While Red Sox chairman Tom Werner recently implied that the team is likely to do some significant spending on the free agent market this offseason, a source tells Alex Speier of WEEI.com that adding two top-tier pitchers isn’t in the club’s offseason blueprint. The team will likely pursue one ace-caliber pitcher, but the feeling within the organization is that there’s enough talent to fill out a championship-caliber rotation. Joe Kelly and Rubby De La Rosa appear to have spots penciled in, and Clay Buchholz has had a resurgence of late. Beyond those three, the Sox have Brandon Workman, Anthony Ranaudo, Matt Barnes, Allen Webster, Henry Owens, Brian Johnson and Eduardo Rodriguez all in line to compete for rotation spots. It’s still believed that the team will pursue Jon Lester most aggressively, Speier writes, though he also spoke with Rays manager Joe Maddon about the Tampa skipper’s former right-hander, James Shields.
Here’s more on the 2013 World Series champs and their attempt to get out of the cellar in 2015…
- Webster, Workman and Ranaudo have failed to impress in extended looks at the Major League level this season, writes Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal. MacPherson has a hard time envisioning GM Ben Cherington heading into the 2015 campaign with two or three unproven arms in the rotation following the struggles that many of the team’s young prospects endured in 2014. Only De La Rosa has shownthe ability to be a piece of next year’s rotation, he concludes. MacPherson spoke with both manager John Farrell and pitching coach Juan Nieves about the struggles that Boston’s young pitchers have endured thus far.
- In a second piece, Speier writes that Mookie Betts has gone “from blocked to building block,” noting that his versatility and upside may have led to him supplanting Xander Bogaerts as the club’s most untouchable asset in trades. Of course, Dustin Pedroia remains under contract at second base and the team has an enviable outfield logjam, so interest in Betts will likely be high, but Speier opines that Betts should be retained, as his versatility would allow the Red Sox to pursue upgrades at a number of positions in the future, knowing that Betts could be moved around the diamond and still thrive.
- Koji Uehara told reporters, including Speier’s colleague Rob Bradford, that the life on his splitter still isn’t there. As Bradford notes, Uehara has experienced a late-season downturn like this before, as he struggled greatly at an oddly similar juncture near the end of his tenure with the Rangers in 2011. The displaced closer adds that he’s not thinking about where he’ll play in 2015 or regaining the ninth inning, but rather trying to finish the season on a high note before “see[ing] what happens in free agency.”
Masterson is due for an up year. The Reds will be looking to trade a starter not named Cueto. The Sox could get Latos, Leake, or Simon without gutting the farm.
I like the idea of Masty in the bullpen but there are enough arms on the open market. No need to trade valuable pieces to get an arm right now.
The FA class has three aces and not a lot after that. The Sox will need to look into trades for SP.
Well in not sure about that because the reds don’t want to trade leake or cueto but they might trade latos and the the team that needs him is the rangers
I said in my post that Cueto isn’t going to be traded. Do you ever have anything to say that doesn’t involve the Rangers?
Im telling you right now the rangers are going to start over in pitching and need to go after Lester scherzer shields masterson and their rotation would look like this
1. Yu Darvish
2. Max Scherzer
3. Jon Lester
4. James Shields
5. Justin Masterson
No. Just no.
Are you telling me you don’t my idea at all because let me tell you this the rangers will get a billion dollars in money next year and they will spend that money
I am telling you that I don’t like your idea.
So you don’t want the rangers to win next year
I hope they take the Astros’ place at the cellar of the AL West next year.
You don’t believe in them next year
No and I didn’t believe in them this year either.
They will be contenders next year
They could, but they’re not going to sign Scherzer, Shields, Lester, and Masterson. That’s a complete joke.
This is not a joke they will sign those pitchers
It’s sad that you probably believe that.
This will happen
I really like the idea of Masterson on a 1 year deal. He knows Boston and some of the players and could really bounce back. However, they might have to give a few more million then competitors because Fenway isn’t the best park for pitchers and Xander at SS isn’t good for a groundballer.
Latos would be a really good pickup to be the number 2 guy for Boston. Comes with risk but perhaps his value is lower. Leake isn’t more then a 4 would rather go FA unless the deal is Middlebrooks + Workman.
Sure the Red Sox have plenty of talent, but the only spots in the rotation set for next year are Buchholz, Kelly and De La Rosa. Of the other pitchers listed, Workman, Ranaudo, and Webster have pitched at the ML level with less than sparkling results. Owens and Johnson both need to at least start the year at AAA. And Barnes and Rodriguez haven’t gotten enough ML reps to prove anything to anyone. Stephen Wright is a name that hasn’t come up, but as a Knuckler he would be a 4th or 5th starter tops. If they only sign one ace type, that would leave Buchholz as the number 2. The same Buchholz who started the year as a number 5 because he couldn’t stay healthy for an entire season and the team wanted the opportunity to skip him if he needed it. The same Buchholz who has been horrible for 9/25 starts this season. And fairly bad in several of the others. They need a number one and a number two. Calling Buchholz a number two doesn’t make him one.
Looking forward to seeing what Kelly and de la Rosa do with their opportunities.
Stephen Wright… he’s been hanging around for years now, and this may be his last shot to hang on. There will be bullpen spots to fill as well, so maybe he can finally stick as a long man/spot starter.
I could see Wright in that role next season. I know they have some rule 5 considerations to make, and hopefully he can stick with the team in some capacity. Otherwise he may be a casualty.
Dougie Mirabelli is keeping in shape coaching high school girl’s softball. If Wright comes up, Dougie can go deep once again.
I think Dougie is a bit old to crouch. What is he pushing 50?
+1 for any Doug Mirabelli post
And he is also the Buchholz that had a 1.73 ERA last year and has been outstanding in his last several starts. True that he has been inconsistent, but I think it had to do with his recovery from injury and maybe a little psychological. He seems to have figured things out now.
He can’t be relied on though. If he has flashes of brilliance, great. But he can’t be the number 2.
His issue prior to this season was an inability to stay healthy. This year it has been consistency. If he has either of those problems next year as a number two, you’re looking at the basement again. Look at his career numbers. He has never thrown 200 innings in a season. He cannot be the number two on a playoff team.
I am sure if he had troubles again next year, the Red Sox would DL him and not bring him back until he is healthy again. They wouldn’t let him struggle two years in a row with taking action. I applaud them for allowing him to work through his issues this year. If he does indeed struggle next year I will concede that it is time to cut ties with him. Also, for the most part a rotation slot number is meaningless in the regular season. Rainouts, injuries, etc. alter things. Not too often in mid to late season will you see a #1 vs #1, #2 vs #2, etc.
The number assigned to the pitcher corresponds to his value to the team. There are minimums you would expect from the second best starting pitcher on your team. Clay Buchholz cannot be counted on to meet those minimums. I am not advocating releasing him or anticipating what they should do when he inevitably falters. I am pointing out that he is not good enough/reliable enough to be one of the two best pitchers in our rotation. Calling a pitcher a number two has nothing to do with where he pitches in the rotation. It has more to do with the expectation of what you can count on him producing for you in both the regular season and post-season. Would you think Buchholz could perform the role that John Lackey has in the past two seasons?
Actually they brought Buch back to early last yr when they needed help for the playoffs. He then still never had a healthy off-season to heal and prepare for this year. That in itself stands out as to his major problem early this year as he never was fit and his strength was way down (you don’t recover to fast or easily to that). Lessons learned such as Schilling’s year after and this year Buch not being close to strong (as they recognized fairly quickly this spring) are fairly common for pitchers careers.
He had the entire off season to heal. They didn’t even have him throw during the off season. November, December, January and most of February. That was his issue. He needed to rebuild the strength in his arm. Regardless of that he has displayed an inability to stay healthy and inconsistency throughout his career.
I think the team should sign either Lester or Shields. Preferably Lester though its less likely. That gives the team their number 1.
Then they should sign Ervin Santana or trade for a number 2/3 starter. One guy that would really be a great target is Iwakuma but he’d be tough to pry away. Maybe look at guys on Cincy or WAS as well. McCarthy would be interesting too.
Also, they should sign 1 or 2 lottery/bounce back SP like Masterson or Gavin Floyd/Billingsly.
Finally they should sign or trade for somebody like Chase Headley to give them a quality 3B option.
Shields is more likely although I cannot see giving him five years and some team out there is going to be willing to. I don’t think they’ll be willing to offer Lester the 6 or 7 he is going to require. It looks more and more like they’ll go for a trade. If the Phillies will take less than the top four guys in the minors for Hamels I think that’s the direction they’ll go in. I can see them signing Masterson or McCarthy to fill out the rotation then. I just cannot see them commiting the number of years necessary to land on of the top three free agents this year. Although they have a ton of young pitching that will be controlable through most of any free agent contract they would sign which would help them offset the cost. You can sign a guy for 25 million for seven years if you know 60% of your rotation will be making the league minimum.
I agree with some of your suggestions.
I like Mookie, Xander, and Vazquez; they are 3 pretty good rookies.
Behind them you have 3 pretty good alternatives; Marrero, Swihart and a AA player Sean Coyle. They are, all 6, at their positions, somewhat similar except the first three have had Maj.L Experience.
Headley would be a good option, an expensive one. I’m wondering about McGehee–he’s a run producer and a lineup extender. I hope BenC. and his player Dev. org. are leaving no stone unturned.
I would also target Hamels and perhaps one of the plethora of Braves or Mariners or Brewers starters. Lester will go to anchor the Cubs IMO. Shields and Hamels or maybe Floyd might work as well as Lester and be a little less expensive.
The Sox rotation needs a strong veteran leader and Buchholz isn’t it. They will be competing for Shields and Lester, for sure. Taking a chance on a veteran looking to bounce back like Chad Billingsley or Gavin Floyd could bring a good influence into the clubhouse, and help provide some guidance for all the younger guys who will be trying to figure things out. Lackey was a big influence this season, just as Dempster was in the previous one.
What do Billingsley or Floyd have to offer in terms of guidance that Bucholz doesn’t?
Justin Masterson could be worth a 1 year flyer too.
Betts, Castillo, Bradley Jr…. they are wasting OF speed by keeping all of them with their bandbox park (think Carl Crawford in LF). They need to trade one of them. Tigers would be a fit.
You can have JBJ, Middlebrooks, and a bag of magic beans for Porcello. Which is a better haul than you got for Fister. The other two aren’t going anywhere.
I’m just wondering who your source is that you know this for sure, not that I believe Betts or Castillo will or should be traded. If a trade comes across the table to help in 2015 and/or beyond shouldn’t Boston at least listen?
Source? Really?
So, the Sox sign Castillo to the biggest-ever-deal for a Cuban FA, play him for 2 weeks in the final month of a lost season…and then trade him in the winter? Ok…
I would say chance of Castillo trade is under 5% maybe even under 1% but its an interesting idea if another team value him very highly but could only do it if a bad contract was taken off the books of next year or 2016.
For example, say the Braves love him but didn’t have the payroll space next year but could have fit it in in a few years because of the new stadium and players leaving. They offer BJ Upton, Minor, and Medlen for Castillo and Workman. The Sox would have to consider it.
Robbie Ray & Ian Krol > JBJ & Middlebrooks… unless the Magic Beans turns into Jim Rice someday.
As disappointing as JBJ and WMB are, I actually disagree with that. Ray is atrocious and Krol isn’t looking too hot.
There is no way for an average fan to evaluate Ray right now.
Justin Verlander had 7.15 his first year.
Ray has an ERA of 7.16 this year (his first year).
He is not ready. That is obvious. But will he be ready when Porcello or Price leave in 2016… and then give 5-6 “under control” years? I think YES.
Of course you do. Meanwhile, Fister would’ve been fairly helpful right about now.
Yes he would. But…
1. The Tigers do not have an unlimited budget. They used Fister savings ($50MM+ over 5-6 years) to pay for the Fielder for Kinsler Trade ($30MM owed to Rangers) and for their closer (Nathan salary = $20MM over two years).
2. Smyly would have never been traded without experience as as starter this year. Trading Fister, caused Smyly’s value to go up as a starter (v. reliever)… which helped them get Price.
I would rather have Price than Fister.
“The Tigers do not have an unlimited budget.”
I’m going to hold you to this when the offseason comes.
Alex Speier’s source…probably wrong. Brian MacPherson…probably right.