

Since Chang was out of options last year, he fell into a pit of being just intriguing enough for teams to give him a shot, but never quite providing enough to cement himself anywhere. He began the year with the Guardians but was designated for assignment and traded to the Pirates, before subsequently going to the Rays and Red Sox on waiver claims. Between those four clubs, he hit .208/.289/.315 for a wRC+ of 78.

Chang just nudged past three years of service time last year and qualified for arbitration for the first time. He was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz for a $900K salary but the Red Sox decided to non-tender him instead, though they’ve now brought him back at a slightly lower price point.

The infield picture in Boston has changed quite a bit since last year. Xander Bogaerts opted out of his contract and signed with the Padres and, as mentioned off the top, Story is going to miss significant time due to his injury. It seems the plan to cover for those losses to the middle infield is to bring Enrique Hernández in from center field to be the shortstop, with Adam Duvall signed to take over the vacated center field spot. Hernández has garnered some shortstop experience as part of the utility job he’s played for many years, but he’s never had an everyday role there. Adalberto Mondesí was acquired from the Royals to hopefully play a part of some kind, though he’s also hurt and might not be ready for Opening Day. That would seem to leave Christian Arroyo atop the second base depth chart for now. Enmanuel Valdez and David Hamilton could push for jobs since they’re on the 40-man, though neither has any big league experience thus far.

With all of those moving pieces, it makes sense to add someone like Chang who can be moved around as necessary. The corners are a bit more secure with Rafael Devers at third and Triston Casas at first, though Casas has just 27 games under his belt thus far and isn’t a sure thing to succeed this season. Chang could provide an emergency option there as well, though Bobby Dalbec could perhaps get another crack at the cold corner if Casas gets hurt or underperforms.

Chang should provide the Sox with the floor of being a competent defender at multiple positions, making him a solid bench piece to have. If he can make any progress offensively, that would be a nice bonus. If that does come to pass, he could be retained for another two seasons via arbitration and likely wouldn’t cost much given his low base salary this year.

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Former Yankees Pitcher Humberto Sanchez

By | at

If you were a diehard Yankees fan or prospect watcher about 15 years ago, you likely know the name Humberto Sanchez.  A native of the Bronx, Sanchez was a 31st round pick by the Tigers in 2001, signing for $1MM as a draft-and-follow.  Sanchez started for the World Team in the Futures Game in 2006, and in November he became the key piece in the trade that saw the Yankees send Gary Sheffield to the Tigers.

Before the 2007 season, Baseball America ranked Sanchez the 57th-best prospect in baseball, calling him “the young power arm New York lacked in Triple-A.”  However, by April of 2007, Sanchez needed Tommy John surgery.  Yankees GM Brian Cashman said, “I knew there was a chance [his elbow] needed to be fixed. But we looked at it long term and in 12 months we will have him back.”  As it turned out, Sanchez would need a second procedure six months later, extending his recovery timeline.

17 months after the initial Tommy John surgery, Sanchez made it to The Show.  He told Sean Brennan of the New York Daily News, “When you have surgery, it feels like your dream has died. After surgery you’re thinking your career is pretty much in jeopardy and (getting the call) seems out of reach. You don’t know if you’re going to come back.”  Sanchez made his MLB debut at Yankee Stadium, entering in the top of the eighth with his team ahead by eight runs.  He pitched a scoreless inning, striking out Paul Phillips and getting Jerry Owens and Jim Thome to ground out.

Sanchez entered another game out of the Yankees’ bullpen a week later.  Though no one knew it at the time, Sanchez had thrown his last Major League pitch at the age of 25.  He battled forearm tightness the following year, and the Yankees released him in April ’09.  He re-signed on a minor league deal and picked up 35 2/3 innings across various minor league affiliates.  Sanchez went on to pitch in the Chinese Professional Baseball League, later pitching in the Mexican and independent leagues.  Facing eight batters was not the MLB career Sanchez or anyone else envisioned, but it can be a brutal game and at least he can say he pitched in the Majors.

For the past four years, Sanchez worked as a pitching coach for the Dominican Summer League Red Sox.  At present, he’s preparing to start a logistics venture with his brother.  You can find him on Instagram @Humbe528.  Humberto chatted with MLBTR readers today, talking about his experience playing alongside Yankees legends, what his MLB debut felt like, what it was like being traded, and much more.  Read the full transcript here.

If you’re a current or former MLB player and you’d like to chat with MLBTR readers, contact us here.  It’s fun and easy, and you get to choose which questions you publish and answer.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

hide arrows FOX Sports Engage Network scroll to top