The Red Sox have optioned veteran righty Kyle Kendrick back to Triple-A, as Chad Jennings of the Boston Herald reports. While optional assignment waivers are no longer required for players, like Kendrick, who are more than three years away from their MLB debut, the club did need to obtain his consent to the assignment as a player with five or more years of service.
Kendrick, 32, has been hit hard in two outings for the Red Sox. Lasting just 8 1/3 innings, the righty has surrendered a dozen earned runs on 18 hits while recording just three strikeouts and issuing three walks. While he showed well in spring camp, that hasn’t carried over to the regular season. Kendrick also carries a 6.00 ERA through four starts at Triple-A.
With a need for relief pitching, the club had little recourse but to make a change. Boston has brought Robbie Ross Jr. back up to take Kendrick’s spot on the active roster. As manager John Farrell explained, an upcoming off-day buys the club some time to make rotation plans.
Given that the Red Sox kept Kendrick on the 40-man roster, rather than designating him for assignment, it seems he’ll remain an option moving forward. But the club could also elect to recall one of the 40-man starters currently working at Pawtucket while it continues to wait for David Price, who is nearing a return to the majors..
Lefties Henry Owens and Brian Johnson have both generated good results thus far, though both are carrying typical peripherals. Right-hander Hector Velazquez is pitching quite well, with just three earned runs on 11 hits over his 22 frames, though he’s not on the 40-man roster. Regardless, Boston will hope that whoever does eventually come up is only needed to keep the seat warm for Price.
I thought they got rid of optional assignment waivers in the new CBA.
I thought the new CBA starts next off-season
They did. As Jeff noted, Kendrick has more than 5 years of MLB service time, so he has the option to refuse any minor league assignment (regardless of whether or not he has options remaining).
The Boston Globe is reporting that Kendrick’s contract with the Red Sox has a clause allowing them to option him to the minors “within the first 45 days of his deal”. That doesn’t quite make sense, as it’s been more than 45 days since he signed with the Red Sox; maybe they mean within the first 45 days of the season, or within the first 45 days after he’s first added to the 40-man roster? But I’m taking it to mean that Kendrick contractually agreed, at the time he signed with the Red Sox, not to refuse an optional assignment to the minors if it happened within a specified time period.
Over The Monster (the SB Nation Red Sox page) is reporting it as “within the first 45 days of his call-up”. They also indicate that Kendrick is out of options, however, and imply that the clause in his contract allowed the Red Sox to option him the minors even though he is out of options. I don’t think that’s right. Once you’re out of options, you’re out of options, and must be offered to other teams on waivers before you can be sent to the minors. I don’t think a player who’s out of options can contractually agree to be optioned and not be passed through waivers.
I think the reason the Red Sox were able to option Kendrick to the minors (as opposed to outrighting him and exposing him to waivers) is simply because he isn’t out of options. If a player’s three options aren’t used in the early part of his career, it is my understanding that any remaining options continue to exist. A lot of people seem to be under the impression that they somehow go away if they aren’t used, but I don’t think that’s true. You rarely see a player with sufficient MLB service time to refuse a minor league assignment get optioned, because he can refuse the assignment, but if his three minor league options haven’t been used up, he theoretically could be. One example: the Red Sox optioned Stephen Drew to the minors to play himself back into shape in 2014 when he re-signed with them midway through the season. It was kind of a rehab assignment, but since rehab assignments are for injured players, and Drew’s issue wasn’t that he was injured, the Red Sox couldn’t send him to minors via the rehab route. Even though Drew had years of MLB service time, he still had at least one minor league option remaining, so the Red Sox were able to send him to the minors that way. They had to pass him through optional assignment waivers (which still existed at that time), but those waivers were revocable, so they could have pulled him back in the unlikely event someone claimed him. The only thing they needed to do was get Drew to agree to it, which he did.
From some online research, the only year I can confirm that a minor league option was used on Kendrick was 2009. He was first added to the Phillies’ 40-man roster when he was called up from the minors at midseason in June 2007. As far as I can tell, he was never sent back down in ’07, and wasn’t sent down in ’08, either, spending the entire season in the majors. He was definitely optioned in ’09. It looks he was optioned to the minors at one point during the 2010 season, but he was apparently called back up within a few days, so he wasn’t in the minors long enough to use up an option (even if it did, that would still be only his second option). After that, Kendrick was a full-time major leaguer through 2015. He played in the minors with the Braves and Angels in 2016, but it was while signed to minor league contracts; he was never on those teams’ 40-man rosters, so he was never optioned.
Apparently not
Bummer he didnt work out, but considering how he faired in AAA, its not surprising.
Sox need Price to come back healthy or theyre gonna have major problems this year trying to rely on Sale, Porcello, and Erod to make up for Pom and whoever else they use to fill in. I really hope Price comes back strong.
I don’t know why they don’t go and get fister. He might not be ready for a while but the red sox need all the help they can get
It is interesting how little depth the best teams in baseball this year have in their starting rotations – the Cubs, Yankees, O’s, Red Sox, Nats – they all have about 4 reliable starting pitchers. I suppose this will rectify itself when the Jays, Giants Royals, Padres etc. become sellers but it is odd how these teams didn’t build any depth into their rotations. It’s not like they couldn’t afford it.
Building starting pitching depth is a myth, same as having a great backup qb in football. If they were good they’d be starting somewhere else. You either rely on prospects or get someone midsession.
Starting quality pitchers aren’t going to waste their time in aaa waiting for a call up or sit in the pen doing mop up work.
While you can’t be surprised with Kendrick’s results, guys like him are your only options if you don’t have young arms that are close.
The Dodgers managed to do it. Hell, the Padres have starting depth and they’re a cheap team. The Nationals, who might be the best team in baseball, ran Jeremy Guthrie out for a start. The Red Sox are running Kyle Kendrick out there and he’s been terrible for years.
The dodgers bought more injury prone starters than they know what to do with, and their rotation still can’t get them a World Series.
It’s practical impossible to have good depth the first few months of the season one starters go down.
The padres pitchers are just bad, I guess having ten fifth starters is depth though.
The Yankees have Montgomery..who’s done a commendable job,Cessa,Warren,and Green can spot start. They have more reliable depth then people give them credit for..maybe that’s why they’re in first!
Oh wait, I was reading this response but Luis Cessa just gave up another home run. To be fair, the Yankees are winning despite their starting rotation being, mostly, a dumpster fire.
The Red Sox cant afford it at this point. Not without selling the rest of the farm. A bounce back like Fister would be optimal but im not sure they can get him without spending too much. As stated, qualty backups are at a premium now and the Sox are worried about “cap” room.
Velazquez deserves a shot—that’s not too shabby in the last 22 inn. @ AAA.
Owens needs to be more consistent. Johnson is off rotation.
d’Arnaude must be in JF’s doghouse after d’A ran through Butter’s stop sign Tues night and appeared to be joking about it. Too bad he has some positive offensive energy.
Id rather they left Velazquez alone for a while. At least until theyre getting desperate. He was horrible in spring training just like Owens. The more time they have to develop the better.
Agree, second-half call up possible if he continues to pitch well
This went exactly as I expected. Remember all the news on this dude in spring?
My thoughts exactly. One guy was raving about him as a middle rotation starter. I said if you throw him in there right out of spring training you don’t know who he is. LOL.
Why not give joe Kelly another rotation chance?
Because Joe can’t get through the lineup more than once
He’s doing fine in his current role, why mess a good thing up?
Pomerantz should be mentioned in the same breath as Kelly.. Pom thinks he is a starter when he should be used in 2-3 inning relief.
Kelly, Barnes, Abad , Hembree are so inconsistent–it’s a miracle Sale, Porcello and ERod have gotten any wins. In fact I think I would take Ben Taylor, and two AA guys, Callahan and Mattox over what we have gotten from the four veterans listed above.
Scott and Ross,Jr.( just off the DL) are about the only ones that have been reliable.
Kimbrel is red hot right now. and the only thing JF can rely on as a sure thing–you can’t ask him to get 5-6 outs per outing.
Look at the Sox 25 man roster–there are only 4 starters listed.