TODAY: Wright was knocked out of last night’s game when he was struck by a comebacker off the bat of Max Muncy. Per a team announcement, he has been diagnosed with a right foot contusion, but x-rays fortunately came back negative. As Cotillo notes, Wright’s health status bears monitoring, as any long-term injury to the knuckleballer might force Dombrowski to reevaluate his confidence in the club’s end-of-game options.
SATURDAY, 11:08pm: The Red Sox addressed their rotation Saturday with the addition of veteran right-hander Andrew Cashner, whom they acquired from the AL East rival Orioles. There had been a need for another starter in Boston, which has lacked a true complement to Chris Sale, David Price, Eduardo Rodriguez and Rick Porcello for most of the season. The role was supposed to go to Nathan Eovaldi, one of the many heroes of Boston’s 2018 World Series-winning campaign, but the right-hander has seldom pitched since re-signing on a four-year, $68MM contract over the winter.
Eovaldi underwent surgery on his pitching elbow in late April, three weeks into the season, and his recovery has taken far longer than the team anticipated. Now, with just two and a half months left in the campaign, the Red Sox don’t believe Eovaldi has enough time to stretch back out as a starter. Therefore, Eovaldi will return as a closer – a decision the playoff-contending Red Sox hope will give them a legitimate Craig Kimbrel successor for the rest of 2019. And the 28-year-old Eovaldi is finally on the verge of rejoining the club. Eovaldi could slot into Boston’s bullpen “within about a week,” assuming the short rehab stint he embarks on early next week goes well, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Saturday (via Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com).
Eovaldi sputtered out of the gates this year before his surgery, pitching to a bloated 6.00 ERA/7.10 FIP with 6.86 K/9 against 4.71 BB/9 in four starts and 21 innings. But Eovaldi held his own over a much larger sample size a year ago, and he brings a 97 mph fastball to the table that could play up in short outings this summer. If it does, Eovaldi would add a a much-needed end-of-game solution to a maligned bullpen that has tallied as many blown saves as saves (18). Boston’s relief corps hasn’t been a statistical disaster on the whole, though its 12th-place K/BB ratio, 13th-ranked FIP and 16th overall ERA are hardly indicative of a dominant unit.
The Red Sox, including their bullpen, took an 11-2 beating at the hands of their 2018 World Series foes – the Dodgers – on Saturday. While the Sox are a respectable 50-42, they’re currently a game and a half out of a wild-card spot and nine back in the AL East after rolling to 108 wins a season. Nevertheless, with Cashner and Eovaldi set to join Boston’s starting staff for most of the second half, Dombrowski suggested Saturday he could pass on further pickups before the July 31 trade deadline.
“We might (stand pat),” Dombrowski said, who later remarked (via Cotillo), “We like how our club looks, but we’ve liked how our club looks for a long time.”
In regards to his team’s bullpen, Dombrowski pointed to Eovaldi’s imminent return and the recent activation of Steven Wright from an 80-game PED suspension as reasons for contentment. Of course, that was before the Dodgers trounced Wright for three earned runs on three hits in a third of an inning Saturday. The knuckleballer has now surrendered at least one earned run in three of six appearances since his activation, and has yielded six ER on 11 hits (including three homers) in 6 1/3 frames on the season.
Despite Wright’s struggles, if we’re to believe Dombrowski, the righty may be someone Boston leans on down the stretch in lieu of outside help. Even if Dombrowski wants to make more additions to his pitching staff or anywhere else, though, there’s a question of how much more money he’ll be able to spend. The Red Sox are running an estimated luxury tax payroll upward of $245MM after trading for Cashner, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. Exceeding the highest threshold, $246MM, would subject the Red Sox to the harshest penalties – a 75 percent tax on every dollar spent over the limit and a 10-spot fall for their top 2020 draft pick.
Also of great relevance: Owner John Henry said two weeks ago the franchise is “not going to be looking to add a lot of payroll” this summer. With two-plus weeks left before the deadline, we’ll find out soon if Henry sticks by that statement.
Straight to closer eh?
Interesting that Boston doesn’t think Nate can be stretched out as a starter with two and a half months left in the season, but the Yankees think that Severino can be a starter this year when he won’t start throwing for another six weeks lol.
Lol. It’s called having a lead in the division and having the luxury to ramp up his innings.
Even then, Severino is expected to have a 75 pitch limit, after those 6 weeks.
No one is flipping a switch with these guys.
With the Yanks’ bullpen, 75 pitches is fine as long as their other starters don’t exhaust it by playoff time. The real question to me is whether or not his injury explains his pre-IL beatings. A return to the first half 2018 Severino is as good as a deadline pickup as there is. Just a huge question mark for the 2019 Yankees like Boston had last year with Sale. Thank god the Red Sox got Eovaldi last July.
And look at Sale now…lol
So we are ok with the Yankees risking further long term injury to him? How can anyone have any faith in their medical staff when all they’ve done is botch everything this year? Cashman literally said they should’ve had Severino take another MRI before trying to ramp up the rehab process with him before needing to shut him down again. Its a joke. They should use him as a specialized bullpen weapon if he does actually manage to return this year. Trying to flirt with making him a starter again, even if its only 75 pitches and out, feels like trying to experiment with making Andujar play with the torn labrum all over again
Or Bell, he becomes an opener for a few innings. This has gone from dad to reality.
Eovaldi has a much worse injury history than Sevy. Their aren’t many other pitchers with success that have been as hurt as he has. It’s the right thing to do to not use him too much this year and than stretch him out next year with more time to rest in between seasons.
Bell…Have a good time laughing!
Eovaldi does have a much more extensive injury history and Sevy is also younger which may play also.
I just hope Nate feels the same way. I really think there is something physical with Sale. I’m nit sure why Wright would need PEDs cuz sure hadn’t helped him!
Pasha, it’s either the bullpen or stay in the minors another month. The team player that Eovaldi showed he was last year will do anything short term to help the team.
Let’s watch him get on the mound. Dave is famous for underestimating and misreporting injuries. One week huh…ok the clock is ticking.
Not sure if serious about the PED part or not, but I was at the game last night and someone was yelling about this as well, so leaving the comment. Wright was most certainly taking the PEDs so his body would heal and recover quicker given his age and that knee surgery. And while he may have felt it’d get his body feeling better, it sure isn’t going to make him throw any better apparently.
It was interesting listening to AJ Pierzynski’s analysis of Sale’s 2019 struggles on FOX last night. AJP did catch him for 2 years with CWS. Says he’s missing further off the plate than ever before which piles up the pitch count and forces him to the middle of the plate to avoid walks. Sounds simplistic, but this was clearly on display vs LAD last night.
Think please, or research before hammering him. it was some kind of growth hormone type to supposedly help his knee. He had the exact same total knee reconstructive surgery Pedroia had.
The substance was banned, for sure and he admitted it was banned, but do remember a story where he stated took them to help regenerate growth in that area of something am pretty sure.
Payrolls Not Looking Too Good For These Guys.
If JD ops out he’s crazy. The Yankees are set. And Mookies coming up. Might have to trade him. Or one last year of Arb.
The salary’s are nuts. Worst in baseball. But they win rings. So there’s that.
I’d say Mookie has to go. Speed outfielders break down. Carl Crawford. And can find another lead off man. Jd stays. Ride that out. And wait to slowly retool with others While staying in it…
Sale having a so so year hurts. And the bullpen sucks.
World series hangovers. . . It Happens.
What’s interesting is the free agency swings we are seeing. There’s another way to look at Martinez as well… 2 years ago, when Martinez signed the deal, it was thought there’s no way he doesn’t opt out after year 3 if he is healthy. It was seen as a 3/$75 mil deal. He’s produced and now, teams aren’t paying $25 mil a season for DH/poor fielders. So its now a 5/125 deal more then likely and doesn’t look great because most teams wouldn’t pick up his salary on waivers unless they were desperate, despite his production.
This is just one of many circumstances I’m sure that are being discussed in the ongoing CBA negotiations.
I also think Dombrowski’s leaning a little hard to Eovaldi to think he can come in and close. He’s got great velocity, but lacks swing and miss stuff. He’s been prone to the longball with his flat fastball requiring his off-speed stuff to throw off hitters timing more then his fastball’s movement being deceptive.
I agree that Eovaldi may not been a beast nafide top closer. This is out of the box but I might try Cashner as the closer. He is usually good for twice through the lineup and then tends to fade. Put Eovaldi in the rotation and use Cashner to close
Well the problem with trying to slot Eovaldi into the rotation is he has to be stretched back out properly, which will take a few weeks once he’s back. The Sox don’t have a few weeks to watch playoff dreams dwindle and still consider themselves buyers. I think Eovaldi should step back into the role he filled last playoffs. Long-relief (2-3 inning max) and middle relief. Which means the Sox still need a closer.
Cashner was a solid add if they are serious about going for it. But he also is a ground ball pitcher at this point who’s swing as miss and velocity have faded a bit. Probably not a great closer option either. Let Cashner solidify the rotation, Eovaldi can be long-middle relief option. You’re already over the lux tax threshold, so go get a closer and make one of the last 2 runs the Sox are going to have before a substantial rebuild.
If he leaves us a piece short like he left the Tigers for years, I’m going to blow my top and call for his job… not that my opinion matters, but there ya have it!
I’m not seeing a rebuild any time soon. We have C, 2B, SS, 3B, LF, DH, SP, SP, SP, SP all signed through 2021.
It’s more than a so so year…sale is injured…just not reporting it yet. His location slips pitches over the plate. You know what that means…
What’s up Doc?
Both Yankees and BoSox deserve to pay the 75% tax. When are the other GMs going to stop being the farm teams for these high dollar clubs?
Poor little rich boys.
As a baseball fan over 50 years. We really need salary cap.The leagues need to better completive.
Baseball is losing the young people.
IMO there are some good things with the game with the wild card. Don’t care for the one game playoff.Should be a 3 game series.
The postseason already goes into November. Let’s not keep extending it.
There’s an easy compromise here Ketch that I think gets overlooked. Knock off 2 games in the regular season (reduce count to 160 from 162) and extend the wild card match-up to a 3 game series. This would actually shorten the season by 2 games for half the league and extend an exciting playoffs.
I LOVE the one-game playoff. It’s like an immediate game 7 everything on the line, loser goes home.
You want a longer series to make it fair then win your division. Simple as that. Like the old days.
I agree Gary 99% of the time. But there are times where a team can win 100 games (Yankees last year) and still wind up in a wild card game. Winning the division isn’t always a fair fight. The AL East teams are forever at a disadvantage. The NL East teams are forever at a disadvantage. More often then not, this would be a huge advantage for the Central divisions in both leagues. A 100 win team still has a major advantage over an 88 win team in a 3 game playoff set and will likely make for more competitive division series games. Also, it will put the wild card team at a further disadvantage, having both their top pitchers throw.
Take the Red Sox this year. Sale and Price both pitch wild card games, by the division series, at best Porcello pitches game 1 and Sale can maybe come back for game 2 IF they don’t 2-0 the wildcard series. If they do, likely Sale doesn’t get to pitch till game 3.
I don’t like the NFL or NCAA tournament because of the concept of any given Sunday. That’s not a good way to decide who the best team in the league is.
Baseball does have a problem there but you can’t just blame the Sox and Yankees and Dodgers. Too many teams underspend too.
CBA changes I think are coming:
1) Salary floor / penalty for being under – Maybe not a true salary floor like in hockey, but penalize teams under the $75 mil on the 40-man roster and $65 mil on the coming 26 man roster.
2) Team control reduced by 1 year. Players hit arbitration earlier.
3) Some form of “Max Contracts”. Call it a max of a 10% overage on an existing comparable deal (ex: no more throwing an extra $100 million on the table to sign A-Rod or $60 million extra for Sabathia).
A balance has to be struck.
Baseball is losing the young people because the game keeps changing and moving in a direction they aren’t fans of. The collisions at home plate. The breaking up double plays with a good hard slide. The physical elements of the game that resemble other sports. The teams with the biggest fan bases also aren’t always delivering a quality product on the field. Phillies for awhile there. Mets perennially.
The problem stems from the other side. Lack of spending and tanking. Baseball will become more and more competitive and fun for everyone, youngsters included, when they give teams an incentive or consequence for their level of competition financially. Every team has a bad year. That’s ok. Sometimes a full rebuild is the only way to go. But there should be a penalty for hanging down there for teams spending $50 million on their entire active roster, just like there is on the high end. If you give teams a reason to put a quality product on the field, there will be more competitive teams. More competitive teams means more competitive games. More competitive games is how you get more fans.
Baseball is looking at it like shave 3 minutes off here, speed up the pace there and these aren’t necessarily bad ideas. But the core of the issue stems with the Rays, Marlins, Pirates, A’s and others. Each team has a good reason. A’s won’t spend at a high level until they get a new ballpark. Understandable. Matt Holliday wouldn’t entertain them in free agency because he hated the stadium so much. Rays and Marlins have an unsolvable problem. Most people in Florida are transplants or children of transplants and are fans of other teams already. I’m not saying there aren’t challenges, but it is the only way to bring the young people back to baseball.
It is also hard to speed up games when baseball continues to make this game a more offensive-driven product. More walks, more hits, more runs, more time spent on the field. And more injuries among pitchers. Fans may like homeruns, but fans truly come to watch top pitchers dueling. Always have, always will.
Poor little World Series Champs! Teams that bring in the big money should spend it, and they do … on players. The only thing that hurts baseball is the small market teams scooping up the tax money and not spending it.
Baseball will always be here, it is still an enormous business. Young fans also hate your music, so what?!?! Eventually it will pick up again.
Can we get a different pic of DD. He looks like he’s headed to his own funeral.