While the Red Sox pitching depth has been a cause of concern this spring, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski doesn’t think the team is going to add any more starting pitchers, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe writes. “Not that you don’t constantly keep a pulse of everything as far as you can, but to be overly aggressive in terms of trying to do something in that regard, I don’t think it’s going to happen,” Dombrowski said. Even if the Sox did want to acquire starters, Dombrowski noted, the fact that the rotation is set (David Price’s arm issues notwithstanding) doesn’t give the team much incentive to lure a veteran pitcher. As Dombrowski rhetorically asks, “if Price comes back quickly, what do you do with that guy? I’d gladly have two or three more guys at Triple A that were big league starters, that were good, that we can bring up at any time. But they want to sign with a big league contract.”
Here’s more from around the AL East…
- Colby Rasmus will likely begin the season on the disabled list, the Rays outfielder tells Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. After last season concluded, Rasmus underwent surgeries on his hip and core area, and he still isn’t quite fully recovered enough to handle regular left field duty. Mallex Smith will likely be Tampa’s Opening Day left fielder, though Rasmus may not miss more than a week’s worth of games.
- With Derek Norris now in the fold and Wilson Ramos expected back in May or June, the Rays’ current catchers are facing uncertainty, MLB.com’s Bill Chastain writes. Curt Casali, Luke Maile and Jesus Sucre had been in competition for the two catching jobs, though now only one will stick around on the 25-man roster to serve as Norris’ backup. Sucre may face the biggest hurdle, as the Rays would have to make room to find him a spot on the 40-man roster if he makes the team.
- Pedro Alvarez’s minor league deal with the Orioles includes an opt-out clause in May, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports. Alvarez is trying to make the O’s as an outfielder, which could be a tough call given Alvarez’s inexperience at the position and the number of other outfield candidates also in camp, Kubatko notes.
- Scott Boras recently had some harsh words about the Blue Jays’ method of assigning pre-arbitration salaries, particularly in regards to Boras client Aaron Sanchez being renewed for a league-minimum salary in 2017. As Jays president Mark Shapiro noted in a radio interview with Jeff Blair and Stephen Brunt on The FAN 590 (hat tip to Sportsnet’s David Singh), however, both the team and the agent are on the same page in wanting to see Sanchez eventually maximize his earnings. “[GM Ross Atkins] and I have told Aaron, ’Listen, we want to pay you a lot of money. We want to pay you more money. The more we pay you the better, because that means you’ve performed better,’ ” Shapiro said. “We want our guys to all do extremely well for us to have to pay them a ton of money. Because if we have to pay them a ton of money, that means they’re performing on the field, which means we have a better chance to be a championship team.”
When is Scott Boras going to retire?
Why should he? He’s the best at his job.
Never. He will always have clients because he gets them paid no matter how annoying he is.
Hey JMC…
The more important question is, “how long will it take for gibbons to recognize that Tony bats without Edwin’s protection will be in his retirement tour.”
Tony bats eh bro ? Tony Batista played for the Jays years ago, although he didn’t go by that moniker. Ya dope !
Bautista led the league in homers 2 years before encarnacion became good. Was that because of the great protection he had in Aaron hill and Adam Lind?
Agreed. I would like to see Bautista return to form. With that being said, I’m not expecting 50 dingers.
If you’re a player and teams like your agent, you should find another agent.
He is an agent not a player. He could do this into his 90s. As long as he is making his clients money.
Best case scenario for any Boras-haters is eventually he becomes less involved in the negotiations and transitions to more of an overseeing sort of thing. I’m sure he does some of this now at the Boras Corporation.
I’d like to see Jesus Sucre play well, for the sole reason of hearing a nickname like “Sugar Jesus” or “Sweet Jesus” take hold of the sports world.
It’s a good thing to hear that Alvarez, who is a pretty good player, can’t make the O’s roster.