The Red Sox have released righty Tyler Thornburg, per a club announcement (via Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, on Twitter). That was the anticipated outcome after the reliever declined an optional assignment.
Thornburg will be now take to the open market in search of a bounceback opportunity elsewhere. He’s promised a $1.75MM salary from the Boston organization regardless. Other clubs can consider bringing him aboard for nothing more than the league-minimum rate of pay for whatever time he spends at the major-league level. While Thornburg hasn’t been a productive big league pitcher in quite some time, he’s still only 30 years of age and is sure to catch on with a rival team (likely on a minors pact).
The trade that brought Thornburg to the Red Sox stings quite a bit in retrospect. Travis Shaw ended up giving the Brewers two quality seasons; while he has struggled this year, the Milwaukee org also just called up the other key piece of the swap — infielder Mauricio Dubon. While he isn’t seen as a blue-chipper, the 24-year-old has handled the bat well at Triple-A and is generally viewed as a valuable prospect.
What a complete waste of time and resources
Surprised there was not one mention of the reason for Thornburg’s decline, which was the thoracic outlet syndrome surgery in 2017. That’s a really tough surgery from which to return, Matt Harvey had the same thing and has had an equally difficult time returning from it..
Oh well, he was given every chance to make a spot for his self and he choked badly… prolly had a lot more chances then most… moving on!
Sounds like another Minnesota Twins minor league signing!
Mets.
Nationals. They just sent Barraclough to the minors. He’s better than Suero and Grace.
No he’s not.
brewers
Giants. They’ll need some warm bodies after they trade off their entire bullpen this month.
lotta bad bullpens out there
What a horrible trade!
Good riddance!
Definitely flier worthy.
That was a horrific trade, but every team has some of those. They gave Thornburg so many chances n he couldn’t do it. I wish him well but glad he’s not coming outta the Blow-pen anymore.
Another opportunity for Friedman to go dumpster diving. Also Friedman Josh Fields may be available again.
Would have said that too until the Nationals started sweeping up what seems like every relief pitcher who’d ever been even close to good. Surprised they didn’t pick up Fields. He’s been available since he was released by the Rangers a couple of weeks ago.
You have a point, I never thought a team would get worse with Dusty Baker leaving, but clearly there were other things at play.
Friedman seems to be the king of dumpster diving
I could see the Braves taking a shot. He’s from the area.
I don’t understand how somebody in journlism doesn’t proof read.
Im usually not picky about stuff like that, but if this is “professional writing” thats kind of sad. Some sentences on this site are hard to get through. I get that mistakes happen, but this is simply someone not taking the time to re-read what they wrote.
“Thornburg will be now take to the open market in search of a bounceback opportunity elsewhere”..
Come on Jeff
You got your money’s worth. Go somewhere
else…..
So just because its free to view this site, we have to put up with awful grammar and lazy writing?
Okay..
And they get paid to write it… no excuse.
It would be nice if they didn’t treated it as if they were writing a text.
Its like 2 paragraphs. is it that hard to read it after typing?
haha im sure my post will be deleted so by all means
Free or not, it’s not too much to ask people reporting news to do so accurately and clearly. Hey, if they’re hiring proofreaders I’ll gladly do it.
I’m guessing it’s probably a bit of Jeff wanting to be the “first” to report about something and in his haste, he failed to proofread. I find it hard to read any article, anywhere, whether free or paid for, that isn’t loaded with proofreading and spelling mistakes. I guess good writing skills have gone by the way of being a good and honest journalist these days. Present company excluded.
You’re complaining because he forgot to omit be?
4eyed proceeds to misspell journalism while criticizing the writing. Lol
I’m not a professional journalist. If I was being paid to do it, I would have read it before I posted it.
journlism?
A misspelled word like “journlism,” isn’t nearly as bad as that botched sentence that literally trips you up when you are trying to read it. I guess if you don’t do much reading, it wouldn’t bother you.
“Nationals sign Tyler Thornburg”
You’re wrong. This has Orioles written all over it.
He should have been offered back to Brewers for Minor League INF’er Travis Shaw….. at least Milwaukee go some production out of Shaw.
Man this was a bad trade. Just Shaw would’ve been bad enough but to add on top prospect Mauricio Dubon and two other prospects? Damn dombrowski got fleeced
Dubon wasn’t close to a top prospect at the time of that trade
He had just come off a very good season in Double-A but had been already pigeon-holed by the industry as a low level prospect. That is a tough stigma to overcome in baseball. The over-rated players get a hundred chances but someone like Dubon, much like Hoskins, have to prove they can play ten times over. He is a good player and is going to surprise a lot of people.
Bad trade sure…….but to say he got fleeced is a bit of a stretch. All the guys they traded were spare parts. Dubon may turn into a useful utility player, the other two prospects I’ve never heard of, and Shaw is hitting .230 in AAA. I wouldn’t call that collection of mediocrity getting “fleeced.” The Brewers won the trade by default.
Seems like he will at least be on Orioles radar considering they just took a flyer on a bad Aaron Brooks and his over 5 era
I feel like the Rays could pick him up and work him into the bullpen after some time in Durham.
He’ll be pitching for the Oakland A’s in August
Maybe it’s just the logic in me, but he refuses a minor league assignment from the Sox so that he can likely sign a MINOR league deal elsewhere? If you’re going to the minors anyway, why not stay with the team that gives you the best chance to contribute to its bullpen, given how bad the Sox’ pen has been? It’s extremely unlikely he gets a major league deal and although it’s true that you get to choose from 29 other teams and evaluate their situation, you could also wind up in a worse situation or just taking whatever deal comes along. After all, given his numbers and injury history, I don’t see teams chomping at the bit to sign him.
I didn’t understand this from the Red Sox point of view. Has he been garbage? Yes. But I find him to be a bit better than other option-able pitchers (Brewer and Taylor come to mind from the active roster). I would’ve hung on to him just for depth purposes because he does have a track record of success. Cut him if we acquire someone better, but I feel this was a poor depth move.
I just looked at his numbers from Pawtucket… Never Mind, he can go.
My handle tells where my allegiance lies and all Red Sox fans are happy, very happy, that Thornburg will not set foot on the Fenway mound in a Red Sox uniform. He was awful.
If you need 500 innings out of your bullpen and this guy has pitched more than 40 innings in 2 out of 9 years, I would say he’s not very useful. At 63 innings, the difference between a 2.00 and a 3.00 ERA is 7 earned runs. That’s two bad outings. I would rather have a guy who pitches 60-70 innings every year even if his ERA is not always stellar. Is he consistent and reliable a high percentage of the time? That’s why I’m OK with a guy like Heath Hembree.
Glad he is gone dumpster fire
Sounds like a guy rangers could sign
Just an abysmal trade, no other way to look at it. Most disappointing part is this disaster came one year after another “set up man disaster” when they dealt for Carson Smith.
100%
In fairness, both guys suffered severe injuries.
You can’t buy a bullpen. How is that super star Edwin Diaz doing?
Brewers
They should have traded him to the brewers for Travis Shaw! Next stop, Washington. The island of misfit relievers.
This has Dodgers dumpster diving to fix their garbage bullpen written all over it.
About time!
Thanks for NOTHING Tyler. Useless waste of talent