The Red Sox have placed first baseman Triston Casas on the 10-day IL with right shoulder inflammation, the team announced. In a corresponding move, Bobby Dalbec has been recalled from Triple-A Worcester. In other Red Sox news, starting pitcher Corey Kluber was scratched from his rehab appearance at Triple-A this afternoon. He has been shut down for the remainder of the season, the club revealed to reporters (including Ian Browne of MLB.com).
Casas is in the midst of an excellent rookie campaign, putting up an .856 OPS with 24 home runs. He leads the Red Sox in walk rate and on-base percentage and has been Boston’s best hitter by wRC+. He has been especially hot in the second half, posting a 1.031 OPS since the All-Star break. The 23-year-old is one of only seven AL rookies to qualify for the batting title, and among that group, he ranks first in numerous offensive categories, including OPS, wRC+, and xwOBA. He is likely to earn some down-ballot support for Rookie of the Year, although Gunnar Henderson remains the clear favorite to take home the hardware.
Unfortunately, a sore right shoulder could spell the end of Casas’s season. His IL placement is retroactive to September 15, which means he could return on September 25 at the earliest. By that point, the Red Sox will only have six games remaining, and it’s highly unlikely they’ll be in contention for a Wild Card spot. If Casas returns to full strength, his team would surely love to have him for those final two series, but they have no reason to rush him back.
Taking his place on the active roster will be Dalbec, who has spent most of the 2023 season at Triple-A after a poor major league showing in 2022. Dalbec was phenomenal during a brief cup of coffee in 2020, hitting eight home runs in 23 games. He followed that up with a solid campaign in 2021, posting a .792 OPS and a 106 wRC+ in 133 contests. However, he had a rough time the following year. His OPS fell by more than 100 points and his power seemed to disappear.
Dalbec opened the 2023 season at Triple-A, and he has come up only briefly on a few occasions throughout the year. He has impressive numbers with Worcester – 33 home runs, a .938 OPS, and a 131 wRC+ – although he has underwhelmed in ten games at the major league level, going 2-for-12 with eight strikeouts. The Red Sox will hope he can access his power with the big league club to fill the void in the lineup that Casas left behind.
Kluber was scheduled to make his third rehab appearance at Triple-A on Saturday, but the Red Sox scratched him from the game. He will continue his rehab work at home but will not pitch for Boston again this season. The veteran right-hander has been on the injured list with shoulder inflammation since mid-June.
A two-time Cy Young Award winner, Kluber enjoyed a mini-renaissance with the Rays last season, making 30 starts for the first time since 2018. However, he has struggled tremendously in his age-37 campaign, pitching to a 6.26 ERA in nine starts and a 9.45 ERA in six appearances out of the bullpen. His contract contains an $11MM team option for 2024, although it is highly unlikely the Red Sox will exercise the option.
That’s Just Great. No Kluber or Casas.
Fenway- Just announced at the start of today’s game that last year the Rangers offered prospects for Sale and were also willing to pay his entire salary.
That’s just stupid. I would have taken that in a second. Even even if they were two lottery ticket players.in the complex leagues.
From where Casas started to where he finished it’s been quite an amazing turnaround. One which Justin Turner deserves a fair share of the credit.
At this point Bobby Dalbec is auditioning for other teams as much as for the Sox. 33 HR’s in the minors hopefully translates to something over the remaining few games
RSox – Don’t forget Dalbec plays 3B, just sayin’….
@Fever
I forgot Dalbec played 3rd. Is he good there? If he then the team is set for position players next season:
C Wong
1B Casa
2B Story
SS Ceddanne
3B Dalbec
LF Yoshi
Cf Duran
Rf Abreva
Dh Devers
I Remember he wasn’t awful
Auto correct seems to want some guy name Abreva to play RF. 2nd time auto correct has done that to me with his name lol
DBH – He has over 3,200 innings at 3B between majors and minors. I’d be fine with his defense there, would be an improvement over Devers (I know that’s not saying much).
BTW – I still can’t believe Cora used Dalbec at SS, what a joke.
Decent and just about any 3Bman is better than Devers. Sox had to overpay him and hopefully he will be the DH in 24. More likely though that Dalbec is traded for a mediocre middle reliever and a rough prospect .
33 HR’s in the minors hopefully translates to something
—————————–
I doubt it. His 169 Ks in 413 translates to about 270Ks in the pros.
DBH – I love your thinking about slotting guys for next year. You are already a step closer to being a good GM than Bloom!!!
Dalbec is not a guy you want at 3B for his fielding. He’s not Devers but he not league average. If it were up to me I’d put Rafaela at SS and Story at 3B. and Urias at 2B with Casas at 1B. I’d use Dalbec as a PH and corner utility player.
DEVERS AT DH would be a godsend.
Yoshida needs to be dealt if we keep Devers.
Rafaela, Duran and Anthony need to be the starting OF when Mayer arrives but until then Abreu backed up by Duvall will do with Rafaela at SS..
Verdugo needs to be dealt too.
So trade Yoshida and Verdugo to the Mets for Jose Butto.
It will be a salary dump with a decent prospect coming back who is a SP where we need depth.
This allows you to sign guys like Duvall to the 4th OF spot for depth.
INFIELD
Story 3B, Rafaela SS, Urias 2B, Casas 1B
Devers DH
Anthony RF Duran CF and Abreu LF
Wong/McGuire C
Think about the cost structure of this offense and the improved defense
3B costs $23.3MM, DH costs $29.2MM totaling $53.2
Rafaela, Urias, Casas, Anthony, Duran , Abreu Wong are the other starters
This group of players costs roughly $1MM per player so $7MM to $10MM max
making the offense total cost at roughly $60MM.
That leaves $170MM under the CAP!!!!!
The pitching staff starts with Sale’s $25.6MM and Jansen’s $16MM and Martin’s $6.75MM totaling close to $43MM leaving roughly $127MM to fix the holes in the pitching staff and build more hitting depth.
I would love to start with so much available talent from the minors from DD and so so much flexibility in spending for pitchers. There is no reason to not go after both Yamamoto and Snell.
It’s really a shame that Bloom didn’t think to offer Devers with his huge new contract to LAA for Ohtani so the new GM would have the inside track on signing him before he becomes a free agent. Swapping out $29.2MM per year for a decade for a DH to get a shot at a $45MM per year SP and DH would have been a good deal for both sides if the new GM could have landed Ohtani prior to free agency. If he couldn’t land Ohtani at least we dumped the loser contract that Devers is carrying for a decade.
Remember, as long as BOS has Devers they can’t go for Ohtani since he’s a DH too.
The new GM is replacing a trainwreck but his upside is the DD farm system is providing lots of young talent and that allows for many holes to be filled with the lower cost structure on the offensive side of the roster. Pitching can be purchased like it should have been under Bloom. Since the costs associated with all the dumpster dives is being taken off the books too there is plenty of money to reverse Bloom’s curse within a year.
@Troll.
We are thinking along the same lines. A couple points where we differ, but all in all on the same page.
1- I would play Story at second. He turned out to be plus defender there, almost elite. An added bonus is it save wear on his reconstructed arm. So playing him at 3rd terrifies me, and I think we lose some of the benefit of his defense, which is a strong point for him.
2- I would not sign Ohtani. His prime pitching days are behind him. He’ll most likely spend his age 30 year on the IL. I expect he will have some form of TJ surgery this off season, if not this month. If you don’t like paying a DH 30 mils, you’re really not going to like 50 mils.
3- I would keep Yoshi until the all star break next year. He’s a better player than he is given credit for. His bat went cold because, like all rookies, he hit a wall. Not easy getting used to 162. As for his fielding, I mean, come on! It’s the green monster! Everyone has fits the first year out there. Even Yaz had to learn to deal with it. Anyway, if you are going to trade him, get his value up.
4- I would try Dalbec at 3rd. It is impossible for him to be worse than Devers out there. He’ll hit .250 and give 20+ homers. I would look to trade him at the deadline also.
5- I’m playing Dugster off the bench. He’s arbitration, so his cost isn’t horrible. At only 27, he will be playing hard for his first FA contract.. Trade him at the deadline also
I don’t expect Mayer this year. He was looking at 2025 before the injury, so I wouldn’t even plan him into 2024. If he shows up, let it be a surprise like Duran.
Also, Roman just started AA, we won’t see him until 206
Great post as always, thank you!! But how come you don’t like Dalbec at 3B? If he can learn to hit, I’d be fine with him there.
@FPG, I could be wrong, but think Troll would prefer an actual 3rd baseman as apposed to somebody who can just play 3rd.
I hope that makes sense. It did in my head, anyway lol. You may have to translate that yourself
Troll and DBH. Why not move Story back to second where he was amongst the best in 22 and go out of the box, make a splash and sign Chapman for third? Defense becomes great again at two infield positions. How many outs will that save the staff? As for the OF, the team needs a righty for RF if you’re keeping Yoshida and Duran. Abreu doesn’t have the glove in my book and honestly, I’m not making a recommendation because I have no one in mind. They need a righty power bat, especially if Turner leaves. If it’s Abreu, I’d consider trading Yoshida already if the offer is decent. Money burnt includes Yoshida’s fee to Japan and Story as a SS. Don’t chase…
DEWEY, In my other posts I suggest Story at 2nd. Ceddanne and Story can play both positions, but Ceddanne is better at short.
DBH – I’m not a huge fan of Story and his .685 OPS since joining the Sox, but defensively there’s nobody else I’d rather have playing SS than him.
Despite the difference in offensive WAR, Casas and Henderson have eerily similar offensive stats. Defense will give Henderson the ROY edge, but this is a much closer race than most make it out to be
Henderson is a lot better… no comparison, just look at the WAR.
Bigger sample size too…
That’s kinda what I’m saying… Henderson will win because of the defensive value. But Henderson’s offensive WAR is much greater than Casas although their non-counting stats are similar and the sample size really isn’t much different (not great enough to have that much difference anyhow imo). Defensive WAR favors non-1B infielders which also needs be taken into account…granted it’s harder to find a stellar SS/3B than a stellar 1B but I’ve found it odd that even the best 1B-men never score high in that category
Ultimately what I’m trying to say is there’s more to it than WAR alone, but Henderson will rightfully win the award
Manfraud and Doom – I completely disagree with the idea that Henderson outplayed Casas this year..
I don’t respect WAR as a measure since it has too many wrong assumptions built into to it to accurately reflect ANY season. It’s like counting Runs Scored or RBIs and comparing the two who bat in different spots in the order on teams that have different skills batting in front and behind them.
Go by the fundamental traditional fact based stats not the contrived estimates that WAR provides. ALSO consider who has peaked early versus who appears to be establishing an upward trend for the future.
2023 Stats
Casas – .263/.367/.490/.856 and 128 OPS+ (Fairly comparable to Henderson)
Henderson – .257/.327/.496/.823 and 126 OPS+
These are traditional numbers to compare with specific key numbers buried in them
For example, buried within OBP is a player’s walk rate and within SLG is the players Isolated Power. I have broken those out too to help compare.
,
Isolated Power for Casas is 227 and for Henderson it’s .239 slightly higher
Walk Rate for Casas is .104 and for Henderson it’s 070 significantly lower
So Casas had a better eye and Henderson had a bit more power.
Henderson stole 9 of 11 bases and Casas’ was 0 for 0 at stolen bases.
To me I could give Henderson the edge if all that matters was the totals.
I believe ROY should go deeper when deciding between two such close candidates. I think looking at 2nd half stats and seeing which part of the year was better reflects the direction the player is heading and if you judge the better player at a point in time (end of season) it might define a clear winner..
2nd Half
Casas .317/.417/617/1.034 and a 176 OPS+ (far superior to Henderson)
Henderson .269/.310/543/.852 and a 125 OPS+
2nd half Isolated Power
Casas .300 compared to the first half .173 (Huge increase)
Hendeson – .274 compared to first half .209 (Half the increase by Casas)
2nd Half Walk Rate
Casas – .100 compared to the first half .105 (Very high both halves)
Henderson – .041 compared to the first half .096 (significant decrease)
So to summarize you can identify many ways Casas showed a far greater upward trend than Henderson
1 – His batting average jumped from .225 to .317
2 – His Isolated Power jumped from .173 to .300
3 – His OPS jumped from .728 to 1.034
4 – His OPS+ jumped from 100 to 176
Clearly comparing both players at year end Casas is the superior player from a performance standpoint. Both are roughly league average fielders and Henderson doesn’t provide enough SBs to offset the huge differential between the 2nd half performances of the two players.
While the total seasons are nearly identical it’s clear who peaked early and who peaked late. Caaas at the end of the year has established a higher performance level than Henderson who clearly adjusted to MLB pitching faster than Casas.
This is not a runaway win for Henderson. I’ve seen many ROY judgements based on how good a player was playing by year end going into the next year. Much like the NCAA tournament, ROY candidates need to be ranked stronger by more recent performances. This would make Casas the clear choice.
Casas was so bad through the first half, not only offensively but defensively, that they actually threw the idea of Dalbec replacing him. I know Enderson had his downs as well, but once he got going, he stuck with it and is three times better in WAR.
For some reason teams continue to judge a players talent from what they happened to do with the Rays the one or two years they played with them.
That’s too bad, SoxNation. Casas has been one of the few bright spots in a mediocre year.
.293 hitter since May 1.
Final showing for Bobby D, maybe. Would be interesting to see if the new administration would keep him around.
Considering the upcoming 40-man crunch, I doubt he makes it regardless of what he does
You’d figure Garza, Barraclough, Jacques, Weiss, Ort, Mills, and Llovera are outright canidates (along with Dalbec), so maybe he could sneak through. They really should’ve traded Dalbec at the deadline. A bucket of baseballs would’ve been a worthwhile deal.
There’s a whole list of players that should have been traded at the deadline. For the past two seasons
okbud – You listed a heck of a lot of bad relief pitchers. You seem to have adopted Bloom Thinking. You might want to get a check-up because it’s deadly!!
Pour the baby out with the bath water this off season. Wipe the chalkboard clean of dumpster dive results. Let’s build the roster a more traditional way. Lets go for talent first and not worry about the riff raff relievers that are a dime a dozen.
I would not leave 40 on the roster after the season ends. I would ONLY keep the players that have shown greater value than their cost. YEP, that’s not a long list!!!
Put your 26 man together first with TBD in slots where you don’t currently have a player that is performing better than his cost.
Then determine the complimentary players who will come from the farm system as players of the future backing up players of the now.
The complimentary players make up the difference between the 26 man roster and the 40 man roster.
Once you have both slotted with players you want to go forward with THEN and ONLY THEN start finding who you want to go out and acquire. Then rank them in criticality so you have the sequence of your acquisition activity.
These are the first steps for Bloom’s replacement. The first deadlines will be the Rule 5 keepers and the very overlooked non-tendering of contracts.
Hopefully ownership will interview and select a qualified candidate by Halloween. The earlier the better after the season ends.
Troll, as you said it comes down to who can provide the most value. Or who can provide upon the investment being made in signing them. None of the guys I mentioned can, and are only still around in case something happens this year.
Now unless we can turn Joe Jacques into Billy Wagner or Ort into a closer (like Tampa and LAD seem to do on a weekly basis), they gotta go. And you’d figure they’ve got to go just so we can protect guys from the rule 5 draft.
Again, it’ll be interesting to see who they decide to keep. Could be the earliest signs of the new management’s (when new management is hired) philosophies.
Mango, I think Bobby D makes the 40 this year.
DBH- I pray you’re wrong. He’s the positional equivalent of Kaleb Ort.
Well. I think he did enough to be trade bait. Would be reason enough to 40 man him. Plus he can play 3rd, moving Devers to dh.
He can’t play 3rd WELL. Besides I don’t see them moving Devers to DH this soon. If anyone is going to DH it’ll probably be Yoshida
Turner is as good as gone because of his player option. I would think Yoshida would gt the majority of DH at bats.
Damn I was really looking forward to seeing some more mammoth hrs. Not the ones Casas was going to hit the ones klubber was going serve up. Another example of Blooms strategic signings .
Kluber was actually not a bad signing. I would’ve made that risk. It just didn’t pan out as expected.
Can’t say the same about everyone else though…
Doom – If all you have are two injured pitchers like Sale and Paxton and a bunch of youngsters, was the Kluber risk a good one?
To me, the team needed workhorses that have put up 150 IP many years in a row. Sure injuries happen but Bloom needed to treat Sale and Paxton as 1 pitcher not two so he needed a couple of workhorses and he had the money to get them. 2023 could have been a much more productive year if we had a GM who understood how to construct a roster properly.
I had Kluber starting Game One of the World Series for the Sox. Darn…….
Sorry to hear you lost your job, Chaim!
Mango – The Savannah Bananas are looking for a front office guy, maybe when they go dumpster diving they will pull out Bloom.
Okbud – Bobby Dalbec is a goner. He has a
41% strikeout rate in AAA (169/413). The Red Sox do not have faith in his abilities to make contact consistently, and he is taking a 40-man roster spot needed for other prospects.
This team is in shambles. It’s pathetic that we can’t even finish out better than the Yankees.
Casas comes nowhere close to Henderson in ROY. Look at their WAR and you can see Gunnar is way better. There’s no argument.
Maybe, but it should be kept in mind that the NYY outspent us by $77M.. As weak as our season has been, it’s a lot better than the NYY, NYM and SDP.
Valid point. It’s really meaningless, just would have liked to pass them in the Standings.
Doom – Still disagree about Casas vs Henderson. I love both players but I think they had comparable years with Casas trending upward at the end and Henderson staying a constant level. He was higher in the first half and much lower in the second half so to end the season Casas is currently performing better so I give him the nod since their season totals are so close.
Henderson nearly TRIPLES Casas in WAR. if you give Casas ROY, it’s a dishonor to the game when a guy three times better doesn’t get it.
I’m sorry but you’re biased. You’re right that Casas trended upward and Henderson stayed constant, but his constant was better longer. Casas was so bad that he almost got replaced by Dalbec… he was bad defensively as well.
Henderson was pretty bad early on but he has still been hitting the ball. If you don’t honor the guy who is 3 times better in WAR then you dishonor the game.
I’m a Sox fan too but looking beyond the bias. Henderson has done a better job for a longer amount of time in the season.
JC – Dalbec is going to be in a new, less toxic environment if the owners pick a GM with successful experience. The GM should bring in new coaching staffs and hopefully they gut the bad staffs that have existed for years. Dalbec may never be an every day player for Boston but he has valuable skills that can help many different teams.
Most educated baseball fans use the OBP stat to determine how good a player is at getting on base. Then they evaluate his power, speed, defense etc. You always emphasize strike out rate as if that matters. It doesn’t if the OBP is adequate and the power is good. The new wave of poorly crafted metrics don’t provide the value they profess to provide. The value of a strike out versus a ground out or a fly out varies by each unique circumstance. Generalizations about K rates are meaningless in a vacuum as you present them.
Dalbec is a prototypical power hitter. There are extremes that happen with these types of hitters. Nobody better represents the group than Schwarber. He’s led the league in strike outs the last two years. He’s also hit 89 HRs during that period. His average is .197 to go along with all those Ks and his Isolated Power is .275. Thats good but not great. So should he be sitting in AAA like Dalbec because he’s not a good hitter either? Or does his .345 OBP show the world that his ability to get on base is good enough and his ability to homer is exceptional so he stays out of the minors or the unemployment line. So generalizations about K rates are grossly exaggerated. Schwarber is living proof.
Dalbec while in AAA hit a respectable .269 with an outstanding .381 OBP. You’ve dismissed him but his numbers shouldn’t be dismissed. In 3 years of AAA ball his OBP is .360. That’s an acceptable number considering his power. 45 HRs in 147 games is impressive.
Dalbec has holes in his swing that need to be repaired. If repaired he’s a good off the bench late bat with huge power to tie or win a game. With a new administration Dalbec may not be clumped into a Bloom non-Bloom category like we’ve observed the last four years. His origination with DD won’t matter to the new guy. Hopefully, with organizational support he’ll prove to be more valuable than he’s been so far.
No surprise that Casas has become what I expected him to become. It appears that everyone is finally on the Casas band wagon it’s great to see.
Dalbec is another animal all together. I have argued and will continue to argue that K rate absolutely matters especially when you couple it with an under .300 career obp which is what Bobby D has. Schwarber isn’t a great comp for Bobby D since he walks a lot more and he strikes out much less. Schwarber strikes out under 29% of the time which is manageable Bobby D strikes out more then 35% of the time which is in the Joey Gallo, Chris Davis level very difficult to carry those kind of K numbers and a .340 obp. I suppose theoretically it’s possible but highly unlikely. I like Bobby D I really do he has tremendous power and maybe he can weaponize it if he walks a little more and strikeouts a little less but in order for that to happen he needs to stop chasing the slider. Even in AAA where the pitchers make more mistakes and thus give up more bombs to Bobby D he still strikes out 35% of the time. Until he can lay off the sliders and the high cheese I’m afraid he’s a AAAA player really good in AAA but exposed in the big leagues.
Let me also add KD that I hope I’m wrong about Bobby D and he makes a change and becomes a solid big leaguer. I’m rooting for the now not so young kid.
Troll, I think a good comp for Dalbec is Rob Deer, not Schwarber. As you point out, Kyle has a passible OBP.
And you are spot on with OBP. It is the FIRST stat I look at. I want .350 as a minimum for a starter. If it is under, there better be some upside or an overriding skill set like homers or defense.