Red Sox left-hander Felix Doubront was claimed on waivers by an unidentified team yesterday, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports. American League teams had waiver priority on Doubront, who has put together a solid season in Boston's rotation.
The 24-year-old has a 4.79 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 in 127 2/3 innings over the course of 23 starts for the Red Sox. He won't be arbitration eligible before the end of the 2013 season (he's a possible super two player) and will remain under team control through 2017.
Doubront was reportedly on waivers as early as August 16th. Either he’s on waivers for the second time (in which case the waivers are no longer revocable) or there’s been an erroneous report. Rosenthal has suggested the Red Sox could send Doubront to the Twins in a possible trade for Joe Mauer, who was recently placed on waivers.
I’m gonna go ahead and doubt that the Red Sox put Doubront on non-revocable waivers, so some piece of the report was wrong. You don’t generally just offer up young, controllable, talented starting pitching.
Yeah, either he was claimed earlier in the month and pulled back, or he wasn’t placed on waivers earlier this month and has just now been put on. There’s no way he was put on non-revocable waivers.
If he was claimed earlier and pulled back, then he would be on non-revocable waivers this time. I team can only pull back a player once per year.
Yeah, I know. What I was saying was, either the earlier report, or the new report is wrong; there’s no way he was put on waivers a second time.
If this is true, then the Cubs have to be all over this.
I’m sure a team before the Cubs would claim him.
If the Red Sox are trading for Mauer the Twins would have to eat a lot of the contract. The Sox just got rid of two large contracts. Why would they undo all of that cap flexibility with one player who in recent years has been hurt and numbers have slipped a bit.
I will possibly throw myself off a cliff if the Red Sox take the flexibility they got from erasing two albatross deals plus Gonzalez’s large contract…and turn around and get another albatross contract for a guy who plays a position that is already covered by Lavarnway and Saltalamacchia.
Money would come from the twins. And if it puts the contract under 100 mil. It would be worth it. Salty isnt the answer. Strikes out too much and joe callsa better game. Lavarnaway can back up and rotate with dh. Joe can play sime 1st. If money wotks to about 16 mil per. It doesnt become that dead weight. Plus its mauer. Good clubhouse guys are needed right now
if the twins have to pay much of the contract, they have no incentive to trade mauer
I get that, but if the Twins didn’t pick up part of it the Red Sox wouldn’t have much incentive to claim him.
I would have said the same thing about Carl Crawford.
I find it highly unlikely Mauer moves. He’s more valuable to the Twins than he is too anyone else.
I don’t see the logic. He’s more valuable to a horrible team that is 25 games under .500 where he takes up 23% of the payroll (and much more in the coming years)? Their prospects of competing in the coming years don’t look very good either. I’m not saying he’s going anywhere, but that is a flawed argument, in my opinion. Homegrown status only goes so far.
I can tell you don’t understand smaller markets. Joe Mauer is more than just a baseball player to the state of Minnesota. He IS their franchise and a perfect role model to all of the young athletes in the area. yes, he is overpaid for what he does on the field, but he makes up for it with all of the off-the-field stuff that he does
That contract is an albatross for certain. But he has an outstanding merchandising effect, and he brings direly needed fans to a small market. Going to a big market (i.e. Red Sox, those benefits are reduced).
I could be wrong, but I’m fairly certain that all MLB licensed merchandise revenue is split evenly between all teams, and if so, that argument doesn’t really hold any water. Also, ultimately, the only tried and true way to bring people to the ballpark in droves in a small market is to win. That is going to be very difficult with Mauer and his contract clogging up the payroll.
Mauer has a full no-trade clause and I doubt he’d want to leave the Twins. Also, this would fly in the face of the new mentality that the Sox’ ownership is going through about having long, expensive contract obligations. Mauer is signed through 2018 at $23 million per year.
Come on Ben, let’s be a little more accurate here.
Obviously, Ben didn’t report this. He is only passing along information that Rosenthal reported. That’s pretty much what this site does.
What if the sox get say 50 mil and joe mauer for Felix. So 92 mil for 6 yrs of mauer. 15 mil a yr for joe doesnt sound bad. Better then salty. Joe can play some 1st and dh. Keep loney for one more yr. Sign papi for one more yr. Still have lots of money left. Lineup next yr ciriaco elsburry.pedroia.papi mauer. Ross. Middlebrooks. Loney/lavarnaway. Nava/kalish. Im ok with that line up. Pitching not so much. Lester. Buch. Lackey. After that got nothing. Dont even know who 4-5 starters would be
I don’t know, I don’t see the Twins giving away the face of the their franchise and paying 50 million to do so.
and I know what he’s doing this season, but I wouldn’t pencil in Ciriaco and his .299 OBP over 8 minor league seasons into Boston’s lead off spot.
It was either him or aviles wasnt comfortable with that either. But fair points. The only way the sox take that deal though is if cash comes with it though.
Twins need 4 SP as bad as that sounds. They also need to finally either acquire, or begin to develop SP who do not throw rubbish as SP. doubrant is and probably never will be nothing more than a #4-5 SP, but he is not the typical, soft tossing Sp the twins have been running out there the last few seasons and he is young (24) and LH, plus 5 years of control left.
Still would not like to see Boston acquire the LT commitment for Mauer, if the Sox were going to have a huge deal? The Gonzalez one was safer and no reason to make a trade for this one. As for moving Doubrant? Sure, he might be able to help someone, but it’s not the big loss some may make it out to be, though he was doing much better before getting tired around a month ago.
I’m not really sure what to think of the idea of Mauer. On one hand, a lot of his value comes from the position he plays, but on the other hand, the Sox aren’t in desperate need of a catcher and wouldn’t likely want to play him there much for health concerns.
I guess the only way I could see it making sense for Boston is if the Twins send enough money with him to get his contract down to the point where he could make sense at 1B (say they send $40M to get it down to $100M, or $16.6M per year, could that make sense for Boston?).
I bet it’s the White Sox. They just lost Gavin Floyd to an elbow injury…
Tigers would claim Doubront to block Chicago before he got there.
Doubront is one of the few players I could totally see a non-contending team claiming due to his strikeout numbers, youth and team control.
Dubront for Ethier???
Only if they take Lackey.
Do not want
I doubt they trade him he has a good arm and is under team control for awhile
Strongly doubt this is anything. For me the only way this works is if Minnesota agreed to take on Lackeys deal or a decent chunk of money. Then I would still need Mauer to be open to playing 1B occasionally so Salty could catch against rhp. Then maybe toss them a guy like Doubront but honestly if we were getting Mauer I would rather just toss them Lavarnway. I think the best scenario between the Sox and Twins would be some kind of deal involving Morneau. We need Doubront, he was doing great until his first full season caught up with him. I expect him to get better next season so I hope they hold onto him.
I almost wonder if the Red Sox would trade Doubront to the Twins in exchange for Willingham and taking the remainder off of Justin Morneau’s salary. Morneau’s been tearing the cover off the ball the last two months – it’d fill both holes and add a ton of power to their lineup.. Plus with Willingham there another year, it gives them a lot of leverage on Cody Ross or just the option to walk away from Ross completely and bet on the better Willingham. They’d basically be upgrading their roster for $21 million in 2 positions and freeing up a rotation spot to 1.) get Lackey innings and 2.) pursue an upgrade in the offseason. Morneau’s not a guy I’m wild about, but at a year, I could stomach taking him given that Willingham’s contract is a total bargain. If Doubront is the guy who goes – then maybe the Twins even eat say – $3 million on Morneau’s deal… Who knows.
But I don’t think this is the last we hear of the Twins-Red Sox talking.
Rosenthal seems desperate to put the Red Sox right back in the same contract hole.
It doesn’t make any sense to put him on waivers. He’s too good of the young pitcher to make it past the American League. So why would you trade him away to another American League team when he’s young and has the potential to be a good number two pitcher?
I think there is a chance that the Blue jays picked him up. Maybe we could get him for John Farrell if they want him that badly.
Cubs are all over this,if not, should be. I assume Boston would pullhim back and work out a trade if something did happen. minor leaguer for Doubront nice #4 or #5 pitcher to have.
Next year’s rotation I think
Matt Garza
Jeff Samardzija
Travis Wood
Chris Rusin/ Brooks Raley hopefully Doubront
Arodys Vizcaino
The Sox trading for Mauer would be worse than their signing Crawford. Mauer has no power at all.
and crawford has tons of power??? who has the higher career BA or OBP??
If the Twins became trade partners I like the sound of Morneau and Willingham in exchange for Doubie, Aceves, Webster, Brentz and Sands( or some combo).
I would not like the idea of trading Aceves , Doubrount and Webster as they could be the cornerstone of a staff for years to come but Morneau and Willingham could help the Sox.