The Red Sox have acquired left-hander Matt Hall from the Tigers, per a team announcement from Detroit. Minor league catcher Jhon Nuñez is headed to Detroit in return. Hall had been designated for assignment when the Tigers signed Iván Nova. Boston’s 40-man roster was already full, so another move is forthcoming.
Hall, 26, has a 9.48 ERA in 31.1 MLB innings. That belies the swing-and-miss stuff he’s demonstrated, both in the majors and high minors. In a pair of Triple-A seasons, working mostly as a starter, Hall has racked up 10.3 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9. Hall’s 23.9% career MLB strikeout rate isn’t quite at that level, but it is still slightly better than average. Most encouragingly, the 26-year-old has 96th percentile curveball spin, per Statcast. He comes with two option years, so he’ll give Boston some flexible left-handed depth, both for the rotation and the bullpen.
Nuñez, 25, re-signed with Boston on a minor-league deal in November. He’s spent all seven of his pro seasons in their farm since signing as an international free agent from the Dominican Republic in 2012. Nuñez had a career-best showing at Double-A Portland in 2019, hitting .280/.333/.412 in 233 plate appearances. That dwarfs his cumulative .254/.325/.345 line in the minors. He’ll be with the Tigers as a non-roster invitee in MLB spring training, the team announced.
Stockpiling catchers
It’s a good move
wow, heck of a return for a DFA
Yes!
Dumpster divin’ Theo missed out on Nunez!
but that’s not dumpster diving though, right?
Good move for both teams
Bad move for Detroit. DFA a left handed pitcher with elite spin rates, who hasn’t been given much of a chance and then trade him for a guy they could have signed as a FA 2 months ago. if they had had any interest.
i was a Hall fan in recent years, but his numbers so far are really underwhelming, and there are many better arms soon to surpass him. Tigers dont have a breakaway catcher of the future right now though, with Romine for 1 year and Grenier and Rogers each having their warts. Nunez, if a remember, was pretty well regarded in the Sox system not too long ago, and his numbers have looked good over most levels. you may never have too much pitching, but getting a good catcher is harder.
Nunez was never highly regarded in the Sox system. He might of been in the 31-60 at one time but I don’t even remember that.
Have to wait and see how Blooms off-season pickups pan out in Spring Training to pass judgement.
Baseball should put a robot behind home plate. No signals just analyzes the pitch and calculates its track. Calls balls and strikes and never misses. Do it!
I can see it now, MLB’s next major scandal: umpire hacking.
They already have umpire hacking. As a Detroit fan i have seen it.
its really just that simple, eh? snap your fingers and – boom! – a foolproof system.
As a RS fan don’t know what to say about this one
Not a fan of Hall. Soft tossing AAAA pitcher at best. But given the amount of pitching talent the Tigers will have at AAA this year, we didn’t need Hall. But at least we got a guy 2 years younger that provides depth at a position of need. Nunez may never be a major leaguer, but he plays a position we are a bit thin at in our system, especially at the upper levels.
Bloom got us more pitching depth especially for a catcher that we didn’t need
This is a Chaim Bloom move for sure. Nice upside on Hall, Detroit had at least 4 better options to DFA.
as a Sox fan I like the move — no need for Nunez as he was way down on the C depth chart and Hall potentially has some solid upside. He’s posted great K/9 numbers in the minors and those have come mostly as a starter. So if converted to a FT RP there might even be a slight uptick in K’s — I realize he doesn’t throw particularly hard and has really struggled at the ML level thus far – but considering the high spin rate on his curve — he’s a good very low risk – potentially solid reward type guy. If the Sox can tinker with him a little and figure out a way for him to replicate his ml success at the ML level – there’s definitely potential for a useful bullpen piece — worst case scenario he provides some LHP depth at AAA in case of emergency/injury as both a SP and multi-inning reliever.
Chaim Bloom apparently has a thing for high strikeout left-handed pitchers
This is Chaim’s 3rd relief pitcher DFA acquisition this week. Looks like the TB style of bringing in some low cost, potential mid to high reward pitchers that can help most likely out of the pen. I like it. If nothing else it creates competition for the pitchers expected to make the roster. Combine this with a potential trade or two depending on what they do with Price and it could be an interesting off season. Assuming they keep Mookie, we could see Chavis at 2B and Dahlbec at 1B w/ Bogarts SS, Devers 3B, Vasquez C, Bennentindi LF, JBJ – CF and Mookie in RF. That’s a pretty high powered hitting team. The need a left handed platoon for 1B but if Sale, Price, Evoldi and Perez are healthy, this could be a very interesting team. This is assuming Henry decides not to trim playroom especially in light of the Alex Cora departure. We are hearing that might happen. Maybe Brad Ausmus or someone like Hensley Meulens comes in to be the Mgr.
Within the last few days, every time someone suggested that Chavis is going to start at 2B someone else came along and said it will be Chavis at 1B, Peraza at 2B. And then I read that Chavis is going to be used at and is preparing to be used at 1B, 2B and 3B. Wonder which it’s going to be.
Outfield too
That was supposed to be payroll not playroom. Lol
Like Hall last year, I imagine this being Funkhouser’s make or break year. Get it done Kyle!
He’s only been good in the minors, rocked in mlb. It’s just another low risk roster filling move in the minors… yay
HOF
Chaim is killing it. Oh wait no he’s not.
Agree. WTF?
No offense people but even with that “High Spin” Ratio, this guy has an ERA above 9.00. This whole season has turned into picking up garbage and throwaways. Bloom isn’t impressing me at all!
He’s being very patient. He’s smart. You can’t give David Price away when he can still be a very productive starter in MBL. If the Red Sox are healthy, they can compete right now. Their payroll is over $230M right now so what are you expecting Chaim to do? He had to wait for all of the quality FA starting pitchers to sign. The Yankees have Garrett Cole $324M. Chaim needs to stay patient until another contender has a major injury to one of their starters unless the Sox are playing really well. Now he has to go find a Manager for the team in addition to all the other trade conversations they have been having with other teams. Not an easy off season considering the payroll challenges, Alex Cora situation etc. the good news is they still have a lot of talent. It’s all about health and performance.
The Sox are so thin at C throughout their system that I don’t see how Jhon Nunez was expendable, esp. after he just had his best season in 2019.
The Red Sox have Vazquez for long term and Plawecki as backup Nunez wasn’t needed at all
Am I the only Tiger fan that thinks Drew Carlton is the super sleeper relief pitcher that they are secretly clearing the deck for? He isn’t even on the Top 30 prospect list yet had a terrific year closing at Erie last season. 32nd round pick out of FSU in ’17. Then again, I once thought Wilken Ramierez was a can’t miss guy too.
I wonder if Tigers will regret this move, Hall seems like a Sabermetric darling with that spin rate…
The BoSox had a guy with high spin rate on curve that turned out to be a pretty good late bloomer due to higher usage rate on that curve…
Tigers should look no further than Matt Boyd as a case to allow these lower velocity lefties to throw a much higher percentage of breaking balls.
Oh well. Maybe Hall doesn’t turn into next coming of Rich Hill, but if he does it is just another strike against Avila led FO.