3:00pm: The Sox have formally announced Smith’s DFA and the reinstatement of Casas from the 60-day IL. Boston also reinstated Cooper Criswell from the injured list and optioned righty Chase Shugart to Triple-A Worcester.
2:10pm: The Red Sox will designate first baseman Dominic Smith for assignment today, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Smith’s DFA will presumably clear the way for Triston Casas to be reinstated from the 60-day IL — as has been previously reported — and reclaim the everyday first base job in Boston.
Smith opted out of a minor league deal with the Rays back on May 1 when a big league spot with the Red Sox became available in the wake of Casas’ injury. He’s hardly replaced the offensive contributions that Casas can offer, but Smith hasn’t been too far off a league-average bat in Boston, slashing .237/.317/.390 with six homers and 20 doubles in 278 plate appearances. By measure of wRC+, he’s only been about 5% worse than average at the dish.
Still, for an offensively inclined position like first base, that’s not much production — particularly since Smith also grades out as an average defender at best. Defensive Runs Saved had him as a positive last year but pegs him at -2 in 2024. Statcast’s Outs Above Average has had him slightly above-average in each of the past three seasons but below-average in his career overall. It’s fair to suggest Smith has improved his glovework over the years, but he’s still not a standout defensive player at his position.
Now that he’s been designated for assignment, Smith will be either outrighted or released. It’s unlikely he’ll be claimed by another club, but he could latch on elsewhere on a new deal once he clears waivers. The Red Sox would be responsible for the remainder of his contract, minus the prorated minimum for any time spent on his new club’s big league roster/injured list.
Smith hasn’t lived up to his former top prospect billing, but he did have an impressive 2019-20 run that saw him slash .299/.366/.571 with 21 homers in 396 plate appearances. His bat has cratered with a .242/.312/.361 output in the four seasons since that time — numbers that roughly align with his results during his 84-game stint with the Red Sox. Smith reached six years of big league service while with the Sox, so he’ll be a free agent again at season’s end regardless of who signs him for the season’s final few weeks.
Feel real sorry for Smith but it was inevitable, it was a matter of time.
Why feel sorry? This was his chance to shine and he really didn’t.
He did better than expected and gave the team stability at first in a horrible infield.
What were you expecting?
Better than expected? His stats have been pretty consistently average to below average the last three years. He’s done as expected and it’s not very great
Why compare the past three years? I’m referencing only his time in Boston and comparing him to Dalbec and Cooper. As a fill in, he was fine.
Because you said “he was better than expected.” Dom Smith’s stats were completely expected and very aligned to what his career stats were, which were average.
I’m glad he came immediately to fill in, but he was nothing but average. If that’s what you want, good, but I’m not praising him just for being an average body. At least we had someone, that’s where his credit is due
Dalber and Cooper are well below replacement level that’s a horrible bar to measure against might as well give Smith a participation trophy you know you want to
You gotta think of a really good rhyming insult name for Smith bro.
Smith did a good job, hopefully he returns.
Good job? He wasn’t even a 1 WAR player
Who cares about war? Look what the team had in Cooper and Dalbec? You don’t need stars at all positions.
Regardless of WAR or not, he was basically an auto out and has little OBP as well for a .250 hitter. He’s nothing short of average at best. We could have had better options, probably even in AAA. I’m sorry, not trying to be the pessimist in the room, but he’s just not that good.
He was worth the try but that’s all the credit I give him. Cooper would have been just as average if we kept him longer
Dalbec had to go long ago…
You don’t need all average players in every spot either. Ownership has to pony up somewhere if we want to win
Who was the other option? He was traded to LA and shockingly will get a shot shortly. His strikeout rate in AAA makes Dalbec look reasonable
Exactly.
You got owned by pocketbook just take the L and move on
Just barely a 0 WAR player in fact
So he was average, or better than half of the players at his position. Not bad at all.
WAR is such an overrated, garbage stat, it’s ridiculous.
No one knows how it’s even calculated.
If you don’t like WAR, look at average and OBP… neither are anything better than average and Dom met basically the same expectations as before he came to the Sox.
I don’t think it is calculated. It’s probably 6-8 statisticians making up garbage.
Give us the formula to calculate it math genius. Oh that’s right it’s completely different depending on the group determining it.
Jan6 = War is neither math or stats. It’s a formula that would be math if the estimates used were based on any REAL statistics but it isn’t. The formula has constants that are made up, variables that are made up and the assumptions behind it are faulty It’s a crap ESTIMATE it’s not a stat and the only form of math involved is fantasy math since the elements of the formula are pure conjecture. Just because it’s published doesn’t mean it’s accurate. You could assign your own WAR value and it would be just as valid. YES, it wouldn’t be valid at all.
What is it good for??
@Jan6worsethan911 Well, not to be rude, but if you think January 6th was worse than 9/11, then you can’t do math either.
WAR is overrated, when it doesn’t fit your argument. I get it….
WAR isn’t great for pitchers, I use FIP then, but for batters, it’s a great Stat. And if you don’t like it, use Smith’s other average stats
Jan6 – That’s a really ignorant comment. RBIs do matter, so do runs, hits and all stats that are part of the real game of baseball. You think simulation estimates are stats. Now that’s ignorant. You aren’t even educated enough on the subject to debate it. You can’t do my homework for me because you apparently flunked the class that differentiated between stats and estimates. Come back when you get better educated because your comments show it’s a waste of time to have this discussion with you when you don’t understand the topic.
Your rhetoric is cheap copy cat crap from the nerds of summer. You believe simulating things is predictive and accurate and you aren’t smart enough to know that actual runs scored are REAL not an estimate. If you want to look into someone else’s crystal ball for an estimate rather than reviewing real stats, that’s your call. It’s not factual but the nerds of summer simply exist because they sold baseball fans the equivalent of crypto for baseball. It’s not real, it’s not accurate and it has only one place in baseball and that is if you want to simulate something with contrived projections.
Thanks for proving how moronic your made up math is. What in Dante Bichetes math stats make him a bad player ever? Please explain what in math makes him even slightly bad even excluding your RBIs? Common genius. Was it his career .835 OPS.
Absolutely Nothing….say it again
It’s from baseball reference. I’d trust the stats there than a guy on a forum.
Dom did his job covering the position but he added no value to the team and didn’t make us any better.
If you don’t like WAR, Dom’s average and OBP and OPS all tell a similar story. He’s just not that good, plain and simple
Everyone in these comments admitting they don’t understand how math works
Rare – How math works? I think the mechanics of math is understood by all. What isn’t comprehended is how averaging averages to define a constant to use in an obscure formula translates to a “STAT”. It’s an estimate and it’s based on faulty assumptions that got jammed down the public’s throat to sell the concept of simulating baseball. That’s what modern metrics are. It’s a simulation of what “might have happened” given a very specific fabricated scenario. The scenario doesn’t represent reality, it’s just one person or one company’s evaluation of a what if scenario.
If you want to use a number like WAR to compare players that’s your choice but the accuracy level is zero. Why? Because it’s an estimate. You aren’t comparing two batting averages, you are comparing how a complex formula with faulty assumptions is applied to two or more players. The players play under completely different circumstances so try to “normalize” their conditions is pure conjecture and completely inaccurate. From the beginning of time fans have tried to compare players from different eras or from different teams or simply two players from the same team. The comparisons could be based on facts of which player ACTUALLY out performed the other using REAL BASEBALL STATISTICS like Runs, Hits, HRs, SBs etc. but metrics were developed by baseball fans who wanted to SOLVE the question of who is better. So they fabricated a formula or actually a series of formulas to put the arguments to rest. Unfortunately, the formulas are completely ineffective at comparing unlike players playing in unlike ballparks during unlike eras. At best, they are indices with about a 50% error rate. At worst, they are worthless because they can’t accurately “normalize” baseball data.
There are no issues with understanding math, there is just the reality that theoretical comparisons are nothing more than one person or companies attempt at answering the historical question of who is better. The estimation is NO BETTER than what you or I think is the right answer because there is no PROOF that my guess or their formula is more accurate.
So if you are a believer in metrics, great. Argue about WAR and all the other bogus estimates or argue about comic book heroes and who would win in a fight. It’s fun conjecture but NEVER make the mistake of thinking any of the guesses are correct. They are simply guesses. Some may say educated guesses but in the end there is no accuracy that can be measured with certainty with those educated guesses.
My advice is compare real stats to get a feel for who performed better and never assume that events in the future will reflect events from the past. They could but there are no guarantees.
When you go into a season with Dalbec as your primary corner infield backup, and your starting 1B goes down for the count, you end up with replacement level players. At least Smith delivered positive value rather than negative value. (Despite the name, “replacement level” isn’t easily achievable when sorting through replacement level players.)
.01 WAR is not much positive value. He had negative WAR throughout most of his stint until the end. He did not provide much, if at all, support that would drastically change this team.
Right, that’s the point. A 0.0 WAR is vastly better than what the Red Sox got at shortstop (prior to the return of Story) and second base last year, or for that matter at 2B this year.
If your starting player delivers a 0.0 WAR for the year, that’s a negative outcome. If you pick somebody up off the scrap heap and he delivers a 0.0 WAR, that’s a positive outcome.
Despite losing Casas for most of the year, 1B wasn’t their weakest position. Replace Smith with Dalbec and it would have been.
It’s all in your perspective. I don’t believe it is realistic to expect a replacement level player to drastically change a team.
It’s not a positive or negative outcome because it’s a zero. Basic math. But it doesn’t help us.
Everyone says it’s our pitching but our offense has been pretty bad earlier in the year and it cost us plenty of games with missed opportunities
Yup. The pitching kept us in things for the longest time, is just getting tired. Over management of the bullpen.
It’s not even over management. It’s the fact that they keep trading and taking in pitchers like a revolving door
You can’t deny the overmanagement! Look at the usage patterns, almost nobody in the pen is given sufficient time to recuperate since mid July.
The roster churn is a desperate attempt to get fresh arms up, because all the guys who are decent are badly overworked. And they are overworked because of the excessive use of short relief stints and mid-inning switches.
Look at what it has done to Garcia, a veteran reliever with a long history of success. But he is 37, and couldn’t handle it when Cora ramped up the frequency with which he pitched. Now he is total toast.
TFF17 – I get your point but WAR is not the way to prove it since it’s incredibly inaccurate.
Take actual data and show how many runs were contributed and how many RBIs were contributed by the added players. You can use OPS+ which is terribly biased but if the value is 100 or less then there were many alternatives to that player who would have added more value.
Smith added value and has a better set of historical stats than Dalbec. It’s very likely Dalbec would not have put up better numbers but nobody can say definitely. He has had very hot streaks but their likelihood is extremely low.
An exception to picking up a hot player that makes a difference happened in both 2018 and 2021. in 2018, Steve Pearce was not a strong performer but one Yankee series after DD picked him up he went ballistic. Cora moved him to the 3 hole and displaced their star hitter JD Martinez and for about a month Pearce batted in the most envied spot in baseball that year, the 3 hole on the Red Sox. He performed well and made a difference but was never worth a crap after that. Likewise, the clown Kiki Hernandez who Cora baby sat as a child came to Boston with a lifetime .239 average as a bench player and for two weeks got insanely hot. He made a difference but most people forget that he sucked for about 24 weeks that year.
Sometimes there are exceptions to the rule but not often. A replacement can make a difference with a little bit of luck and good timing. I look at what Wong has done, McGuire’s start to the season and all the other scrubs who had moments of hot streaks followed by long segments of failure as a hitter. The guys with OPS+ under 100 are typically there by the end of the season but at times have streaks that put them above 100 temporarily. That’s what Boston needs now at 2B, The rest of the 8 hitting spots are good right now with O’Neill healthy again and Casas healthy again.
The trick is to have effective players in the back up catcher spot, the back up middle infielder spot, the back-up corner infielder spot and the back up outfield spot. The better those four players are the smaller the drop=off if someone gets hurt. Breslow needs to beef those up for 2025.
Yes, will help if ownership gives him a meaningful budget to work with, rather than insisting that he cut payroll year after year. Spending money doesn’t guarantee wins, but a failure to spend money leaves holes on the roster..
We knew they needed a 1b/3b backup from the start of the year. If Dalbec is the answer, the question must have been, “Who does a last place team turn to?”
I would like them to aim higher. They still MIGHT slip into the playoffs, but most of the other playoff teams are clearly stronger.
Shame, he was pretty good in July but hasn’t kept it going in August so far
Well, he knew the gig was temporary. but maybe he built enough value for another job. Good luck to him.
Maybe he’ll stick around Worcester and see if he’s needed again. Electing free agency is only going to lead to another minor league deal anyway
Sucks for Smith, always played with a smile, but there isn’t a role for him on the team with Casas and Yoshida on the roster. The right move, even if he gave us a solid run in July.
Very like-able guy.
Did about as well as you can hope for from a backup you claimed mid season. Some teams wouldn’t hate that production.
Shame about Yoshida’s contract
Why? Smith can’t DH
Yoshida can’t do anything
Yoshida can hit, he just doesn’t get big hits. What does this have to do with the topic?
Neither of them can do anything, BUT
Smith is a likeable guy
Yoshida makes $15 mil/year for no good reason, and despite his nickname being “Macho Man” (for whatever reason) the one thing he doesn’t do at the plate is hit home runs
Yoshida still hits a lot better than Smith does… Smith was a .1 WAR player. Class doesn’t matter when you can’t hit well.
In fact, Yoshida has more homeruns than Dom Smith has.
I agree Yoshida isn’t great, but he’s better than Smith
“Doesn’t get big hits”…Neither Dom Smith or Yoshida are very good, but at least Smith is league average cheap. I’m not sure how any GM ever saw Yoshida play defense and thought he’s worth $80M+. It may be a stretch to call Yoshida even league average.
“Better than Smith”…When you take into account the huge difference in salary, I’d MUCH rather have Dom Smith on my team over Yoshida. I agree neither is good, but Smith can at least play passable(if not excellent)defense at his primary position.
In your defense, I already proposed we trade Yoshida. I think Cora has actually ruined his production. We would have to eat the contract but he’s a waste of a roster spot…
I don’t want Dom Smith in his place though
Yoshida is a good hitter. He ain’t great, but he’s good. Lifetime OPS of .780, lifetime ba of .287. He’s more than fine as a hitter.
He’s just way overpaid, which last I checked was not his fault.
Trade Yoshida to who? I don’t think we have teams knocking down the door to take on that contract. Are you just going to eat the contract? Who is going to take his spot at DH, because if they eat his contract they are not going to go out and spend big bucks on someone else. Unfortunately it was not a good contract as he proved to be as bad defensively as many had predicted and his offense has not been as consistent as hoped.
He had some big hits versus the Yankees?
I think he did against the Dodgers?2 of the best teams right?
Instead of Smith we should have traded some prospects for Goldschmidt.He is a big name and proven veteran.He would have brought fans to the park.
Clay – When you break down how good a guy like Yoshida is you have categories that already exist. He could be elite, but he is not, he could be well above league average but he is NOT, he could be league average which comes with a very low price and is extremely replaceable by many players and that description fits him. I don’t believe he is below league average like Kiki Hernandez and a lot of Cora’s favorites but he is certainly easily replaceable for roughly $1MM per year. That means he’s a $17MM a year over pay which roughly matches Devers except his contract is four years shorter than Devers. That’s an over payment between the two players of over $30MM per year. Bloom really sucked at his job.
I agree, Yoshida is a decent hitter but he’s paid too much just to DH, and you can get similar production from Abreu, who mans the bench because Yoshida takes his spot.
@Uncle Pedro
Devers would probably DH the most if Yoshida were gone. Then we would find a player for third, which wouldn’t be too hard, or Sogard would keep his position if Grissom finally does come back
Abreu has too much value defensively to replace Yoshida as a DH.
Yoshida when healthy can hit he’s proving that the problem is he’s an 18 million a year DH so he has to hit like Schwarber to justify that contract and he doesn’t. He’s a decent hitter but he was signed to play left and hit well. It’s become painfully clear he can’t play the outfield in anything short of an emergency he’s probably 10 million dollar overpay at this point. He will never play outfield for Boston again either so he will never be worth that contract.
If Breslow can trade Story and Yoshida this coming off-season, I’ll call him a genius and take back the bad things I have said regarding Paxton.
If things go well and Mayer, Anthony, and Teel all progress well they could make the major league roster during ST or soon thereafter. So Yoshida kind of loses a roster spot, they don’t need a DH only LHB. Eat the contract and get something back.
They should offer Story and Yoshida to San Diego for Xander.
Joemo – Well said. Don’t hold your breathe on Mayer but Teel should make Wong expendable or a career back-up and Anthony could make O’Neill an unnecessary investment.
Personally, I lose Yoshida, Story and Mayer so someone might consider a deal and move Rafaela to SS with Anthony, Duran and Abreu in the outfield and then figure a way to shame Devers into not fielding. Nobody is fooled by his 40 to 50 misplays per year that only count for 15 errors. They can’t win with Devers at 3B. They’ll make the playoffs but the number of innings pitched peaks due to misplays by Devers and the ERAs and WHIPs are destroyed when the errors are recorded as hits. It’s a travesty that Devers’ agent can bribe score keepers to cheat but it’s consistent with any team managed by Cora.
They play the same amount of innings regardless of Devers “40 to 50 misplays”.so, yeah.
Diabetic Rockstar – You do realize Devers misplay adds pitches, base runners and often runs? Right? So pitchers are 10 t0 30 pitches deeper without advancing the inning so what could be a 7 inning start ends up under 5 more often than not? Do you also realize there are easy innings and stress innings and that usually depends on base runners. If you put an extra base runner on that adds stress. If the first mishap by Devers leads to more hits when the pitcher would have been out of the inning that adds even more stress. The bullpen now has to cover 2 or 3 innings more simply because Devers frequently misses balls MLB 3Bs would routinely catch. The bad defense in Boston stresses the pitching staff enormously. The starters throw just as many pitches but don’t go nearly as many innings so the bullpen must make up the difference which then wears on them. The more innings are pitched the more likely injuries will happen.
There is a HUGE trickle down impact of bad defense and whether the score keeper counts it as an error or not, the pitching staff always pays for misplayed balls. In 2023 Devers had 52 misplays and 14 were counted as errors. The 38 balls not counted as errors led to hundreds of additional pitches for the pitching staff. It led to a much higher ERA and WHIP and the wear and tear from stress innings were much higher.
So do you still think his 40 to 50 misplays have no impact? Or have you been sufficiently educated to hold off on flippant unintelligent comments?
I was wrong but this is stupid. Smith was valuable and now if Casas has a set back, we bring up Dalbec?
Either that or you suffer with Romy Gonzalez as your first baseman. Good luck with that,
Gonzalez has a much higher OPS than Smith so not sure if “suffer” is the correct term.
Very good point. Gonzalez has better stats than Dom Smith
Let’s see Gonzoloez pick at first like Smith. If you use your eyes, you should realize defensively he’s head and shoulders abovevalk others on the Sox roster.
Romy is fine as a fill-in, but I can’t picture him playing 1st 5-6 times a week.
That is a good point. Dom is better defensively but still, you don’t win many games with either guy. That’s the issue
It’s not like Smith doing nothing but sitting on the bench was gonna provide much value in that scenario. Casas would have to have an immediate setback, otherwise Smith would get far too rusty to be of any use at all. He’s not playing ahead of Casas or Yoshida.
KingKen – When the roster has 13 hitters and you want coverage in case of injury, Smith is perfect. He’s a solid hitter and defender and has some pop for late inning pinch hitting for guys like Wong and Abreu. 1 catcher, 1 middle infielder, 1 corner infielder and 1 outfielder. 9 starters make up the 13.
There was a perfect roster spot for Smith but Cora is the manager and Smith didn’t go UT when Cora was cheating down in Houston so he doesn’t have the same relationship with him. That’s why some guys get kept, some guys don’t and this team doesn’t win.
Hopefully Smith will be waiting in the minors to come back up if needed. He may not have been great, but better than many of the players we have gotten as short term solutions and seemed to be a solid clubhouse guy. Fingers crossed that Casas is going to be back to 100% soon and not have any setbacks.
We don’t need Smith back. He’s probably better than Dalbec but an AAAA hitter at best. He was here only to fill a position. Keep the utility guys instead for versatility.
Gasper can also play first base.
Man, I miss Carmine Ragusa or whoever it was… did he get banned yet? Where is he? Waiting for him to come and attack me about this.
Who? I don’t recall him anywhere but with Shirley and Laverne…
He was also on “Blansky’s Beauties” under a different character name.
It was a member here but yours could be sarcasm. Hard to pick up
This was to be expected. He’s had spurts where he had looked great…. but not the last few years. QUAD A player at worst, bench bat at best but reality is he needs to head over seas.
As I write this the score is 11-9 Sox. Can we please designate John Henry for assignment? I mean really, this pitching is not even AA level.
Smith wasn’t the player he was billed to be and we all know that. Considering everything he was a good stop gap who was a veteran presence on a young team . Yes some will say WAR or some other stat wasn’t great. Sometimes you got to look through the numbers and what he meant to a team. I wish him the best in his future endeavors
Smith is the result of poor planning by Bloom that forced Breslow into some very tough decisions. Breslow inherited the worst team in decades and was told not to spend money if you believe the rumors.
What was the vision of the team during DD’s era?
c= Vazquez – inexpensive
1B – Moreland = inexpensive with Casas coming
2B – Pedroia then Holt and other temps
SS – Bogey – all-star
3B – Devers – eventually DH all-star
RF – Mookie – all-star
CF – JBJ – inexpensive with Duran coming
LF – Benny – all-star
DH – JD Martinez – all- star
Bloom crushed the talent level and left Breslow with a AAA talent or worse
C – Wong 80 OPS+
1B – Casas – an extension of DD’s team
2B – Yorke – a non performing 1st round pick
SS – Story – Injured since contracted
3B – Devers – overpaid DH killing team payroll
LF – Yoshida – a DH playing LF
CF – Duran – an extension of DD’s team
RF – Rafaela/Abreu two inexperienced outfielders
DH – Refsnyder
Where are we today?
C – Teel – Good first round pick due to high draft choice
1B – Casas
2B – Uncertain – Maybe Grissom or Sogard
SS – Rafaela or Hamilton or Story or Campbell/Mayer from the farm
3B – Devers still over paid and horrendous on defense
LF – Duran – All-star
CF – Rafaela – potential all-star
RF – Abreu/Refsnyder platoon players
DH – O’Neill to try to keep him healthy
So Smith became a necessary replacement since Breslow did not have the authority to build a future vision of the team, he inherited what was left of the DD era that wasn’t destroyed by Bloom.
1 – There was no strong choice for corner infield utility player
2 – There was no strong choice for middle infield utility player
3 – The only depth position was outfield and that was inherited by Breslow and then added to by Breslow when he contracted O’Neill.
That’s not good planning but to be fair, Bloom decimated the cupboard and if DD hadn’t left the farm loaded this team would be winning 50 games a year not 81. Smith is good enough to carry the title of Corner Infield utility player as one of the 26 rostered player but Cora is too stupid to know how to construct a balanced roster. That’s not going to change in the next 3 years so Boston’s future is going to be filled with poorly conceived combinations of players. Cora loves guys like Hamilton who should NEVER start at the MLB level he should be a AAA player or at best a Middle Infielder Utility player. Those bad choices end up forcing guys like Smith out of the organization. As usual, this is on Cora like all the other bad decisions. Next year Breslow needs to define for Cora the roster spots. 13 pitchers and 13 hitters. 9 starting hitters plus a back-up catcher, middle infielder, corner infielder and outfielder. If Cora is allowed to mix and match based on who he likes, the same issues will surface next year with each injury.
Smith did his job adequately and should have been the designated Corner Infielder Utility player who is used late in games as a pinch hitter and defensive substitute. Too bad Cora didn’t respect him as much as lesser players who are his favorites.
This team has more problems than keeping Dom Smith around. Ego Alex at the helm. The pitching came back down to earth . They have like 8 middle infielders with no clear choice of who it’s going to be . Basically 3 DH’s. No true 3rd baseman and nothing as backup at 3rd . No legit right handed power hitter. Unless you call ONeill that .