The Red Sox were as busy as any team during last spring’s extension flurry, inking a pair of star players to long-term deals that kept them out of the 2019-2020 free agent market. One of the extensions was a six-year deal with Xander Bogaerts worth $120MM in guaranteed money, a contract that now looks like a pretty sound investment given how Bogaerts followed up a strong 2018 season with an even better 2019 campaign.
The other extension is already off to a rough start. Chris Sale signed a five-year, $145MM pact covering the 2020-24 seasons, with a club/vesting option for the 2025 campaign worth at least $20MM. After vastly outperforming his early-career extension with the White Sox (which ended up as a seven-year, $59MM deal once both option years were exercised), Sale now had a new deal that better reflected his status as one of the better pitchers over the last decade.
Exactly one year after that extension was signed, however, the deal looms as a significant misfire for the Red Sox on a couple of different levels. The club announced on Thursday that Sale would be undergoing Tommy John surgery, which will keep him out of action for whatever becomes of the 2020 season and, in all likelihood, around half of the 2021 season. The surgery comes on the heels of Sale being shut down last August due to elbow inflamation, and while a platelet-rich plasma injection and some months of rest looked to have the left-hander back on track earlier this winter, Sale was shut down again earlier this month after suffering a flexor strain.
In the short term, this means Boston loses its best pitcher for 2020. It is a major blow to a rotation that was only okay in 2019, and already had lost David Price after the Sox traded the veteran southpaw and Mookie Betts to the Dodgers in February. While Sale could conceivably get back to something close to his old form post-surgery and still pitch well over the rest of his contract, the Betts/Price trade plays a critical role in evaluating the big-picture impact of Sale’s extension.
As much as Red Sox ownership has tried to deny it, the luxury tax was clearly a major reason the team was willing to part ways with Betts and Price. Between moving Betts’ $27.7MM salary and half of the $96MM remaining on Price’s deal, the Sox have gotten themselves under the $208MM Competitive Balance Tax threshold, with Roster Resource projecting a current tax number just shy of $196MM for the 2020 Red Sox.
After two seasons of tax overages, getting under the CBT limit in 2020 would save the Red Sox millions in future tax payments, and theoretically allow them to spend past the threshold again as early as 2021 with only a minimal “first-timer” penalty attached. As many Boston fans angrily noted over the winter, of course, trading Betts was a pretty extreme measure to achieve these luxury tax savings, and it’s a measure that could have well been avoided had the Red Sox not spent so much money elsewhere….for instance, on Sale’s extension.
Due to deferred money and the structure of the extension, Sale’s contract has a luxury tax number of $25.6MM per season from 2020-24. Boston’s overall luxury tax payroll stood at roughly $236.3MM at the start of November, so subtracting Sale’s salary would have dropped their figure to $210.7MM, already within shouting distance of the $208MM threshold. From that point it would’ve been much easier for chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom to make few more cuts and duck under the $208MM line without having to move Betts or Price.
Sale isn’t the only problematic salary on Boston’s payroll, of course, as the four-year, $68MM free agent deal Nathan Eovaldi signed last offseason is also looking questionable after Eovaldi’s injury-plagued 2019. That said, the Red Sox were far from the only team who thought Eovaldi turned a corner in his breakout 2018 campaign, and they had to outbid the market to re-sign him.
In Sale’s case, the Sox didn’t necessarily have to pursue that extension, particularly given that a few red flags were already apparent. Sale lost some effectiveness down the stretch in the 2017 season, and had an even shakier ending to his 2018, as shoulder problems limited him to just 17 regular-season innings after July 27 of that year. The Red Sox were as judicious as possible in spacing out Sale’s appearances during the postseason, when he posted a 4.11 ERA over 15 1/3 innings en route to Boston’s World Series championship.
While Sale had been a very durable pitcher for the bulk of his career, seemingly running out of steam in consecutive seasons should probably have been enough to give the Red Sox some pause before guaranteeing him $145MM through his age 31-35 seasons. As The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham recently noted, the Sox may have been motivated to keep Sale out of a lingering regret over the Jon Lester situation from 2014, when the team was perhaps too rigid in extension talks prior to Lester’s final season under contract, which led to Lester being dealt to the Athletics at midseason and then going on deliver several more fine years after signing with the Cubs.
Abraham argues that waiting until after Sale’s final season could have been the more prudent decision for the Sox, as they would have had the added information of Sale’s 2019 numbers. While the elbow injury was the biggest concern, Sale’s 36% hard-hit ball rate was the highest of his career, and his average fastball velocity dropped by 1.5 mph (to 93.2) from his 2018 speed. Sale’s 2019 season was the worst of his ten-year MLB career, though given his high standards, a “bad” Chris Sale season was still very solid — a 4.40 ERA, 5.89 K/BB rate, 13.3 K/9 over 147 1/3 innings, and a wealth of advanced metrics (3.39 FIP, 2.93 xFIP, 3.00 SIERA) hinting that Sale’s 4.40 ERA was the result of some bad luck, such as a 1.47 HR/9 that far surpassed his previous career high.
Would this platform year have been enough to make Sale a big player in free agency? We saw multiple top arms score larger-than-expected contracts this winter, though none of Gerrit Cole, Stephen Strasburg, Madison Bumgarner and company had a mid-August shutdown hanging over their heads. It’s probably safe to assume that Sale would have still landed a pretty sizable multi-year contract if he had been a free agent, though that also assumes he would have tested the market at all. His elbow injury could have led to Sale accepting a one-year, $17.8MM qualifying offer to remain in Boston, in the hopes that he’d return to better health in 2020 and deliver a prime season that would lead to a bigger deal in the 2020-21 offseason.
Adding another wrinkle to the mix, perhaps the Red Sox don’t even issue Sale a QO in this scenario out of a concern that he might accept it. Boston’s approach to payroll seemed to shift radically from the start of the 2019 season to the end, as president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was fired and eventually replaced with Bloom, who was under that rather clumsily-issued edict to trim salaries. In the wake of Sale’s 2019 season, perhaps the Red Sox would’ve been comfortable just letting Sale walk entirely, thus removing one more contractual concern from their books.
A major-market team like the Sox can weather a big contract not working out, but the franchise’s self-imposed desire to avoid the luxury tax suddenly puts many of the big deals of the Dombrowski era (the Sale extension, plus the signings of Price, Eovaldi, and maybe even J.D. Martinez considering the sheer dollars involved) under the radar. This being said, blaming Dombrowski for Boston’s financial situation is unfair, as these nine-figure deals aren’t happening without the green light from ownership.
Sale’s extension is a prime example of how no transaction exists in a vacuum, as every signing/extension/trade/release/etc. is itself a response to some other move, and also sets off a chain reaction of other moves. As Abraham pointed out, who knows if Red Sox ownership makes such a move if they had acted differently with Lester all those years ago, or if maybe Sale (or Price, or Eovaldi, or even Dombrowski) ends up in Boston whatsoever if the Sox had still had Lester in their rotation. Unfortunately for Sale and the Red Sox, the second-guessing over the extension will continue at least until the southpaw can finally get back on the mound.
dombroski ruined us. we won a title but at what cost?
Dumbrowski
He’s done it to every team he’s ever been put in charge of
Uhhh, a World Series? Relax. You know they went 86 years without one, right?
Um yeah but they won 3 after the slump before dumdum
Two were drug induced and the other was mostly a fluke.
Don’t get ahead of yourself “dumdum”
So I am guessing you are throwing out every WS title during the steroid age?
Judging by his comment, he’s pretty much doing so lol.
Wow, spoiled Red Sux fans.
Every team has them, unfortunately since the Red Sox won that 1st on back in ’04, the Sox picked up a ton of band wagon fans who really have no clue about much of anything baseball wise and do nothing but complain.
recency bias. i’m sure before the sox won that series you would’ve traded a couple retooling years for the chip that year…
The 2007 team looked very little like the 2004 team. The 2013 team looked nothing like the 2007 team except for Ortiz. The 2018 team looked nothing like the 2013 team. It’s a business and sometimes they make bad decisions, but you wanna argue with this track record?
Also Pedroia, Lester, Buchholz and Ellsbury, but other than those five guys, that’s it.
Yeah totally not on ownership at all. The Red Sox organization and fan base is a joke.
there are different types of GM’s out there. some are rebuilders like MacPhail and some are win now guys. Red Sox organization made that call
Nothing exists in a vacuum, yet that’s exactly how everyone is looking at the Betts / Price trade. Sox protected their future spending ability and penalty thresholds. They protected draft picks. They potentially underperform again this year, and they could think about selling a few more valuable pieces. The Betts/Price trade opened up so many avenues for this team that if we stop looking at the deal and 2020 in a vacuum and look at what actually happened here, we can see that this was a masterful move by the new front office.
The idea that the Red Sox were going to compete with Chris Sale a question mark, Price getting older, Betts and the free agency drama that was sure to follow and hoping Benintendi resurges while Devers continues to grow is a lot to put the next 10 years in jeopardy for.
100% agree that Dombrowski put us in a bad place. But 100% disagree we are “ruined”. This team has options in and after 2020. If pieces continue to grow and resurge and Sale’s surgery and recovery look successful, they can retool and add pieces next season. If not, they leave themselves open to move a few pieces like Benintendi and Rodriguez who could return solid value, improve their draft positioning, and focus on a more complete rebuild around guys like Devers, Downs, Dalbec, and some of the other pieces that return in aforementioned deals and make a run in 2022-2023 when the Yankees have some really big financial decisions to make.
The Sox aren’t doomed. Sale deal wasn’t a bad deal other then he was given free agent value as an extension (essentially, they could have waited for him to hit the market, offered the same deal even if he was dominant in 2019, and he would have accepted and returned. DD got overexcited). Hindsight is 20/20 and they should have looked to offer a little less, but after the Lester debacle, they may have had a hard time stomaching another ill-fated and poorly executed offer.
This is going to be an interesting year if it ever gets underway.
This comment has aged like milk
Too early to call the extension a misfire.
Not really. He’s out 1.5 yrs of a 5 yr deal at minimum. The first 30% of the deal he’s not pitching. Which that should be his most valuable time with the team since he’s the youngest during that point.
There might not even be a season this year. And if there’s not, we don’t know what happens to contracts. They might add a year to everyone’s current deals, we just don’t know.
In theory, the first couple years should be the most productive but not necessarily if you’re not 100% (as was the case with Sale last year) and you can’t pitch to your full ability. It’s possible surgery fixes the issues he was having and let’s him pitch closer to his true talent even if he’ll be older than he is now. And that would make even more sense in the climate where there’s a good chance the season is canceled anyway.
Well yeah if there’s not a season this yr that would mess up a ton of stuff. So who knows with that. I’m assuming there will be for the context of sanity in my post.
No it isn’t. Not even close. It’s a misfire.
An ERA of ~4.5 is considered “solid”? SMH.
Yeah. His ERA + was 109, which means that’s about 9% better than league average. That’s clearly the worst year of his career, but still “solid” compared to the rest of the league.
The “rest of the league’ ain’t making that much coin dude.
Neither was he last year. This year starts the contract extension, so he made 13 or 14m last year
I think it was $15M last year, but yes, 2020 is the first year of the extension
The rest of the league also ain’t striking out over 35% of batters with a 3.00 SIERA.
Uh, BStrong….Chris Sale made $15 Million in 2019, so your 13 or 14 is misstated and that’s not exactly cornbread as far as salary for a pitcher who basically didn’t pitch the final couple of months in 2 seasons in a row.
Let’s face it no Red Sox have been complete morons over the last few years signing free agents and extensions. They now look like Dumbo’s
Sale, JD, Eovaldi, Moreland…2018 ring a bell?
HanRam, Pablo. That was his point.
Price, don’t forget him.
The author, Mark Polishuk, hardly mentions Dombrowski until the end of the article and then says it wasn’t his fault. Really!?!
Dombrowski was fired for that extension. They gave him carte blanche when he was hired because of his reputation and career accomplishments. Let’s not make this more complicated than it was: Dombrowski made a very costly mistake and was fired for it. Not even a ring could save his job.
Also, they bid against themselves for Eovaldi. I get rewarding him for the WS but they overspent.
Worst headline on the internet.
Worst comment on the internet
Your comment is now worst comment ever
Woohoo! I win!!!
You’re a failure, son.
But I win at failing. Little victories Princess
Why do commenters like you bother to post? You bring zero value to any discussion. All of your comments are derogatory toward others.
Do us all a favor, a find another forum to troll.
Na
I am so sick of harping on the contracts constantly. Sale was severely underpaid his whole career until now. He deserves it, n the chance to get him back pitching well is worth the wait. Eovaldi was given the contract because of his performance in the WS n play off., he earned it. The X man deserved his contract, n Mookie didn’t want a contract that is why he’s gone. The owners wanted Sale to have that contract so another Lester situation didn’t come up because they always chose the wrong situations to play hardball with, n sign idiots like Panda, n any other baaaad moves. But Sale doesn’t deserve talk about his contract now. Not ONCE did he ever complain or demand a new contract when he was underpaid, n to me that speaks for his character.
Pretty much agree with most of what you are saying with the exception of paying for past performance….the smart teams don’t overpay for what has been done in previous seasons rather than paying for what might incentivize what might happen in the future….in my opinion that’s why Boston proposed the extension.
Rocky.. You just described what happens with free agency and the looney amounts being given away, especially the past 10y or so in it.
200-300m deals? Who thinks, or thought the Price, Pujols, Fielder, Machado, Harper.. Can go on and on.. Deals would have worked out from the day they were inked? Each one paid for past more than future performance, especially since each was for 7-10y in length.
Exactly why it Is such a bad idea to give contacts to players that run through age 36 to 40.
Betts wanted 12 years $420 million which is $35 million per year to age 39. I definitely would have passed on that, but would have offered 8 year $280 ($35 million per year), but turning down the money he was offered tells me he really did not want to stay in Boston or really thinks some team will pay him that much. I think if a team pays him through age 39 they will eventually regret it.
It was a bad contract by a GM with a history of bad contracts.
DD, knew he wouldn’t be GM’ing long and all he wanted was the chip. He could care less about the longterm effects. It worked though. I’ll give him that. They won it. Still frustrating I’m sure tho.
Uhhh, he did exactly what ownership brought him into do.
Yes he did.
….won a World Series (which six MLB teams do not have even one), and at 63 years old, and leaving the team with a stripped farm system, should not have been surprised to be fired.
True about DD but there have been some pretty bad contracts by former Boston GM’s so its not correct to ignore nor lay all the blame for bad contracts at DD’s door!
He’ not alone when he was in charge in Beantown!
Cherington had even worse contracts than DD, and he was fired too.
Credit DD for pulling the Red Sox out of last place finishes 2012, 2014, 2015, into first place in the division 2016, 2017, 2018 and a WS, but not at all surprising he was fired.
Since Sale became a starter in 2012, he has had seasons in which he won 6, 11, 12,12, 13 games. In his other three years as a starter he managed to win 17 games each time. That’s an average of about 13.1 wins per season as a starter. Now, he’s going to miss at least a year and he is turning 32 in about one week.
He’s turning 31, not 32. Also, who the hell cares about pitcher wins? It’s a totally irrelevant stat. Sale played on bad teams for most of his career.
Dumb take. That is all
Even the years with the Red Sox he had a lack of run support. The bullpen blew five or six wins he had locked up in 2017. Sale should have had 23 or 24 wins that year. I watch ever game he pitch that year.
The White Sox was one of the worst teams in baseball, so it is not surprising Sale’s win totals were not huge. Great pitching does not always get rewarded with a W.
Wow, why not 30, 31, 32 wins in 2017….the past performance attributes just continues to grow in the minds of Beantown faithful!
Rocky – you entirely missed the point….wins do not determine a pitchers value. Felix Hernandez won a CY Young award with a 14 – 13 record. It was ERA, WHIP…..overall effectiveness not W – L. Got it now…
Sale knew his arm was already shot when he signed that “team friendly deal” and now he’s laughing all the way to the bank. Did anyone in the Red Sox front office stop to wonder why a pitcher of his caliber would sign an extension like that less than a year before hitting free agency?
This is such a dumb conspiracy theory. Sale only extended because he ‘knew his arm was shot’? What an absolutely moronic take. Sale signed the deal because money was never the most important thing to him, as he showed with his very team friendly deal with the White Sox. He wanted to stay in Boston, he lives like a half hour from the Red Sox spring training facility in Fort Myers which allows him more time with his family. There were a few reasons for him signing the extension but yours isn’t one of them.
Upvote
So Mr. “Know it all” claims to be a sage when in reality, he doesn’t no squat and is only guessing like the rest of us. Van Morrison should be disappointed by your antics.
So you’re telling me you believe that Sale left $100+ million on the table because of comfort? His arm was done going into the 2019 season and he took that deal because it was safer than testing FA after the season. It amazes me how people like you can be so naive
Who said Sale left $100 million on the table? At the time Sale signed his deal, the FA market had been in at least a two year lull for contracts. Sale or his agent certainly couldn’t have foreseen a $245 million contract as a realistic target even with a cy young season. Teams spent a lot on pitchers this free agency but there was no indication that they were going to do that.
Sale left some money on the table, he himself admitted it, but not anywhere near that much. And if you know the character of this man, you’d believe the reasons he gave for signing his extension. But sure, keep up with the tinfoil hat theory that Sale ‘knew’ he was broken and he pulled a fast one on the Red Sox and the doctors who cleared him as healthy.
With the recent slew of injuries and very few Verlanders and the Price deal looking like such a mistake, I don’t think he actually left much on the table. By the time he was going to hit free agency, he was already on the wrong side of 30 with an arm angle that many expected he would blow out his elbow at some point.
He may think he left some on the table. Maybe another year at a lower AAV. But teams aren’t paying guys over 30 the way they were a few years ago. Especially starters. He probably could have gotten 6/$175-185 if he’d finished 2019 healthy. But that deal would have been highly criticized as risky even without the injuries that followed.
@mystic Strasburg got a full $100 mil more than Sale and he’s older plus had TJ in the past. Sale was clearly injured from the start of the 2019 season and it lingered until now when he finally got surgery. Front of the rotation pitchers always get paid in free agency. That’s how it’s always been and likely will continue to be. Wheeler got a deal not far off from Sale’s without a track record nearly as good. Free agency had only been slow recently for position players demanding more than their worth
@fenway As I said to mystic Strasburg is older than Sale, has had TJ, and he got $100 mil more. Sale gets $200 mil+ easily if he’s healthy when he hits free agency. He knew he wasn’t healthy though and took the known fortune the Sox were offering
Do you know personally that money isn’t the most important thing to Chris Sale?
Stating the obvious that it almost always come down to the money with virtually every modern day athlete regardless of sport isn’t a “moronic take”….rather your rant is more the moronic take than the opinion of Ronk….Your take on him only wanting to play for the Sox based on some type of allegiance to living in Boston or his proximity to Ft Meyers reminds us of what we heard and read about with Cole only wanting to play in SoCal. And how did that work out? It always includes the money and it probably did so for Sale also…
We all can have opinions or do we need to ask permission from you first?
Yeah dumb dumb, I actually can conclude that money is not the most important thing to Sale given the ridiculous team friendly deal he signed with the White Sox years ago. That deal bought out a few FA years, if Sale were hitting FA in 2017 or 2018 like he would have ordinarily at 28 or 29 with his track record and few injuries at the time… he would have had a major payday. Part of it is valuing security over getting the maximum payday like Betts. But that doesn’t mean ‘he knew he was hurt’ and wanted to cash in while he could. That’s an incredibly cynical thing to say about someone as honest as Sale.
Being close to his family is important to Sale. He has three young boys and wants to be involved in their lives. Sale has talked about it before, you can call him a liar if you want but Sale is one of the most sincere and honest athletes you’ll ever find.
Anyone who has been following DD’s career, shouldn’t be surprised by any of this. He’s built a Hall of Fame career on maximizing a team’s chances over a short period of time, then departing the team with large future commitments and no farm system.
Any team hiring him knows you’ll have a real chance at a World Series for 2-3 years that are almost immediately followed by an indefinite period of mediocrity. For Red Sox fans outraged this is where their team is, please join the Marlins and Tigers at group therapy.
Have a feeling DD’s next stop will be Philadelphia. Too much talent and money sitting their for the owners to watch another season go to waste. Dark horse imo is San Diego. Good place to live, some talent, and a good system.
I’ll add to this before any potential comments:
Dombrowski has won a pennant at each of his last three stops. Say what you will about his long term management style (it’s terrible), but if you want to see your team compete in a World Series, you make the hire knowing what’s on the other side of the tunnel. As other’s have commented with Sale’s contract: It’s not pretty.
Agreed. The Dombrowski hate is beyond stupid. Yes there are bad contracts throughout his history. He also has a track record of winning. When his WS winning teams have reunions nobody will remember the contracts they had or when they signed them. They will remember the victory.
Well said, in both comments, Brandon.
Great decisions Red Sox, LOL. Most arrogant fans I know. Just like Pedroia, it’s over!
And I would not be surprised if your arrogance were even greater…relish your supposed brilliance as others aren’t seeing it. Others are allowed their own opinions. Get over it “bigwest.”
They completely ignored the red flags with Price , Pablo, Eovaldi and Sale, like they did with Becketts extension. They also made medical misjudgments with Allen Craig, Lackey , Adrian Gonzalez , and Crawford . I would say they are not getting good medical advice, or they are ignoring it if they are.
Sale and Price were elite talents and contrary to popular belief did not have extensive injury histories when they were signed. They are worth the gamble. Overpaying for non-elite players is what gets you into trouble.
Sale was showing injury signs the 2 year prior. Sure, most of his career he’d been healthy but there were signs in the latter part that big issues could be coming.
The GM involved were Theo to DD, those were horrific signings, all agreed by owners. Sale should not be included in those.
Dumb Dombrowski lol why didnt they do their homework on him, such a bad track record, break the bank, trade the farm, win a championship then bounce
The extension was incredibly risky from the moment it was signed considering his health concerns the two seasons leading up to it. Plus, the fact that a pitcher of Sales caliber wanting an extension after being way underpaid all those years also has to make you wonder if he and his camp knew he was breaking down very soon and not something wasn’t right.
I guess Sale also ‘knew something was wrong with his arm’ when he signed a very team friendly deal with the White Sox years ago too? Why does everything here have to be a conspiracy? Maybe just maybe Sale likes being in Boston playing for a perennial contender, likes being able to stay at home during Spring training (not to mention have the facility at his disposal the entire offseason), etc?
Chill dude. I think it’s an honest question that Sale May have had some fear about getting through his last season before free agency healthy. Which OBVIOUSLY he was would’ve been correct and incredibly smart to get that extension.
The fact that most of you prefer that salary space than the Championship is why most teams don’t win now a days
If I had an ownership that gave me 200 million a year to work with, I’d make that team a contender too.
In Chicago Sale dealt with a cheap bean-counter interested in only in making money for his investors.
The current Red Sox reminds me of the LA Kings after they won the 2014 Stanley Cup. Too loyal, and too many bad contracts to aging players, that yes, helped them win a Cup, but it also led to their current downfall.
Bloom is from TB. All teams are looking at TB winning 96 games last year with a salary of about 25% of the major market teams and saying WTF?
Out of all the bad deals made, this is the one I least regret. Chris Sale is and was a gamer. You just know he is by listening to him and he hates losing. In the World Series, he kept us in by urging on guys to step up and win when we were losing.
I know TJ surgery is coming but this guy is worth the money just for how he carries himself and fights. I can’t say the same about Price, Betts, Eovaldi, Porcello, or anyone else for that matter.
And honestly, everyone praised the Cole deal. Are we going to be on the Yankees when he doesn’t live up to the hype in a couple years? I can endure one big contract for a clear winner.
I wouldn’t say everyone praised the Cole deal. Yes, not even all Yankee fans, because my father, who is a Yankee fan himself would’ve rather seen them get Wheeler and Ryu. Which I don’t blame him for because they’ll likely lose at least 2, if not 3 of their starting pitchers after this season, because Tanaka, Paxton and Happ are all free agents after this season.
The problem with the Sale deal is it was bad the day it was signed. He couldn’t stay healthy then, why would anyone think it would get better? I don’t recall any fans applauding this deal when it was done.
This ‘couldn’t stay healthy’ narrative with Sale is such an absurdly false one. From 2012-2017, he averaged 205 innings per season. Only a couple guys threw more innings than him. Yes, he had the shoulder injury in 2018 but the Red Sox believed he was beyond that and had his medical records throughly checked out. If you aren’t ever going to take a risk on a contract, and on a player as great as Chris Sale mind you, then you’re never going to do anything but compete for ‘luxury tax championships’.
TJ surgery can happen to any pitcher at any time. It seems to be increasing each season. A lot of people were snickering at NY when it happened to Severino. You never know with this type of injury. Fortunately most pitchers are able to come back from this. Sale will hopefully be fine.
the Eovaldi signing was just plain bad. reminincient of the O’s signing Trumbo based on a short sample size.
It was bad from the moment it was offered. I couldn’t believe how many people thought it was good just because he had two good months in Boston. Dombrowski really screwed up their outlook going into this season with some very questionable moves.
Everything dd did was questionable
Gut the farm for quick success
Large contracts
No success? Fired and repeat