One of Red Sox GM Ben Cherington's toughest tasks this season will be finding fourth and fifth starters, writes Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe. Cherington could do it by pursuing the top free agent hurlers on the open market or try to bolster the rotation via trade. It's widely expected that the White Sox will make either Gavin Floyd or John Danks available and Cafardo wonders if the Red Sox could get Anibal Sanchez back from the Marlins. Free agent Hiroki Kuroda is a likely target but appears to be out of reach. The veteran declined a chance to be traded to the Sox last season as he didn’t want to play anywhere but Los Angeles. Here's more from Cafardo..
- Free agent Michael Cuddyer isn't as high of a priority for the Phillies as portrayed by the media. A major league source characterized him as "a middle priority" and while Philadelphia would love to have him, the club isn't going to "go crazy" to make it happen.
- It's widely believed that Grady Sizemore could be had for a bargain price but the center fielder has a few teams pursuing him, including the Red Sox. However, his talks with Boston are in very preliminary stages, and his injury history and left-handed bat mean that he's an unlikely fit.
- An agent told Cafardo that the Marlins' offers to Albert Pujols, Mark Buehrle, and Jose Reyes should be taken seriously and are not for show.
- If the Marlins land Pujols or Prince Fielder, first baseman Gaby Sanchez will be major trade bait for the club.
- If the Red Sox don't make a lot of pitching moves, we could see Alfredo Aceves moved into the rotation. The right-hander pushed to start in the past but Terry Francona thought Aceves was too valuable to remove from his bullpen role.
- A National League scout says that center fielder Yoenis Cespedes is likely to be moved to one of the corner outfield spots in the majors. Yesterday, we learned that the Cuban defector may not become a free agent for two months.
I’d rather the Sox sign Aceves to be that 7th/8th inning option. I don’t think he has the same value as a starter.
3 years I’n a row w no playoffs?
Not true?
If only Gaby Sanchez could play Left Field, the Braves could steal him like they did Uggla.
Contrary to you name, this is an illogical comment.
First,I’d hardly call Uggla a “steal”; the Marlins owed him 11-13m$ for arbitration that year, then the Braves extended him by an addition 5 years…steal, i think not. Thats alot of $$.
Second, Gaby Sanchez is paid at league minimum, young, durable, high upside, low risk player. Under tream control for 4 more years i think, no arb until 2014.
There will be no stealing of him. He can sit on the bench and back up Pujols or Fielder if it happens for what he is paid if a good trade doesn’t come along. That’s a hell of a back up first baseman.
Steal as in what we sent to Florida for him. Money wise, yeah, we did add payroll. As for Sanchez, if they do sign Pujols/Fielder, he is being traded. He is a starter, not a bench player.
you were singing a different tune before the all star break. uggla was pretty terrible last year, minus the 2nd half hr’s.
You are right, I was. But the second half for him wasn’t all about home runs. Cough* 33-game hit streak?
Hit streaks: the greatest ever predictor of performance ever!!
Heh… Yeah… That’s just part of it though. I said that to prove that he can be consistently good just as much as he can be consistently bad.
My wording was bad. Here’s what I was trying to say: Although the 33 game hit streak looks gaudy right now, people need to understand the prerequisite for a hit streak. A guy can go 1-for-4 or 1-for-5 for 40 straight games and still come out of it with a BA only slightly north of the Mendoza line.
Yeah, and I completely agree. Freddie Freeman had a 28 game or so hitting streak, in which he compiled more hits than Ugglas 33. Although having a hitting streak as long as 33 games is more impressive cause he kept it going longer.
Red Sox still need a closer and a DH. I say trade Kevin Youkilis, Felix Doubront, and Carl Crawford (may have to pay some of his salary) for Huston Street and Todd Helton. I know it is more or less a pipe dream, and it may make sense to leave out CC, but trading Youk and Doubront for Street and Helton seems reasonable. Then move Aceves to the rotation and sign Matt Capps for more insurance in the pen.
Rotation:
Beckett
Lester
Buccholz
Aceves
(someone else)
Probably more or less a pipe dream, but it’s worth a try. I doubt Carl Crawford gets moved. Cherington says he wants him.
You must be looking for fantasy baseball….it hasn’t started yet.
Like I said, it was more or less a pipe dream. Just wanted to throw it out there.
Hello! Holy cow, eat more chicken.
link to i.imgur.com
That was almost exactly my reaction
Ha its the Liar Liar guy
Carl Crawford has one bad year and Boston fans through him in the gutter… unreal. He is going to be fine
It’s not about one bad year. It’s about a horrendous signing. Even if he produces, he isn’t worth what he got paid.
Huston Street? are you serious? the guy had a 1.22 WHIP last year compared to Bard’s 0.96 WHIP. If you want a shut down 9th inning guy, Bard is the man. No need to waste money or trade chips on a closer. Use that dough to fill in the two starting slots.
Huston Street? are you serious? the guy had a 1.22 WHIP last year compared to Bard’s 0.96 WHIP. If you want a shut down 9th inning guy, Bard is the man. No need to waste money or trade chips on a closer. Use that dough to fill in the two starting slots.
Sign Grady to a Beltre type deal. That will give Kalish one more year to prepare for the majors!
I think Reddick is better than Kalish.
at not being injured last year
Okay, but he’s not.
He is until proven worse.
He was proven worse every year they were coming up through the minors together, and scouts have always said he was worse. Unless of course you only count what they’ve done in the majors, but then he’s also better than Harper until proven worse…
I’ve always found Aceves W/L record and W/L percentage fascinating.
Ace is suited to relief, not starting. He might breakdown starting with back problems.
Might want to check out his terrible xFIP too.
I still can’t believe the Marlins would seriously go pay 20+ mil for Pujols or Fielder instead of keeping Sanchez for the minimum. The guy is good for an .800 OPS with 20+ HR. Not to mention controlled for the next 4 years and wont reach the 20mil price mark
But Pujols and Fielder are both BETTER. Plus, they bring in fan revenue with those guys.
They will greatly help generate fan interest that Gaby Sanchez simply can’t match.
Not a bad guy to have riding the pine in case of an injury! Welcome to the new Marlins.
Ug…that stupid Papalbon signing. We STILL need a bat and now it’s going to be tough to get a decent one seeing as all the money went for a new closer. Oy…
Trade Carl Crawford to the Marlins for Logan Morrison, Anibal Sanchez and Greg Dobbs.
Holy crap…
I wouldn’t even give LoMo straight up for Crawford.
I wouldnt give them anything unless they pay the full contract except about 5 mil per year
I sure as hell dont give up Lomo or A Sanchez.
Crazy Sox fans
1 bad year and Crawford is a 5million dollar per year player?
my first reaction was to laugh, then to say go bleep yourself.
Trade Carl Crawford to the Miami Marlins for Logan Morrison (whose personality they don’t like), Anibal Sanchez and Steve Cishek (a reliever with a 2.63 ERA, 55 K’s and 1.17 WHIP in 55 IP for the Marlins in 2011).
this site is overflowing with derp lately
Crawford for Morrison alone seems like a stretch.
Red Sox would have to eat up at least half that contract to work(Crawford owed 120mill over 6yrs; Sox would eat 48mill; Marlins owe crawford 6yr 72mill).
Marlins Lineup:
1- Reyes SS(Fa Signing)
2- Crawford LF
3- Hanley CF
4- Stanton RF
5- A.Ramirez(FA signing)
6- G.Sanchez 1b
7- Buck C
8- Infante 2b
Not going to happen.. in fact I think the Marlins are bluffing. They wont sign anyone if they really dont offer the right price.. just because they had a makeover doesnt mean every allstar is going to head south.
You realize that by moving to a new stadium they need to generate fan interest more than ever, right?
New stadium or not they still needs fans.
Ok so they just spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a stadium. If they don’t capitalize on the interest in the new stadium and jerseys, they’ll never recover that money.
Lomo >>> Crawford
Lomo is not a better baseball player than Crawford. Preferring him because of their respective salaries might be somewhat reasonable, but Lomo is not “>” Crawford.
Keep drinking Colonel…say hi to Lackey for me.
An agent told Cafardo that the Marlins’ offers to Pujold, Buehrle and Reyes should be taken seriously and are not for show. Actually, I believe Carfado and the Marlins. They might get these deals wrapped up early this week. I don’t know if I agree with the strategy, but it wouldn’t surprise me if all this happened by late Tuesday. I hope the Orioles do something similar with other players either via trade or free agency. I am not holding my breathe, but I can always hope!
“An agent told Cafardo that the Marlins’ offers to Pujols, Buehrle, and Reyes should be taken seriously and are not for show.”
Miami: Ok guys… so you saw the stadium, uniforms, and we took you out to lunch in South Beach… what do you say?
Pujols, Buehrle, Reyes: ….?
Miami: Oh, you want money in this deal?
Pujols, Buehrle, Reyes: ….?
Miami: Damn…Should have offered them dessert.
Funny fail.
You must be 1 of the 6 fans who show up to the Malins games.
Wow, that’s so clever.
ur #2 im guessing?
They were going to offer them desert, but they wanted too many slices of key-lime pie. A passer-by quoted Pujols who demanded “…Not one, not two, not three, not four….”
Your breakin my balls here Pujols, your breakin my balls.
Laughed at you, not with you. Will love to repost all these jokes then guys start signing with them
This is just spitballin’, so please, nobody take me so seriously as to think I’m suggesting any of this is a done deal, but…
IF the Marlins signed both a 1B (Fielder or Pujols) AND Reyes, I assume they’d move Hanley Ramirez to 3B?
IF they had 1B, SS, and 3B occupied by high-paid superstars, I assume they’d have highly-valued trade chips in both Gaby Sanchez and Matt Dominguez?
IF there is a team with pitching talent they would be okay with moving who could use young, promising, cost-controlled corner infielders, I assume they’d match up well in a trade with that team?
Who might that team be? Oakland? White Sox? Any other ideas, folks?
IF they really plan to spend money
You are an ANGRY BIRD aren’t you. Hate on them Fish Bird!
No just think its funny that every 2 minutes there is a post about the Marlins being intrested in a top prospect followed buy a post that say their offers are a joke. Who is running that circus down there?
Aww, going to lose your best player and now your mad, poor birdy~ It’ll be fine we’ll take good care of him :)
Will you? Aww thanks, can you make sure LaBron wins a championship too… like he did last year?
Can you make sure your team win a … Oh wait, your city doesn’t have an NBA team. It’s fine~ you can always cheer for the Heats we certainly don’t mind.
Oh did you guys not win last year? Im sorry I dont follow the NBA I just read that in your local news paper.
Okay lets stop. I don’t follow basketball even if I did I wouldn’t be following the Heats. You guys are the world series champions and we aren’t. even without Pujols (with the Marlins or not) I’m sure the Cardinals will still be contenders.
Welcome to MLB Trade Rumors.
The Heats ,lol guess you don’t like the jazzs either
#1….Are you really making fun of a city for not having an NBA team? The NBA is a pathetic excuse for basketball. I really don’t know how anyone can stand to watch it.
#2….You can talk all this crap about Albert going there, but it’s not happening. It’s a cute little story that everyone is jumping on. They’ll probably end up with Reyes and say they tried for the best.
#3….IF somehow the Marlins “Werthed” the Cardinals and gave Albert something crazy to get him, he’s already left his best 11 years in St. Louis. No matter where he goes he will be lucky to achieve half of what he did in St. Louis.
#1 The_BiRDS provoked me lol
#2 Getting Reyes for us is succeeding. Pujols is a dream but I believe that dream can come true.
#3 I’m sure where ever he goes whether he stays or not he will still have many more years of success.
I’d love to get Gio from Oakland. Just a matter of what they would want. Lomo is apparently off-limits, so I wonder if a package of Gaby, Dominguez and maybe Coghlan would get it done.
doubt it, but it is possible
Come redsox fans one bad year and u hating on crawford ? Give him a break !!!
See above.
It really isnt his fault that he was offered such a huge contract, but a guy who cant hit LHP will never live up to it.
It’s the market. Anytime you fail in one of the big 3 markets and you’re paid a ton of money (Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez, Carl Crawford) you’re going to have haters.
If the Sox wanted to hold the line on starting pitching, they could do with Lester, Beckett, Buchholz, Aceves and Wakefield or a scrap heap, cross your fingers starter–for the time being.
Wakefield needs to retire. When he starts, he throws BP to the other team.
Alfredo Aceves: 2.61 ERA, 4.03 FIP, 4.77 xFIP.
I can see why Francona would want to only use him in small doses. Looks like a whole lotta luck and the mirage of reliever ERA (and pitcher W-L, smh) that Boston fans even think he has any kind of value. One simply cannot expect a pitcher to sustain a 2+ run diff between his ERA and xFIP over many seasons. Either get an unreal defense behind him or expect massive regression.
When you consider the alternatives Aceves would have been a welcomed addition to the rotation toward the end of the season.
We already have one of the better defenses in the MLB behind him.
Cant wait to see all the Cardinals fans faces when the Cubs make a trade for Pujols… With our new manager Theo on the team now there is no doubt we will win the World Series. Watch out Cardinal nation theres a new number 1 in the central this year!
I cant wait to see Cardinals fan faces when the Cubs trade for Pujols! With our new manager Theo theres no doubt the Cubbies are going to win the World Series next year! Theres a new #1 in the central now St. Louis.
Theo isn’t the Cubs manager. He’s the President.
Same thing
Woops didnt mean to post that twice but its ok. dont mind STL fans reading it 2 times LOL
At this point in their careers Reyes, Pujols, and Buehrle are not going to make a lateral move to the Marlins. Sorry fish fans your teams reputation precedes itself
Hey, I’ve never believed in psychics before so why should I start believing now?
LA Dodgers, if they do not sign Grady Sizemore, it is a complete failure. MLB and Grady’s agent should sit down now and work out a deal together, its a perfect fit for everyone, the warm weather in April would also be great for his knees.