Should the Red Sox reload or rebuild? The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham votes for the latter option, arguing that Chris Sale’s season-ending injury should inspire the Sox to “consider trading anybody outside of Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, and Eduardo Rodriguez.” (Personally speaking, I’d also add Christian Vazquez and Andrew Benintendi to Abraham’s no-trade list.) Such a move may seem drastic, though the Red Sox already faced a tough battle to reach the playoffs in 2020 even with Sale, and that was assuming the left-hander was able to rebound from a down year in 2019. With building blocks like Bogaerts and Devers already in place and their luxury tax penalties reset to zero, Boston could look to get back into playoff contention as early as 2021 after trading veterans for the right young talent, and then adding some other higher-priced players in trades or free agency.
Some more from around the AL East…
- It all could be something of a moot point given the indeterminate delay to the 2020 season, though Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times looked at how the Rays’ roster was shaping up in the latter days of Spring Training. Bullpen-wise, Nick Anderson was looking like the favorite for the majority of save chances, while non-roster invitee Aaron Loup was working towards winning a roster spot, which would have required Tampa to clear a space on its 40-man roster. Kevan Smith and Chris Herrmann, two other veterans in camp on non-roster invites, had seemingly fallen behind Michael Perez in the backup catcher competition. Though the Rays were preparing to deploy five regular starting pitchers, Topkin notes that the Rays were still planning to use openers every once in a while, as a way of managing injuries or giving the regular starters a break if necessary.
- Thursday was the opt-out date in Wade LeBlanc’s minor league contract with the Orioles, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes. We’re reaching the end of the 48-hour window for the club to put LeBlanc on its 40-man roster or release him, assuming some other arrangement hasn’t been made in the wake of the shutdown. Regardless, Kubatko feels LeBlanc is a lock to make the roster, and getting selected would guaranteed an $800K salary for LeBlanc in 2020.
- In another piece from Kubatko, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters that no Orioles players are set to undergo any medical procedures. This includes right-hander Evan Phillips, who dealt with some soreness in his throwing elbow in early March and recently met with Dr. Neal ElAttrache for a second opinion about the issue.
Phillips will soon be nearing Jacob Rhame levels of “why is this guy still on a 40 man roster” -ness
Well there’s David Hess on that list too. He went to the same training center John Means did to develop his change up this offseason. Doesn’t look like it worked out quite as well for him. You can flip a coin on which one of them is more deserving of a DFA.
As much as I hate to admit it as a Sox fan… I have to agree given the TJ surgery for Sale the Sox should go for a 1-year “rebuild” if the opportunity(ties) present themselves. I too would add Vasquez to the “no-trade list” but am on the fence on Benintendi. If any other veteran on their roster brings back a solid return of good young, or decent prospects they should take the opportunity now to seize on it. If they do, and do it correctly, as the article says — they could position themselves well to be back to being a true contender as early as 2021. They have such a strong young core that all it would take is a few good additions (and the healthy return of Sale — which granted is still an “If” ) but “if” those things were to happen. And they had some $ to spend in FA next off-season, they could legitimately turn things around in just 1-year and put themselves back into contention for 2021
I say the same trade away JD,JBJ,Workman and Eovaldi they would bring the most value
Agreed on Workman. Have liked him since was a 2nd rounder like 10y ago, but his use of the best pitch he has.. That nasty curve is hard on his arm, has to be. Look at all these other hvy curve guys, like Rich Hill who can’t stay healthy and Workman has already had TJ, like Rich Hill.
Workman’s use of his curve, was at 47% last season. Not surprisingly, his best season since it’s his by far best pitch, but I don’t expect to see him moved until some kind of mid (whenever that is) season break occurs, so teams vying for whatever remains of the post season will pay a premium for a top notch, of late reliever who just does not allow hits.
Sometimes it hurts short term. To get premium young talent will cost. x-man has an opt out in three years. No one should be off the table if the return is a substantial premium. Not saying make a trade but don’t rule anything out.
JBJ won’t bring anything more than a AA semi-prospect at this point. He’s free to walk after this “season” and he can’t hit. His value was after the 2018 season when they probably could have at least gotten a good relief pitcher for him.
Oh yeah !!!!!!!! I mean it is “The Red Sox” right!!!!!! Any other team ahhhhh forget about it but it’s the almighty Red Sox we’re talking about. There’s the Red Sox and then there’s 29 other teams that don’t exist. Who could forget the greatest catch phrase of all time!! The legendary COWBOY UP !!!!!!
Go troll somewhere else.
Who’s trolling.?? It’s a fact Red Sox fans think the whole baseball universe evolves around them.,Also you guys have won 4 WS since 2004 and soon as Dombrowskibis shown the door you guys turn on the guy.
Anyone who doesn’t conform with his ideas is trolling according to him. Ignore him. He’s the real troll.
Sorry your Angels have been pathetic so long while the Sox won 4 WS since 2004.
Don’t. Feel bad for us Angel fans. We live in SoCal. Beautiful women. Beautiful weather and we have the best player on the planet. I know you’re going to say we’ve only been to the playoffs once with Mike. But you still have to live in Boston with that weather.
Btw I don’t about that 4th one. Rumor is you cheating. Seems like another New England area based team gets accused of it too
I live in Southern California and can’t wait to leave! It has traffic, snobs, taxes, oh ya two hours to go 40 miles, did I mention the snobs and traffic and taxes twice as much as everywhere else. Weather yes…not much else.
Trout and …………nothing else means playoff………..?
Yeah, everyone wants to live in SoCal so badly. AHAAHHAHHAHAAHHAHAAA
Well I’ll leave the Boston weather out of this as I live in a sub of Chicago, And you are correct that Trout is the best on planet, but growing up the Red Sox have had quite a few great players to root for.. Yaz, Rice,and some guy named Ted to name a few but I’m about rooting for THE TEAM… I ask you the joy of Mike Trouts dominance or the joy of 2002 ????.
so we can’t comment in regards to the Red Sox as Red Sox fans AND the team actually was talked about in the article… Gotcha
Leblanc seemingly has to be added to the 40 man. They still have a 40 man slot open after letting the rule 5’ers go.
Am I the only one who really is not a fan of Benintendi? He always feels like he’s capable of more than the numbers he produces.
He certainly looked like an AS after 2018, but 2019 was a huge regression,as it was for most RS players. I’d listen, for the right offer, but I’d also be betting on a rebound to an .825 OPS.
I’d also keep in mind that he could be our CF in 2021, adding to his value.
And, as usual, I consider an off-season as a reason to extend a guy on the low side.
hold onto those and trade others to get mlb ready top prospects so that the sox can have 1 year rebuild? lmao!
So Chavis isn’t even worth a mention in the keep-to-build-around convo? He’s only cheap, controllable, and pretty darn good I don’t know why anyone would want to keep him around for a rebuild…
Well pretty darn good is to be determined. He’s got a lot of swing and miss in his game and If he’s going to be a 1B—his offense is much less exciting. His lackluster second half was as well. Which was supported by his season’s worth of statcast data—.298 xWOBA v. .323 WOBA.
We’ll see what Chavis is—but I would imagine that he’s viewed as more of a prospect than a player an MLB contender would want to plug and play right now. That would be my guess as to why he’s omitted. I’d say Verdugo is much more of an oversight than Chavis.
Chavis isn’t anything special
Agree. Chavis could be traded for a 3rd or 4th starter. Sox have better 1B options next year in Bobby Dalbec or Triston Casas.
And first basemen are usually abundant on the free agent market.
Don’t think your getting a 3rd or 4th starter for Chavis straight up….he’s got 1 years worth of work and already being spoken about as a platoon player….3rd or 4th starters in MLB today would command a lot more than ‘potentially a good player”!
And first basemen are usually abundant on the free agent market.
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But Chavis will be played at 2nd, with only a platoon role at 1st.
The RS players that are their core they won’t trade i hope. They are all untouchable as far as I’m concerned. It was hard enuff that Mookie had to go, n others. I know no one regret Porcello leaving, but I DO. He reminds me of Lowe. I just think he may have a big yr. he wanted to stay. Good thing I’m not a GM, I get attached to players, , like Porcello, n yeah the Brockstar too, for all the Holt haters. .
If the Red Sox had made the Betts/Price sooner, then maybe they would have kept Porcello.
The author wouldn’t’ trade Benintendi under any circumstances? That is a rather bizarre take.
What would the Red Sox get for anyone other than Bogaerts, Devers, and Rodriguez? Not much.
Although I suppose Martinez could get some play at the deadline. Dude can mash.
Agree. There’s not much surplus value to trade — Barnes and Workman each have a little, but after that, no. Eovaldi’s value is deeply in the red due to his contract and injury history; there’s no market for JDM because he’s a DH only and his opt-outs limit his control time; and the team tried to trade JBJ all offseason with zero takers, because he’s making $11M and both his defense and his limited offense are in decline.
So unless you look at trading from the core, there’s not much to work with. Trading Barnes and Workman is hardly much of a rebuild.
Rotation thin, bullpen thin, nothing much in the farm. They’ll have to mix in a Casas and/or Dalbec and/or Chavis with a veteran or two to get any decent pitching. No sense keeping so many first basemen/corner outfielder types when they need arms. Chavis at 2b? Why not throw him in a deal instead, maybe grab some pitching from Texas and take on Odor short term. Texas backfills 2b with Chavis or Solak, and Downs will be ready in a year or so in Boston. They actually look like a good trading match w/Bosox anyway, Dalbec or Casas fits too..
I feel like the thought of teams trading veterans and getting some value out of them right now is a little silly. It’s not like teams are going to get to see a full season of Eovaldi, JBJ (who is a free agent after this year), JD Martinez, and anyone else you might want to move. I feel like the only person there who would fetch any value is JD Martinez, because everyone knows he’s good and doesn’t need to build his value.
Seems like everyone else needs to show their healthy/good/etc. and who knows what chance they’ll get to do so. If this were going to pan out like a normal season I’d tend to agree, but it isn’t.
I’d go full rebuild other than the 3 players mentioned,
So does anybody realize the difference between a reload and a rebuild? Really. Everybody wants to keep 5 players (all on the “wrong” side of arbitration/guarantees); one guy wants to keep 6. So that’s a reload. Hard stop.
They’ll never go into rebuild mode, because that would affect the brand, and Henry/Warner aren’t going to jeopardize franchise value to save some meaningless payroll dollars. They’ll muddle around .500 for a while, hope they get a little luck, and are able to compete. Heck, given the bizarre nature of this year’s schedule (whatever the parameters), that could be this year; lots of those counting stats that everybody loves won’t in reality mean poop.
The O’s aren’t in any rush to get better; the Rays will get too expensive for their tastes; only the Jays (and of course the Yanks) are an issue for the next few years. So they can muddle for a while.
Bob you routinely undervalue what they do in TB. In a couple years Wander Franco will be up in the show and they’ll be that much tougher. Especially with the contract extensions they’ve been banging out with young players.
‘In another year Franco will be up”….Ya, and Snell will be in Frisco, Glassnow in LA and Meadows in Seattle…..
No one doubts they have a ton of talent both on the team and down below…it’s what they do with it that matters.
They might keep everybody….sure…..and again, if winning actually meant something in TB, things might be different, but it’s likely only to mean something in Montreal……. If the new CBA changes the Revenue Sharing system (I’d lay 10-1 it does), they’ll be ditching contracts left and right. Then throw their arms up in the air and start singing “Oh Canada”.
Bob, not only is Tampa a step ahead of the Jays they have a better minor league system at this present time. The only thing the Jays have over Tampa is an ability to spend money. That does not mean they will know how or what to spend money when the time is right. Atkins does not have a track record except for anything since the ill-fated Grichuk extension. Shapiro’s track record as a spender isn’t great.
Until Tampa’s farm falls off the table, they are the team to watch out for other than the Yankees.
So who’s going to trade useful assets for the likes of Workman, JBJ, etc. in a season that is likely to be severely shortened, if not cancelled altogether?
For some reason, contending teams like to trade for players with only two months left in the season, like since forever.
Not really. Teams that think they can win the world series or seriously compete for it like to shore up their team and trade for help with two months to go at the trade deadline. You did not know this?
It would be tough to really find anyone left with value after you exclude all that. Maybe Eovaldi if you pay down half his deal? The rest are pretty much one year deals. JD Martinez has an opt out next year and we don’t even know if/when we’re playing this year. Maybe Benintendi? He’s coming off a down year but has some control left. I’m just not seeing this. You’d have to get a ton of pitching back that was nearly ML ready.
I still think the Red Sox should pull the trigger on the Wil Myers deal, so long as SD pays down 1/2 the contract. The net cap impact will only be $3-$4M. If the Sox can send JBJ in the deal too, then their CBT actually goes down for 2020 and they can get a pitcher in the deal like Quantrill or someone comparable. They really need young arms so if it means taking on a bad contract, they should do so. Plus Myers could feast off the Green Monster; he’s due for a bounce back.
Wil Myers has no value at this point. Padres are probably better off keeping him and hoping for some kind of rebound. And if (when) that doesn’t happen, he’ll be a sunk cost with 2 years left as opposed to a sunk cost with 3 years left.
I to add Benny to List, Off year, but unless he would bring back proven pitching talent….. because of last year he’s maybe 60-75 cents on dollar and the most overrated thing in life is potential…so Hard no to trading for prospects… will he be the teams next Mookie? Probably not but if he becomes our next Mike Greenwell with a much better glove i would take that in a heart beat………
I think it’s a good time to trade Jackie Bradley and J D Martinez. I don’t think the Sox could trade Eovaldi without eating significant salary, but he could be traded as well.
Let’s face it, this is no reload time, it’s a total rebuild.
I’d keep Benintendi, Bogaerts, Rodriguez and Devers. I don’t care if they don’t keep anyone else.