Peter Gammons made his weekly appearance on WEEI’s Big Show today, and as always, dished about some possible Red Sox moves. Ethan Landy has the full transcript available, but here are some of the more interesting tidbits…
- In regards to the Chris Snyder trade rumors, Gammons said the Sox would be hesitant about paying the catcher the rest of the $4.75MM he’s owed for this season and the $5.75MM owed for 2011. Gammons said the Red Sox would prefer to spend that money on “a big piece” at the trade deadline.
- Gammons tabs Minnesota prospect Wilson Ramos as “probably the best [catcher] in the minor leagues that might be traded,” though he thinks a deal is a longshot since the Twins would ask for Daniel Bard or Clay Buchholz in return. A few weeks ago, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes looked at what the Twins might do with Ramos.
- Should Boston pick up another catcher, of course, that would leave Victor Martinez out of a position what with Kevin Youkilis at first and Adrian Beltre at third. Gammons points out that the Sox would face a tough decision about what to do with “three DH’s on the roster,” counting Martinez along with David Ortiz and Mike Lowell.
- Gammons reiterated a past point about how catching prospect Mark Wagner may have more value to Boston than Ortiz at this stage, given Wagner’s defensive skills and Ortiz’s struggles at the plate. Though, as Gammons notes, “they set this team up to get offense out of catcher and DH, so that is a tough change in direction without a real answer.”
maybe they can trade detroit for gerald laird. offensive liability? maybe. but has gold glove defense
Laird will be a free agent after this season and he is a Scott Boras client. I don’t think that they should give up on Ortiz just yet, but I’d only give him until early May. The Red Sox cannot afford to fall back too much more. If Victor Martinez does not improve behind the plate and if taking most of the catching duty is hurting his offense, then the Sox would have to release Ortiz to move Victor to DH/1B/(C for NL games).
Maybe Kurt Suzuki can be pried away from Oakland if they start tanking. They have to extend his contract after this season, they may not want to pay him what he can get through arbitration and he is great behind the plate.
How good is Ryan Doumit behind the plate? If he can do a decent job throwing out baserunners, he should draw intrest from the Red Sox.
better than v-mart. I’d say he’s average at best but maybe that’s just because I barelysee him at full strength since he is always hurt
I think Boston should acquire Adrian Gonzalez, no matter the cost. Then trade Beltre and a couple of C-Level pitching prospects to the Twins for Perkins and use him to get a good defensive catcher (maybe Snyder). Then, after A-Gon is on 1B, either release or trade both Ortiz and Lowell for anything, retire Varitek and make him special coach for the rest of the season and, finally, promote Mark Wagner to be the backup catcher.
The fix is so easy and simple, yet Epstein will not make the move. Dump ortiz and call up Wagner as a defensive/strong throwing defensive specialist and take a chance on him being nothing more than a Varitek equivalent of the last 1 1/2 seasons with the bat. he may even surprise with it.
No need to make a far sighted move on another team’s (Twins) prospect, not when they already have their own 3 best catching prospects raking early at High A and AA ball. Another 1 1/2, maybe 2 years and one should be ready and all seem to be able to hit, with 2 of them having well better than average arms and both good on defensive, beside good power.
No waiting on Lowell’s bat to come around, it WILL be there and other than 1 season long ago with the Fish, has never left.
i’d love to know why Beltre and 3rd base was mentioned in connection with Martinez. There is an urban legend going around the internet that Martinez was a middle infielder with the Indians before he was converted to catcher. This, like most urban legends, is a lie. Martinez was a shortstop – as a 17 year old. As soon as he signed with the Indians he was converted to catcher.
His future is a 1b/dh though, and when the Red Sox got him i thought he would be Ortiz’ replacement.
Beltre was mentioned because if he wasn’t there, Youkilis could move to 3B and Martinez could go to 1B.
The whole Victor Martinez situation really brings to light how baseball is covered across the league. I dont think anybody ever thought of Victor Martinez as Johnny Bench, Tony Pena, or Ivan Rodriguez behind the plate when he was in Cleveland but I would think that most people would think he was at least adequate. Now that people outside of the local Cleveland media are playing attention we can see that he cant defensively perform at a MLB level at all.
With his hitting in the toilet as well I think hes going to have a tough time finding a good contract once he hits free agency after this year.
The whole Victor Martinez situation really brings to light how baseball is covered across the league. I dont think anybody ever thought of Victor Martinez as Johnny Bench, Tony Pena, or Ivan Rodriguez behind the plate when he was in Cleveland but I would think that most people would think he was at least adequate. Now that people outside of the local Cleveland media are playing attention we can see that he cant defensively perform at a MLB level at all.
With his hitting in the toilet as well I think hes going to have a tough time finding a good contract once he hits free agency after this year.