The Red Sox have inked a pair of recent big leaguers to minor league deals. Rob Bradford of WEEI reported (on Twitter) that former Tigers corner outfielder/DH Christin Stewart was landing in Boston; meanwhile, Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported this morning (Twitter link) that utilityman Rob Refsnyder was signing with the Sox.
Stewart, 28 next month, appeared in the majors with Detroit each season from 2018-20. The left-handed hitter tallied 587 plate appearances all told (the bulk of them coming in 2019) and hit .225/.300/.376 with 15 home runs. That kind of offensive output wasn’t enough to compensate for Stewart’s lack of defensive value as a below-average left fielder, and Detroit outrighted him off their 40-man roster in April.
To his credit, Stewart bounced back after clearing waivers. He took 343 trips to the plate with the Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate in Toledo, hitting .254/.339/.538 with 21 homers. That’s in line with Stewart’s career-long track record of hitting well in the minors, but it wasn’t enough to earn another big league look in Detroit. He’ll try to play his way back to the majors with the Red Sox next spring.
Refsnyder has appeared in the majors in each of the past six seasons, albeit without ever tallying 200 trips to the plate in a given year. He’s bounced around the league, suiting up for the archrival Yankees, Blue Jays, Rays, Rangers and Twins. His most recent stop was in Minnesota, where he posted a .245/.325/.338 line with a pair of homers over 157 plate appearances.
The 30-year-old’s greatest appeal lies in his defensive versatility. Refsnyder has appeared at every position excepting shortstop and catcher over the course of his big league career, adding center field to his resume while Byron Buxton was on the injured list this past season. He’ll look to earn a big league roster spot with the fourth AL East team of his career come Spring Training.
The legend of Rob Refsnyder continues.
Im appalled he would dare betray his Yankee name
Not to worry, Bloom is patiently waiting for after the lockout to scoop up a bunch of bargains like Andriese and Marwin Gonzalez.. Sure they had bad seasons, but that didn’t stop Bloom from signing Wacha now did it?
Bloom is like the guy who doesn’t want to pay full price for the all-you-can-eat buffet, but after everyone else has had their fill of food he circles around and grabs whatever scraps are left.
Wow that is a PERFECT analogy. LOVE IT !!
Marwin Gonzalez won’t be resigned. Bloom already dumped him last year when he couldn’t live up to his one good trashcan pounding season.
Oh yes, the tales of the immortal Rob Refsnyder
Bring back Swihart…
stewart sucks
A Hall of Famer and Bella from Twilight in the same day? Nice haul Red Sox.
Rob Refsnyder ; Our Red Sox Nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Woo, woo, woo
Too bad they missed out on Frazier, they could’ve brought back Swihart and completed the trifecta.
Henry Owens fits in there somewhere as well
Lars Anderson too
Sam Horn going back many years except the man hit the longest right field HR I saw hit at the old Yankee Stadium.
Legend. This Sons of Sam Horn member approves.
Sam Horn could hit a baseball a very long way when facing right-handed pitchers. He couldn’t do much else all that well, but none of us cared because it was so fun to watch him hit hoping he would crush one.
I’m still waiting on Tony Blanco.
Swihart isn’t available…..he’s preparing for his induction to the Hall of Fame.
LOL!!!!!!!! The Hall of Fame TRIO!!!!!!!!!
no team is complete without a certain “catcher” known for drawing “rave reviews”
oh no, time for t
The Curse of Rob Refsnyder to begin.
AAA depth never hurt anyone.
problem is that we have too much of it on our MLB team
That same MLB team that got to the ALCs?
WTF!!
Wtf
I read this like you took a breather and restated your opinion calmly
Lol
I give this signing rave reviews
Well….that ain’t gonna get er done Chaim.
Seriously ??? bloom
Red Sox fans are mad because they can’t make fun of the yankees anymore now that they have the legendary Refsnyder. Omg, what if he does well, that will make it worse. This is a nightmare.
Nah, we always make fun of Yankees. They still SUCK
Ruth, Boggs, Clemens and now Refsnyder
Who names their son Kristen?
My older sister’s name is Kristen. She sucks at baseball though.
Michael Wacha and Rob Refsnyder… I can honestly say that I expected Bloom to be a bit more active at this point. I’m pretty content with the offense as is, but the Sox badly need to add some solid pitching here soon.
It is beyond inexplicable what bloom is doing picking up the scrubs lol.
HBan22 – The offense is solid but for it to be solid the defense must suffer badly. That is the single biggest problem for 2022. What to do with Devers and JD. Also, will Bloom repeat 2021 and contract another DH just in case.
There are much better pitchers than Wacha available for less money (Kim from STL). Also, trading for a good pitcher like Means from Baltimore makes sense since he would fit nicely in E-Rods spot and put up much, much better numbers and cost 1/4 or 1/5th the price!!
Red Sox trolling Yankee fans now. Time to retaliate and call Blake Swihart out of retirement.
Nothing ever changes in the RSN. It’s amazing how many of y’all line up at the Tobin every time we sign minor league depth.
This is payback for Johnny Damon leaving Boston to sign with the Yankees.
Lol I love these minor league depth signings on this page..the comments are worth the time.
That said, wtf are we doing? We need some pitching and a whole lot of something.
Stewart is better off going to the KBO or Japan
I thought Refsnyder had a pretty good year off the bench for the Twins. Seems not. Must have collapsed after returning from injury.
Stewart is interesting. The raw power is there but he’s never had any sustainable success at the MLB level.
Refsnyder is “meh”…
Enjoy Stewart. He’ll remind you of ManRam every time he plays the OF and even at the plate a couple of times a month.
Didn’t Franchy have raw power too?
As a non Yankees fan I learned long ago not to mock scrubbish cult hero’s like rob refsynder or before long he’ll end up on the team you root for on a minor league deal ! Lol
This is yuge! They are going to be the best players on the best team. It’ll be an amazing team with the best acquisitions ever. People won’t stop talking about how amazing they are.
Stewart is on track to be the all-time home run champion of the minor leagues. He’s always hit a ton of homers in the minors, but that never translated to the big leagues. I had very high hopes for him because he obviously has talent. I hope Boston can rejuvenate his career.
Bloom seems to be sitting out the big names, but a whole new addendum to the free agent list comes out tonight.
The Tigers wasted too much time on Christin Stewart and JaCoby Jones.
Man everyone that is blasting Rob Refsnyder is just jealous of him. He has more talent than they could ever imagine. The guy plays all out and gives a 100% all the time which I think is awesome.
Red Sox not going to be big spenders. This is the game plan for the foreseeable future. Cost control will be the mantra. It’s all about making money, and building a pipeline for home grown talent. Long term sustainability is the goal, and they won’t be swayed by public opinion.
Bobby – You think revenue will remain up if this new cheap approach continues? Not a chance.
Watch what happens if Xander and Devers walk or get traded because the Sox don’t want to extend either at fair market value. Just watch …
People won’t continue buying the most expense tickets in MLB just to sit in an uncomfortable seat at Fenway.
It’s all about making money so FSG can acquire more professional franchises. The Red Sox biggest addition so far has been the Pittsburg Penguins; I wonder what team is next? Also, I wonder if Bloom knew he was coming into this situation where he could not spend real money. Alex Cora should have won AL Manager of the Year for getting that team (pitching staff) deep into the playoffs.
where he could not spend real money.
===================================
Define “real money”. We always spend around the cap, and occasionally over.
Bobby – It was tough to tell whether you are outstanding at sarcasm or believe the Bloom BS. Ownership continues to make $300M or more in profits and apparently they are using that money to take on new ventures outside of baseball.
Should baseball be about growing wealth if you are an owner or winning rings for your fan base which also helps your bottom line? I believe the latter so that’s why none of this austerity program makes sense.
When Bloom took over in Boston they had 6 expensive contracts over $17M with Price, Betts, Sale, JD, Bogey and Eovaldi but they also had NO intermediate contracts except Peddy’s long term deal for around $13M per year predating DD. So the payroll looked like an hour glass with 6 at the top, 1 in the middle and the rest barely over controllable prices. The good controllable players like Benny were making up to $5M and everyone else less.
So why is Boston two years later without Mookie or half of Price still pushing the luxury cap? SIMPLE – Bloom knocked out the best player and his big salary and replaced it with many players making $5M to $12M and contributing a fraction of what Mookie did for the team. Among those wasted mid range salaries are :
1) Richards at $10M
2) E-Rod at $8.2M (thank goodness we cleared that one!!)
3) Ottavino at $8.1M (haven’t resigned him)
4) Hernandez at $7M
5) Perez at $5M
These are the new costs for 2021 totaling $38.3M more than Mookie with a big contract of $36M!!! The good news for2022 is that Bloom cleared out E-Rod and Ottavino but a new cost of $7M exists in Wacha.
This may shock you but Wacha in 2022 will be the 10th highest salary on the Red Sox. Thus, the big six was reduced to the big four BUT there are now 6 players making $7M or more compared to just Peddy when Bloom took over.
So ask yourself would you rather have MOOKIE or Richards, E-Rod, Ottavino, Kiki and Perez in 2021? The five cost more and even with Mookie being injured part of the year, I’d still rather have Mookie for less money!!!
The same question can be asked for 2022 since Bloom has again pushed within $20M-$25M of the cap early in the off season. Is a bunch of trash costing more than $5M per person better than having a superstar face of the franchise in right field for less money?
Has Bloom improved the team? Hell No. Has he spent the money wisely? Hell No. Are there any signs he’s improving at his job? Hell No!!
Bobby I hope you were being sarcastic because if you believe the Bloom crap you are in for a very disappointing future as a Red Sox fan.
Ah, the annual Sox fan freak out over minor moves. Nice to see some traditions survive year after year.
It’s not the minor moves that anyone is worried about, it’s the lack of any real moves to improve a clearly mediocre pitching staff.
That “clearly mediocre pitching staff” got them to within 2 games of the WS. Maybe it’s the fans not having any idea how to evaluate the team more than any short-comings on the part of Bloom at play here.
HBan22 is thinking, “What? We made the playoffs last year?”
king – Seriously? What a bs answer. That pitching staff didn’t get them to the playoffs, it was a team effort. Suggesting the team was anything more than lucky is simply bull crap. They beat a bad fading Yankee team in the wild card and got lucky against TB. Play the series 10 times they might win once!! Likewise play the Houston series 10 times and they don’t win once!!! That type of luck doesn’t happen in back to back years!!
This was the owner’s dream season. It misleads the dumb portion of the Red Sox fan base into thinking the team improved and it didn’t. In fact, the talent level is down since Bloom arrived. Until he replaces guys like Mookie and Price with comparable talent it will continue to be a hope and prayer for the team to win.
If Sale is healthy and Eovaldi can repeat 2021 the pitching staff will be middle of the road. If Houck and Pivetta take a step forward they will be above league average. If they get a left handed quality starter NOT like an E-Rod but someone who knows how to pitch to a low ERA and WHIP then their staff becomes formidable.
On the hitting side, their outfield is a shadow of what it was before Bloom showed up. Mookie, Benny and JBJ were better at hitting and defense than Vedugo, Hernandez and Renfroe. The infield hasn’t improved since Devers still plays third and makes Boston one of the worst defensive teams in baseball. Devers, Bogey and Vazquez are the same guys as before Bloom and Dalbec and Arroyo aren’t significantly better than Moreland and Chavis. JD is still the DH.
Where has Bloom fixed things? NOWHERE. How many top flight players has he acquired? NONE. How many top flight players are now gone thanks to Bloom? Mookie is at the top of the list, I think Benny will be missed more going forward as well.
So was the pitching staff mediocre in 2021? Their skills were if you are talking about E-Rod, Richards, Perez etc. Eovaldi, Houck and Pivetta did well. As a staff, mediocre is fair. The team road on the back of 3 players that predate Bloom, JD, Bogey and Devers. The complimentary pieces had mixed results with Renfroe being the best surprise and Cordero being the biggest failure along with about a dozen pitchers that came and went.
The team is in a tough division where their talent level is 4th best. I’m not sure there is a better way to define a mediocre team. Talent needs to be added and Wacha is NOT the talent that I’m suggesting. Without talent, 4th is the projected outcome. Sure they could get lucky again and squeak out a wild card spot but the odds are against it until they get more talent.
By the way, your evaluation skills suck if you think the Red Sox as of today are good. Mediocre is the correct evaluation.
On November 8, thirty-three (33) Red Sox minor leaguers declared free agency, including Meneses, Mieses, Motter and a few other IFs and OFs. Try not to decompensate over filling some empty minor league slots. No one is suggesting Refsnyder or Stewart will be starters on the Sox.
Personally I’d like to see an NPB/KBO team try and sign Stewart and or Refsnyder and the Red Sox make some money in a release fee.
What no Will Middlebrooks Chaim COME ON MAN! Sincerely, Brandon FJB