9:14 pm: Rondón’s deal comes with a $1MM base salary if he makes the major league club, reports Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (via Twitter).
8:48 pm: The Red Sox are in agreement with right-hander Héctor Rondón on a minor-league contract, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive (Twitter link). The veteran reliever had been in Spring Training with the Phillies but was granted his release after failing to crack the Opening Day roster.
Rondón is most well-known for a productive run with the Cubs from 2013-17, part of which he spent as Chicago’s closer. The veteran reliever had a strong 2018 season with the Astros but regressed a bit the following year. The wheels fell completely off last season with the Diamondbacks, as the 33-year-old pitched to a 7.65 ERA/4.45 SIERA over 20 innings.
Rondón makes the second bullpen arm added to the Boston organization today. The Sox signed former Indians reliever Tyler Olson to a minors pact this morning.
It’s wild to me how unpredictable relievers are. Makes you reallllly appreciate the Hoffman’s and Rivera’s of the world.
Worth the signing though.
Yup. It amazes me how guys like Rondon, Cishek and Watson couldn’t get guaranteed, major league contracts given their track record.
angels signed the pair with $1 mil each major league contract.
Still crazy that a guy like Tony Watson could only get a minors deal initially, then only get $1m guaranteed from the Angels
Bust Down, Thotiana.
Much better depth for Boston this year. What a difference a year makes!
Usually teams improve their starting team to be competitive then work on their depth. Interesting strategy by Bloom to work on the guys who should only play if a starter gets hurt or needs a rest first, then to get quality starting players later..
I sure hope the fixing of the starting players happens before Bloom is gone because the next guy may not like all the back-ups Bloom acquired. For me, you only improve your team when somebody impactful gets added. Losing Betts, Price, Benintendi and even JBJ means the Red Sox need comparable skill sets to get back to where they were when Bloom took over. The net of all the moves is a worse MLB team and a new set of minor league players that may or may not impact the MLB team down the road.
Does anyone else have that feeling one might expect if you are standing on quicksand? The Red Sox are sinking without anyone attaching a rope to a near by tree or car or something that would stop the sinking or possibly pull them out of the quicksand. Hard to give Bloom kudos for not finding a rope, not finding a tree and definitely not finding a vehicle that could pull the Red Sox out of the quicksand.
It never happens a Red Sox post without KD17 in it. The complaining is getting old. Just switch teams already is easy to do.
They’ll be fine. Mookie turned down 30 million over 10 years and said he was testing free agency only to lie and sign with the Dodgers! Look what we got in return. Much better controllable players. Bloom is only fixing what Dombroski ruined, He got a mess to fix! Give him a break. . I think Tampa Bay turned out ok.
I’ve been a non-Mookie supporter, also believing he was never signing prior to testing the dirty water. In fairness though, COVID changed things. As for depth signings first, Bloom still has financial constraints and why spend big for a player in his prime who might be past it when you’re ready to win? Unless your banking on surprising the world like in 13, Bloom is doing just fine. Fans may want to win now and every year but it just doesn’t work that way. Let’s see what he does when he has the ability to spend. Something he never had in Tampa.
I thought the Sox did ok with the deal. Verdugo and Downs are solid in their own right. It seemed pretty obvious that Betts didn’t want to stay in Boston. Both sides I felt handled it the best they could, the team was able to publicize legitimate extension offers and Betts wasn’t forced to say he didn’t want to stay. Price never seemed too concerned about leaving either.
Price was glad to leave. Glad for his contribution in 18 as otherwise that deal would have looked MUCH worse.
I appreciate both sides in that negotiation, if indeed there was a negotiation. IMO, Betts wanted to move on, could move anywhere he wanted, and chose LA. And I see nothing to wonder about. It’s a 1st class city, and the team and their farm is deep.
And I very much appreciate that Betts didn’t force the RS hand. There were articles before the trade where the idiot RS writers didn’t think they’d get anything, given his salary.
It’s time to get over the whole Mookie thing IMO – and I’m as bloom-critical as it gets.
Really you have to ask these questions:
1) would the draft pick, plus the remainder of price, be better than verdugo/downs/wong?
2) would mookie have left anyways?
The answer to #1 is obvious. Price didn’t play 2020 (and likely wouldn’t have in boston). Price this year and next? Was replaceable, although bloom largely chose not to. Verdict: better return in trade at this point, although I still would’ve preferred to keep price.
The answer to #2… Mookie still would’ve left. Look as past behavior by ownership, and, you KNOW any mookie level deal requires ownership sign off. Henry & Co have a longtime track record of low-balling extension deals. Even guys mention hometown discount, FO lowballs below even that. It’s their MO. Even with covid, does anyone not think if mookie came back offering to sign for the original extension he turned down, that THIS front office wouldn’t have said to him that it was a pre covid offer, finances changed, and tried to redo the deal at lower cost? OF COURSE THEY WOULDVE.
LA made a strong initial pitch that let mookie take more up front and get the same money. Face saving and tempting to the player who, liked the org, the pipeline, the city, etc. Deal done. Bloom/Boston wouldnt have closed it.
Let’s criticize bloom and ownership where it counts, and get past mookie already. And go after DD where the blame is his… I said mookie was gone when they gave JD his ridiculous deal, and, to mookie its an insult saying he shouldn’t be valued more than JD was by the same organization.
Yes, ownership low balls at the start but such is typical. Simple truth is LA was set up budget wise to offer that huge deal to Betts. Had he stayed, Boston would have had to make other big time moves. otherwise they would not have been able to reset their tax base.
I think I will wait until it’s been five years since Boston won their last World Series before I sweat it……
I feel like you don’t know as much about baseball as you think you do.
Wow lots of rewriting history going on here.
Mookie wasn’t going to sign? Ask yourself why since he was beloved by fans, had multiple Boston charities, a family that liked living in Boston or so they said and team mates he liked. You idiots can try to blame Mookie all you want, but this massive mistake is on ownership not Mookie and 100 years from now people will still be making fun of ownership and Bloom. First ballot HOFer for three scrubs, not even a pitcher when pitching was needed..
Next, to GASoxFan, if Mookie was leaving your two scenarios weren’t the only scenarios. The most likely if the Red Sox had a GM who knew what he was doing and not owing his old mentor, was to trade Mookie in July. An excellent pitcher from LAD, SD or ATL beats Verdugo, Downs and Wong. Price would be a huge asset right now so the $6M saved isn’t really worth the loss of Price. ($16M for Price and $10M for Richards vs $32M for Price) yep $6M to downgrade from Price to Richards talk about stupid moves!!!! OUCH.
Next, Dewey, there was no rush on resetting their tax base since they were below where it costs anything other than money and the total cost if they had kept it below $228M would have been less than what they wasted on JBJ in a 4th to worst season. If you don’t go back over and you don’t exceed by more than $20M then your worst case is a $10M fee to keep lots of better players and be competitive. Mookie easily would have been a valuable addition for an $8M bump in the payroll from $27M to $35M. Ridiculously bad decisions!!!
Next – Mafiabass use your brain and articulate points. Insults are easy when you are anonymous you gutless wonder.
Next – Theoglass your optimism is sickening or should I say I am tired of your negative comments about my negative comments!! Wake up and join reality, this team will suck for years to come! The fans are bearing the cost of ownership stupidity. There should be no loyal fans to the ownership, just loyal fans to the players.
Next – loole smell the roses…. Bloom doing fine? In what alternate reality? He sucks and has done NOTHING to make the team better but he has fans like you talking like he invented farm system improvement when in fact the farm system wasn’t broken, it was the most productive in baseball for the last decade.
FYI…. Unhappy fans have a right to complain just like happy fans have a right to compliment things, even if they are absolutely wrong like those of you complementing ownership and Bloom.
Wrong on so many points.
-Mookie refused to negotiate with Red Sox, yet does it within months of getting to LA. How is that an indication of someone happy where he is.
-You not only have to hand over huge overpays to sign Mookie with luxury tax, but you can’t dip under cap in 2019, nor would it have been possible in 2020, without gutting many other players. Also, much bigger point. You not only pay tax – but the team LOSES DRAFT PICKS and INTERNATIONAL POOL MONEY, when over the cap. This would make it so much tougher to compete with other minor league systems in the future. Either you didn’t know this, and don’t know much about baseball, or ignored it, because it ruins your argument.
-Bloom has done fine as GM, at least as far as we can tell. His strategy is to build slowly, bringing in potential in talent and commodities. Yes, they will suck in 2021, but he will have plenty of talent to move at the deadline, or develop. Very sound strategy. Only way to tell whether a GM is good or bad in this situation is give him time. Your “suck for years” comment is ridiculous.
You would make an excellent Yankees fan – Please leave.
Olson didn’t allow an earned run in 30 games for Cleveland a few years back. I wonder if he has anything left in the tank
Mookie stated clearly that he was going to free agency. I guess he changed his mind. Can’t blame him. The economy changed and he took the guarantee.
Exactly.
He took fair market value NO DISCOUNT because LAD didn’t offer a crap deal like Boston. $65M in 2020 makes his $30.4 AAV higher than almost every contract in baseball. Why? Time value of money.
Mookie asked for a fair market deal and got one. The bs about free agency was just that, bs. The Red Sox screwed up and let a guaranteed HOFer go to another team. That’s unforgivable as a fan.