Boston’s recent flurry of moves — to say nothing of its seeming glut of outfielders and stockpile of young talent — have left the league waiting to see what strategic direction GM Ben Cherington takes, Andy Martino of the New York Daily News writes. The organization has given signals that it is lining up some further major transactions, with starting pitching an obvious possible focus, but possibilities abound.
Here are some notes that bear on the question of how Boston will proceed:
- The Red Sox are not presently concerned with sorting out playing time for next season, and will continue to play top prospect Mookie Betts in the outfield for the balance of the year, reports Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com. Cherington said that he hopes all three of the team’s unproven center field options — Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and the recently-signed Rusney Castillo — will pan out, indicating that decisions as to who plays (and where) will be sorted out in the future.
- Assistant GM Mike Hazen weighted in on the matter as well, telling Dennis & Callahan of WEEI.com (via WEEI.com’s Jerry Spar) that he envisions both Betts and Castillo being on the roster next year. Other changes, however, could be afoot. “We know we have some redundancies in some areas, we have some holes in other areas that need to be plugged,” he said. “And there’s two ways we’re going to plug those holes. We’re going to do it with money in the free agent market, and we’re going to be able to do it via trade, having good major league players, not just minor league players to trade.”
- Hazen specifically mentioned that the team has power bats that it could make available, noting that could represent a valuable commodity on the trade market. Of course, two of the main pieces of the overfilled outfield mix — recently-acquired corner bats Yoenis Cespedes and Allen Craig — would seem to be at least hypothetical trade candidates. The 2015 free agent crop does have some power options available, with players like Nelson Cruz, Michael Morse, and Josh Willingham set to hit the open market.
With so much MLB and MLB-ready hitting, I will be stunned if Cole Hamels is not their Opening Day starter. I just see them preferring to trade some depth for Hamels’ contract, as opposed to spending $160M+ on Lester.
Would take more than depth. Betts + Owens + two or three of the rest of the top 7. I think I’d rather sign Lester or Scherzer, maybe use some of those kids to trade for a more sure-thing hitter.
No way Philly gets that much for Hamels unless they plan on eating a chunk of money of his contract. Betts, owens and two or three other top 7s is a package for Stanton maybe, but I don’t think Hamels has that much value given the money owed to him. I think a ML ready player (Middlebrooks), along witha couple mid tiered prospects (Webster/De la rosa types) gets it done.
Amaro has made it pretty clear that it’ll take a king’s ransom to get Hamels.
Middlebrooks has no value at all. He would be a throw in at best. Absolutely 0% chance he’d be the headlining player in a Hamels deal.
After this year Cole Hamels will have 8 straight years of at least 3.5 WAR is only 30 with with a very reasonable contract and Philly thinks they can contend within 4 years. Gunna take a serious haul to get him.
Deal doesn’t get done without one of Betts, Bogarerts, Swihart, or Owens. Potentially could take two of them.
OF beyond 2015 locked up are unproven Castillo and Nava (Assuming Craig goes full time 1B after Nap walks).
I think if Castillo works out and Vic is healthy you have Betts do another year in AAA (still only 21), give JBJ one more try at AAA, and have Nava + Craig as backup bench options.
Definitely two of those. Knowing Amaro, probably three.
I agree with most of what you said, though I don’t think Nava is necessarily part of the team’s plans for 2015. I was somewhat surprised that he wasn’t traded last week.
In 90 Games Nava has been worth almost 2 WAR despite a terrible start to the season. And he has a 113 WRC+ against right handed pitchers this year and 125 WRC+ in his career. As a backup maybe platoon option at LF, RF, 1B that’s pretty good. I don’t want to give up on him just yet!
It is. But that makes him a more appealing trade target and I think he’s fallen out of favor with the Sox.
I think they’ll go after a LHH 3rd base to help balance out the lineup, I hope they don’t trade Betts but I think he’ll probably go to get Hamels, and it won’t take much more than Betts to get him
I was thinking of a lefty hitting third baseman as well. Chase Headley could be a good deal. May only be looking for a one year bounce back contract. He still plays solid defense at 3rd & his bat could come around playing half his games at Fenway.
I am all for Cole Hamels but at the price of those prospects I would pass. Spend money on Shields. Maybe go after a Masterson who could be looking for a 1 year deal to reestablish his value. I would even rather go after Vargas, Santana or Hammel instead of trading away top guys. Now 2 guys that could match up well would be Tyson Ross & Johnny Cueto. Ross would cost a lot more but I would prefer giving them prospects over Hamels. And Cueto will only have one year on his deal so shouldn’t cost as much. Then you have a year to extend him.