Casas has a left rib fracture. Transferred to the 60 Day IL on 4/27.
- Thread starter soxhop411
- Start date
Yeah, I get it. But we are talking about the least bad option if Casas is out. The thing I like about Bell is that he could play tomorrow.
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Is there a reason to believe that any of those trade options would be available in late April without a significant overpay? I know that we as fans can be quick to declare a team out of it and going nowhere, but front offices don't generally operate that way. Even the shitty teams aren't going to overtly wave a white flag four weeks into the season. They're not going to give away anyone for nothing.
My guess is that Cron will be Breslow's first call. He was in spring training with the team so they know him and where his abilities are, unless he's deteriorated a lot in the last four weeks. That doesn't necessarily rule out other options, but it might be the fastest option to get up to speed (short of promoting someone like Kavadas from within).
The answer can't be Bobby D until Casas comes back. This is exactly why I was crying out for a corner infielder all winter.
I might take Cron out of the conversation. He had reoccurring back issues last year and IIRC there was some talk that he really didn't seem to be moving around all that well during the preseason. I'm guessing that other FA options might take at least a month to get into game shape so if they go that route they're going to need a filler until then. Drury is interesting to me. He's started slow this season, but put together a pretty good year in '23 and if he can provide similar production from the right side for the Sox that definitely addresses another need. In his career he's played 98 games (74 starts) at 1B, but the overwhelming majority of those have come since '22 (80 games, 59 starts). Others can better determine what sort of glove he has at the position, but if/when we get a healthy Casas back Drury can fill in at a variety of positions. His base salary is $8.5M, so let's say the balance of that would be somewhere between $7-7.5M. What sort of package might it reasonably take to swing a deal?
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Sure, many if not most of us thought similar at some point, but the reality was that Casas and Devers were going to be penciled in for nearly every game and with a full time DH there was going to be little desire for a FA CI to want to come here. Shitty as he's been, Dalbec is convenient in that he's close, has options and isn't blocking anyone else in the system ATM.
I listened to Casas interview and he said he first felt it during the Cleveland series. He tried to play through it until he couldn’t.
Yeah I didn't really finish my thought there as I wasn't quite sure where I was headed with it so I abandoned it. Or thought I had and it showed up with another post LOL. I think I was going to try to make a point that at $16.5M I wouldn't expect Miami to kick in much cash for a lottery ticket and that it might require more of a prospect.
Josh Bell is a pretty bad defensive 1B as well, no? What is the point of having guys like Kavadas in the system if not to play them when everyone else gets injured? If Casas is down for a significant period of time, Josh Bell isn't going to push us to the playoffs anyway. Kavadas is 26 in October, he isn't getting any younger. Grissom and O'Neill get back soon, so Reyes can go back to being the utility guy, Devers at 3B, Rafaela at SS, and platoon Dalbec and Kavadas at 1B. Trading anything for Josh Bell to be the 1B on a team without realistic championship aspirations seems crazy when he is a replacement level player.
Beyond the prospect cost, does anyone think this ownership group would green light adding $5M to $10M+ to this year’s payroll? This is a group that consistently chose the cheapest option (or in some cases did nothing) to build out depth in the offseason. Do we think the performance over the past month is enough to convince them to reverse course?
Sure, and yet there are still a few unsigned guys floating around. I'm sure one of them would gladly be collecting a check right now.
A rotation of giving Casas, Yoshida, and Raffy each one day off every two weeks, plus having Yoshida play one outfield game every two weeks would provide over 50 starts at 1st, 3rd, and DH before anyone got dinged up. Thinking that Bobby should be any part of the equation here was the mistake.
This is an interesting question. To date this pitching staff has far outperformed anyone's expectations. The sustainability at this level is unlikely, but it would really be a nice show of support to try to fill the possible hole that Casas is going to leave. In addition to the pitching there are other guys who have really been stepping up. O'Neill's been a star at the plate and solid in the OF. Abreu seems to be finding another gear on both sides of the plate, Duran's giving us more of the promise he showed last season and the catching tandam of Wongers and Wanger have been exceptional so far. I really think these guys deserve to feel as though the organization recognizes what they've done so far.
I don't see the point in signing Belt because of him being a LHH unless Casas is out for the season - ditto trades. I think Kavadas would be overmatched because of that ugly k-rate.
If they're just going to throw Reyes at 1b with no experience, I'd rather that guy be Sogard instead. Whatever defensive value or bat to ball skills Pablo had seems to be gone and Sogard is supposedly better than average. He's a switch hitter too and is at least only 26.
If they're just going to throw Reyes at 1b with no experience, I'd rather that guy be Sogard instead. Whatever defensive value or bat to ball skills Pablo had seems to be gone and Sogard is supposedly better than average. He's a switch hitter too and is at least only 26.
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Wondering who watched the game. Dalbec was absolutely screwed in two at bats. Both at bats had 2 called strikes on balls outside the zone. He also hit a hard line drive at the 3B for an out and drew a walk. Defense was acceptable.
Ugh that one in the third inning was insane. TWO blown calls with men on. I'm fine with Dalbec until someone tells me Casas is out til the second half or so. Just gimme sound defense and the odd pop. You can't just beam some totally solid player into the position in April or May when the position belongs to a keystone player who will be back to reclaim it soon. A replacement good-glove platoon bat, sure, but you guys are scrolling through the options and they are pretty picked over.
Yes, of course, nobody is excited about his bat going forward. But with Devers and O'Neil back, I suppose we can live with it IF he's a stabilizer defensively.
Dalbec can defend 3B and 1B adequately and would be fine backing up either and/or both spots. The problem is that reserves are already manning every other infield position and one in the outfield. Fortunately, we’re winning.
His slash line the past two seasons is 147/210/227. Ozzie Smith couldn’t have stayed until the lineup with that production. So no, we can’t live with that from 1B if Casas is out, and I expect the Red Sox will not.
Has anyone mentioned Jared Walsh? Texas just DFA'd him because Nate Lowe came back. He's not awful.
Scouring the AAA leaderboards…what about Mike Ford? He’s with the Reds now and I imagine he could be had for some C-level prospect. He was actually pretty decent with Seattle last year with a 123 wRC+ last year in 251 PAs.
He is a bad fit for Fenway, lefty pull power. You can see the numbers here in Expected Home Runs By Park:
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/mike-ford-645801?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb
This is true! But given our constraints (financial but also a guy that can be easily dumped if Casas returns) and where we are in the season, I don’t think you’re going to find a perfect fit. I’m just looking for a guy that will put together professional plate appearances and play competent defense.
Edit: removed the Dalbec slander
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Realistically, does the team want to do a transaction to acquire a marginal guy, then pay him money, to cover a position for a short amount of time? How many more hits does Mike Ford get than Dalbec, and how much are you paying for that? If they can find a guy who is an upgrade now and would have value after Casas returns, they would probably be interested, but Ford or any meh LHH with an unremarkable defensive record is out the door as soon as Casas can play.
If Casas is out for say, two months, then yes, it’s worth incurring some expense to not play a guy whose offense would be historically bad for a 1B. Devil’s in the details as always, but the bar for improvement is so low that they should be able to pull it off easily without costing any “future wins”.
I can’t believe there’s an appetite for “yeah, maybe we can just ride it out with Dalbec” given the numbers he’s put up the past three seasons. Shortstops don't hit like he has and keep their jobs.
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Right. I didn’t want to turn this into a trash Dalbec thread but the team just simply can’t keep running him out there and hoping for better results. Saying his offense is historically bad isn’t even hyperbole at this point. Dalbec is striking out in 53% of his PAs the past two years. That’s five percentage points worse than any other season by a non-pitcher in the modern era (min 100 PAs). He has somehow been worth a negative half win in only 33 PAs this year. The bar is just so incredibly low.
I'm not sure if/how this has affected him this year, but Walsh may not be a great option at this point. An article from last May...
https://theathletic.com/4495101/2023/05/06/angels-jared-walsh-neurological-issues/
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Clearly Dalbec has a problem.
But last year in AAA he clubbed 33 homers with a .938 OPS. That should not be translating (at age 28) into a .188 OPS in the majors. If you want to know why the team keeps giving him ML ABs, that's why.
We should note they did send him down for Romy Gonzalez, who had no such track record but could play SS. Then injuries called him back up. So I don't think they're committed to a Bobby Dalbec restoration project of some kind.
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I also don't think that the ML batting coaches are helping. It's really gross ineptitude you can't get a guy with a .938 OPS to do better. Hamilton, Valdez, Rafaela, Yoshida - these guys all have neutral-context talent that isn't being actualized at the ML level.
This is, for me at least, an enormous red flag when we're talking about trading for someone like Bell and hoping he'll continue to produce at a 79 OPS+ clip. Or hoping the hitting coaches will unkink him to be something closer to his career average.
I think Wil Myers is still available. Only played 37 games last year (and just 77 the year before) but in 2022 he had a 106 ops+ and 1.1 bWAR. You probably could get him for basically nothing and there's a reasonable chance he's still a semi-decent major league player.
Even with the strong numbers at AAA last year, Dalbec had a 34% K rate. And as much as I've been against his presence on the roster up to this point, I get that it's been a temporary solution to an extremely unusual, and hopefully (at the time) short-term, injury situation. But now, if the situation with Casas is long term, there is absolutely no way they can have Bobby Dalbec as an every day player at 1B.
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Is he actually playing anywhere ATM? From what I could see the Reds DFAed him last June and haven't found anything more recent on his status.
If we're looking at replacing Casas for a couple of months (BTW we and the Sox won't know that for sure until the results from Casas' most recent scan, scheduled for today I think, are in) most FA types are likely to take at least half of that time to get into playing shape. Should Casas miss significant time think the most likely route a replacement via trade or finding a way to elevate someone in house.
Oh, I'm not saying that Dalbec should be an ongoing, months-long replacement for any player on the team. No matter what the cause, at this point I don't have any faith in the ML staff's ability to iron him out into even a .700 OPS guy. I'm just pushing back a bit at this too easy narrative that Dalbec had a cold Sept. and a cold April and there are zero other datapoints so nutty craziness abounds!
I also think a lot of the brainstorming here has shown there's not a ton of low-hanging fruit to be plucked.
At this point, I'd probably consider calling up Kavadas. He's enjoying a hot April. And if you keep him away from the ML hitting coaches, he may translate into that OKish defender who can outhit Dalbec and Reyes for a couple of weeks.
Looking at his Instagram, Wil Myers and his wife just had their first child like a week ago. I don’t think he’s looking to get back into baseball right now.
Really no other comments on Refsnyder to 1B? IIRC he did take some reps there in ST and had some past experience there. I'd honestly rather take that route over signing some guy that's been fishing or golfing the past two months. Kavadas also preferable.
He's definitely an in-house option as are Reyes and Dalbec. I believe that Cora mentioned this yesterday pre-game. In the short term this is what we are likely to see until
A) There is a more definitive timetable on Casas
B) There is a path toward moving Kavadas onto the 40 man
C) A longer range plan can be addressed if needed.