Christian Arroyo elected free agency on Monday, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. The Red Sox designated him for assignment in August after he slashed .241/.268/.369 in 66 games for the big league club. He played for the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox for the rest of the month, going 4-for-42 with only one extra-base hit in 12 games. He spent much of September on the injured list, dealing with inflammation in his right ankle.
Arroyo was one of many DFA’d players to elect free agency following the last day of the regular season; others included Archie Bradley, Daniel Norris, and fellow WooSox player Caleb Hamilton. Still, Arroyo is perhaps the most notable name of the bunch. He was the Opening Day second baseman for the Red Sox, having put together a respectable .277/.323/.426 slash line over the previous two seasons. Unfortunately, he didn’t look like that player in 2023.
Never a disciplined hitter or a power threat, his already-low walk rate fell even lower and Arroyo struggled to make hard contact. His average exit velocity fell by more than two miles per hour, while his hard-hit rate dropped by 10% (per Statcast). Meanwhile, his glove was capable at second base, and he filled in on occasion at shortstop and third, but his defense wasn’t enough of an asset to outweigh his struggles at the plate.
Arroyo will have the chance to sign with a new club this offseason. While his 2023 campaign was a disappointment, he is still just 28 years old and one year removed from a solid performance in 2022. Given his defensive versatility – he can play all four infield positions, plus the outfield corners – he should draw some interest in free agency.
Good enough while he was a non arbitration player, but not actually good enough to be paid an arbitration salary.
It’s like that a lot. Minimum salary players are a bargain until arbitration, and then certain arbitration players are a bargain until free agency, I use to have to explain that to the FOM every year with Joe Kelly. Nice RP at $3-4M. At $8-9M, not so very much.
Mid
Ideal target for cheapskate Fischer to be a utility infielder.
He’ll be playing somewhere. He’s a fully trained professional baseball player(albeit average one) with experience at it’s highest level. You can’t really find these guys at a temporary agency, professional recruiter or the local YMCA.
He’ll likely spend more time in the minors or the IL than he will on an active MLB roster in 24.
mlb – Let’s not forget he’s versatile, capable of losing the ball and making errors at multiple positions.
If he gets away from cora and Co., he’ll flourish.
Cora has his faults but don’t think Arroyo’s inability to stay on the field can be blamed on him. Arroyo has perpetual hamstring issues. Every April any team he’s on can start a pool to guess the date he’ll wind up on the IL with a hammy injury. It’s unfortunate too because when he is healthy he’s a decent 2B.
He wasn’t Arroyo enough for Cora. He needed to be a Luis Arroyo or a Jose Arroyo.
You don’t flourish living on the IL, which he spent a lot of time on. Enjoyed his time in Boston, time to move on thou!
Shakespeare, is that you?
What is a “Woosox player?”
Their AAA team stupidly moved from Pawtucket, RI a few years ago to Worcester, MA. Stupid nickname too. Pawtucket area fans supported the team for generations since they relocated from Louisville in I think the late 60s or early 70s. Greedy ownership found a way to make a bit more and voila, the team is in Worcester.
Worcester is a dump
Pawtucket is a dump.
dewey – In all fairness, PawSox wasn’t much of a better nickname.
It’s the minors, they are known for silly names.
Hardware City Rock Cats for instance.
Hartford Yard Goats
Sugar Land Skeeters
Reminds me of when relatives of mine from another country came to visit me. They thought it was hysterical that I “root for socks”.
Moving from Pawtucket to Worcester was a business decision. The owners of the team got a new ballpark and government backing for its bonds. Baseball is a business, and the owners were financially better off in Worcester. There’s nothing greedy about that. The next time you ask for a raise I hope your boss responds that he has supported you for years and you’re just being greedy trying to improve your financial situation. Start living in the real world.
PK – Yeah it was definitely a good business decision, population in Worcester is almost 3 times Pawtucket.
But I can see why some fans are bitter about the move, with the very long history in Pawtucket. Unfortunately minor league and ST teams move all the time, it’s part of life.
Worcester Red Sox AAA International League
KK- no doubt his inability to stay on the field hurts him every year but, lately, a lot of players do seem to do well after they leave Boston.
gmmtnyeti – Fair observation. Under Bloom and Cora the environment was clearly toxic. Had Bloom not spent his Boston career tearing down all that DD built, the environment even with Cora could have been much better but you add a manager best known for cheating to an already toxic clubhouse that lost all the stars from just a few years earlier and your comments are very valid!!
Brand new documentary on Cora’s cheating scheme!
youtu.be/TNU64BVw95g?si=MCYCnSdBPabHCLcv
At least the BoSox didn’t waste a first round pick on this overrated guy.
Lets face it, Bloom acquired many marginal players. Arroyo was one of them as was Kike. These guys belong on last place teams because their talent level is league average or below and it has been most of their career. Expecting them to suddenly improve like Bloom did was just bad baseball thinking.
Go to a website with the payroll and take away all the players that didn’t provide an OPS+ of at least 100 and how many Red Sox players in 2023 are left?
Casas 129 making under $1MM in 2024
Devers 126 making $29.3 in 2024 and nine years more!!
Duran 121 making under $1MM in 2024
Duvall 119 – FREE AGENT in 2024
Turner 114 – making $10.85 in 2024 if he exercises his option to stay
Yoshida 109 – making $18MM in 2024 and four years more!!
Verdugo 100 – making at least $6.3MM in his last year of arbitration
These are the returning core hitters and how much they got paid for their skills.
Casas and Duran clearly were huge successes from a payroll perspective.
Devers, Yoshida and Story(52) are clearly bad deals in 2023
Turner earned what he was paid as did Duvall.
So when you look to FIX the Red Sox you must consider defense and return on investment.
Devers is by far the biggest albatross beginning in 2024. To earn his money he’ll need to raise his OPS+ from 126 to at least 140. Yoshida needs to raise his from 109 to 130. Story needs to raise his from 52 to 135. For this reason, the new GM is starting with a team that has payroll issues that need to be addressed immediately to open up the money for players who perform to the level of their pay.
Defense means Devers and Yoshida need to have their gloves taken away from them and/or they need to be traded. Duvall, while inconsistent, is a solid defender who can be the 4th outfielder with Yoshida not being one of the top 3. Duran earned a spot and I believe it’s time to transition to having Rafaela and Abreu starting as well until Anthony is ready.
The trick to being a GM is knowing how to pay the right price for a talent level. Bloom had no idea thus we have bad contracts with Devers, Story, Yoshida and several pitchers. If you think back to 2022 here was the situation prior to Bloom releasing the DD brigade.
2022
Devers 141 making $11.2MM which was a great deal for Boston thanks to a previous GM
Bogaerts 131 making $20MM which was a great deal thanks to DD
JD Martinez 117 making $22MM which was a slightly bad year. At 22MM we needed 130
Story 102 making $23.3MM which was low. It needed to be 135
Verdugo 102 making $3.6MM which is a reasonable salary for a league average player
So what did Bloom do with this information?
1 – He gave the top player $29.3MM for 10 years and he promptly dropped from 141 to 126
2 – He didn’t resign the under paid SS who got $25MM per year elsewhere
3 – He didn’t sign the DH who saved the franchise after Papi retired. His replacement put up a 114 (3 points lower than JD) and JD put up a 134 in LA where the GM wanted him there and the manager wanted him there unlike in Boston.
These mistakes were off set by DD’s farm players rising from obscurity thanks to the bad farm system rating people and the team stayed at 78 wins. They lost 2 excellent hitters and one excellent pitcher who just won the WC series for Texas rather than pitching in Boston like he should have been.
So the message is —– New GM must find quality players that outperform their cost!!
He will inherit several that are acceptable based on this criteria
1 – Casas at 1B
2 – Duran at CF
3 – Abreu at LF
4 – Rafaela at RF
5 – Devers at DH (if he can return to an OPS+ over 140)
He is stuck with contracts that are not ideal
6 – Story at SS
7 – Wong at C (FYI to all you Wong fans.. his OPS+ was 80 in over 400 at bats!!!) not a keeper
8 – EMPTY 3B
9 – EMPTY 2B
Excess baggage to be traded if there is value to be found:
1 – Yoshida DH (18MM for four years
2 – Verdugo OF $6.3 in 2023 arbitration TBD for 2024 final year of Arbitration
3 – Sale SP $25.6MM for 2024 his last year under contract
The 1-4 group costs slightly more than $33MM per year.
The 6th and 7th spots of Story and Wong cost a bit more than $24MM
Kenley, Martin, Whitlock and J Rodriguez are another $32MM
The three players I suggested for trading (Sale, Yoshida and Verdugo) will cost $50MM
So the 2024 payroll currently looks like this
$33MM for 5 returning hitters
$24MM for Story and Wong
$32MM for the returning pitchers of value
$50MM for Sale/Yoshida/Verdugo
$139MM leaving $90MM under the CAP even with Sale/Yoshida/Verdugo. Without them there is $140MM available under the CAP..
If the new GM can deal Yoshida and Verdugo for a quality 3B, then Ohtani becomes a possibility from a financial standpoint. I don’t see why he would come to such a toxic environment with Cora as Manager but it’s good to know we could actually afford him AND anther top flight pitcher like Yamamoto or Snell.
Let’s hope the new POBO/HOBO is selected quickly and with great wisdom!!
Watching the MLB channel today I was very disappointed that they are so big market oriented that they missed the obvious.
ATL has to play PHI despite being the best team in the NL. The Russos ranted about this for several minutes. It’s completely unfair and needs to changed they declared!!.
Did they mention that Houston gets Minnesota despite Baltimore being in the same boat as Atlanta? NOPE. LA/ATL/PHI are big market teams so they focus on them.
TEX/BAL/HOU are for the most part ignored except for HOU. Minnesota has the worst record of teams left in the AL but they aren’t playing BAL with the best record. It’s no different than Arizona having the worst record in the NL of the teams that are left but they aren’t playing ATL with the best record.
Not re-seeding after the Wildcard round is a huge problem in the current playoff format. I’m guessing that big market teams will force the commissioner into changing the format to re-seed after the wildcard round in 2024.