10:38am: Cora told reporters (including MassLive’s Christopher Smith) this morning that Gonzalez’s trip to the shelf figures to be close to the ten day minimum. While the injury doesn’t appear to be a particularly serious one, Cora noted that he was likely to need “a few days” and that the club was likely to need the roster spot in the wake of Grissom’s injury.
9:09am: The Red Sox announced a series of roster moves today, including their expected placement of second baseman Vaughn Grissom on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain. Joining Grissom on the 10-day IL is utility infielder Romy Gonzalez, who was shelved with a left hamstring strain. Grissom and Gonzalez will be replaced on the club’s active roster by infielder Bobby Dalbec and utility man Jamie Westbrook. Making room for Westbrook on the club’s 40-man roster is Garrett Whitlock, who was transferred to the 60-day IL.
With Grissom and Gonzalez both joining Triston Casas on the injured list, the infield mix in Boston has been almost completely overhauled. Dominic Smith and Garrett Cooper figure to continue holding down first base in the absence of Casas, while superstar third baseman Rafael Devers will remain in his regular role at the hot corner with the club. Up the middle, the Red Sox now have Westbrook as a backup option at both shortstop and second base, where David Hamilton and Enmanuel Valdez figure to be the club’s primary options, respectively. Dalbec has primarily been a corner infielder throughout his career but has made brief cameos at the big league level at both second base and shortstop, making him a possible emergency backup option for the Red Sox.
That makeshift infield mix has produced mixed results so far this season. Smith and Cooper have both struggled to hit much at first base, with Smith’s .202/.287/.286 slash line slightly beating out Cooper’s .182/.250/.255. Dalbec appears unlikely to help bolster that first base mix very much after he hit just .132/.207/.170 in a 22-game stint in Boston earlier this year, though his .860 OPS in 115 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level since then could provide some reason for optimism about his ability to contribute.
Things have looked a bit better for the Red Sox up the middle, where Hamilton has shown himself to be an able replacement for Trevor Story in 34 games as the club’s fill-in shortstop. In 102 trips to the plate this season, Hamilton has slashed an above-average .269/.333/.398 while playing passable defense at shortstop. Unfortunately, Valdez has struggled to hit to this point in the season at the keystone, slashing just .179/.206/.358 in 31 games with the club.
That could create a path to semi-regular playing time for Westbrook while Grissom is on the shelf, as the Massachusetts native owns a career .281/.375/.457 slash line at the Triple-A level including a .267/.364/.436 in 198 plate appearances this year. If the minor league journeyman, who will celebrate his 29th birthday later this month, can hit anything close to that in his first taste of big league action, he should have the opportunity to establish himself as a firm piece of the club’s infield mix going forward.
As for Whitlock, the right-hander’s placement on the injured list is hardly a surprise after he underwent an internal brace procedure on his right elbow that ended his season last week. Grissom and Gonzalez both figure to be back in action at some point, though specific timetables for return are not known. Grissom’s hamstring strain was described as “mild” by manager Alex Cora last night, and little is known regarding Gonzalez’s injury beyond the diagnosis provided by the Red Sox alongside his placement on the shelf.
More and more the Sox are looking like a AAA team.
That’s what they are
They might have meant that literally, like in we have 8 players from the opening rosters on the IL. That means 8 AAA players taking their place.
For those with a long game, this is good news.
The Red Sox have a winning record and are 2.5 games out of a wild card spot.
They’re one whopping game above .500
Thanks captain
You’re being kind. I’d say AA.
Whats that say about the rays team they just swept?..or the tigers team they took the last 2 from and are currently in extras against..suppose they are looking like little league?
Half the roster is pretty good. The other half of the roster reeks of Sam Kennedy. Absolutely outrageous that the Chief Weasel blames the players for not staying healthy. He needs to look in the mirror at the man in charge of the organization who failed to build in roster depth to cover for injuries.
Cooper, Smith, Westbrook, Dalbec, Valdez. Keller and Anderson on the pitching side. Maybe they are planning to move to Pawtucket? (Worcester is taken.)
Frank – Exaggerating a bit, don’t you think? The Sox are better than at least 6 MLB teams. They can’t hang against winning teams, but they have proven to hold their own against mediocre and bad teams.
I for one am proud of the Sox for their split this weekend, even with the Tigers suffering numerous devastating injuries. And I fully expect them to win the upcoming series in Chicago.
This teams offense looks a lot different with Casas, O’Neil, and Masa back. Those injuries have probably cost Boston 3-5 games.
Probably overstating it… It is surprisingly difficult to move the needle, even when replacing a star player with a scrub. I would off the cuff have estimated 2-3 games or 20-30 runs of offense. And that is huge.
Bruin – Absolutely Casas and Macho Man would get at least 3 more wins, but Tyler wouldn’t contribute at all. Take a look at how bad he was from mid-April until he went on the IL. It’s fair to at least partially blame the concussion, but the knee had nothing to do with it from mid-April to mid-May.
Also think of it this way, if Tyler is playing the OF then Rafaela likely isn’t …. which means Rafaela doesn’t get a chance to make those spectacular run-saving plays.
So between the brutal offense (awful with RISP and tons of K’s) and the average defense, the team is better off with Rafaela in the OF instead of Tyler.
That’s fair Fever but Casas has been missed big time. The team just looks different with him in the lineup.
Bruin – I totally agreed with you on Casas.
Bruin1012 – Excellent observation that folks tend to forget BUT no matter how many Devers errors aren’t counted the defense prevents this team from being a playoff team.
We need Cora gone and Devers at DH to have a shot at a playoff spot in the next several years.
It’s become a past time for people to declare what matters. Baseball is no different than society. In baseball there is only one thing that truly matters
TALENT.
Until Boston acquires more and grows more the team will struggle to stay out of the AL East cellar. At this point, with the entire organization dismantled I spend all my time watching the young players develop. It’s funny, for every great catch Rafaela makes Devers seems to blow a play that offsets the positive by Rafaela. For every great game pitched by Houck, Bello or any of the improving young pitchers there is a managerial mistake that off sets the great pitching performance.
Two huge holes keep this team from becoming better than a .500 team besides the critical IL players. In June, Boston plays 8 series. 6 are against good teams, 1 versus an average team and 1 against a bad team. This month could blow them out of the race or it could be a pleasant surprise if they can stay at .500 for the next 24 games.
We knew going into this season that their talent level was around .500. The injury losses knock them a bit below that. They’ll be under .500 by the end of June, and hopefully ready to sell off parts at the trade deadline (for once!).
“We knew going into this season that their talent level was around .500.”
Some revisionism going on there. “Dead Last” was the mantra by many of the haters all winter long.
No revisionism, I post regularly in another forum and it is recorded for history. They might finish fifth in the division, but that’s only because there are no truly weak teams in the East. Some like to focus on that rather than the more meaningful metrics like W% and fundamental quality.
Nor am I a hater. Always optimistic, but also with my eyes open. Not worth listening to or responding to the trolls.
But I wasnt talking about you. You did say “we knew” as if it was a generally accepted belief, when it really wasnt, at least not at MLBTR.
True, I shouldn’t speak for others. But an unbiased read on the numbers supported a roughly .500 record:
fangraphs.com/standings/playoff-odds?date=2024-03-…
Not saying their system is perfect, but they were projecting 79 wins before anybody played a game. Obviously not going to be shocked by anything in the 73 to 85 range when looking at a projection like that, but “worst in the division” is still very different from “worst in the league”.
Also very different from “contender”, despite Kennedy’s blather.
TFF – Help me understand that link you provided. The Red Sox had the 5th-worst playoff odds in the league, how does that translate to a .500 record?
FPG, look at the first non-zero column. They projected 79.1 wins for the Red Sox, close enough to .500 that the difference is a quibble. (The margin of error is at least +-6 wins from randomness alone, even before you get to modeling errors.)
Slant it as you will, they projected as a solidly average team. Not playoff quality, Not White Sox territory.
TFF – I wasn’t doubting what you said they projected, I am questioning how they arrived at a seemingly contradictory number of projected wins and playoff odds.
Look back at more than a dozen final AL standings, nearly every year 7 teams finished with less than 79 wins.
Therefore a team with 79 projected wins should have no worse than 7th-worst playoff odds and usually will have 8th-worst.
Think about it …. 15 teams, likely around 7 with winning records and 7 with losing records. So shouldn’t a team with lets say 79-84 wins have the 7th-9th worse playoff odds?
Their 79 win projection seems too high for their 5th-worst playoff odds projection, that’s all I’m saying.
Projected standings are not the actual standings. In this case there are a couple teams that are obviously bad, so the median team lands just above .500., with an 81.8 win projection. The Red Sox projection is within three wins of that, basically a rounding error.
Over the course of a season, the projected outcomes spread out a bit and of course the playoff odds trend to 0 or 100.
Didnt you know? Major league teams dont bring up players from the minors after an injury. Only AAA teams do.
Sure, that might as well have been said. MLBTR posters are funny.
More a question of WHICH players they are bringing up. In this case the roster is bogging down with minor league journeymen. I would have enjoyed seeing Kavadas and Meidroth get a chance rather than Smith and Westbrook. Marginal prospects, sure, but at least they MIGHT have a future.
Westbrook is a AAA player the Red Sox wouldn’t mind giving a DFA to as soon as the 40-man spot is needed. That was probably the biggest reason he was called up, and at this point Dalbec may be in the same boat. Westbrook got the at bat rather than Dalbec in the 9th. No one would have envisioned that back in 2021. Dalbec went from homering in five straight Red Sox games to Mr. 50%+ strikeout, and a career that needs to be begin in a new organization. o’Neill will be back Wednesday, so who gets sent down. My guess is Dalbec. No 40-man spot is needed yet, but I would rather Westbrook stay than Dalbec.
They have different skill sets, but I agree that Westbrook is likely more useful for now. Dalbec’s major utility at this point is his ability to play 3B.
Bobby D!!!!!! LFG!!
running – Bobby homered for the Red Sox in 5 straight games!!!
Good memories for the big guy, the high point of his career.
TFF – Yep I call it the Phil Plantier moment for Dalbec ;O)
Westbrook has been grinding in the high minors for nearly a decade. Thought he was going to be a stud in AZ but I’m so stoked the guy is finally getting a shot. Congrats!
Hope Cora gets Westbrook into a game as soon as he is able. As with many these days, journeymen get DFA’d as soon as the regular is back and ready.
Give Westbrook some stories to tell his grandkids. Do the right thing, Cora
East – Never worry about that, when the Sox pull players off the scrap heap they always play them … especially in high leverage situations.
Westbrook got a big walk, he left his mark and made a memory.
Moonlight Graham, with a 1.000 OPS, lol
Yeah, is good for Westbrook. And was thrown right into his fire for his first PA, a good take for a BB.
Hats off to you Jamie Westbrook! Dude hung in the Minors since being drafted in 2013 and now gets that long-awaited MLB debut. Have fun rook!
If the MLB players were like the NBA, I’m sure Devers would be demanding a trade now.
Sox would have to eat a big chunk of that ridiculous contract.
Dick – Did you watch today’s game at all? Devers put on quite the show.
Triple, walk, game-tying homerun, and game-saving spectacular play at 3B.
He’s now 8th in MLB for OPS, right behind Mookie.
Kinda crazy to bash him today of all days.
So happy he’s finally getting his shot.
Bobby Dalbec is going to carry the team to the World Series. He is the greatest ever. Signed Bobby’s mom
No comments on Enmanuel Valdez after his 3 for 4, double and two home run game?
oot – Valdez is making the Vazquez trade Bloom’s best more ever.
And Vazquez currently has a .376 OPS !!!
It’s revenge for the Bagwell/Andersen trade.
Place two middle infielders on the IL, bring up a lead-footed corner infielder. Yep, makes sense!
As already mentioned! Hopefully Westbrook gets a chance to get in there and show what’s up! It’s LONG over due. He shoulda had his call up last year with the yankees
He should have been up in 2019, maybe 2021 at the latest.
Why does blobby Dalbec keep getting chances in Boston?!
Because he is still on the 40-man roster? Not really being facetious, but basically the entire 40-man roster WILL see time in Boston at some point during the year. They don’t have a lot of excess, especially on the position player side.
TFF – So very true. Having Wong play 2B the other day further hammers the point, the bench is ridiculously thin.
Of course having only four bench players including the backup catcher doesn’t help, but I know they will never give up that 13th pitcher.
Oh agreed, just sucks that this is what they keep rolling with and not try to upgrade somehow some way
You can either believe your eyes or believe the Chief Weasel’s blatherings…. My eyes tell me that the Red Sox have zero interest in contending this year. They see this as a “development” year rather than a year in which they go for the ring.
Replace the cheating manager. Replace the bland boring dump of a stadium. Replace the boring rip-off team logo (complete copy/ripoff of the Yankees). Replace the vile despicable fanbase. Replace the obnoxious idiotic lame toddler-level “tradition” of singing sweet caroline.
As a Sox “fan”, I agree with 3.5 of these suggestions.
Someone’s got some envy issues or needs to find a new team to troll.
Fun fact: the red sox go back to 1901, two years before the Yankees were founded in 1903. So I guess the suggestion is actually for the Yankees to get a new logo?
Don’t forget that “yankee” is also a nickname for New Englander.
GASox – The dollar sign became the Yankees unofficial logo decades ago ;O)
We have lost so many players to injuries and we are still one game over .500 that’s pretty good coaching or is the league so deluded? The Sox in a bad spot, mediocre, you can’t fix .500 ball. The Sox won’t draft at the top of the draft with this record, to continue their draft talent and they are several players away from being good! The rebuild is going to take a much longer time. There are to many teams that are bad in baseball.
“Pickles is not a good cat. He’s not a bad cat. He’s a mixed-up cat. But he knows he’s going to do big things.” — The Fire Cat by Esther Averill. (A cute early reader.)
Thec – The Red Sox are currently 30-30 without yet playing the best teams such as Philly, Dodgers and Yankees.
Last year after 60 games they were also 30-30.
The year prior after 60 games they were 31-29.
Each of the past two years they finished with just 78 wins.
So yeah, there’s a lot of MLB teams that just aren’t good.
BTW the Sox are 7-18 against teams that have a winning record right now.
TFF – The two biggest problems …
1) They are way too undisciplined at the plate. Only 2 teams in all MLB have more strikeouts than them.
2) They choke when the going gets tough. They are now 0-25 when trailing after the 7th, how is that even possible with all the bad teams they’ve played?
I’m sticking with my projection of 70-75 wins.
I would say 78 wins, but if they trade away the veterans at the deadline (as they should!), then your range is within reach.
TFF – I did factor in net subtraction by the trade deadline.
The pattern is eerily similar to the prior two years.
The Red Sox are currently 30-30 without yet playing the best teams such as Philly, Dodgers and Yankees.
Last year after 60 games they were also 30-30.
The year prior after 60 games they were 31-29.
Each of the past two years they finished with just 78 wins.
I’m thinking they hang around the final WC spot at the trade deadline, but end up trading guys like O’Neill and Jansen and Pivetta and Ref and Martin without acquiring anybody that would help them now. Then Cora loses the clubhouse and all motivation because he’s in his final days as Red Sox manager, and they finish the season by going something like 20-35.
We’ll see…. That would be a lot more favorable than the “buying and selling” junk that we’ve been sold the last two years. Consider that the Red Sox got Pivetta, Abreu, and Valdez on deadline deals — can you imagine what they might have landed for Bogaerts, Martinez, or Eovaldi if their asking price wasn’t sky-high?
Trade every veteran on an expiring contract for the best offer on the table. It isn’t that I don’t like those guys, but they are replaceable should the Red Sox wish to do so.
Hanging onto Bogaerts when they had no intention of making him the $200M++ offer that might have enticed him to hang around was just stupid.
Fever – You might be right. June is a brutal month but they could finish near .500 with some weird series like they had last year and their TB series this year. They are now on a pace to finish with 71 wins thanks to the 3 games gained against TB. Last year they won unexpectedly against NY and TOR early in the year so who knows if a similar trend will exist this year based on the TB surprise. They have played 19 series and are 8-9-2 so far and 12 of the series have ended as projected which is much higher than last year.
If the June projection of 9-19 comes true then by July 1 the chances of trades will be quite high. Lets hope Breslow does a good job trading and adding talent.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the team finished 78-84 for a third straight year!!! I do believe they will be last. TOR and TB are worse than last year but not that much worse.
Also, I don’t entirely buy the “plate discipline” thing. They chase a little more than average, but there are ten teams that chase more than they do. Their contact rate on balls in the zone (and contact rate overall) is weaker than their plate discipline.
Bigger issue than either is they don’t have the talent to do much with the fat strikes. Casas has a fairly low contact rate, of course, but he crushes the balls he does line up. I can live with that.
TFF – I totally agree, Casas is similar to Schwarber IMO whereas his power makes up for the strikeouts.
But Casas also walks a fair amount of the time and his 4.14 P/PA is quite good.
It’s guys like Rafaela who are swinging at everything and shouldn’t be, his P/PA is down to 3.581 which is not good.
I don’t see Team P/PA on Fangraphs which is weird, but I would imagine it’s low for the Sox.
Yes, Casas has excellent strike zone judgement. Rafaela doesn’t really. 🙂 🙂 🙂
I don’t like looking at averages like this, because every player is an individual situation, but I agree with your general conclusion.
Red Sox P/PA is at 3.86, almost precisely the MLB average. Could be better, could be worse.
baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2024-pitches…
Fever and TFF17 – Talent/Skill seem to be the issue to me not chasing pitches. Hand/eye coordination and being able to put the bat on the ball in the 9 sectors of the strike zone needs to be improved. Also, the clutch factor doesn’t seem present in a lot of the players and the LUCK factor seems to be carrying many of the lesser known names including WONG who is a league average or below hitter having a great run that shouldn’t last.
We’ve lived through streaks by Kiki, Reyes and many others and those people have all but disappeared since their short streaks. Wong, Refsnyder and others seem to have similar talent. When things get tough in August and September I fully expect them to disappear. I fear Abreu will too. Hopefully, Devers will stay healthy, Duran, O’Neill and Rafaela. Hopefully, Casas comes back healthy and productive after the long time off. Hopefully, the SPs can maintain some consistency in excellence to keep the team in the game while Cora bungles the line-up and pitching substitutions.
We need talent for the guys that get moved at the trade deadline.
Not sure what is happening with Wong. Probably some luck, but he is making a LOT more contact than in the past. That surprises me.
We’re seeing the ceilings of Duran and Abreu here. Maybe a little luck in the latter case as well.
Devers is an offensive beast. Casas too, if he can ever get healthy and stay healthy.
Beyond that… Just not enough talent. Rafaela is a great defensive CF, but a long way from being a legit ML hitter.
Definitely need to focus on acquiring quality talent. No prospect is ever a sure thing, but you want to find guys who at least have a chance to be a stud.
That was the problem with the Betts trade. They got a cost-controlled serviceable corner OF, a prospect who might develop into a serviceable 2B, and a toolsy prospect who might become a decent C. None of them had any star potential, and none developed into stars.
Quite a bit of depth in the system at this point, but only half a dozen prospects who have high end potential. They need more of those.
Guy spent 11 years in the minors and played in the Mexican league. He’s earned a chance. Dalbec should have been gone 4 years ago. Good story