The Red Sox were dealt a major blow this month when it was revealed star infielder Trevor Story would require an internal brace procedure to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom did not give a timeline, and indicated that having Story available in 2023 was not something that they “want to bank on.” Given the departure of Xander Bogaerts in free agency and Story’s expected move over to shortstop, that looked to be a brutal blow to Boston’s chances this season.
Things have taken a slightly more positive turn today though, with Story telling reporters (including Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe) that he believes he’ll play this season. To what extent Story can get himself involved remains to be seen, and there’s still no timeline in place for his recovery, but at the very least it’s a more upbeat outlook than Bloom’s.
Story experienced discomfort last month when he was ramping up his off-season program. That was after feeling fine for all of November and a good chunk of December. Abraham relays that Story was able to avoid Tommy John surgery on the elbow, as it’s just a partial tear.
The Red Sox will likely turn to Enrique Hernandez to handle Story’s reps at shortstop until he can return, particularly after boosting their outfield stocks with the signing of Adam Duvall. Bloom indicated recently that the team could still pursue a middle infield addition, and the Sox have been loosely tied to remaining free agents Josh Harrison and Elvis Andrus recently, but it seems the internal option of Hernandez and Christian Arroyo up the middle is the favorite.
Well we got that going for us…..
“Abraham relays that Story was able to avoid Tommy John surgery on the elbow, as it’s just a partial tear.”
Apparently Pete Abe doesn’t read MLBTR in between meals.
mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/trevor-story-underwent-…
Of course it is as it is the cheapest
Right. A team that just handed out a $331M contract extension is cheap.
Kingbrady–perhaps I should rephrase that . Firstly I will state that after losing Betts and Bogaerts for VERY LITTLE or no return the FO KNEW that RSN would REVOLT if Devers was also allowed to be let go. So Bloom goes out and spends like a drunken sailor on 34+ yr old veterans on 1-2 yr deals and also vastly overpays for a Japanese OF who has yet to play a Major League game. Maybe not cheap but far from smart. imply trying to keep the team competitive while waiting for HIS prospects pool to arrive.. Maybe you are ok with the revolving policy Bloom has implemented but I don’t have to be.
I didn’t say you had to like anything. I just pointed out calling them cheap is idiotic and I stand by that assessment.
king ken67 {aka Cabana boy} I already said I should rephrase it but here is something I WILL NOT rephrase–Bloom is a TERRIBLE fit in his role with the Boston Red Sox–simply terrible !!!
No need to rephrase randy…
Even the cheapest miser would make an expensive purchase here or there – like owning a house.
Bloom is generally/historically cheap with how he runs the club, rather to spend on a ton of little low value signings that fail to pan out than buying quality where you need it.
I’ve had the debate a few times here and elsewhere, quality vs quantity. Quality is one expensive move if you evaluate the player correctly. Quantity is 10 cheap signings that add up to a lot of payroll, but not a big impact.
The Red Sox are not one player away. Boston fans/media is just brutal.
Bloom hasn’t done a great job because I don’t see much of a pipeline built to this point. I haven’t seen guys come over and make noticeable improvements either. But blowing your load on an expensive player is not the solution. Doesn’t matter who is running it. You need depth.
GAsoxfan–you sum it up perfectly here
The 2013 roster would like to have a word with you…..
Randy – I’ve said many times the Story contract will likely be the number one reason for Bloom’s eventual downfall.
I still feel that way.
Instead of giving Story the $140M, if Bloom had given $160M to Xander last offseason then we wouldn’t be wondering who will play SS for the Boston Red Sox in 2023.
But Bloom “saved” $20M over a six year period, so in his mind he made the right decision.
pzaccheo – We really need to stop spreading the misconception that the 2013 team was devoid of star players.
Ortiz
Ellsbury
Pedroia
Lester
Lackey
Buchholz
And Koji, who had one of the greatest seasons by a reliever in MLB history.
king ken 67–it should be pretty obvious even to you Ken that the vast majority of people here are not fans of Bloom’s “plan” I suggest you stick to the LOS forum where everyone seems to love Bloom. Maybe some on there are now starting to smell the coffee.
Brilliant. Could not have said it better myself
Don’t forget Victorino who put up a 6.0 WAR that season. 8 position players had a 2.7 WAR or higher that year.
Fever … spot on Koji in 13 WAS the greatest relief season in Redsox history ( my man Braiser in 22runner up) but what about NAP!!! Lackey 1-0 over verlander and it was Nsp”s solo that did it!!!
I would suggest to the brave defenders of the consistent incompetency of the Bloom regime Devo’s contract is in actuality a no choice event. & appropriate for the times.
One can only imagine the fallout & long term damage if Devo was not retained.. Therefore enough please of the false equivalencies with the Devo contract..
Bloom has no coherent roster plan and combined with an obvious propensity for misjudging & evaluating talent has resulted in easily forecast results on the field.
another brilliant post.
Franklin – Well said.
Bloom has been prioritizing building the farm system. He has taken it from a bottom of the pack system to a middle of the pack system. I think Bloom wants to build a young core through the farm system. Until then, it looks like they will compete as best as possible while staying around the bottom luxury tax threshold, sometimes going over. I think they are also avoiding long, expensive contracts as much as possible which is why you see a lot of 1-2 years contracts. I expect this to change once the young core is in place.
Spot on! Best comment on the Sox yet.
I find it comical all the (must win now at the expense of the future minds on this thread). 10 years from now if you all had it your way, the Sox would have a bunch of really expensive under-performing players on contract and you would be complaining all over agin what a terrible decision it was to sign them all to huge contracts past their primes).
You all want the impossible, “your cake and eat it to” mindset.
Bloom is clearly not bad at his job and clearly has ownerships backing or he would not be getting paid the big money while everyone on here is getting paid peanuts relatively speaking – because if you had his skills, you would be doing that job for a living and apparently getting paid a lot more than Bloom, because clearly, you would be way better and have multiple WS under your belt).
Well, you don’t, so please take all your crying and complaining to a new thread yourself.
This is Trade Rumors, not Whiny Little Arm Chair GM’s thread. Just sayin’
all in the suit..-I said this exact same thing on another Red Sox forum and got hammered on it for my views.. The problem with your theory as I see it is that the Sox farm system is vastly over-rated. Other than Mayer please tell me one true blue chip prospect Bloom has added since his arrival over 3 years ago. Name me one top P prospect he has brought in? He traded one of our top SP prospects for less than 2 months of Eric Hosmer and now he is gone. He just lost 2 other good P prospects through the Rule 5 draft yet kept such garbage as Brasier and Ort protected. The team has finished last in the aL East for 2 of his 3 seasons here yet we are called whiners for not being happy??..
popgun13– see my reply above to ‘all in the suit..If people on here complaining about Bloom are all to be called whiners then that would be about 75% of those posting here and across all the sites I have been reading about the Red Sox. They are NOT happy with Bloom and the FO.. 2 last place finishes in 3 years will do that. I listed many of my reasons in the post above but there too many more to put them all down.
Randy: The Red Sox farm system probably is overrated. I think it is roughly middle of the pack now, maybe not even that good. If you look at soxprospects.com, 5 of the top 10 prospects were acquired by Bloom (Mayer, Bleis, Yorke, Romero and Anthony). You can read about them there. If you want one name, read about Miguel Bleis. The farm system has made a lot of progress, but still has a way to go. Can you really change that much in 3 drafts? I like the idea of building a contender from the farm system, but it may take a while. The other option is signing expensive free agents. If those long-term contracts go bad, you have long-term problems of wasted roster space and cap dollars (yes, I know there is not really a cap). Long-term problems are the worst kind. A prospect going bad is a short-term problem. I think the better bet is building from the farm system. I wouldn’t worry about Groome. His fastball did not come back after TJ surgery. No one is lost yet from the Rule 5 draft. They can still be returned. It is better to be subjected to the Rule 5 draft than to be added to the 40 man roster only to be quickly DFA’d. Things are not going perfectly or even fast, but I think progress is being made. Unfortunately most Red Sox fans have no patience. Yes, there is a time to abandon patience, but I am not there yet.
The problem is the farm system Bloom has built is filled with tons on quantity of mid-level prospects but few top quality prospects.
Casas will graduate this year. That leaves Mayer and Rafaela and not much else. There are no other impact prospects on the farm.
The Red Sox farm is a mirage.
The problem with the red sox farm was on full display this offseason where the rule 5 and the waiver system saw plenty of these mid-level but not great prospects go claimed elsewhere due to roster crunch considerations. Having to carry multiple injured players while juggling replacements for them hasn’t helped either.
Getting your players claimed by other teams is an unfortunate result of building a strong, deep farm. The time to worry is when no other team thinks what you couldn’t protect has any value. If your team is able to protect everyone with potential, that indicates a lack of depth.
Stymeed: Agreed. I saw players getting taken from the Red Sox in the Rule 5 draft as a sign the farm system is improving.
stye..– you raise a good point but i would not exposed our top pitching prospects
baseball is life– that is exactly right and Raefaela is not a Bloom addition.
all in the suit–you raise some very good points.. Where I disagree a bit is on the farm . Bloom had chances to add real talent { Betts, Xander} but he whiffed. he got 2 dud prospects for Mookie and NOTHING for Xander. JD and Eovaldi could have brought back something too but he held on to them and they left for nothing. As for Groome reports were generally positive after he moved to AAA. Overall in AA and AAA he had 140 K’s in 144 innings. Ward had also made good progress while Song is a crapshoot. Besides Mata { who DD brought in} who is the top P prospect Bloom has added?? That was the calling card in Tampa–develop YOUNG QUALITY P..
Thanks Randy. The player return for Betts was low because the Dodgers took on $48M of David Price’s contract. When you take on that much money, the player return is lower. Also, the Dodgers may have been the only potential trade partner which works against Boston. I think not trading Bogaerts was a PR decision. I think they tried to move JDM and Eovaldi, but I think no one offered much for them or no one was willing to take on their large salaries. Neither one was playing well around the trade deadline. Looking at Bloom’s 3 drafts, he has not drafted a pitcher before the 4th round, so it is not surprising they do not have a lot of pitching in the farm system. Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, drafted in 2021, looks like he may be good. So, it looks like they are valuing hitters over pitchers in the draft or are just taking the best player available. I am not particularly concerned about this because it looks like some teams have a philosophy to draft hitters and acquire pitchers through free agency of trade. The thinking is good hitters (especially power hitters) are harder to find than good pitchers. The Cubs recently followed this philosophy when they built their 2016 championship team. They drafted Rizzo and Schwarber with their picks at the top of the 1st round instead of pitchers. Then they signed pitchers Jon Lester and Jake Arietta. That’s my opinion. I am not hitting the panic button like other Red Sox fans.
all in the suit… Nonetheless Bloom came from Tampa where they thrived on developing PITCHING. I think it is harder to acquire QUALITY pitching in FA since you usually need to overpay for slightly older pitchers with lots of mileage. That is unless of course you choose to sign older pitchers on 1-2 yr deals.
We’ll that doesn’t inspire much confidence, he’ll be back just in time for the fire sale. There’s a reason all the Red Sox did was sign guys to 1 or 2 year deals
Boy, what a Story
it’s insane how garbage the red Sox are and have been
Insane? Haven’t you watched the rangers for the last 6 years? You should be an expert on garbage, and shouldn’t be surprised when you see it from another team
Texas has been suffering from some massive bad luck over the years Red are just plain bad and have no direction we are not losing star after star because no one was to play in that hole of a city
So then it’s not “insane” to see how bad they are, considering Texas has been worse
Sad story
Obviously docs know better than us, but, it wouldn’t be the first player, not even for the red sox either, who refused the TJ surgery only to need to get it the following season.
Now, if they try to keep story at SS, with his weak arm, you get two outcomes – he throws even softer to preserve the ligament and his defense there goes down more; or, he keeps trying to throw harder and blows it out in short order.
Plenty of guys play with partial tears for a long time, but, given no reports of the partial tear before he tried longer throwing reps…….
Hate to contradict you, but the “throwing softer after TJS” is a bunch of horsehockey. Blew out my UCL, and sure, the first season back the life was not really back and I had to ease into things. After 16-17 months and lots of rehab, I added 2 mph to the fastball and was under no constraints while throwing whatsoever.
You had me until horsehockey
Read it over again… nowhere did I say he could not come back after TJS strong. I said his refusal to get TJ meant two outcomes.
Obviously if he would just go under the knife that wouldn’t be an issue. Here, he is refusing to do so – and, when you have the partial tear either you don’t push it as hard, or, blow it out.
Sorry – I failed to clarify. I did not undergo TJS or even the internal brace. As my ortho was so kind to tell me – “hey, you are old and don’t need to play anymore (early forties) so if you want to pitch again you need it. If you want to play you can get by, but you can just retire and rehab and you will be fine.
Rehabbed the heck out of it, and was on the field less than 6 months later and pitching the following year. No restrictions whatsoever. Point being – if you are going to treat it in whatever way…TJS / brace / rehab, you don’t get back on the field and baby it. And you don’t lose arm strength and need to soft toss to protect it. You either play at full throttle, or you don’t.
And you don’t lose arm strength and need to soft toss to protect it
———————————
Chris Sale’s elbow begs to differ… some guys can play through a tear, but it’s rare. Tanaka comes to mind. Most of the others end up needing the knife eventually, depending on level of use/impact and if they play full time
Carver – I’m really enjoying your posts.
Any idea how RA Dickey managed to pitch without a UCL? That has always perplexed me.
Thanks FPG. My understanding of RA Dickey is that he was born without one and never knew it until they gave him his major league physical as a 1st round pick. And, to be fair, he obviously morphed into a knuckleball pitcher over time, but he still had a solid fastball for quite awhile. There were others…esp. position players over time that got by without, or with severely shredded (but rehabbed) UCL’s.
@TCS – I promise you; neither do I. Nor did I share a velocity but a “change in velocity” as it is indicative of what happens with a lot of TJS players. The rehab process oftentimes leads to a slight increase because the player is working very intensely and with focus on a particular recovery. The medical prognostications in the comments section are almost universally arrogant and lacking in any real foundation. But y’all continue to make them as if they are meaningful.
But you could probably figure that out for yourself. Instead, you chose to be a typical twit.
Thank you for your constructive and valuable input, TCS
@Tcs Speak for yourself. I myself am fascinated by this!
Me too good stuff carver
Why can’t he DH soon? Didn’t Ohtani and Harper recently do the same thing?
Harper DH’ed the last half of the season then had surgery in the early off season and will miss the start of this year rehabbing. Ohtani had the surgery early in the off-season and rehabbed all off-season. He then was a DH only for all of 2019. Story’s injury happened too close to the start of the season to get surgery and get the rehab before he can start swinging again.
If the Phillies don’t have the spectacular turnaround they had after firing Girardi Harper would have had the surgery last season and probably would have been ready to start the year. Story waited too long, for whatever reason and we’ll see if he takes the field at all this season
Story’s elbow was making throws from SS around Christmas when something happened that made this surgery necessary.
Story was making throws from SS around Christmas when something happened that made this surgery necessary
suit – I know it was unintentional but I really enjoyed this first comment. Laughter is always a good thing :O)
Fever: Yeah, that was a good one. I have a bad habit of changing my thought as I am writing and forgetting to proof read.
Story returning and Casas battling for ROY at least gives BOS fans something to watch in September cuz it’s not going to be a playoff chase.
Winfield, Thanks for the great laugh.
Good. He’ll come in handy when the Sox knock off the Yankees and Jays for first place in the East.
Care to wager on that?
How much? $1.00 or $1 Trillion?
I’m confident Bloom will be fired in 2023!
Story has been roughly league average the past two seasons. Boston’s first problem was paying him what they did in the first place.
That is for certain
Rich Hill had that procedure and avoided TJS. It worked for a few other players too, IIRC.
Then youve got guys who never did either. I’m thinking of Tanaka who had a partial tear 6 or 7 years back and never went under the knife.
Obviously exception vs rule, but still
I’m still confident that if I start practicing eveyday my hitting and fielding, hitting especially, I can still make MLB.
I”m 49.
If you can play SS boston might just get desperate enough to give you a 1 year deal
Rush back from surgery – smart, Sale-like strategy.
Management must of called bitching at him after getting boooed out of the building at their stupid winter festival garbage
The Sox FO is saying they are content with Hernandez and Arroyo. Wether they are or not they are trying to position themselves better with FA’s and SD (Kim). I don’t have much hope the Sox will land Andrus with Boras as his agent. The other guys mentioned wouldn’t be much of an upgrade over Hernandez at SS. Guess it comes down to wether or not Duvall can hold down CF all season or if they feel someone else can fill in. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the offseason plays out. The next move or non move may greatly affect this years team.
I’ve been thinking the Red Sox will pick up another middle infielder, but maybe Goodrum will fill in until Story returns.
The Red Sox really have nothing to give the Padres for Kim other than Bello and Casas.
Padres are in obvious win now mode so sending prospects that are not MLB ready won’t interest them and even then it would take a top 100 prospect headlining a deal to get a 5.0 WAR shortstop.
Is Christian Koss a possibility? Is he still in their system?
Looks like Koss is still in the system. Hasn’t played above AA. Seems like a long shot at this point.
Jose Iglesias!!!!!
Story? Yeah.
Story is going to be a force when he gets back.
Hes confident that he will make his money. Some of these MLB players like Story, Strastburg, Chris Davis, and Ellsbury should be taken to court for the amount of money they have robbed their respective teams
Cora is practically Kiki’s uncle the families are so close. He hasn’t been qualified for ONE job he’s gotten from Cora just like Cora wasn’t qualified for his job. The net result will be the same as Cora. Horrible performance that costs the Red Sox wins. Expect nothing good from Kiki and you won’t be disappointed. The guys ten years in and only getting a chance due to nepotism. With him and Devers on the left side with Yoshida behind them….. WOW…. EVERYONE WILL BE PULLING THE BALL if they are right handed and looking for outside pitches if they are lefties. Remember, over 50 singles to the 1B in 2022. Now we can add another 40 to SS. Look for bad ERAs and WHIPs thanks to Devers and Kiki. No good pitcher would come to Boston knowing Devers is at 3B and Kiki is at SS.
The sooner Bloom and Cora are gone the sooner the future can be planned. Story returning or not returning won’t make a difference.
Show them the money, and they will come.
A few facts are about Kike.
He was one of the most productive players in 2021 with Bogie ( 4.9 WAR ); Martinez( 3.0 WAR ). Kike – fWAR 2.8, JD – fWAR 2.8.
He was hot from middle of June 2021 to the end of season together with Devers, Renfroe (from July), Dalbec (from August), Schwarber (from middle of August), batting of Martinez went out after All Star Game.
16.10.21
K.Hernandez 13 hits have in the last a 4 playing of post-season histories, that is the record of MLB.
He gave out the best season in a career in 2021.
In 2022
June 8, 2022 Boston Red Sox placed CF Enrique Hernandez on the 10-day injured list. Right hip flexor strain.
August 16, 2022 Boston Red Sox activated CF Enrique Hernandez from the 60-day injured list.
Kike skipped more than 2 months.
And even in this case he proposed 93 G – (0.9 WAR) in 2022; Martinez 139 G – (1.1 WAR 12 th place Red Sox 2022 ).
Cool story. Whenever I read these quotes by players, they’re not playing this year. We’d be more likely to see Bauer start a playoff game than Story play more than 30 games. But they’re both getting paid for not suiting up. Meh. Still better than the NFL.
Red Sox will either sign a SS or trade for one. The stories of Kike H and other current players being the SS is such BS.
So many complaining (and many misinformed) Red Sox fans on here. Give me a break. I’d rather know now about the injury now then mid-season. The season hasn’t even started yet!
All I’m seeing here is red sox fans crying about everything, is it always this way. You actually have something good going, take a look at some off season moves such as the Rockies and maybe feel better
Bloom is gone after this year
Year hasn’t even started yet.
I PERSONALLY FEEL that this is one of the worst signings they’ve ever made.
Dude is mediocre, had years of OBVIOUS arm problems beforehand.
I get what they were trying to do because of X contract looming, but really?