The Red Sox have acquired right-hander Andres Núñez from the Royals, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The return for the Royals isn’t listed, suggesting it’s likely a cash deal. Núñez wasn’t on a 40-man roster, so no corresponding moves will be necessary. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Worcester.
Núñez, 27, was selected by the Royals in the 29th round of the 2018 draft. The reliever has been quite effective in the minors but has seen his results take a step back this year. In 2018 and 2019, he posted a combined 2.43 ERA in 77 2/3 innings, pitching in Rookie ball and Single-A. The minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020 and Nunez has been in the upper levels since. He split 2021 between Double-A and Triple-A with a combined 3.98 ERA that year, then had a solid 3.61 ERA mark in Triple-A last year.
Here in 2023, however, things have generally gone in an unfavorable direction with a 6.66 ERA through 24 1/3 innings. He’s allowed a .355 batting average on balls in play and has a 59.6% strand rate, which could point to some bad luck. On the other hand, he generally ran strikeout rates of 25-30% in previous seasons but is down to 17.5% this year. Similarly, his walk rate has jumped to 12.3% after being much lower in previous seasons.
Those poor results have apparently prompted the Royals to accept some cash and move on, while the Sox clearly believe they can get him back on track. He’ll head to Worcester and give the club some extra bullpen depth in Triple-A. He’s yet to crack a 40-man roster but will be eligible for the upcoming Rule 5 draft if not added ahead of time.
18 earned runs but only 1 Home Run surrendered. Seems like he pitches to contact, the only problem is he must not miss many bats
Looks like walks have been more of a problem than strikeouts.
Elsewhere it’s been reported as a cash considerations trade, so, there’s really no downside here as he isn’t in a position to block anyone from playing time.
That said, the current state of the infield is not conducive to someone who pitches to contact, especially with men on the base paths.
GASox – Tonight the radio announcers were going off on the Fenway official scorer. They were right, so many obvious errors have been scored as hits including two tonight.
They also ragged on Kike’s decision to try and steal 2B while down 5 runs.
With the fielding and baserunning both so awful, how can they not point to Cora? If he was any other manager he’d be fired.
And yet, even with the scorer doing more to pad his stats than his on-field performance, Bloom’s overpaid overhyped DH, Devers, isn’t destined to be an all star.
Guess a $30m a year contract doesn’t buy what it used to.
Meanwhile, the problem with firing Cora is that not only would it not improve the play of this group, they would probably get worse as a tantrum reaction. Once you fire your manager, all that’s left if there’s no improvement is Bloom. And that’s a dangerous place to sit.
I don’t like Bloom, but the Devers situation was the old rock-and-a-hard place scenario. Don’t sign him, he leaves and the fans go ballistic. Sign him and his stats drop, they go ballistic. In fairness, he DID do the right thing twice. Passing on Bogaerts and trading malcontent Betts, who lied about wanting to hit free agency, But Bloom and Cora can not return for 2024 or there will be a backlash.
Cora embraces any player who’s last name ends with a ‘Z’.
GASox – I think the HRs and RBI gets Devers in the All-Star Game with Dugie. Yoshida is borderline.
Sunday the TV announcers were talking about how dead the team is, and how they need a jolt. Managerial changes tend to do that. With the all-around awful performances of late, and the tough schedule ahead, i really feel a change will happen. Maybe coaches first, but something will happen.
The problem with Bogey is he did the wrong thing, twice, before doing the right thing in passing on him for more than a decade.
There were multiple points Bogey would’ve returned on a 5 year stint at about 120m in money, and, bloom lowballed him egregiously. There was no reason for Bogey to hit FA. None. Bogey didn’t want to, just wanted to be paid fairly and get a few extra years. When the didn’t iron out an extension, sure, he hit the opt out as anyone else would after the disrespect the organization was showing him.
So, you don’t get credit for rescuing your daughter from a house when you yourself stacked 200 pounds of tnt in boxes on the stove, then, turned on the gas and lit a match. That was how bloom teed things up though.
As for Mookie, he did want to hit FA. Covid changed things though, for him and others, as did the realities of the looming lockout.
GASox – I agree with everything you wrote except the part about Mookie.
Dodgers offered him the 2nd-largest contract in MLB history, I seriously doubt if the Sox had offered the same amount he would have turned it down. Especially with it being exactly the midpoint between the Sox offer of $300M and the $420M counteroffer.
I do agree Covid was a factor.
Fever – there is one thing you miss in your analysis on Mookie. The LAD contract had LOTS of deferred money. IIRC, when they crunched the numbers on the net present day value of the contract payments, mookies deal had the same value as what BOS offered him.
He also got a large front loaded signing bonus to guarantee he had cash flow to use for normal purposes during the lockout.
GASox – Great catch, I should have included that info.
A bunch of small deals before the calm and then the storm. Who’s the first to blow up their roster? Pittsburgh? Texas? San Diego?
KC should be. Pratto, Melendez, Massey – all three rank among top 25 in K%. Don’t fit the Royals and Kauffman Stadium at all. But our leadership… they don’t know when to hold them and when to fold them.
I don’t think selling Melendez right now would make much, if any, sense. He’s playing very poorly but was better last year and tore up AAA the season before. A young catcher with his power potential is potentially valuable even if he’s blocked by Perez at the moment. Now if you’re telling me some team is still valuing him as a potential breakout candidate and they get an equally interesting young player back that’s one thing… I just don’t see that happening.
Massey too… really has NO trade value whatsoever right now. He may wind up being a bust but you aren’t going to get anything for him so given his minor league track record the only option is to really hope he can turn things around. Especially seeing as he isn’t particularly young anymore either.
I’m going to guess you meant Mets instead of Texas. The rangers lead their division, not sure why they would blow up that roster.
As to the other two, PIT had a rough slide, but, are by no means out of it. They also are emerging from a retooling, not sure why they would blow anything up either. They’re actually ahead of schedule for a return to contention.
Normally you would say SD, BUT, who wants anything they would be selling on? Lots of bloated contracts for waaaay too many years and dollars to find takers on the guys they would want to move.
I feel like you’re watching replays of games from 1981…
Majority of sellers already blew up rosters past years or don’t have much to sell. Many get excited every year around this time but not much is going to happen for a month at least. July 30th until deadline will be the fury.
Another pitcher available the kid GM took a nap on.
At this point, they don’t need pitching depth as much as they need actual pitching. Ug.
Yeah, they’ve picked up a couple of (severely) struggling AAA pitchers the past couple of weeks. I guess no harm, no foul if nothing is given up. But they really need to be doing something meaningful — I realize the deadline is a ways off but they are treading water but have been decimated by injury. They don’t even need to make a giant splashy trade right now but a couple of legitimate depth moves for say a ML caliber (defensively at least) SS and maybe a ML caliber P… like really guys on the fringes/DFAs even… but they need to stop the bleeding in areas with injury before they completely fall out of it — unless that’s the plan so they can sell at the deadline. Would expect it from Bloom but also think if they don’t win more this season he may be on the hot seat!
Bloom STRIKES AGAIN
Yes, he strikes again keeping enough players on the AAA team.
Although, an alternate way to restock the AAA team would be obtaining an MLB caliber player and then in turn sending one of the lesser players who dont really belong in Boston down to the farm off the big league club to make room for the new guy.
Cool, you got any ML caliber players in your back pocket, because there aren’t a lot available at the moment.
Really embarrassing what the Red Sox have become under Bloom. Bargain basement scrap heap hunting for pitchers. No need for it, either.
Tampa Bay, the best team in baseball, has already used 32 pitchers, halfway through the season. Do you think they’re not, “ Bargain basement scrap heap hunting for pitchers.”?
Heck, you could populate the entire major leagues with pitching staffs of injured pitchers!
40-40. Here’s hoping that The Sox move guys at the deadline and let the kids play for the big club in September.