New Red Sox GM Mike Hazen joined MLB Network Radio (Twitter link) to talk about a wide range of topics, including the divvying up of responsibilities in the revamped front office. Hazen explained that he’ll be more based in the office while senior VP Frank Wren will have a heavier hand in the evaluation of players. Unsurprisingly, he says (link) that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski will be making the “final decision” on all personnel matters.
Here’s more from the AL East..
- Hazen (link) says that the Red Sox are tentatively planning to look at Hanley Ramirez as a first baseman in spring training. Ramirez was recently shut down for the year with a shoulder injury. He hit just .249/.291/.426 at the plate while advanced metrics labeled him as a weak defender.
- This offseason, Dombrowski will have to figure out what he’ll do with is trio of major league-caliber catchers, Brian MacPherson of The Providence Journal writes. Boston could use one of its backstops in a package to land a frontline starting pitcher, but Christian Vazquez’s health might throw that plan into flux. In order to trade Blake Swihart, the Red Sox would have to have confidence in Vazquez’s recovery from surgery, but his situation could still be murky come December or January.
- Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times took a position-by-position look at how the Rays look heading into 2016. At first base, the Rays have James Loney signed at an $8MM salary, but Topkin wonders if they might be better off trading him, even if they have to eat some of his contract. Tampa Bay, he writes, could give themselves additional flexibility while opening a spot for Richie Shaffer, who would need to be paired with a lefty hitter.
- Rich Hill has been excellent this month for the Red Sox and he could be carving out a spot for himself in the rotation in 2016, as Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe writes. However, the 35-year-old says that he’s not thinking that far ahead. “I don’t want to even go there, really,” he said. “Just really kind of focus in on tomorrow and get ready for that next start. You want to get to the finish line and worry about [next year] when it comes around.” Hill, who previously owned a 4.72 ERA over parts of ten big league seasons, has a 1.17 ERA over three starts with 30 strikeouts and just two walks.
Hanley Ramirez and cash for Sean Nolin, A’s need a 2B/3B and will prob keep Lawrie at 3B and trade Valencia who only has 2 years left and is already 30+. Hanley can play 2B for a year or two then move to 1B/DH. Boston gets out from that deal and gets a decent ceiling SP.
Sox won’t eat enough money to make it work unless they get a better return, in that case, the A’s aren’t going to get much back. However, if you work around the money differently, it could work, say maybe include Billy Butler from the A’s side and more cash from the Sox.
As for the actual deal itself, Hanley can’t play SS anymore, the A’s have Semien (who needs to move off of SS) to play 2B and Lawrie for 3B.
Don’t ever suggest Hanley playing 2nd base ever again. The man is like 240 lbs and moves slow in the field. He’d probably be just as bad there as in LF.
Topkins from the Tampa newspaper is a bigger fanboy of the Rays than is that announcer they have Dewayne Staats if they think anyone will take on more than 1-2m of Loney’s contract. he isn’t worth much of anything, why LA, Boston let him go bye-bye. Only Tampa for some reason saw fit to give a singles hitting, glove only 1b 16m over 2y that puts up .320-340obp year in and year out.
I think Boston lost allot of trade value with Blake Swiharts performance this season. While he is very young and only played in 78 games this season his bat was supposed to be his biggest calling I thought. 2 home runs and 25 RBI’s in 78 games is not what I would call elite prospect stats. Can he turn into the player he is said to be? Sure he can. Do I see it happening? Not really.
Are you joking? He pretty much skipped Triple A because of injury. He is a 23 year old catcher which is very young for a catcher. He was moved along probably months faster because of injury. Home runs and RBIs dont mean much here. He has 3 home runs and 17 doubles whilie hitting 270. He is very fast and has probably been spending more time on his catching and getting to know the pitching staff. He has lost ZERO value and has probably gained.
You’re kidding right? If anything Swihart’s value has gone up. He’s been worth 1.2 fWAR in only a third of a season and is hitting .296 in the 2nd half of the season. Thats pretty fantastic for a catcher that wasnt even MLB ready.
Are you kidding? Swihart has been worth 1.4 fWAR in only a third of a season and is hitting .296 in the 2nd half. Thats fantastic for a catcher who wasnt even MLB ready. If anything his value has gone up.
It will have to be one pathetic off season for DD if Hill is one of his starters next year.
Pretty much zero chance of Hill being in the rotation. Probably offer him a job in the bullpen. The Sox are probably going to add a pitcher this offseason and already have 7-8 pitchers who slot in above hill. Erod,Owens,Bucholz, Miley, Porcello, Johnson, Wright and Kelly
The Sawx had their Ace in Hamels but one of their catchers were to important to include in a package.
Awwww poor Sawx.
The Rangers gave up much less then what Swihart + the other players the Phillies wanted. Also Hamels would not have been enough to save this season.
How do you know what players the Phillies wanted with Swihart? The Phillies got a really nice package. It proved worth the wait.
I completely agree! It was the kind of trade they should have gone after all along. Swihart was more highly rated though and at a tougher position. I think it’s doubtful the Philles would have taken spare parts and Swihart. They probably would have had to give up 1-2 more decent prospects. The main point is that you can not blame the Red Sox for not getting Hamels.
The Sox “had their ace” in Hamels. Hamels, who said that the only AL teams he would have approved a trade to were Texas and New York. Okay.
Also, if the Sox traded Swihart, I’m very curious to know who would’ve played Catcher when Vazquez, Hannigan, and Leon all suffered injuries.
Good point. It made little sense in ST to move Swihart before Vazquez was diagnosed for sure with a torn UCL and -0- afterwards. Hannigan was 35 during the season, a older age catcher wise and they already had to go out to get Leon from Washington as a backup. It just wasn’t going to happen with Swihart. Thinking the opposite was fantasy.
Injuries happen to catchers at any age and sure enough.. Hannigan went down 2 months later with the broken hand and missed 2 full months. How would that have worked out with just Leon? A guy who hits at the AA minor league level?
Great point made there Karkat.
I was saying that before Marc Topkin. Why pair shaffer with anyone. He will be fine. Play him everyday. Topkin thinks he knows a lot but he really doesn’t