The Red Sox are placing right-hander Michael Wacha on the 15-day injured list due to left intercostal irritation, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. The move is retroactive to May 5. Fellow righty Tyler Danish has been recalled in a corresponding move. (Twitter links)
This is yet another in a series of frustrations for the Red Sox so far this year. After a 92-win campaign a year ago, the club is off to a dismal 10-18 start here in 2022, dropping them into the basement of the AL East. They also got some bad news yesterday, when it was reported that Chris Sale and James Paxton have both suffered setbacks in their attempts to rehab from their respective injuries.
Wacha has been one of the few bright spots for Boston this year, as he has an ERA of 1.38 over his first five starts. There might be some good fortune in there, as Wacha’s strikeout rate of 19% and walk rate of 11% are both a bit worse than league average. His surface-level success is probably connected to his unsustainable .162 batting average on balls in play and 94.3% strand rate. Still, it’s a blow to a club that has had little to feel good about over the first month of the campaign. The rotation also lost Rich Hill, who went on the Covid-related injured list recently, though it’s unclear how long he is expected to be out for.
With Wacha being scratched from today’s start, the club gave the ball to Tanner Houck instead. Houck opened the season in the rotation but was gradually usurped by Garrett Whitlock. He’s been piggybacking behind Hill for the past few turns through the rotation but could get more starts now with the recent openings. He was pitching on just two days’ rest today and was only able to throw 39 pitches over 2 2/3 innings but could get further stretched out in the weeks to come. Unless Hill can return soon, the club might need another arm down the line, as they are down to a four-man rotation of Houck, Whitlock Nathan Eovaldi and Nick Pivetta. That will do for now, as the club has off-days tomorrow and on Thursday. But after that, they will play ten days in a row, followed by one off-day and then a stretch of ten games in nine days, thanks to a doubleheader on May 28.
Wacha happened?
First real comment: Shame this happened, he has pitched far better than I or anyone else expected. But the dude has had a long history of health issues, so not surprising.
Guess this means Houck back to the rotation.
What scares me about Wacha’s performance is that it’s eerily similar to the way Matt Andriese started last year albeit out of the bullpen. Andriese was basically unhittable in the month of April but his underlying numbers really didn’t support his results. By the time June or July came around, he was DFA’d.
Wacha is certainly a much better pitcher than Andriese and he should stick around all season (or until the trade deadline) but he is definitely a candidate for regression and the last thing Boston can afford right now is regression by any of its players. Let’s hope he heals well and continues his excellent work on the mound. It might be time to bring up Connor Seabold and see how he does against MLB competition. He is dominating AAA right now.
Good to see Danish get another cup of coffee
Danish is mostly just there for filling.
Cheesy kind of comment.
The bullpen desperately needs someone capable of putting up donuts
Krusty: Oh, that’s good Danish.
A week of watching the Sox bullpen has the same effect as a month of prune Danish.
That’s a shame. He was having a great start to the season.
There’s a 15 day DL still?
As of the first week of May, the IL has moved from 10 days to 15 days. They gave them a shorter period for April due to the shortened spring training schedule along with allowing 28 man rosters too. Both roster size and IL length have reverted back to their normal levels now.
Not much going well for the Red Sox this year. Not much at all.
Well, when you stuff your roster with cast-offs, frequently-injured players and fossils like Rich Hill, you can’t be expected to compete. Hope you enjoyed the first 20 years of this century, Boston. Your glory days are gone. At least for awhile.
Good point about the roster construction. I think the team was most likely constructed on purpose to have some chance to compete but most likely to be bad so they can build up the farm system. It has looked to me for a while that Chaim Bloom’s top priority is to build a top tier farm system before he goes all in on competing. Taking on JBJ’s and Ottavino’s contracts in order to get prospects is the biggest indicator of that. So I think Bloom is most likely getting the exact result he wants this year except in the Boston market he can’t admit it is a rebuild. I say most likely because Bloom has not confided in me. That’s how it looks to me.
So it’s impossible for a huge market team to be competitive every year and still build a system.LA. St. Louis, don’t play baseball.
In any year when the Red Sox point to the future, they are scalping the fan base. Hard stop.
Bob: Tanking is probably the quickest way to rebuild. Also, no fan is forced to pay any money to the Red Sox or any team ever.
Signing Trevor Story on a long term contract and spending at luxury tax levels is not a rebuild.
Gomez: You say it is not a rebuild. What is it then? Please explain. The Red Sox have upwards of $100 million coming off the books after this season. They may even get under the tax threshold this year if they trade a lot of people. Does signing one player cancel out a rebuild? I think he may have signed Story to placate whining fans and media. Actually, I think Bogaerts was even whining for another bat.
Retool
tstats: Retool sounds good to me.
Until Cora loses his 14-pitcher binky, you’re not gonna see many big hits from a 3-man bench that includes a catcher.
Clearly Cora doesn’t value offense, he wants his 14-pitcher binky and he wants guys like Arroyo playing several positions no matter how bad he’s at it and how little he hits.
Cora is getting EXACTLY what he deserves. Not even the greatness of Xander/Devers/JD will be able to bail him out this year.
And yeah Bloom, give Xander and Devers lowball offers but massively overpay Story. None of that will age well.
@bobtillman – that’s exactly what Boston is aspiring to do but when Chaim Bloom took over, the cabinets were bare in the minor leagues. Couple that with an edict from ownership to get below the CBT threshold and this is why we haven’t seen a lot of free agency activity out of Boston; in fact they have been busy trading off veterans to help build up their minor league talent even more.
They have now more or less rebuilt the farm system (top to bottom) so the next step is for some of the kids to matriculate to the majors and for Bloom to trade away the last few remaining veterans on expiring contracts this summer so they can add more talent to their minor leagues. There will be at least 10 new faces on this team come 2024, all developed from their minor league system. Once the kids are here and playing well, John Henry will open the checkbook and start adding high-end free agents in their prime who can help this team compete for championships. I don’t think the owners will let Bloom spend like the Dodgers do, but they will certainly let him follow the Toronto Blue Jays model which isn’t a bad team to emulate. St. Louis is a tough team to model after because they get all of those extra draft picks by being a small market club (which is ridiculous).
Brighter days are around the corner for the Red Sox. Once they complete the initial mass additions of all the young talent ready to join the majors (8-10 players), Bloom still has a great pipeline of low A and A+ talent that will be staggered appropriately, so they will get to the point where they will be able to add 2-3 impact players from their system every year. Couple that with those young stars who will already be in the majors and their new free agent signings and this team will be perpetual contenders starting in 2024-2025 and going forward from there. The glass is half full; we just need to wait a couple more years to fill it completely.
I’m buying your logic up to the opening of the checkbook. They will try to sign the young talent to club friendly contracts and trade those not willing to take a discount..
all in the suit that you wear6 hours ago
Gomez: You say it is not a rebuild. What is it then?
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If you are above the luxury tax, you are not rebuilding.
If you are signing guys, you are not rebuilding.
If you are not trading guys off for prospects, you are not rebuilding.
Rebuilding is exactly the opposite of what the RS are doing. They could slide into a one or two-year rebuild in July: anything is possible. But right now, they are obviously not in a rebuild.
Joe: So what is the opposite of a rebuild? Win-now mode? I doubt Bloom expected this team to go far when he signed Wacha, Hill and Paxton and we don’t have a closer. Trading Renfroe for Bradley to get prospects doesn’t make a lot of sense to me if you are in win-now mode. Signing Story does not make a lot of sense if you are rebuilding, but I think Bloom did that thinking Story is roughly equivalent to Bogaerts at a lower cost…and thinking the fan base will accept Story replacing Bogaerts. So I think he knows he can’t let Bogaerts walk without a good replacement. The fans would never accept it just like most will not accept a rebuild. The other thing that told me that Bloom is valuing building the farm over winning now is how he refused to trade any really good prospects and make a splash at the trade deadline last year. He held tight to his prospects. So I think Bloom is conducting a rebuild the best he can in Boston. I could be wrong, but that is my guess.
Fever Pitch Guy4 hours ago
Clearly Cora doesn’t value offense,
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Care to explain that?
1-Cora doesn’t sign the players. Bloom does.
2-Within the construct of the roster, Cora is not choosing defense over offense.
3-Just out of curiosity, who would you be playing that is not already in the lineup? Is there someone on the bench, which is hitting a collective .170 with one HR is ~ 135 ABs, that should be starting?
4And as previously discussed, our regulars are hitting terribly. This is largely the same offensive team as last year, Last year we had a .777 OPS. This year, it is .621.
There are changes I would make to the BP, mostly involving making Whitlock our closer. But the offense is what it is.
Every manager in history would be playing the same guys.
So I think Bloom is conducting a rebuild the best he can in Boston.
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Maybe you can refer to it as sustainability, but if this was a rebuild, they’d have been trading guys away.
Joe: I can certainly see Bloom valuing sustainability over winning now as I think he is trying to build a farm system that will continually graduate talent for the team and trades and also keeping financial flexibility after this season. This year’s team just looked like a house of cards to me (the pitching was suspect and the offense weaker than last year) and I can’t help but think Bloom did it on purpose to be able to build the farm…and if he did and is building toward a big window of contention, I am fine with that. I will give him a chance to work his plan.
Joe – Why do you continue to pretend the vast majority of this year’s payroll wasn’t carried over from prior regimes?
Why do you continue to ignore the fact that Story’s contract is the ONLY contract over $14M (guaranteed) given by Bloom during the past three offseasons?
ERod, Schwarber, Devers, Xander, Eovaldi, JD … all players that were either allowed to walk, or were given lowball offers, or weren’t offered anything at all.
BTW – Those are obviously rhetorical questions, troll away …
” if this was a rebuild, they’d have been trading guys away.” — Joe Brady
You mean trading away players such as Price and Mookie and Benny, all for younger players/prospects?
I’m bookmarking your comment Joe, let’s see how many players get traded by the deadline.
all in the suit that you wear
and the offense weaker than last year
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It wasn’t supposed to be. We basically replaced Renfroe (career OPS+ of 108) with Story.(career OPS+ of 111). We really should’ve had about an identical level of offense. I agree that the pitching we added was a crap-shoot, which has so far worked out.
I think as this plays out, we will eventually see a lot more offense, with a good bit less pitching.
Fever Pitch Guy
Joe – Why do you continue to pretend the vast majority of this year’s payroll wasn’t carried over from prior regimes?
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Was this supposed to be in response to me questioning your statement:
“Clearly Cora doesn’t value offense,”
Because nothing you just said addresses your previous comment, and none of what you said addresses any of my questions. Your statement “Clearly Cora doesn’t value offense,” is completely nonsensical
You said that to insult Cora, but there is absolutely no way for you to even explain what you meant by that, let alone back it up with data.
One of your weaker trolling attempts.
“let’s see how many players get traded by the deadline.”
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1-If you want to go back to 2019, Betts could be seen as a rebuild, but I was talking about this past off-season.
2-I already acknowledged that we could have a sell-off in July. Please see my comment “they could slide into a one or two-year rebuild in July: anything is possible.”. But that’s just business as usual for any team, should they fall out of contention.
But this past off-season was not a rebuild.
Joe – I know I’m stating the obvious here, but your explanation is nonsensical.
1) Why would you bring up “career OPS+ of 111” when you know Story hasn’t had an OPS+ over 103 in a normal season since 2019?
2) How can you say “we should’ve had an identical level of offense as last year” when both Renfroe and Schwarber are no longer on the team and were essentially replaced by JBJ/Shaw/Arroyo?
Schwarber helped save their season last year by putting up a .957 OPS, how “convenient” of you to pretend he didn’t exist. LOL!!!
Joe – That was in response to you trying to “prove” spending hasn’t been cut back under Bloom, despite knowing full well that a very large portion of this year’s payroll is comprised of contracts given by prior regimes.
It’s no different than you trying to give all credit to Bloom for last year’s ALCS appearance, even though you know darn well how much the team was carried last year by players Bloom inherited.
I know you’re just trying to get a reaction from real Red Sox fans, but being blatantly disingenuous is not a good look to those who actually care about how the Red Sox do this season and beyond.
That was in response to you trying to “prove” spending hasn’t been cut back under Bloom, despite knowing full well that a very large portion of this year’s payroll is comprised of contracts given by prior regimes.
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You’re hopelessly lost. If you want to make a case that Bloom had less available spending room, because of all the contracts that DD signed, that would be accurate. But if you want to prove spending has been cut back then how do you square that with the fact that we are over the cap?
Just admit that we are over the cap.
I will crack up if Bloom trades Raffy, Bogey or Nate. They need extensions n Stiry will never make it in Boston, he’s just another Renteria.
Joe – I’m staying on point no matter how hard you try to divert. Spending has been drastically cut under Bloom, just admit it so we can Mo Vaughn.
Yes of course Bloom had less spending room, because Henry wanted to be under the cap for 2020 and 2021.
You’re a former accountant, right? So I needn’t explain to you the difference between prior expenditures and current expenditures. You can’t give Bloom credit and/or blame for this year’s entire payroll when nearly half of it is comprised of money spent by prior regimes.
And yes we’ve gone over this a million times, currently the Sox are over the cap but that could change by the trade deadline. It’s way too soon to predict what the final 2022 payroll amount will be, you can’t predict the future no matter how strongly you believe you can.
Spending has been drastically cut under Bloom,
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How about a simple yes or no. Are we over the cap? That’s all I am looking for from Henry. Spend approximately to the cap.
And anything can change by the deadline. If we are in it, I expect Henry will add more payroll. If we are out of it, I expect one more shot at signing Bogaerts or he gets traded, and probably JD and Eovaldi as well, Wacha & Hill. But that’s just business as usual. Every team does that.
I definitely enjoyed it, thanks for asking.
How long before the Fenway fans get up and leave the games? That’s the only way John Henry will listen,
Good grief, what is wrong with some of you Bos fans?
Your owed nothing , you have more titles than anyone this century,
Tone it down a bit
Unlike Yankee fans, we don’t live in the past.
A last place finish for a team with the 2nd highest payroll in the league is absolutely unacceptable.
Maybe he should spend less than? How’d that make you feel…
I’m a fan of a big market team as well so I can’t fully imagine how tone deaf you sound to all the small market fanbase folks that cruise in here
Again, more titles than any team this century. More positive memories in the last 20 years than half the MLB franchises have ever had. in their entire history
Maybe some humility is needed, you don’t build teams thru free agency. You want success but you don’t understand what it takes to get it. Luckily for you your front office does it’s just going to take a little time
Unlike Yankee fans, we don’t live in the past.
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Yup, 2018, the Stone Age. Or two games away from the WS all the way back in 2021.
I can’t fully imagine how tone deaf you sound to all the small market fanbase folks that cruise in here
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Way back in 2004, people wondered if the loveable loser RS fans were going to become entitled whiners. Quite frankly, I had no use for the “Loveable Loser” appellation. I didn’t mind being a big spender.
But some of the fans went overboard. Winning a WSC every 4-5 years should be more than enough,
You’re all over the place more than LaRussa driving home on a Saturday night.
Henry HAS been spending less the past three offseasons, a lot less. Other than the Story contract, which everybody but Joe knows was a massive overpay, the largest guaranteed contract given out was $14M in total to Hernandez. The vast majority of payroll on the books for 2022 was carried over from prior regimes.
Tone deaf about what? Not being happy the team is currently being mismanaged on multiple levels to the point they have the most losses in the league right now? Are you kidding me? Do you also kick your dog and then chastise it for yelping at the kick?
Again, past championships have no bearing on the present. Sox fans who pay top dollar to see games at Fenway in 2022 do so because they want to see a good game and want their team to win, not because their team won championships nearly two decades ago.
Humility is not going around with an air of superiority because your team has won 9 or 28 championships. What long-gone players have accomplished in the distant past has absolutely no bearing on how good or enjoyable your team is in 2022. I can’t believe I have to actually explain this.
Why even bother following your team if you don’t care how it performs in 2022?
Sure you don’t build teams strictly through free agency, if that’s what you’re getting at. But free agency is a necessity if you want to achieve a championship. Every Red Sox championship team since 2004 has had key free agents on them. You sign them to supplement the team by filling needs, or to later on trade them for young talent.
My front office inherited a boatload of talented all-star players that had just come off a 108-win championship season the prior year. It’s laughable for you to imply a lengthy total rebuild needed to be done.
The Theo regime won a World Series in it’s third year.
The Cherington regime won a World Series in it’s second year.
The Dombrowski regime won a World Series in it’s third year.
Looks like the only people who don’t know how to get success are Bloom and you.
Fever Pitch Guy
Henry HAS been spending less the past three offseasons, a lot less.
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He has spent to the payroll limit in two of the last three seasons, and is over the limit this year.
If you want to dispute that, please supply some data.
Joe – There you go again, trolling with false claims.
Over $104M of this year’s payroll is Luxury Tax Salaries to Manny Ramirez, Dustin Pedroia, David Price, Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi, JD Martinez and Xander Bogaerts.
Each and every one of those players is getting paid because of contracts that were given out by prior regimes.
I’ll put it another way, none of those players were given contracts while Bloom was in charge.
We know you know that, you’re not fooling anyone. But hey if you enjoy trolling so much then knock yourself out! LOL!!!
ROTFLMAO! What difference does it make how we got to the cap? Here’s a news flash: every team with a large payroll has large long-term contract.
Here’s another news flash: the Red Sox are still a large-market, large-payroll team.
Just admit that the RS are over the cap.
FPG – Remind folks that Bloom used $93MM this year to get to the CAP which he is over. Yes, the best players on the team that are the carryovers are still over $100MM but they are the talent other than Story.
This teams stinks just like last year’s team and the 2020 team because when Bloom got rid of the best player on the team the talent level dropped. Whether you like Price or not, Price was the #2 SP when Bloom got rid of him and replaced him with Perez about 3 years too early apparently! haha
Take Mookie’s Salary, Price’s half salary, Pedoia’s salary, Panda’s salary and all the guys Bloom has added to retained salary since he started and you have nearly $100MM of money that DD would have turned into talent and Bloom has turned into Wacha, Paxton, Hill, Story, JBJ, Barnes, Kiki Cora oops I mean Kiki Hernandez, Verdugo, Diekman, Strahm, Pivetta, Plawecki, Robles, Arroyo, Sawamura, Whitlock, Davis, Cordero, Crawford, Danish, Schreiber, Shaw, Price ($16MM should never have offered to eat it) and Ottavino, These are all monies paid in 2022!!!
Read the list out loud to fully grasp how bad his acquisitions have been.
Story is an all-star and Whitlock should be some day soon. YES, I just listed the good acquisitions in nearly 3 years!!!
BOSTON IS FAILING DUE TO NO TALENT ADDS EXCEPT STORY AND WHITLOCK SINCE MOOKIE GOT THE BOOT.
BOSTON IS ALSO FAILING BECAUSE THEIR PEA BRAIN MANAGER screwed up 2019 and sent the team into a tail spin then ruined Sale’s elbow with his mechanics adjustments and now because he’s letting a .176 hitter with a career .241 average lead off.
We have two massive screw-ups in the organization that need to go to give the future some light!! Hire a real GM with experience and a tract record of success like we should have in 2019 then find a REAL manager who has more talent than simple speaking two languages AND most importantly isn’t a serial cheater!!! Tons of experienced managers capable of taking this current Red Sox team to the playoffs for years. Better resources from the GM starts the ball rolling then a manager who knows how to set a batting order, understands how long to keep his starter in, know who to go to under different scenarios when pitchers struggle and three relief pitchers to throw the late innings provided by the new GM. None of them are named Barnes!!
The Red Sox could keep the guys from the DD years, throw out all the trash Bloom gathered and take a run at a championship in 2023 with some smart decision making by the new GM. No more horizon planning. Lets get back to winning NOW!!
I agree but this clown of a GM is going to trade Boggaerts. He picked up throwaways in the off season and a panic signing of Story because he knows Boggaerts is leaving. The bullpen is reclamation projects and throwaways. Barnes should have been gone at the end of the year. He is awful and no where near dependable as a closer. Hill and Wacha are pitching over their heads and how do you give 10 million to Paxton who might give you nothing this year. The season is over they are 11 1/2 games out of first place. He needed a good reliever and may have made it to the World Series. He needed to sign Schwarber and Dalbac should never be allowed near a baseball diamond again, he is awful. How do you trade 33 homeruns from Renfroe to pick up Jackie Bradley Jr. and that horrendous contract. I think that was an affirmative action move because of a lack of African American players on the team. This team has a long way to go and is in major trouble. Please fire Bloom and get a good GM.
John Henry won’t know because he doesn’t pay attention to the Red Sox anymore. He’s too preoccupied with Liverpool and the Penguins.
It’s a rebuild….Story was signed because Bogaerts is getting $200 million from someone….Devers they will keep, Casas will replace Dalbec, Duran will either move Keke back to 2nd or replace JBJ depending on what he does….
Keke either needs to be released or have him run off to a honeymoon suite with his BFF, Cora.
BRAVO!!!! comment of the day!!!!
Keke Played way over his head last year then went stone cold the last three games against Houston.
Sad state of a pitching staff when Michael Wacha has been pretty much your ace…..It’s Wacha and Whitlock holding this team together. Evoladi, Houck, and Pivetta been disappointments. I say Evoladi has been a disappointment because he’s expected to be an Ace and he’s only putting up solid numbers.
bum – I don’t think that’s a fair assessment of Nate. First couple starts were sub-par because Cora insisted on having Vazquez catch him, we all know how Eovaldi feels about Vaz.
The defense behind Nate has been poor, and the relievers coming in after him have been atrocious. If he had a better manager, defense, and bullpen, he’d be right up there with a sub-2 ERA.
The starters, in general, aren’t pitching deep enough into games. I don’t know how the hell the Rays can get three outs from any old guy they resurrect from the scrap heap, but Boston does not have that ability. They should not be trying the Rays’ pitching model until they can make it work.
Strahm could have gotten another out last night, maybe even 2. He’d only thrown 10 pitches! I understand and endorse your best relievers pitching against the best hitters, but the while thing left Brasier out there in the bottom of the ninth when it should have been Schrieber.
Bass – That’s because Cora doesn’t have the ability to think when managing the bullpen. He is obsessed with matchups and has his pitching decisions predetermined before the game even begins. He doesn’t give a darn about how well a reliever has pitched in that game or in prior games.
Cora is one of the worst at managing pitchers.
Houck last year taken out while pitching a perfect game for 5 innings with 8 strickouts and only 53 pitches, Playoffs lats year 5 inning one run two hits removed after throwing 61 pitches. was doing well as a starter but moved to bullpen even though Nick Pivetta one of the worst starters in MLB gets starts and is hammered every time and Cora still keeps him out there. Cora is great for club house but can’t manage a staff and don’t get me started on Kiki.
Hey Bloom, where are all these much heralded rookies from the farm system? Dalbac is awful and should not be anywhere near this team. Nothing to show for the disastrous Benintendi trade. I rather have him. You are afraid to bring up Tristen Casas because if he bombs people are going to question you big time. You are afraid to bring up Jeter Downs, Wong, because of the same reason.