The Red Sox are planning to have infielder/outfielder Danny Santana active for this weekend’s series against the Phillies, reports Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes (via Twitter). Santana, who inked a minor league deal with the Red Sox in Spring Training, was slowed by a foot infection that required surgery but has been playing well over the past week in Triple-A. Boston will need to select him to its 40-man roster, so a corresponding 40-man move will need to be made. Santana has an opt-out clause in his deal this Sunday, tweets MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo, so the move will need to take place by then.
Santana, 30, has played eight minor league games and looked sharp in his return to the field. He’s 13-for-30 with three homers and three doubles to go along with a 3-to-7 BB/K overall in 35 trips to the plate. When he’s formally added to the roster, he’ll give the Red Sox yet another versatile, multi-position option to rotate around the field — a skill set they clearly prioritized heading into 2021. Santana, Enrique Hernandez and Marwin Gonzalez can all play just about position, and like Gonzalez, Santana is a switch-hitter.
The veteran Santana will be hoping to put a miserable, injury-ruined 2020 season in the rear-view mirror and bounce back to the form he showed in a career year with the 2019 Rangers. That ’19 campaign saw Santana erupt with a .283/.324/.534 batting line, 28 home runs and 21 steals in 511 trips to the plate while playing all four infield spots and all three outfield positions. However, outside of that juiced-ball season, Santana has just 14 home runs in 1228 plate appearances.
Santana’s elbow didn’t afford him the chance to follow up on that ostensible breakout showing, as he landed on the injured list after scuffling through 63 plate appearances in 2020. He ultimately required surgery to repair an elbow strain — a procedure that came with a recovery period of seven to eight months. He’s now past that rehab timeline and looks to have put both the elbow and foot troubles behind him.
It’s been a strange career for Santana, who burst onto the scene as a Rookie of the Year candidate with the 2014 Twins when he hit .319/.353/.427 with seven homers and 20 steals in 430 plate appearances. Santana’s production absolutely cratered the following year, however, and he didn’t have a single productive season (or even close to it) in the four years between that rookie year and his out-of-the-blue 2019 campaign. From 2015-18, Santana tallied 735 plate appearances between the Twins and Braves but posted a brutal .219/.256/.319 line.
Time will tell which version of Santana the Red Sox are getting, but a bench that includes him, Gonzalez and Hernandez would be one of the most versatile in baseball. It should be pointed out that Gonzalez is struggling mightily to begin his Red Sox tenure, having batted just .205/.293/.295 through his first 150 plate appearances, so it’s possible that Santana’s arrival will come at the expense of Gonzalez’s playing time.
When healthy, Santana is smooth.
Oye como va
Va bien, Cato
Vato, not Cato
Danny Santana Rosannadanna…
Wonder who will get optioned and who will get designated
Marwin Gonzalez would be an obvious choice.
I would assume it would be F. Cordero, but I could see Gonzalez as well.
Cordero by a longshot is the winner in the optioned lottery. I’d like to see Gonzalez DFA’d to make room for Chavis tho and Brice DFA’d for about anyone.
Brice shouldn’t have made it from the end of last season on the 40 man, but as one of those “high spin” guys.. He got a lot more chances that he deserved.. Further proof spin rate is horse crap.. You can spot a good curve/slider (most of us) without having to resort to some made up new analogy.
I’m fed up with seeing career failures like Brice, Ryan Weber and Colten Brewer wasting 40 man spots and pointed to as “spin rate” guys who just flat out stink.
Agree on all points
That Cordero trade was an embarrassment.. Even a semi-healthy Benentendi would have been 50 times better than Cordero.
Trade isn’t finalized yet, so give it time before you make your final analysis. Red Sox still have 3 prospects coming their way, one of which that should be a fairly good one.
Benintendi was cooked in Boston. The trade was a laugher–you’re right about that–but you have the direction wrong.
I disagree on that one. While I like Benentendi he was done in Boston and it was best to dump him and his contract for anything they could get. The Red Sox got Cordero who needs time to develop in the minors and who could be a serviceable 4th outfielder with pop. Add in Josh Winckowski who in 3 starts has a 1..26 ERA and .098 WHIP pitching in AA. Andthe Sox still are to receive 3 unknown prospects. I say the Sox are already winning this deal.
What POP are we supposed to see with Franchey? Only POP I see is the one when he pops outta a swing n miss!
Sometimes trades are initiated for reasons that have nothing to do with play on the field. Benentendi could have been a cancer in the clubhouse. Or, a player opposed to bringing Cora back. Or, just unwilling to follow instructions laid out for him the the coaching staff. There are a multitude of reasons why he ended in in Kansas City besides his poor performance in 2020 and 2019.
Baseball is hard when you don’t know what pitch is coming.
Joe Says…
With offense being way down, don’t give Manfred any bright ideas.
They should go the Survivor route by letting the fans decide which player gets voted off the island.
Cordero still has an option, right? If so, he’s it. Teams always and wisely make the choice to hold depth.
he’s out
Cordero has 2 options per soxprospects.
They aren’t going to option Marwin Gonzales most likely it will be Cordero but with Arroyo coming back Chavis will probably be optioned as well.
Austin Brice should be DFA’d. Sure they can option Franchy or Chavis back to AAA but that doesn’t open a 40 man roster spot for Santana. Time to put Brice out to pasture.
Looks like Marwin is in the lineup tonight. Hope it was Bryce DFAd, but wouldn’t be surprised if it was just Franchy getting sent down.
Hope it’s not Chavis, he deserves to be the regular 2b right now
Gimme Chavis over Franchy or Marwin all day.
BREAKING NEWS: Joey Wendle just hit a home run off a 45 MPH curveball from Orioles position player Steve Wilkerson. Tony LaRussa is liquored up and unavailable for comment.
Wendle is the GOAT
DFA Austin Brice please
Damn, look at those sexy new Worcester uniforms
My parents were from Worcester and used to regale me with stories of Bob Cousy and Togo Palazzi. I should probably get a Woosox t-shirt.
Better than Cordero
Very surprised Rangers let him go. I thought he was a solid player for them.
Cordero or Chavis will probably be optioned since they still have options. I don’t see the Sox getting rid of Marwin, at least not yet
not looking forward to this series…
I am wondering if the concentration on launch angle swings, the propensity to pull pitches and MLB pitchers pitching up in the strike zone has had any effect on batting average this year?
Corey Kluber no hit the Rangers last night and I’ll say 70% of the pitches were on the outside part of the plate or off the plate. When he did come inside it seemed the ball was elevated at the top of the strike zone or above.
I think there is something to that. Pitchers are pitching up and you can’t golf those balls hitters haven’t adjusted
Rick Pernell – Launch angle is truly a myth created by some of the new generation pretend baseball minds like Brian Kenny. No player has the accuracy of swinging his bat so precisely at a 100 mph pitch to think they can hit a specific spot on a round surface like a bat barrel. It’s complete horse crap.
Bat path can be taught that might increase chances for exit trajectories that would be favorable to home runs but that’s not how successful baseball players are taught to hit. The idea is to keep the bat in the strike zone for the maximum distance possible to improve your chances of making contact when pitchers fool you by changing speeds.
The bad hitting today is created by bad hitters. Hitters who want to make money by hitting home runs not getting on base. Stat cast and the ‘new generation’ of baseball advisors have changed the game into a minimal contact sport. Thus, walks and strike outs are up and there aren’t many players taking a run at .400 any more. The higher strike zone also contributes to the increase in no hitters along with the umpire association being willing to move to a higher strike zone based on the commissioner’s need to tweak the game to make it more fan friendly and less like real baseball.
Truly, you can thank multi-media for shortening the attention spans of individuals making it more necessary to proliferate home runs to keep fans coming to the ball park The sport of baseball no longer just competes with football, basketball and hockey like it used to for fan revenue. Now it competes against a billion new distractions in the world that might supersede a human’s desire to watch baseball in person or on TV.
What the MLB has done would surely cause Kennisaw Mountain Landis to roll over in his grave at the idea that EVERYTHING is spinning towards gambling in baseball. You watch a TV game and the odds roll across the bottom of the screen along with a place to contact if you get addicted to gambling! Is it any wonder Cora, Hinch and Beltran got their hands slapped for the most monumental cheating in baseball history? No! Baseball actively supports gambling now so it can grow revenue since interest in the game isn’t growing despite the population growing.
So, Rick you hit the tip of an iceberg with your comment. Launch angle concepts aren’t new, ask Barry Bonds who thoroughly understood them or Ted Williams who is not reachable but could have explained them over a half century ago. The growth of strikeouts supports the strategic direction of the leaders of MLB. They seek growth through rebranding old concepts into Modern Metrics and emphasizing anything that will help gain the attention of an ever-growing short attention span fan base.
Don’t blame the players for strike outs. Don’t blame the distance to the mound for strike outs. Blame the commissioner, the media and the new fans who actually believe the modern metrics are legitimate aids that improve the performance of baseball players. The purpose of the game has been re-written. It’s not about winning, it’s about increasing the size of the industry by adding fans that aren’t real baseball fans, just bored individuals looking for something to do with their time and money.
In the 90s, “chicks dig the long ball” commercials with Maddux, Smoltz and Glavine were introduced to grab attention from TV viewers by adding attractive women to the 30 second spot. Now, MLB has extrapolated the concept and retargeted the message to not just women but to those uncommitted individuals looking to find something to do with their time and money
Football raises the level of touchdowns in hopes of acquiring those non-committed individuals to attend or watch football. The NBA does the same with their 3 pointers and dunks. Baseball chose to compete with a proliferation of Home Runs caused by a new philosophy of hitting combined with juiced baseballs.
The baseballs mistakenly created the steroid era but now to avoid scandals MLB explains the juice in the ball with ridiculous concepts like launch angle. The Tatis/Acuna generation of baseball players are using more juiced balls than the Bonds/McGwire generation or the Aaron/Mays generation and light year more juice than Babe Ruth experienced when he hit his 714 dingers.
Rather than a scandal created by the previous generation who didn’t like the old records falling, the Bonds generation of fans simply seek the truth to come out about the baseballs and the grossly exaggerated impact of steroids. That allows the new generation of players to comfortably break records with no ramifications because the MLB can’t take the risk of lowering the juice in the ball like they claimed they were going to do this year. The HRs are the key to industry growth and without the previous generation screaming FOUL because records are falling, MLB is free to juice the ball until someone steps in and protests the achievements of the current generation ball player.
So get used to the Ks, the HRs and the juiced ball. They are here for the long-run.
Hallelujah, it’s about time. If they option Chavis before Cordero, I shall rain vengeance upon them with my Comments
Wish this was Jaren Duran news.
NAh, No need to rush him. Let him get adjusted to Triple A pitching and develop in the outfield.
Send down Cordero I think Gonzalez will turn the corner
I think Santana is going to be traded for a reliever in the next 24 hrs. Otherwise what’s keeping Cora from commenting on the situation.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Santana was another Felix Mantilla? If he is inserted in the lineup to play second base, say good bye to Arroyo, Chavis and/or Gonzalez.
hawkny11 – Great comment. You make things sound so simple. You know even if he was the next Felix Mantilla, Bloom would still go get a few more utility retreads to make it appear as if he’s doing his job!!
Somebody needs to whisper in Boom’s ear ” You don’t buy Armani or Gucci in a thrift store!”. They should also mention to him that his bosses are sitting on millions upon millions of dollars earned over the last 20 years not to mention the increased value of the organization since they bought it so there really IS money to spend especially since the luxury tax isn’t a problem in 2021.