The Red Sox have enviable pitching depth in the minors, writes Alex Speier of WEEI. In addition to Rubby de la Rosa, who is already with the club, Brandon Workman, Steven Wright, and Anthony Ranaudo could all be viewed as viable candidates to fill Jake Peavy’s spot in the rotation. But the Sox will turn to yet another option tomorrow against the Rays – Allen Webster.
- GM Ben Cherington told reporters, including Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald, that the club “would listen to what teams are looking to do.” Said Cherington, “anything we do between now and Thursday afternoon will be with a mind toward building as quickly as possible for April of 2015.”
- Boston should take advantage of a seller’s market and deal Lester, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. If the club is hesitant about extending Lester – and they appear to be – then the Sox will get a lot more back via trade than they would with a qualifying offer. As Rosenthal notes, the club may qualify for a protected pick, and Lester has left the door open for re-signing even if he’s dealt. Cherington did say they want Lester in the 2015 rotation, according to Speier (twitter link).
- The Pirates are among the clubs scouting Red Sox relievers, reports Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston. All seven Sox relievers have been mentioned as trade candidates, so it’s difficult to guess which player(s) most interest the Pirates.
I’d take any one of those relievers from the Red Sox. The only relievers that I actually trust in the bullpen are Melancon and Watson. Gomes might even be a good get for off the bench to replace Gaby. Obviously Lester would be a good upgrade as well. Maybe Josh Bell+ for Lester, Gomes, and 1 or 2 of their relievers…?
I think Lester is going to get dealt to LAD.
Josh Bell is interesting but what do you think about Austin Meadows as the center piece instead? Meadows was somebody I wanted the Red Sox to draft in 2013 really badly.
I’d say even better as a Pirate fan. Bell is closer to the Majors and is a candidate for us for first base in the near future. Meadows is further down the line, and would probably replace Cutch if he leaves, but I’d be willing to give him up in a Lester deal.
Wow, if Lester is put on the market I hope that the front office feels like you because Bell or Meadows would be a great prospect to get back for him.
Losing either of them wouldn’t hurt much because they’re blocked. And getting a front line pitcher (although a rental) could make the Pirates legit contenders. I think it’d be worth it.
I’d rather have Josh Bell in LF right now than Farell’s lucky charm…Gomes
That plus next to Josh Bell’s name is going to be rather significant if they are also getting 3 other players in the deal. On top of that, Lester is not the only rental in your trade. Most of the Sox bullpen and Gomes are also on the last year of their deals. So you’re basically giving away a couple good prospects, which will hurt the team’s long term position much more than it helps its short term position. They shouldn’t deal for Lester. A bullpen arm is necessary, but only at the right price.
Maybe not,…sellers market, not buyers
As a Red Sox fan I would have preferred Ranaudo to get the chance as he has out performed Webster this year in AAA and Wesbter has already had his cup of coffee in the big leagues.
Ranaudo pitched yesterday.
That makes sense though since the trade probably didn’t just happen they could have planned to have him wait 2 days.
You never know how a trade is going to pan out, and how much time it took. You bring a player up because it is the right time for them, not because they fans want to see them.
Ranaudo has pitched extremely well and nothing in his stat line (I’m including Peripheral) suggest that Webster has been better. Obviously Ranaudo has outpitched him to a degree although not as much as their discrepancies in records would indicate. I think like De La Rosa are just in love with Webster’s stuff. It hasn’t translated to the bigs yet but you gotta love 95 plus with sink.
Is there any better example of the silliness of the draft system than the statement “the club may qualify for a protected pick?” Nothing against the Red Sox, but right now we also have big market Texas, big market Houston, big market Chicago, big market Philly, etc, all in the hunt for protected picks.
I don’t understand what qualifying for a protected pick has to do with re-signing Lester if he’s traded. Surely an expert writing for a fine site such as this must know that players traded midseason can not be made qualifying offers. Sorry for the snarky tone, but this is something literally almost everyone reading this site knows.
Rosenthal brought the protected pick up to imply that they were so bad that they should consider trading him more seriously.
Cherington should have done a little more to improve the 2014 lineup when he had the chance and gave this team a chance(like a couple power bats). I’m thinking right around the 5 game winning streak. So he’d have to overpay a little.. sometimes you have too. Its insanity putting the same product on the field every day and expecting better results
Where was he supposed to find a couple of power bats?
So the Pirates want Andrew Miller, can you say prospect outfielder Josh Bell.
I don’t think anyone is saying the Pirates can’t afford Price, just that they won’t.
Yeah, it’s not entirely a salary based decision to bring in Price. It’s the cost in prospects that the Pirates cannot afford. If they were to change their entire philosophy and start spending 150 M every year, then yes, start throwing prospects away. But we can’t expect ownership to change philosophy, and Huntington can’t either. So that’s why it makes no sense. The only thing keeping them competitive is the flow of talent coming from the farm. If you give that away, then we can expect another decade of losing. Take this past offseason as an example, they followed up a great run with….. nothing. In fact, the biggest change to the lineup was a prospect, Gregory Polanco. So while the money to bring in Price is probably there, the subsequent decisions to keep them competitive will not happen
The Pirates arguably have the best and deepest system in baseball. They can absolutely afford the prospects. They would have to give up nearly as much to get Lester, whom is just a rental. And again, The Pirates would control Price through next year as well, meaning that they can trade him to recoup lost talent next season if they are not in contention. So, financially amd prospect wise, they can afford to get Price. Now think about this logically…if they have to give up a comparable load of players to get Lester (likely a little bit less than Price, but comparable) AND you lose him at seasons end with nothing in return…how does that make more sense? Going after Price and not resigning Liriano next season is CLEARLY the best decision the Pirates could make.
Clearly no. I don’t want Lester either, and I’ve already explained why bringing in one of these “aces” is such a poor decision. The Pirates don’t make moves in free agency, and they don’t resign players to massive deals. The farm is the team’s lifeblood, you don’t ever sell it for only 1 or 2 years of a player. So they can’t afford it in prospects, not if they hope to be competitive in 4 or 5 years. And flipping Price wont bring back what it will take to get him. Price will cost more than Lester this year in terms of prospects, partially because of that extra year of control, and partially because Price is a
better pitcher. You’re not going to be able to sell him off at the same rate. There is no way around it, David Price hurts the team’s future. So trading for Price is CLEARLY the worst decision the team could make, as long as they keep the philosophy that they’ve had for the last 5 years.