The Red Sox have claimed right-hander Easton McGee off waivers from the Rays, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive. McGee had been designated for assignment on Monday.
McGee, 24, will join just the second organization of his career. He was drafted by the Rays in 2016 and has been with them until today. He’s never been a huge strikeout guy, but has always limited walks and gotten lots of ground balls, though he’s gotten less grounders this year. In 107 2/3 Triple-A innings this season, he registered a 5.43 ERA with a 17.4% strikeout rate, 4.3% walk rate and 39.6% ground ball rate. He was especially vulnerable to the long ball, surrendering 24 home runs this year.
The Rays selected him to the big league roster a week ago and put him into Sunday’s game. McGee threw three innings in his MLB debut without allowing an earned run, though one unearned run did cross the plate. He was designated for assignment the next day as part of the standard Tampa Bay roster churn.
The Red Sox are evidently intrigued by the 6’6″ righty, nabbing him off waivers on the final day of the regular season. McGee comes with a full slate of options and just a few days of service time, meaning he can be part of Boston’s pitching staff for the foreseeable future, so long as he hangs onto a 40-man roster spot. The club is facing a great deal of turnover in its rotation, with Nathan Eovaldi, Rich Hill and Michael Wacha all slated to reach free agency in a month’s time, making it fairly sensible to reach out and grab another depth option.
MLB-1971
It begins…wavier claim to be DFAed in hope of passing him through for 2023 AAA roster. There will be a wave of roster shuffling as 2022 regular season ends TODAY. Eighteen teams are done and start the process for next season.
DBH1969
Can the Sox afford to take up room on the 40 man when there are assets to protect from Rule 5?
AverageCommenter
He may get DFAed later and they just hope to keep him as depth
deweybelongsinthehall
Exactly. Stuff happens and the cost of claiming comes down to one question? Do you believe the organization is better after roster moves? Yes, you grab him although he could be DFAed tomorrow. The process will happen over and over again before next Spring. Let the merry-go-round begin!
IndianRye
Yes! I always get excited about this! About to play stratomatic just to play with more stats.
deweybelongsinthehall
Bringing back memories. Had the set in the early 80s and I remember my secret reserve player was Dave Stapleton who as a rookie, he had a great season for average. I just remember using him carefully because I think the limit of ABs was 120% of the prior year. He was a 3 at 1B so I tried not to play him much in the field (I forget his 2B defense #). What a classic. No computer needed. Just the game set, a pen and an old fashioned scorecard book to keep stats.
deweybelongsinthehall
Imagine the Aaron Judge card for next year.. the Ohtani cards (one for pitching, the other for batting)…I think I’m talking myself into buying the game again.
deweybelongsinthehall
Does anyone remember the football similar type game called Vince Lombardi Football? Somewhat different but also similar. No individual players but you chose your play for offense and the opponent chose a play for defense (from separate stacks of cards). Then dice were rolled and like Stratomatic, one die determined which deck card to look at and the other two determined the results. Considering this was in the early 70s, it was pretty advanced as the cards were based on past stats (again based on overall play selections, not individual players).
balloonknots
The precursor to fantasy – loved my pirate players back then but in 92 while at iowa I was introduced to fantasy baseball with stats manually done from Wednesday USA Today paper – the following year a Minnesota person we paid to do our stats and mail them to us twice a week. Great times!
IndianRye
Awwuh great memory I love it. I’ve played it since the early 2000s as a 10 year old when my dad bought it for me. I’d ask my friends to play and they would have no idea what I was talking about. I’d make fun of my male friends because they never heard of it while I was a teenage female that continues to be obsessed to this day.
IndianRye
I can only imagine the judge card next year! The ohtani cards are great has one for batting and another for pitching. I wonder if they did that for the Ruth days… I hope you buy it it’s always worth it and yes, no computer needed. I have about 20 sets I believe including a couple from the 70s so I could play Rick Manning’s gold glove year.
Highest IQ
Weston McGee is better.
Rsox
I guess it’s neither too late or too early to start stockpiling for next season
stroh
I saw this guy pitch 3 innings vs Stros in his major league debut. First inning was impressive ( showed good control) but 2nd and 3rd were a lot of hard liner outs, but outs nevertheless. I think he is more of a control guy, threw around 90 mph
AL34
I hope this is not the plan Chaim Bloom was talking about to Keke Hernandez in improving the team. The first thing Bloom should do is sign Boggarts long term. That would show the fans that he is doing what he can to improve the team. He has a lot of work to do this off-season and picking up waiver wire and released guys is not going to cut it.
Occams_hairbrush
Every team picks up waiver wire and released guys.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
Well it can’t hurt I guess. Is the same guy I said Chaim would look into in the other topic? Can’t remember.
Ron Hayes
Kinda funny all these pitchers talked about played for the Ray’s at one point. Rays know what up and when to ditch a player..
MLB-1971
Yes, but there is only 40 spots on the roster and some of the players teams let go have real value.
Garrett Whitlock was one example. As they say…you can’t protect everyone…
n888
How much of the future is foreseeable?