With Clay Buchholz unable to turn around his dreadful season and the Red Sox set to start journeyman Sean O’Sullivan on Sunday, they are and should be desperate for starting help, writes Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald. There’s an expectation around baseball that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski will aggressively seek rotation upgrades in advance of the Aug. 1 trade deadline, which could mean moving top prospects like infielder Yoan Moncada and outfielder Andrew Benintendi, per Drellich, who adds that Dombrowski does value the two highly. Although Dombrowski said last Sunday that there isn’t much help on the market, Rangers general manager Jon Daniels offered his own take on it, telling Drellich that pitching is “always there,” but whether it’s worth the asking price is another matter. “There’s a sense of like, ‘Oh, you can’t trade for an ace. No they’re available all the time,” Daniels informed Drellich as part of a piece that’s absolutely worth a full read.
More from Boston, which is in an uproar after the 43-37 Red Sox’s forgettable June and their humiliating 21-2 loss to the Angels on Saturday:
- The Sox were considering taking a run at reliever Fernando Rodney before the Padres traded him to the Marlins earlier this week, though Boston is more interested in acquiring starters than bullpen aid, according to Drellich. With $217MM ace David Price having a tough time preventing runs, Buchholz floundering, and a lack of usable back-end options, that comes as no surprise.
- Beleaguered manager John Farrell has his flaws, but he’s far down the list of Boston’s problems and replacing him won’t fix the team’s issues, opines Scott Lauber of ESPN.com. Price’s struggles, the team’s lack of starting pitching depth and an inability to find a solution in left field – where the Red Sox have dealt with injuries this year to Brock Holt, Blake Swihart and Chris Young – won’t magically disappear if Farrell loses his job and bench coach Torey Lovullo takes the helm, Lauber contends. As Lauber points out, if the Red Sox do give Farrell the ax, it’ll be their first in-season firing of a manager since they handed Jimy Williams his walking papers in August 2001. Given that Farrell oversaw back-to-back last-place finishes coming into this season, he could follow in Williams’ unenviable footsteps if a turnaround doesn’t come.
- Even though there are concerns about first-round left-hander Jason Groome’s makeup, the Red Sox are expected to sign the 12th overall selection by the July 15 deadline, reports Drellich. A deal could take until the 11th hour to get done with the 17-year-old, though.
Love Daniels’s comments – he just became a little more badass.
John Daniels is a badass
Back of Red Sox rotation is so awful now that pretty much any competent major league pitcher would be an upgrade. That makes Dombrowski’s job a little easier.
I don’t understand why anyone would be angry with John Farrell. The Red Sox are not a particularly good team. They were overperforming early based on the talent on the team — the rotation is and was awful behind Price; depending on Hanley Ramirez to play first was never a good idea; David Ortiz is 136 years old and fatter than ever; Travis Shaw was an unknown quantity at 3B…you get the idea. The fact that Ortiz, Hanley, Bogaerts, Pedroia, Betts, Bradley, and Shaw are playing so well has to be credited to the players themselves, but Farrell has to get some credit for that. I don’t see how a different manager would be doing better.
Babe Ruth was pretty fat and he hit well, how about Carlos Lee, he was pretty round and hit pretty well, or what about Kirby Puckett, and what about Julio Franco, he was ‘old’ and he hit pretty well. I know what you’re saying about David Ortiz, but please, the guy is a legend and he’s hitting over .300…..
I get what your saying @sidbream but I think @basilisk4 is trying to point out the foundation of the Red Sox is flawed and needs turnover. And that Farrell shouldn’t get fired for a poor roster make up
the Sox have a lot of problems but surprisingly Hanley at first base isnt really one of them. Sure his bat could be better but he really isnt a major problem, hes way down on the list
I could not care less about the Red Sox but my goodness was this a stupid response. Find me 10 hitters in the entire MLB that have had a better season so far than Ortiz. If the team has talent (which you… kind of.. admit?) and they are not playing well as a team, then the manager absolutely deserves to be criticized. Farrell is one of the worst in-game managers, if not the worst, in baseball. That is a well-known fact. And doesn’t Hanley Ramirez have zero errors so far this year and has performed very adequately, if such a term exists? I don’t follow the team very closely but all I have heard is how surprisingly good he has been there. I look at that teams MLB talent (which consists of young, elite talent and an ace) as well as their depth in the farm system and I’m jealous.
There are some shortcomings on the Red Sox that are not Farrell’s fault, but if you’ve been watching the games you should have noticed that Farrell’s in game managing has cost the Sox multiple games this season, my guess is that this team is 4-6 games better right now with a better in game manager. There is also an argument that he is not getting the best out of his pitching staff, and he is a former pitching coach, so that doesn’t bode well for him either. I think more than anything this team needs to hit the reset button and the best way could very well be replacing the manager. A very depleted Sox roster played some very good baseball under Torey Lovullo last year, thats not a guarantee that he can fix this team, but it’s probably worth a shot.
The only actual problem that you mentioned is the rotation. Which is bad. Very, very bad.
Matt Kemp and Drew Pomeranz going to be heading to Red Sox for prospects.
They won’t get much. Kemp is dead weight and I doubt anyone is going to give big prospects for Pomeranz. Not exactly a sure thing.
SD gets Panda and Benintendi
That would actually be a pretty nice return for SD – trading a bad contract in Kemp for a less-bad one in Sandoval. Sandoval was still pretty good the last time he was in the NL West and, who knows , maybe he gets in shape for real. Benitendi for Pomeranz would be nice value for the Padres.
Panda for Kemp makes a lot of sense, but I feel like Benintendi is alot to give up for Pomeranz. Kemps contract is worse than Pandas, and Pomeranz is overperforming and doesn’t have much upside. I would rather trade Benintendi for Odorizzi or Teheran, or package him in a deal for Sonny Gray. I think Michael Kopech would be a better return for Pomeranz.
Kemp for Panda goes down, no idea what Pomeranz will bring in, he hasn’t been good until SD (red flag).
Well, Pomeranz hasn’t been given much of a chance. He’s a curveball-heavy pitcher who spent much of his developing years with the Rockies, where curveballs turn into home runs. Oakland turned him into a reliever/spot starter. The Padres are the first team that has actually committed to him as a starter and he’s only 27. If he stays healthy, he could have a nice second half of his career.
Thats a lie. He was good for the A’s as a reliever/swingman in the rotation 2 years prior to becoming a padre, 10 games in 2014, 9 in 2015. And his work this year, based on peripherals, is about what he was doing with oakland. Plus his era was 2.35 and 3.66 in those years so in his starts he didnt give up runs otherwise that stat would balloon as he appeared out of the bullpen 10 times in 2014 and 44 times in 2015.
A lot of people forget how good he was in Oaklands rotation 2 years ago down the stretch.Think he had some minor injuries that bumped him out of there rotateion last year and he fell out of favor and was sent to the minors.Preller swoops in and steals him away.What a great get for SD.
Yeah, Pomeranz’ career was hijacked, like so many pitchers, by being drafted and “developed” by the Rockies. It’s a shame, because he’s already 27 and is just now getting a chance to start regularly.
The Red Sox will be fine. They have three emerging young stars, they have well-regarded prospects, and there’s depth. They do have some underperformance problems, but net net, and this is speaking as a Yankee’s fan, they are in much much better shape than “my guys.”
They certainly have the talent to deal for other talent. One of the huge problems that any FO, fans, and media always has is this sense that every prospect in the minors is the next Babe Ruth or Lefty Grove and you can’t trade them..then, if those prospects begin to dim, it’s always the damaged goods that should bring in the other team’s very best.
Dombrowski is a smart guy who is going to improve the roster==at a cost. The rest is going to be up to the players on the field.
Lol the Sox are going to have to give up one of their top prospects for Rich Hill, who they could have had for $6M and a guaranteed opening day rotation spot, which they gave to Joe Kelly instead. Hill was so good last year and still is this year but they didn’t want to “risk” it because….Joe Kelly. Ouch.
Oakland sure would love Benintendi, if Beane can do Hill straight up for him thats highway robbery, but he’d probably throw in Reddick and/or any reliever Drombowski would want too. Or who knows what it would take? Beane is crazy when it comes to trading and if he has his sights on someone, he’ll do anything to get them (Nolin instead of Stroman for Donaldson, ugh).
I hope that BigPapi forever didn’t swan dive into the Charles River after LAA put 21 and 11 in one inning on HIS sox…
Kind of missing the kid.
Anyone who envisioned Brock Holt as an every day left fielder just didn’t understand. Holt is a good player, extremely versatile and can hit some. He is, however, a hitter with little power who tires easily. Chris Young has done, until he was hurt, what he was acquired for, and that is acting as the fourth outfielder. I don’t see any outfielders in their farm system who even come close to being called up, either. Now let’s see if Sean O’Sullivan can hold the Angels to only 20 runs.
Boston needs pitching….. And a lot of it…… Hoping they go for young talent…..
The Red Sox need to just bite the bullet and and trade what ever they have to besides betts, bogarts, shaw, moncada, Espinosa, Benitendi to get some good starting pitching
They need to bite the bullet and trade anything basically what no one is talking about.
I don’t think that Tehran is right for the Red Sox. Yes he’s a good pitcher but that’s in the NL the AL east is a totally different animal, Tehran is not the power pitcher that he was when he came up he’s more about finesse now. And for the haul that they would have to give up to get him the Red Sox could get sonny gray and another pitcher.
That’s what happened to Johnny cueto last year he can’t pitch in the AL.