I had the same thought. Vazquez for one of the semi-late inning relievers (Colome/Pazos/Nicasio) makes sense.
2018-19 Offseason Thread
- Thread starter Devizier
- Start date
No, it doesn't make any sense. Vazquez is the guy the team trusted in the post-season and he OPS'd .734 in 2017. He's going to be the primary catcher next season.
Yeah, I think Vaz is clearly Plan A, but they probably do need a third catcher. I think Swihart serves a role as emergency catcher and sub at the corners (3b/1b/LF/RF).
I'm not sure that arrangement makes use of Swihart very well. He's a better hitter (SSS) against RHP, but all of our guys playing 3B/1B/LF in that arrangement are also better against righties, and the guy playing RF plays 155+ games a year. Plus Nunez and Holt may still be on the team.
Does that mean he’s arb-eligible this off-season instead of next off-season?
He’s making $564K now. What’s his likely arb value? Leon makes $1.9M. Vaz is at $1.4M. I have no idea how arbitration values are calculated, but I’d guess Swihart gets $1.2M tops. Is an extra $636K significant with regard to the team’s payroll flexibility?
that's correct.
it's hard to imagine he will go through all 6 years before FA, because with no options, he'll just be DFA'd sometime before then. I don't think a non-tender is coming but it wouldn't be impossible either.
MLBTradeRumors, which has become the most accurate projections for arb salaries, has Swihart at 1.1M and Leon at 2.3M. Vaz will be starting his 3yr, 21mil extension.
Vazquez is signed long-term and Swihart has more offensive upside. I don't care how much they love Leon. He is so bad offensively.
They love Leon so much they benched him after Game 1 and Vazquez started the rest of the series.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/11/offseason-outlook-boston-red-sox-9.html
No breaking news......Most of this has been previously been highlighted in this thread but its a nice summary!
No breaking news......Most of this has been previously been highlighted in this thread but its a nice summary!
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Just read on FB that the Sox are looking at Donaldson for 3B and moving Devers to 1st with Moreland. Anybody know if any legs to this?
This is one of those stupid David Schoenfeld ESPN “throw anything against the wall and see what sticks” pieces they had to find a BOLD (tm) move for all 30 teams and this was supposed to be ours. The last thing he says in the blurb, “I like adding a right hand bat to this lineup”. Guess he hasn’t seen our lineup in a few years.
"Rumor has Red Sox signing josh Donaldson and moving devers to play first base with Mitch Moreland ? Does anyone see the sense in this , I am not sure one way or the other. There thoughts is that it gives us two years for our young third baseman to come up. Donaldson just turned 32 . I can remember not long ago how great he was"
Please don't ever believe anything on Facebook. Not about the Sox, not about the government, not about your relatives.
Sox Vindaloo did a good job regarding this rumor
Sox Vindaloo did a good job regarding this rumor
Both Devers and Moreland being LH makes even less sense. Be really surprised if Pearce isn't back.
Devers will very likely be our 3B until JD is gone and then move to DH.
Devers will very likely be our 3B until JD is gone and then move to DH.
Laughable rumor.
In actual news, we signed Juan Centeno to be the new Dan Butler minor league depth catcher.
In actual news, we signed Juan Centeno to be the new Dan Butler minor league depth catcher.
If Devers can improve at 3rd with the throws across the diamond then he's a very good 3rd baseman (I'm assuming he'll continue to improve at the plate). But if he doesn't improve defensively there, he'd make an ideal 1st baseman
Devers made one bad play in the postseason, letting Bregman's ball get past him for a double. He needed to at least knock it down. Otherwise he was solid fielding the ball and very good throwing the ball. And the throw on Machado in Game 4 was amazing.
In addition to working on hitting with J.D. Martinez this offseason, I'd love it if he focused his training on agility and flexibility and not strength. Sometimes he still seems a little stiff on some of his actions. He he could improve that, he could be a very good third baseman.\
Of course, as bosox79 says, if Dalbec can hit, Devers probably moves across the diamond. But Dalbec has SO much swing and miss in his game now, he may never hit big-league pitching well enough.
Error bars are still pretty high on Dalbec's future outcome. I wouldn't make any current decisions based on his contributions in 2-3 years.
Just out of curiosity, did this FB source offer any sort of numbers ($ and years) that the Sox might be willing offer or what Donaldson would be looking to get? I get that it's not happening, but curious if there was anything more than Sox looking at Donaldson. .
My sense is that Vazquez has the starting job to start with.
I think the Leon love *was* real. But I also think the pitchers all got a post-season taste of not-Leon and survived. Something that may have gotten lost in the sauce -- but which I cant find right now -- was Cora's frank assessment of Vazquez's disappointing regular season. He mentioned the contract and implied (to my ears, anyway) that there were things in his control that he knew he needed to work on but didn't. Given the contract, the organization certainly wants him to seize the job. Maybe being with Cora in Puerto Rico will push him.
That's interesting. "Mentioned the contract" implying that Vaz might have been pressing in some way? Or that the Sox are committed to him as a matter of fact?
I read it in a less positive light. I read it as Vaz not putting forth as much effort because he got the contract.
So two lefties at 1b instead of Pearce/Moreland? That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Unless they're committed to Devers and Moreland is simply a late-inning defensive replacement or injury insurance or pinch hitter.
As Vindaloo noted, it was a dumb Schoenfield espn article about ‘bold moves for every team’. It’s not a rumor. He also had Machado and Harper going to about seven different teams, the Cardinals trading for both Goldschmidt and Greinke and the Orioles hiring Theo. It’s not worth the bandwidth to even discuss, it was his typical stuff this time of year.
Yes, as noted, the bold move for half the teams was to sign Harper and Machado.
Super fresh take.
Super fresh take.
Yes. That's how I took it. It wasnt a brutal takedown. But it was unsparing and direct. Maybe a little on the pressing side. But mostly the effort and preparation side. Sounds like he had talked with him, so it would not have been a surprise to Vazquez.
Ken Rosenthal thinks that the Mets may listen to trade offers for Noah Syndegaard this offseason thinking that they won't sign both him and deGrom to long term extensions. Any interest in floating a package of Benintendi and Dalbec for Syndegaard? Does that get the Mets to not hang up the phone?
I love it, of course, but I can’t see where the Mets fit AB in their outfield of Cespedes/Nimmo/Conforto/Bruce/Lagares.
Bruce dabbled at first last year, and Lagares is not a legitimate starting option; in his last full season (2015) he had a sub .650 ops, and only played in 30 games last year.
I know that all pitchers are injury vulnerable, but would we invest that exponentially in Syndergaard who has pitched a combined 180 innings in the last two seasons, just to play devil's advocate. Would a Devers lead package be more prosperous?
And then play JD 100% in the outfield? I was kind of shocked to see JD’s hitting splits, DH vs. playing in the OF (much better when he plays the OF). It’s not as big career wise, and his hitting numbers this year were still excellent as a DH. But, Sox break up their best asset group? No thanks. Also, if DD didn’t want to trade JBJ last year, I don’t think he’ll want to trade Beni this year. He alone is just about equal to Thor in WAR.
I wouldn't do Benintendi for Syndergaard straight up.
1) Benintendi has 4 years of control left, Syndergaard has 3
2) Beni is the position player so automatically there is less injury risk involved
3) For as good as Noah is, he's only made more than 25 starts once
4) The Sox don't exactly need to pay a hefty price for a SP. They need depth behind Sale, Price, Porcello, Eduardo. Trading Beni would create an unnecessary hole in the lineup.
1) Benintendi has 4 years of control left, Syndergaard has 3
2) Beni is the position player so automatically there is less injury risk involved
3) For as good as Noah is, he's only made more than 25 starts once
4) The Sox don't exactly need to pay a hefty price for a SP. They need depth behind Sale, Price, Porcello, Eduardo. Trading Beni would create an unnecessary hole in the lineup.
It's not that surprising that his numbers are better when he's in the field vs DH. A lot of players over the years have expressed disinterest in being a full time DH because they feel like it takes them out of the flow of the game. That it is harder to "get up" for 3-4 ABs a game when all the time between them is spent in the dugout. I think it takes a special kind of hitter, or a whole lot of adjusting for a player to maximize his effectiveness at the plate without playing the field.
Let's look at this.
140 PA as LF: .394/.450/.701/1.151 on a .456 BABIP
109 PA as RF: .370/.450/.652/1.102 on a .380 BABIP
400 PA as DH: .297/.373/.597/.970 on a .341 BABIP
First of all, single season splits like this are pretty small samples, so you'd expect a lot of noise. Sure enough, most of the effect is BABIP. He hit HR at about the same rate at each position (1 every 15 PA as a DH, 1 every 16 as a RF, 1 every 16 as a LF), which does not really suggest he's a meaningfully better hitter when he plays the field.
But that's just one stat. He hit doubles at an astonishing rate as a LF (one every 12 PA), but at a lower rate as a RF (one every 36 PA), and at a moderate rate as a DH (one every 18 PA). Hmm.
Does this suggest that there's a causal link between playing OF and JDM's elevated BABIP? Or — as I think is more likely — was there something about the ballparks and matchups where Cora was willing to play JDM in the OF that caused the link? He played a lot of his LF in Fenway, a park that boosts BABIP and doubles for RH flyball hitters (i.e. him). My hypothesis is that if we were to look through his game logs, we'd see that his road games similarly put him in the OF in parks the boost BABIP for RH flyball hitters.
This sort of trade makes no sense if you think you can re-sign Eovaldi. If not, they're comparable but you're still robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Which part do you mean?
Cespedes is likely done as an MVP player but they owe him $59 million the next two years. He's unmovable and they may as well play him, and he's probably a 2-3 win player over a full season. Conforto and Nimmo are both good, young and cheap. Lagares is still a good defender. Bruce is awful.
If it's the front half of the statement, I already exhausted all my bearish-on-Beni capital upthread. I'm not convinced he's not Joc Pederson.
I would probably do AB for Synd straight up, but wouldn't offer more than that.
the argument would go that there are some signs AB might not blossom into an All-Star level player. namely his exit velocity wen to shit and he has a propensity for shitty baserunning. Synd would give us a solid bet as any of a #2 SP floor with upside, for 3 years, when Sale might go after year 1.
anything more is an overpay, and it's debatable for sure on giving up on AB. Prospects do not grow linearly, I don't know why is exit velocity went to shit in the 2nd half this year but I don't think it's unfixable. and he can be an All-Star with a good ISO, everything else is there.
the argument would go that there are some signs AB might not blossom into an All-Star level player. namely his exit velocity wen to shit and he has a propensity for shitty baserunning. Synd would give us a solid bet as any of a #2 SP floor with upside, for 3 years, when Sale might go after year 1.
anything more is an overpay, and it's debatable for sure on giving up on AB. Prospects do not grow linearly, I don't know why is exit velocity went to shit in the 2nd half this year but I don't think it's unfixable. and he can be an All-Star with a good ISO, everything else is there.
Regarding Cespedes, I don't think it's a matter of how much he's owed over the next two years, but rather how much he'll be able to play over the next two years. It's likely that he misses at least the first half of this season and i really don't see Lagares holding up any potential deal that brings back Benintendi. As for the bolded...Just imagine the possibilities of a team that features three "good, young and cheap" outfielders.
Praising with faint damns? I mean, granted Pederson is not quite the guy LA hoped he was, but if that's Beni's downside, I'm OK with that.
JBJ and a minor league flier
or Devers straight up
for
J.T. Realmuto-2018 stats: .277 BA, 21 HR, 74 RBI, 125 G, 477 AB, .825 OPS
If JBJ ...you slide Benny to center...JDM and others (Pierce and Holt) platoon in left.
Outfield defense is worse but gets rid of two noodle bats at the end of the lineup.
If Devers you sign Donaldson or Beltre and roll with that.
Third base defense is better with about the same offense.
The offense is much better. Lineup is longer.
or Devers straight up
for
J.T. Realmuto-2018 stats: .277 BA, 21 HR, 74 RBI, 125 G, 477 AB, .825 OPS
If JBJ ...you slide Benny to center...JDM and others (Pierce and Holt) platoon in left.
Outfield defense is worse but gets rid of two noodle bats at the end of the lineup.
If Devers you sign Donaldson or Beltre and roll with that.
Third base defense is better with about the same offense.
The offense is much better. Lineup is longer.