The Red Sox announced that they have placed right-hander Corey Kluber on the 15-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation. Infielder David Hamilton was recalled in a corresponding move.
Hamilton, now 25, was selected by the Brewers in the eighth round of the 2019 draft. He didn’t make his professional debut that year and then the pandemic wiped out the minor leagues in 2020. He finally got to play in the affiliated ranks in 2021, getting into 101 games between High-A and Double-A. He hit .258/.341/.419 between those two levels for a wRC+ of 110 while stealing 52 bases and playing both middle infield positions.
That showing was strong enough that the Red Sox took notice, acquiring him in the trade where they flipped Hunter Renfroe to the Milwaukee in exchange for Jackie Bradley Jr. Since Bradley was coming off a nightmare season, the Brewers threw a couple of prospects into the deal, including Hamilton.
Last year, Hamilton was in Double-A for the whole season. He hit .251/.338/.402 for a wRC+ of 104 while adding another 70 bases. At the end of the year, the Sox added him to their 40-man roster to prevent him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He’s moved up to Triple-A this year and has continued to do his thing, hitting .255/.339/.486 for a wRC+ of 102 while swiping another 27 bags.
Infielder Pablo Reyes has been dealing with an abdominal strain in recent days but feels he will avoid a stint on the injured list, per Ian Browne of MLB.com. Nonetheless, Hamilton will provide the club with another middle infield option for as long as Reyes needs to rest.
Good luck to this kid. I hope his debut is a success!
He’s looked pretty good this year and is hitting for much more power than ever before. The one potential saving grace of that awful Renfroe trade.
Sure you can look at it that way, or you could look at it as the entire point of that renfroe trade. The point was the prospects, not JBJ. Renfroe had a career year and they traded him during a rebuild. Not sure why that is so hard to understand or come to terms with.
Snarl – I agree with everything you wrote except the part about the rebuild.
Last year they returned nearly everyone who got them within 2 wins of the 2021 WS, that’s not a rebuild to start the season.
We’ve been rebuilding since Bloom got here. He’s trying to rebuild the farm while putting together a competitive team. Noting about that indicates there is a point during the process where you go all in to try and win the World Series. It’s a tough needle to thread granted, but presumably, his long term plan from trading Renfroe was to sign Yoshida the following offseason. It left them with a hole in the outfield, that he thought he could cover for one season, and that didn’t work out. There was no way they were going all in. The young players in the system weren’t ready to contribute. That season was a lucky accident. A great number of players played out of their minds that year and came back to earth the following year. To compete year in year out you need consistency and contributions from young players, You can’t sign free agents to big money long term deals unless you have that already in place. They didn’t. The goal isn’t to win a World Series. It’s to put the team in position to compete for one year in year out. The system wasn’t ready for that last year.
snarl – How can 2021 be a “lucky accident” when the core of the team was leftover from the 2018 team? JD, Devers, Xander and Nate were All-Stars in 2021 … they’ve all produced bigtime in other seasons. I’ve posted the analysis before that shows players didn’t have career years, and in fact several had down years. Starting with ERod who was still recovering from Covid, Sale who was expected to return sooner and did not perform as well as expected, and several key position players that missed significant time due to injury or illness.
Going for a WS always takes precedence when the opportunity is there, acquiring an injured Schwarber was a GFIN move.
They did the right thing by selling high on Renfroe
Agreed. It’s a bit of a gamblers philosophy. Bloom made a great pickup with Renfroe, and decided to cash in his chips. Renfroe only has a 2.7 bWAR since we traded, and he is not exactly cheap at ~ $19M/2.
Looked at it from a macro perspective, we basically got two mediocre prospects for nothing.
Joe – I had to laugh at your last sentence for saying it cost the Red Sox “nothing”.
JBJ’s $12M LT hit in a year when the Sox were severely punished for going just $6M over the threshold (we’ve discussed several times the ramifications of going over).
Think about that for a minute.
The old ‘shoulder inflammation’ DL stint.
After watching him throw batting practice last night any excuse is a good excuse to get him off the roster for a while
> Last year, Hamilton was in Double-A
> for the whole season. He hit .251/.338/.402
> for a wRC+ of 104
> while adding another 70 bases.
He’s so fast he stole “stolen”
while adding another 70 stolen bases.
Duran when in the lineup should be leading off, Put Hamilton in 9 spot and watch Verdugo/Devers get more fastballs. Speed puts so much more pressure on not only the pitcher but also on the entire infield, and should not be undersold as minor.
Cgallant- agreed! Shoulder inflammation is highly suspect! Probably the last we see of Kluber in a Sox uni.
One would think that Kluber has a neck injury, what with snapping his head around watching all those balls leave the yard.
Ah, the opening of Hamilton. I wonder how it will go? Historic? Hysteric? I guess we’ll find out.
Kluber: Damn. I just got my first-ever save. I had found my niche.
milt – Isn’t it wonderful how a pitcher can give up 4 ER in 3 IP and still pick up the “Save”.
Hamilton ain’t gonna be enough.
Hopefully Joe Frank and Reynolds aren’t far behind
Harold Reynolds for the RS who are in need of a hug.