Who is deserving of the second LHR bullpen spot behind Ross Jr? Olmos has been lights out while Abad would have to be DFA'd. Personally, I'd rather take a chance on Olmos.
Olmos vs Abad
- Thread starter Georgy Zhukov
- Start date
Scott's Olmos Abad as the other options!
No seriously, the Sox can afford to keep all three, because Olmos signed a minor league deal.
Keep Abad and have him take the 2nd LHRP spot out of Spring training. Then, if he continues to suck, DFA him then and call up Scott or Olmos, depending on who's showing the hotter arm at the moment.
If that one doesn't work out, try the other one.
Really, the biggest problems coming out of Spring Training is that the starters haven't hit their stride yet, and it's still damn cold at 10 pm in early April. There will be lots of opportunities for trying out all the bullpen arms.
They may as well keep as many of them around as possible.
No seriously, the Sox can afford to keep all three, because Olmos signed a minor league deal.
Keep Abad and have him take the 2nd LHRP spot out of Spring training. Then, if he continues to suck, DFA him then and call up Scott or Olmos, depending on who's showing the hotter arm at the moment.
If that one doesn't work out, try the other one.
Really, the biggest problems coming out of Spring Training is that the starters haven't hit their stride yet, and it's still damn cold at 10 pm in early April. There will be lots of opportunities for trying out all the bullpen arms.
They may as well keep as many of them around as possible.
The Sox do have some financial incentive to cut Abad.
http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2017/03/16/everything-you-need-to-know-about-where-red-sox-roster-stands/
"The next checkpoint will come March 29 at 2 p.m., with the Sox being on the hook for 1/4 of Abad’s $2 million deal if he is released. After that, the team will be forced to pay the reliever the whole ball of wax."
http://fullcount.weei.com/sports/boston/baseball/red-sox/2017/03/16/everything-you-need-to-know-about-where-red-sox-roster-stands/
"The next checkpoint will come March 29 at 2 p.m., with the Sox being on the hook for 1/4 of Abad’s $2 million deal if he is released. After that, the team will be forced to pay the reliever the whole ball of wax."
The problem is, given the way Abad is pitching , he could cost the Sox a game or two while "evaluating" his spot on the roster. Given the above financial incentive to cut his ass one has to assume the choice is between Scott and Olmos.
Both showed good progress in AAA in 2016 .. I don't think Scott's impressive debut last year in Boston will have much effect on the decision. This should be a pretty good ST battle.
Yeah, he got a crucial dp last night in the WBC, but he reached out for the ball. If he'd have gotten to it, I 'm pretty sure he would only have been able to get the guy at first. Luckily he didn't get to it.
Well, RR will certainly be the first lefty out of the pen - it shouldn't be that hard to find a low-leverage situation to plug Abad in for a few batters.
But I do think the doom and gloom on him is a bit over the top. He's given up 2H and 2BB with 5K's in 4IP this Spring.
In the WBC he did give up a RBI double to Brandon Crawford but he also came in yesterday in the 5th inning of a scoreless game with Ven with runners on the corners and 1 out and managed to get Atlanta's Ender Inciarte to ground into an inning-ending DP. He then started the next inning with a K of Rougned Odor.
Overall in the WBC he's appeared 3 times and posted 2H, 0 R and 0 BB with 1K in 2.1 IP, picking up a hold and a win.
So altogether he's pitched:
6.1 IP and given up 4H 2BB 1HR (to Sean Coyle!) with 6K's and a 1.42 ERA this Spring in 7 combined appearances. To be sure it's too small a sample size to mean anything, but I guess I don't get the "way he's been pitching" comment.
Guess it depends whether you look at his full-season stats from last year or just his stats with the Red Sox. Over the whole season, he had a 118 ERA+ and a 3.98 FIP, which is not great for a reliever but is serviceable I would think for a second lefty out of the pen. But he was atrocious, obviously, during his time with the Sox - 73 ERA+ and a 5.44 FIP. In general throughout his career his stats have swung pretty wildly between being a solid BP arm to pretty terrible, but given he switched between two AL teams I don't see any obvious reason why his stats should have taken such a dive after coming to the Red Sox (Target Field isn't a huge pitcher's park, for example).
So I tend to agree there's little downside in keeping him initially to see whether the terrible performance last season with the Sox was a statistical blip or emblematic of something more long-term. I doubt that the $1.5m owed to him post-March 29 would make much of a difference in the decision.
So I tend to agree there's little downside in keeping him initially to see whether the terrible performance last season with the Sox was a statistical blip or emblematic of something more long-term. I doubt that the $1.5m owed to him post-March 29 would make much of a difference in the decision.
Unless he's done this over the objections of the FO, I don't see Abad getting dinged for pitching in the WBC. It would really look bad for Bogaerts to be given the a-okay (and with a position switch!) while Abad loses his job over playing in it.
The CBT savings of cutting Abad before 3/29 is only $1.5M, and last I checked the Sox had about a $10MM cushion including Abad's full salary. So that's peanuts.
Now, I get that folks are down on Abad, because first impressions count and the bomb from Cano was majestic. Plus, he predictably wasn't good against RHH. But relievers are volatile, and with that comes upside volatility as well as downside. He's going to be the 11th man in the bullpen, if anything, so hopefully he'll get used against LHH almost exclusively.
That's not necessarily a good use of $2MM, but it's also not like Scott or Olmos have any useful MLB track record to substantiate the argument that either of them is a good bet to be better than Abad and not lose games themselves. That's an impossible standard to set for the last few guys out of the pen.
He was atrocious in August. In Sep, albeit in low-leverage innings, he had 5 clean appearances out of 6. In 5 appearances he pitched 2 1/3 IP and allowed 1H no BB and had 1K. In the 6th, against the MFY, he gave up a BB and a Billy Butler HR in the 9th to turn a laugher into a 7-4 game which required Kimbrel to close out.
August was horrendous - but we are talking 1 frickin' month!
I agree the financial considerations are not large, but they could be the difference if the Sox think Scott and/or Olmos are equal bets to be a serviceable 2nd lefty as Abad. Plus those guys have options, and it's nice to have a couple guys with options to provide some roster flexibility.
His August was horrendous, but it was also a matter of three really bad outings wildly overshadowing the other nine (which ranged from good to blah).
I agree with Buzzkill, Abad may be a victim of a bad first impression rather than the horrendous pitcher some want to make him out to be. The prudent roster management is to start the year with Abad in the bullpen with Scott and Olmos in Pawtucket. The chances of Abad by himself putting the team into a situation where they lose the division or a playoff spot in April are remote enough that letting him have an extended tryout (for lack of a better term) through April won't be the end of the world. Especially knowing there are alternatives available if they want to move on quickly.
But they have the roster flexibility regardless of whether Olmos or Scott start the season in the majors or minors as, worst-case, they can simply DFA Abad and call one of those guys up. If they keep Abad to start the season they have three options for the 2nd lefty spot; if they cut Abad they only have two.
That's true, but then they have ~$1.5M less in funds to address potential needs at the trading deadline. (Assuming they insist on staying under the luxury tax.) Plus, the possibility exists that at some point the Sox may have six healthy starters and Pomeranz may be sent to the pen. Is having Scott or Olmos as 4th or 5th on the depth chart for second bullpen lefty worth ~$1.5M? I think the answer to that question lies in how much confidence the Sox have in these guys. If they clearly have more confidence in Abad I have no doubt they'll keep him. If not, I think he's gone March 29th.
That $1.5M also provides the MLB team with an insurance policy against RRoss getting injured or becoming ineffective.
Abad may not be good enough or pitch consistently enough to be handed the first LHRP job for an entire season, but at least he's been a 7th-8th inning guy against MLB hitters, without completely shitting the bed. With the Twins, I mean...
Right now, the Sox are down their two best setup arms, and praying Kelly can be the 8th inning guy. So until one or both of Smith and Thornburg are ready, how about not making things even more difficult for the pen by pruning off more branches than necessary. $1.5M just isn't that big a chunk of the payroll.
Abad may not be good enough or pitch consistently enough to be handed the first LHRP job for an entire season, but at least he's been a 7th-8th inning guy against MLB hitters, without completely shitting the bed. With the Twins, I mean...
Right now, the Sox are down their two best setup arms, and praying Kelly can be the 8th inning guy. So until one or both of Smith and Thornburg are ready, how about not making things even more difficult for the pen by pruning off more branches than necessary. $1.5M just isn't that big a chunk of the payroll.
If they dump Abad and another team picks him up, the other team would pick up a pro-rated portion of the MLB minimum, which is $535,000. It's not a lot, but it helps.
