The Red Sox lost their closer yesterday, and today GM Ben Cherington told reporters (including Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe) that losing their DH would affect what the team does in right field (Twitter link). If they're able to retain David Ortiz, they're unlikely to chase a big bat for the outfield. Scott Lauber of The Boston Herald provides a quote…
“There’s some interesting guys out there that could factor into our right-field mix,” said Cherington. “A lot of that depends again on David. If David’s here, we’re going to go in a certain direction with the outfield. If he’s not here, it sort of opens it up a little bit. There’s alternatives, both in free agency and in a trade market for guys that can play right field.”
Ortiz, 36 next week, hit .309/.398/.554 with 40 doubles and 29 home runs in 2011, his best output since 2007. Boston's right fielders, on the other hand, hit just .233/.299/.353 as J.D. Drew battled injuries and fill-ins like Josh Reddick, Mike Cameron, and Darnell McDonald struggled. Rick Ankiel and David DeJesus could represent low-cost right field solutions, though that is just speculation.
The Red Sox did not offer Ortiz a contract during the exclusive negotiating period, but yesterday we heard that the two sides have been talking.
I dont get why ortiz = not pursuing a RF ?
Just means they wont spend on Beltran, will go cheaper.
Smoke screen
You really don’t see it? B/c if they resign Ortiz, they don’t need to make up for that loss of production in RF. If he comes back, they get all of that production back, so RF doesn’t become a big need then for offensive output.
don’t see why they still wouldnt see if they could improve RF, its not like moneys an issue and/or there is someone on the market that is going to command a huge contract
“its not like moneys an issue”
Yes it is. The Red Sox absolutely have a budget, they’ve rarely exceeded the lux tax limit, and when they have they’ve barely gone over the limit. The Red Sox have a lot of expiring contracts, but pay bumps to arb players and Gonzalez almost negate that. The Red Sox can’t sign Ortiz, Beltran, and then make the necessary upgrades to the pitching staff.
They just saved all the money from paps and again, there is no OF on the market that is going to command a huge contract.
I would understand if they said no we’re not in on carl crawford, but there’s nothing like that available this offseason.
and………the JD Drew $, and his expired contract
Paps + Drew + Papi at cheaper annual = ~>$25M
Sox shouldn’t go cheap
get Papi at cheaper annual with 2 yrs guarantee and 1 year option
You guys are forgetting that a number of the players already on the roster have built-in raises in their contracts that will be eating up some of the money from the expired contracts. Plus there’s also the arbitration raises to the younger players.
There’s not as much money left to work with below the lux tax cap as you guys are thinking. Brian is correct on this point.
Well, they easily could, John Henry and Co. simply choose not to.
Still though, they could fairly easily sign both Ortiz and Beltran and not go over the luxury tax limit, which I think is around $180M this year.
But they also have pay increases to several guys (including about $15mm increase to Agon), so they don’t have a ton of room before hitting the luxury tax threshold.
They already have about $145mm on the books for the 40man roster for next year before raises to the arbitration guys, and need to fill RF, DH, SP#4, SP#5, Closer/Setup, backup catcher, 4th OF, and likely two other bullpen spots. After Arb raises (including to guys like Ells, Salty, and Bard who will see fairly substantial raises) they will likely be more like $155mm, so they’ll have about $25mm to fill all of those spots.
Even if you pretend Ortiz will take a pay cut to $10mm and pretend they can get Beltran for $10mm AAV they would only have $5mm to get 2 starting pitchers, 2-3 bullpen spots, backup catcher, and 4th outfielder. Not going to happen.
That’s right. The Sox owners choose not to exceed the luxury tax limit, at least to open the season. In past years, they have proven that they are willing to go above that limit at the trading deadline, if there’s a good reason. But they clearly don’t like to start the season above that limit.
Papi will be back. I predict 2years/25mil
Rick Ankiel isn’t a fit in Boston at all. Another lefty, and he isn’t as good as Reddick or Kalish right now anyways.
put reddick in and sign Ortiz and get Heath Bell and Colon as SP
Um Heath Bell would be killed in the AL East. No thank you.
lol are you serious?
his road FIP of 2.97 told you that?
the fact that he’s (she’s?) wrong doesn’t make him a tool. That’s kinda rude of you.
how do you know i was calling him a tool?
you don’t remember their #1 hit from 2002′ Ode to Heath Bell?
The fact that his strike out rate has been declining as has his swing & misses. The fact that his road/home splits are different. The fact that he only got good when he went to the Padres — in Petco & in the NL West. The fact that he has terrible numbers against the Yankees, Jays & Orioles. The fact that he was extremely lucky on balls in play.
so you just decided to say things without looking them up?
His home FIP is 2.87, a whopping .10 lower than his road FIP, he’s not a product of Petco.
His career babip is .301 and his years in SD have worked out to around there as well.
His k/9 hasn’t been declining, last year it was at its highest point at 11.06 k/9, this year it fell.
vs boston.. .563 OPS (16 batters)
vs toronto..1.511 OPS (11 batters)
vs Yankees.. 922 OPS (24 batters)
vs Baltimore .644 OPS (21 batters)
almost insignificant sample size.
just admit you were wrong
fwiw Bell vs TB Rays 3.1 IP, 14 batters faced, 6k/3BB , 1 H, 0.00 era, 1.20 WHIP
.468 ops
Colon? Again? Really??
The 2011 version was much better than the 2009.
As a Yanks fan I can’t understand why they would prefer Garcia over Colon. It’s so obvious that Colon regressed last year because of his hamstring injury and the fact that between winter ball, spring training and the 150 innings (est) he threw with the Yanks his arm was probably too tired. If he would take a 1 year deal with an option the Yanks should bring him back.
Please resign him and don’t go after Beltran so the Giants have some hope.
Ankiel would be a cheap fit..maybe 2 mill a year
Hope DeJesus stays away…wouldn’t mind the Phils picking him up out the scrap pile!
Reddick is better than Ankiel.
first thing i thought of when i saw this was… Andre Either. im thinking the Red soxs want to resign Big Papi for one year, then sign a cheap RF for 1 year. So when Either is a free agent they can cut ties with Papi and go after Either, as the replacement Lh power bat in 2013. Now the Red Soxs want to see if big papi would come back on a one year deal, or not. if he says no, then they have to look into the market to see who can give them big papi power, and who can play rf.
That’s definitely a possibility. But you have to factor Ryan Kalish into there somewhere. I think the Sox organization has high hopes for him.
… but Ethier isn’t a left handed power bat. On average he hits 21 home runs each year.
They have Kalish. They don’t need Ethier, a left handed bat in a left handed heavy line up. Makes no sense.
Please, no Carlos Beltran! J.D. Drew 2.0. Overpriced, injury prone and frustrating. Youk needs time at DH. Sign Willingham and Cuddyer so there’s some right-handed bats and position flexibility and spend money on starting and relief pitching. Love Papi, but the days of $12 million DHs are long gone.
Doubt they’d sign both Willingham AND Cuddyer.
Ortiz still has a couple of good years left in him, I say sign him to a 2yr/24 million dollar deal and find a nice outfielder. Then they could go after a Quentin or a Sizemore. Red Sox still have a great team with a strong rotation and are overly criticized for their few gaps. Their worst case scenario is not having a “closer”, are you kidding me? Bring in Bard and take flyers on guys like Zumaya, Wuertz, and Aardsma.
Papi was paid $12.5MM in 2011, a very difficult decision for the Sox to make (Epstein appeared to be over-ruled by Henry in picking up that option). I think it’s dangerous to offer arbitration, because I think he might actually accept (since the DH market is poor), and the result could actually produce a RAISE from that bloated figure (imagine the $15MM+ numbers some of the posters here have discussed!). I would not offer arb, but a 1-year deal at $10MM with a fairly easy-to-reach appearance-based option at $8-9MM, and if he doesn’t accept that above-market offer, move on to the younger Cuddyear or other options.
there is a benefit to ortiz accepting arbitration and that is the redsox getting the one year deal they want. granted it will be at a steep price, but it will buy time for lavarnway possibly to develop 1 more year and will save 5-7MM over a 2 year period, 1/15MM or 2/20-22MM.
I love being a NL fan and not having to think about my team paying 1-12 million a season on a DH!
i love being an AL fan and not having to think about my ace getting plunked on the elbow.
IMHO, Cherington’s priorities are: #1-A, re-sign (NOT RESIGN) David Ortiz a.s.a.p. #1-B, get a new manager; #3, trade Beckett, the ring leader of the “Three Amigos” and the other malcontents, for another effective starter; #4 go out and get 2 more effective starters Harang and Buehrle would be okay; #5 Sign Madson as our new closer (Bard is simply not ready); #6 keep Bard (after he’s pitched winter ball somewhere to get rid of the kinks in is mechanics that cause his maddening inconsistencies), Aceves, Morales, and upgrade the other three bull pen slots.
Right Field is not a priority. We have the guns to handle right field and they do not include Darnell McDonald, sad to say.
Oh, and throw a going-away party for Papelbon, Varitek, J.D., Wakes, Bedard, Conor Jackson, Wheeler. and Miller. Could be held in an old-fashioned phone booth.
as a Jays fan, I was kind of liking the “resign” Ortiz option
Another option–TRADE YOUK –We need to determine if Youk is more valuable than Papi.
We are really heavy lefthanded without Youk.
Does Youk offer better protection for AGon than Papi?
Could Youk put up Papi numbers if all he did was DH?
Youk does offer back-up protection at 1 b and 3 b when we play in NL parks also.
Is this all business or sentiment? If it’s business like Papelbon–you let Papi walk whether you get a draft pick or not. Thanks for all these great years but we are going in a different direction with the DH position. AND the same with YOUK–we have a 1 b and we don’t think you can play 140 games at 3 b and be productive–we are going in a different direction. We are searching for a trade–where would you like to play next season–we will do our best.
I think that exploring the trade market for Youk is a worthwhile idea. However, as you correctly point out, without Youk in the lineup, the lineup becomes too lefty-heavy. Furthermore, it would be very hard for the Sox to lose both Youk and Ortiz from the lineup in the same off-season. Lavarnway is arguably ready to replace Ortiz at DH, but Middlebrook is about a year away from being MLB ready at 3B.
DH only guys that are worth their keep are few and far between . Papi has been a good one, but I think one more year is one more too long. He’s been on the verge of breaking down before and then bounced back nicely in 2011. Signing a good OF and using the dh to rest older players is the way to go. It WOULD be hard to see David in another uni, though.
I don’t consider Ortiz incapable of playing 1B, Joe. However, with the acquisition of A-Gon (who is a better offensive player than Ortiz), it becomes very undesirable to put Ortiz at 1B and take A-Gon out of the lineup for IL games, unless it’s to rest A-Gon. That’s a serious downside when your DH’s secondary position happens to be the same as your best offensive position player.
Trade with CHW for Danks and Quentin…cheaper. saves pitching staff and RF, and we can still sign Ortiz, depending on the package, the only risk is which prospects do they want and do they want Youk?