Infielder Nick Franklin, part of the haul that the Rays acquired in the David Price trade, will be recalled to join the club today, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Once ranked as one of the game’s top 50 prospects by MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus, Franklin struggled for much of his time at Triple-A with the Rays, hitting just .210/.288/.290. As Topkin points out, Franklin did hit .424 with a pair of homers in nine playoff games that aren’t included in that stat line, and he of course had an excellent first half as a rookie with the Mariners in 2013, hitting .268/.337/.451 in 169 plate appearances.
Here’s more from the AL East…
- The Red Sox could follow the same method they did with Andrew Miller and the one the Royals/Rays employed with Wade Davis by moving some of their current young starting options to the bullpen, writes Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal. MacPherson notes that Brandon Workman already looks like a future reliever and speculates that some or all of Allen Webster, Anthony Ranaudo and Rubby De La Rosa could end up in the bullpen eventually as well. MacPherson also spoke with Miller about the transition from the rotation to the bullpen.
- Masahiro Tanaka will throw 60 pitches — including some splitters — in a simulated game today, writes John Harper of the New York Daily News. If Tanaka pitches well, he could re-join the Yankees’ rotation and make a couple of starts before season’s end. While that may be too little, too late for the Yankees’ playoff hopes, a few healthy starts from Tanaka would give the Yankees some peace of mind heading into 2015.
Another guy I could see the Red Sox using out of the bullpen is Barnes. He has pitched well there so far this year from what I have heard. I think our future closer is in the system already. I think it’s easily De La Rosa or Barnes as the next closer for the sox. They also could give Hembree a chance there as well.
Hell, Steven Wright could surprise everyone and be a good 9th inning guy. It’d be cool to see another closer that doesn’t throw 95 mph+.
A knuckle baller closing? Good luck mate
Knuckle ballers are too inconsistent to be long term closers.
He could throw pitches and never smile….oh THAT Steven Wright…sorry..
So if all of the Red Sox’s starting pitcher prospects end up in the bullpen, does that indicate a failure of their development program?
Hah, that’s cute, you think those four guys are actually all of the Red Sox starting pitching prospects. You forgot Owens, Rodriguez, Johnson, Barnes and Ball. And those are just the ones in the top 10 not mentioned in this article.
Nick Franklin might have a glove but he can barely hit his own weight in the majors.
This could be an unpopular idea among fellow Sox fans, but I think we should cut ties with Juan Nieves. He did a great job with the staff last year, but that hasn’t translated to this year and he really isn’t doing a good job with the young guys.
I’d make a bold move and tab Pedro or Varitek as the next pitching coach. A beloved Red Sox legend could have a really positive impact toward showing this young guys that they’re in a winning environment.
I think that is a good idea to can Nieves. And I would like to see what Varitek could do with this staff. He did play with Buchholz so maybe he could fix what is wrong Buchholz.
I feel like a former pitcher would make for a better pitching coach, so I would favor Pedro Martinez. Though I don’t know how well he’s suiting for coaching. I simply don’t know about that. He may just be best suited for what he currently does… not 100% sure what his title is, but from what I understand he does help coach the young pitchers, just in a smaller role.
Catchers work with pitchers a lot, but wouldnt really know how to fix and improve the mechanics of a pitcher because they never had to go through that process.
I do hope we see Varitek as the Red Sox Manager some day soon. I think that would be great.
That’s the thing Buchholz’s problems are mental I think. Not mechanical.
Good point. You were talking about Buchholz, and that could help him out. But I don’t think we should name of new pitching coach because of 1 isolated player. I think it would be more beneficial to all the pitchers to have a former pitcher as a pitching coach.
Yea you could make a case for either to be made but like you said earlier, “Though I don’t know how well he’s suiting for coaching”, I don’t think he would make a good coach because of his personality. But I like him in the role he has where he does help the younger guys with problems during ST. I would much rather have Varitek because he is not flamboyant and knows the ins and outs of pitching in the majors. If a guy needs help with mechanics bring in Pedro to help him.
I don’t know if Pedro is necessarily pitching coach material. He strikes me as more of an advisor who can just point things out from time to time in practice. Plus, I feel like it’s always the average pitchers who make the best coaches. They know what it’s like to struggle and to overcome challenges.
Fair point, though I suspect the average pitchers tend to apply for those positions more often. The aces generally aren’t the ones who become coaches. Tek might be an option worth considering.
Using that logic they should fire the entire staff.
Not really. Nieves turned around a bunch of veterans last year. He hasn’t made any progress with the Sox’ young pitching since he came aboard and that’s a problem.
Are a couple of starts worth the possibility of Tanaka needing Tommy John surgery if he does more damage to his arm?
As of now, he doesn’t need the surgery. Doctors have given him the clear to throw. Why NOT throw and see how his progress goes? Why get surgery when at the time being it isn’t needed?
I might break my foot if I get out of bed. Guess I know what I’m doing for the rest of forever.
Hahahahaha.+1
People are confused about the Tanaka situation. They think he’s just putting of the inevitable, when in fact as of right now Doctors do not recommend he have surgery. The recommended rehab, which he has done. At some point in his career he could sure, but what’s he supposed to do, never throw another pitch just to be on the safe side?
Wouldn’t piece of mind mean having him fully rested for next year…?
Redsox nation will rise from the ashes of 2014!!!!
The only reason at this point not to pitch Tanaka is to give him more resting time, but in fact, there seems to be very little that indicates that rest will fundamentally change his elbow. This isn’t like having someone back early from an oblique, or a wrist injury, etc. You might as well find out, and if he needs the surgery, then he gets it.
Right. They really need to find out if he will need surgery, not in May next year. Getting it done now would mean 16+ months of rehab without going into another year, rather than if you do it next spring and you start creeping into 2016 with any setbacks.
If I recall, Tanaka has an opt-out. He probably wouldn’t if he lost a year, if for no other reason because he might feel obligation, but this should probably serve as a warning sign to other teams–if you are going to give an opt-out, make sure you at least get the first 3/4 years healthy. If I remember, Boras has J.D. Drew opt out of his contract with the Dodgers after 2 years even after Drew missed half of the first season. Drew then signed a five years deal with the Red Sox
If Tanaka opts-out he might not get as good of a contract depending on his health. He would have to come back and pitch lights out up until he can opt-out. He might not risk it.
IMO if teams knew that he already had TJ done, especially with this situation I think they would be more willing to offer that big contract.
He only projected as a #3 starter to most scouts or a 2 at the most. Many thought the Yankees offered him too much since he had never threw a ML pitch yet. In retrospect maybe he get more but I don’t think a TJ surgery would have given him a more lucrative deal.
I think a good number scouts had him pegged as a #2 at least. Yankees didn’t completely blow everyone out of the water, multiple teams were willing to go $100MM+.
Yeah but with a TJ you’re staying teams would have did much more the $155 million plus the post fee. I just see teams approaching $200million for a guy that many/most criticized the Yankees for investing in a guy who had no MLB experience. But many more scouts pegged him as a mid rotation then top rotation starter.
Talking about his next contract if he intends to opt out. Now every team knows that he has a partially torn ligament, and there a good chance it may need surgery sometime in the future, whether it is next year or 5 years.Knowing that he had it done 2 years before free agency would actually put a lot of teams more at ease.
He does, but something about him makes me think he might sign an extension to make up for this. He works hard, and everytime he let’s someone down he always there apologizing and saying that he didn’t do his best in the postgame. Even when he goes 8 innings with 1 run.