The Red Sox on Tuesday announced the signing of right-handed reliever Hirokazu Sawamura to a two-year contract with a dual club/player option for the 2023 season. Lefty Jeffrey Springs was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Sawamura, a veteran of 10 seasons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, is represented by JBA Sports.
Reports over the past week have indicated that Sawamura and the Sox were discussing an affordable two-year pact, which The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal recently pegged at $3MM in guaranteed money. MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo tweets that Sawamura will earn a $1.2MM base salary in both years of the contract, though his 2022 base salary can reach $1.7MM based on his performance in the contract’s first year. The Red Sox also hold a club option valued at $3-4MM depending on performance escalators and milestones. Should they decline their half, Sawamura would have a player option valued between $600K and $2.2MM. The contract also contains $250K of annual incentives. All in all, Rosenthal suggested the contract can top out at $7.65MM over three years.
Sawamura, 33 in April, pitched nine and a half seasons with the Yomiuri Giants in Japan before being traded to the Chiba Lotte Marines early in 2020. He’d gotten out to a rough start with his longtime club, erving up nine runs in his first 13 1/3 frames, but Sawamura turned things around with the Marines. In 21 innings down the stretch, he pitched to a pristine 1.71 ERA while striking out 29 of the 82 batters he faced (35.3 percent). Sawamura walked 10 in that time (12.1 percent) — far more than has been characteristic throughout his NPB career, but the promising finish likely assuaged some concerns from MLB clubs about a potential decline.
Overall, Sawamura has logged 868 1/3 innings in his NPB career and worked to a 2.77 ERA with a 22.1 percent strikeout rate and a 7.3 percent walk rate. He began his career as a starter before becoming the Giants’ closer in 2015 — a role he’d hold for two years.
Sawamura racked up 73 saves as the Giants’ primary ninth-inning option from 2015-16 before missing the 2017 season due to a shoulder issue. That missed season came after a bizarre scene in which a lesser shoulder issue was mistreated, leading to broader nerve troubles that sidelined him for months. The team’s president, GM and medical staff all reportedly apologized to Sawamura after the incident. Since his return in 2018, he’s worked as a setup man. He’s pitched mostly in a setup capacity since returning in 2018.
Sawamura has been healthy since that regrettable sequence and gives the Red Sox an intriguing hurler who could eventually emerge as a late-inning option. The right-hander has a fastball that can reach 97 mph, a low-90s splitter that functions as his primary out pitch, and a lesser-used slider to round out a three-pitch arsenal.
If that $3MM is indeed the final guarantee, that will represent a $1.5MM luxury-tax hit for the Red Sox, regardless of how those dollars are paid out. Such a commitment narrowly fits within a rapidly shrinking window between Boston’s overall luxury ledger and the $210MM tax threshold.
Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez now has them with a bit less than $2MM of breathing room, which makes additional dealings unlikely unless the Sox suddenly abandon their preference to stay south of the barrier, put together another trade to reduce their financial obligations or cut one of their arbitration-eligible players during Spring Training. (Unless specifically bargained otherwise, arbitration deals are only partially guaranteed up until Opening Day.)
Turning to the 28-year-old Springs, he’ll now be available to other clubs either via outright waivers, a trade or a simple release. The Red Sox have a week to make a decision as to which route they’ll choose. The 2020 season was Springs’ first with the Red Sox, and it proved to be a struggle. In 20 1/3 frames, the former Rangers southpaw was tagged for a 7.08 ERA. He struck out 28 percent of his opponents against just a seven percent walk rate, but five of the 99 opponents Springs faced took him deep. He has a 5.42 ERA and 4.66 FIP in 84 2/3 innings at the Major League level between the Texas and Boston organizations.
honestly surprised Springs lasted this long
A lot of bad pitchers have been replaced by quality ones in this off-season. Boston is low key a playoff contender. The bullpen has a chance to be elite if Hernandez breaks out like his numbers indicate he will.
Him, Barnes, Ottovino, now the Saw…I think Pivetta has the skill set to be dominant in one inning stints. Should be an interesting year.
Pivetta will be in the starting six.
Yea but if Pivetta doesn’t get the starting gig then he will at least be in the bullpen. He doesn’t have options left I don’t believe so he makes one way or another.
Somehow I’m not sure people think that suddenly Pivetta will become a quality MLB SP. Other than 2 starts in garbage time with the Sox last Sept what else has done??
. Any Sox pitcher who doesn’t make the starting six or fails as a starter will wind up in the pen. Stop talking from both sides of your mouth.
Quality bullpen? As a big Sox fan who tries to remain objective, I see a much improved pen but it doesn’t stack up with the real playoff teams. For the team to be competitive, they need all pitchers to pitch up to their potential so no one is overused. A big question to me.
Springs was terrible last year, but he was the first AAA left handed on the depth chart behind Darwinzon and Josh Taylor. As bad as he was IMO he was not worth keeping, and I do not think the Red Sox expected that he would make it until spring training starts before being DFAed.
Happy to see Boston replace Springs with a more feasible bullpen option. Spin rate aside, Springs has been brutal the last two years.
Spin rate is one of those fancy analytical things taken way too far when judging how well a pitcher can do, or improve on past performance. It’s like trying to turn an ashtray into a diamond in these cases. Last year, Boston saw these fancy and amazing spin rate possibilities for the career flop Ryan Weber.. Yeah.. That guy.. He turned out to be the same AAAA guy with no FB and same junk he always was.
I do get the spin rate to some extent.. it’ll translate to the curve being a little harder, the slider a bit more bite, FB more tail, but just use those terms like was used for years instead of trying to reinvent the wheel with some hype that amounts to hogwash with 80% of the career AAAA guys floating around the minors.
Judging by your comment it seems you actually have zero clue why evaluators look at spin rate. But ok.
ohnsilver
Spin rate is one of those fancy analytical things taken way too far
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That’s the same with almost any statistic. I have some favorite statistics, but I would not use any one of them exclusively. OTOH, very few statistics are without value.
When there’s one or two breakout or dominant players that rely on spin rate, everyone then looks for the next one. Sort of like the launch angle issue that has overall killed the sport.
Dorothy_Mantooth
Happy to see Boston replace Springs with a more feasible bullpen option.
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I think that has been the entire focus this winter. None of the guys we acquired are difference-makers by themselves, but our 2020 stats were decimated by a number of guys that were AAAA players or below.
We used, or should I say ‘tried out’ 26 guys out of the BP. 14 of them combined for a 8.54, and all of them should be gone, except as maybe AAA depth for a couple. If we take out those 14, the ERA for the rest becomes 3.57. While we have no one great, we have a lot of guys that are average to slightly above average. That is a huge upgrade from the #14 BP we had last year.
There were impressive outings towards the end of the season from Houck, Pivetta, and Eovaldi. Two or even three could start out in the rotation. The bullpen has been quietly raked smooth by a number of moves. Pitching will be better. JD needs to get back to solid mashing and the young bucks need to continue to improve and the lineup is solid. They’re a plus team this year. We’ll see by how much.
JD will in my view be fine. He needs protection however, Batting Vasquez behind him will not give him the opportunities to mash. Sign Moreland yo at least have a lefty behind him when a righty is in the mound. I’d prefer a different order with Devers behind him but I’ll settle for Moreland.
options or not, I think it would be a travesty if Houck starts in the Minors. that guy can throw with the best of them. i think he’s a star SP in the making.
I agree. He should be treated as a #5 or #6. I’m not overly optimistic, but I also think that the taste of success should remain with him, even if it is just in the BP.
I agree. On base 260 times for each of the top three hitters. That’s the magic that created all the runs in 2017 and 2018 and even in a down 2019. Bogey and Devers can get on 260 times but I’m not sure JD will but he’s got the best chance now that there is in game video. Verdugo could have a great year and get to 230. After that, nobody will be close.
Batting order needs to be Bogey, Devers, JD, Verdugo, Vazquez. Then the next three need to be Dalbec, Renfroe and Cordero. The order needs to be determined by the success of each of the three hitters. Then, finish with Hernandez to give Bogey RBIs and more fastballs..
Verdugo protects JD and helps Vazquez see fastballs. Verdugo needs to be a big base stealer for run production after the first four hitters. The key to the success of the team is the 3 unknowns in Dalbec, Renfroe and Cordero. Total runs scored depends on their production. The others are fairly certain given normal conditions and limited injuries.
Cheap but effective depth is Moreland. If Dalbec struggles he helps and he will save a couple of dozen bad throws from Devers to keep his errors at 24 for the year.
Just like so many of the other pitching signings Bloom pulled off in 2020.
Can’t wait to hear Eckersley mangle the poor guy’s name.
Pretty straightforward. I use to work for a guy named Sawamura. Very nice guy who sometimes made things impossibly complex.
Eckersley? What about Remy?
I can hear it now: “Sahwahmahrah”
Springs voted off the island.. I assume it was not that difficult of a decision.
Eternal Springs hope.
I miss Don and Jerry… no offense to Dave, Steve or Eck but Don and Jerry were an all-time combo. Eck and Steve to me come across as arrogant and that can be a good thing but I think Dave just isn’t the right personality in the booth with them. Dave seems very passive, professional, and honestly kind of boring. Don and Jerry made dumpster fire seasons worth watching. They could be down by 7 in the 8th and I’m still watching because listening to Don and Jerry talk about the upcoming schedule, traveling stories, their experiences was just gold. It was like listening to a podcast before podcasts were a thing. Friggin NESN.
Dave puts me to sleep, agree about Don and Remy, the combo is missed.
Absolutely agree with you Poundsy. I also loved Jerry Trupiano on the radio going back many years. Jerry has fun with whomever is in the booth with him but Don and him together is memorable.
I don’t know, gentleman. Dave O’Brien does his homework, is clear and concise, and as Castiglione says, “he has those God-given pipes”. His popularity over other networks speaks to his talent; the guy could work 365 days a year if he wanted.
But ya, I admit Orsillo was great. Still is; I pop into the Padre telecasts just to hear him and his sidekick.
Might have to watch the Pads for other reasons this year. ,
Orsillo was the worst play by play announcer. He thought he was the funniest man alive but in fact he was just annoying.
I like shawarma never heard of Sawamura