Nestor Cortes was set to throw what he described as a hybrid bullpen session today, telling the New York Post’s Greg Joyce (X link) and other reporters that the session would consist of 10-15 pitches each in a normal bullpen and then 10-15 pitches to hitters. It is Cortes’ latest step in his recovery from a flexor strain that has kept him out of action since September 18, and therefore kept him from participating in the Yankees’ playoff run. With no setbacks to date, Cortes aims to face live batters again this weekend, and is looking to be well enough to be activated for the World Series roster should New York advance to the Fall Classic.
Cortes can hope that his potential return goes as smoothly as Anthony Rizzo’s activation from the injured list, as Rizzo is thus far 3-for-7 with a walk over the first two games of the ALCS. Rizzo suffered two fractured fingers on his right hand after he was hit by a Ryan Borucki pitch on September 28, and he missed the last couple of regular-season games as well as the Yankees’ ALDS matchup with the Royals. Manager Aaron Boone told Joyce and company that Rizzo is still receiving near-constant treatment from the club’s medical staff in order to stay on the field.
More from around the AL East…
- It was almost exactly one year ago that Michael Fulmer underwent a UCL revision surgery, which ended the right-hander’s 2024 season before it even began. After a year of rehab, however, Fulmer told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford (X link) that he is back to throwing off a mound and “is trending well for” the start of Spring Training. Despite the injury, Fulmer still landed a contract last offseason, as the Red Sox signed him to a two-year minor league contract with the knowledge that the 2024 campaign would be a wash. Fulmer’s turn towards relief pitching in 2021 yielded pretty positive results over the 2021-23 seasons, and if he finally get healthy during what has been an injury-plagued career, Fulmer is an intriguing no-risk flier for the Sox heading into next season.
- Christopher Morel had long been a Rays trade target before the club finally landed him in the four-player deadline deal that sent Isaac Paredes to the Cubs. However, Morel’s first two months in a Tampa uniform were a struggle, as he hit only .191/.258/.289 over 190 plate appearances. “There were signs underneath he was really unlucky in terms of the balls hit in play,” Rays president of baseball ops Erik Neander told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, in a nod to Morel’s .233 BABIP for the season. Neander is still bullish on Morel’s potential for 2025 and beyond, and felt that the Rays’ decision to move him to second base and left field (after he’d played third base with the Cubs all season) maybe also “took a toll on him offensively.” Even the trade itself might’ve been a factor, as Neader noted “that new environment, that first taste of it, if you don’t get off to a great start or hold it, it can be difficult. It’s a hard thing to recover. Sometimes it takes that first offseason to come in and be familiar with that environment, to really be yourself again.” There is plenty of time for the Rays to figure out a player who is under team control through the 2028 season, and who has shown flashes of his power potential over his three MLB seasons to date.
- In other AL East news from earlier today….Topkin had a big update on the state of Tropicana Field in the wake of Hurricane Milton, Masataka Yoshida underwent shoulder surgery, and MLBTR’s Offseason Outlook series delivered entries on the Blue Jays and Orioles.
Not a given Fulmer starts next year with boston. He could be taken in the rule5 draft, stashed on the IL until fully healthy after ST. boston has enough 40 man spots to worry about as it is and even tho was/am intriqued with the sign when it was made, adding him to protect him now is a pretty much waste of a space when they have kids who will need it and FA/trade help coming aboard.
Fulmer is a potential r5 pick for a couple clubs. Boston should risk him but it wouldn’t shock me to see him get taken.
They have some flexibility on the 40 still, and trades may clear space as well as adding players. I don’t see an issue with adding Fulmer.
I doubt they signed him to not protect him when he can finally help.
Just think they will have enough slots to use/protect already without using 1 on Fulmer, not that it would distress me, unless a guy like Hunter Dobbins was left exposed and my 2c? Dobbins would be an early rule5 selection.
Let’s not forget other players coming off FS/60 day IL. Mills, Song, Mata, Murphy. It will be time to decide on those and anyone else may have forgotten about as to whether or not they should be protected and I’d probably protect Mata before Fulmer, out of options or not.
The Sox have a handful of pitching prospects that I’d protect over Fulmer.
I’d be shocked if a team take a a flier on Mata / Song, but the potential is there. I’d be ok with not protecting them.
I’d probably protect Monegro, Dobbins, BVB, Gambrell over Fulmer. The last two strictly due to how long they could impact the major league club, they’re younger than Fulmer and under team control for longer.
The Sox have some interesting decisions to make before ethe rule 5 draft regarding their 40 man.
Noah Song is not getting drafted in the Rule V, therefore he will not need a roster spot. His career is more than likely over. After over 3 years away from baseball, he needed to be eased back into activities in the slowest way possible. Instead, he was thrown into the MLB fire. The Phillies cooked him.
AL East pitching is what got to Morel. I wished people would stop quoting BABIP as a reason for poor performance. How was his exit velocities, swing path, pitch recognition, physical health, mental health, etc……so many factors come into play and the people who have never worn a jock throws out poor BABIP.
Dave Stewart is that you
Put some bass in your voice!
Good or bad BABIP certainly can be a factor. It’s not the only factor, but one of many.
thank you! my goodness, one can use a statistic to frame whatever they want (lies, d*mned lies, and statistics). This was a bad trade, Morel is a great guy and teammate…but he has demonstrated he cannot consistently hit ML pitching. Unfortunately, the Rays will prob leave him in the lineup until they cannot control him.
Brandon Lowe plays second–one of the few good hitters this year, and one of the few LH hitters on the Rays…why in the world replace him with Morel???
The Shroom is a DH waiting to happen. The sooner they acknowledge his defensive butchery and accept that, the better.
The amount of excuses executives make for Morel is wild. Sometimes it’s okay to believe your eyes and the main stat lines. Great human, not so great ballplayer. It happens.
Yep, first the Cubs, now the Rays. I fear we may be hearing these excuses until 2028. I have heard he is a great teammate, which is awesome…but if you cannot contribute on the field, it means little.
And trust me, I hope I am wrong.
Fat little Nestor!
The Sox don’t have a lot of wiggle room on the 40 man roster (7 spots open once free agency begins) but you have to imagine that they didn’t sign Fulmer for two years and essentially pay for his rehab, not to bring him to training camp.
A healthy Fulmer, along with a healthy Liam Hendriks and guys like Slaten/Winckowski/Booser/Bernardino/Kelly/(and if they were smart)Whitlock and the Sox would have a solid bullpen going into the season
Rsox – Agreed. The Red Sox will definitely have room for Fulmer if he is looking half way decent (will need to be added in November to the 40). The Red Sox have already added most of the players who would have been added prior to the Rule 5 draft: Luis Guerrero, Fitts, Penrod, Shugart, and Sogard. The only two yet to be added are Dobbins and Fulmer (yes, he is Rule 5 eligible). The rest of the Rule 5 list is either too far from the MLB, or simply not good enough to take a 40-man spot. There should be room available on the 40-man as Bailey Horn, Mata, Isaiah Campbell and a couple other could be cut.
Hendriks, Slaten, Whitlock, Fulmer, Guerrero and Bernardino will all probably make the 26-man, but the Red Sox need to add at least three higher quality arms! Booser, Kelly, and Winckowski most likely start in Worcester.
If Booser, Kelly, and Winckowski most likely start in Worcester, but if they do not, then Breslow did not do his job building a quality bullpen or add enough depth to avoid what happened this to repeat itself. Sixteen blown saves after the All-Star break is a big part of the reason the Red Sox did not make the playoffs. Rafaela was also a black hole the second half, and super utility with fewer ABs fits him better. Duran should start in CF (Gold Glove finalist there), and Abreu, Anthony, and Refsnyder can fill the corner OF positions.
Rafaela’s three best months were June, July and August. Rafaela was 23 last year and made more spectacular catches in the outfield than any other outfielder. Rafaela got shoved in the 9 hole like Duran did a few years ago because Cora has no idea how to set a line-up.
In comparison Abreu’s best months were April, June and August. The other three months he hit below .250 with Sep being .174 compared to Rafaela .191. Both sat more because of Yoshida.
Refsnyder, a utility player for the last 13 seasons, had his best months
in Apr, May, June and Sept.with July and Aug being sub .250 months.
Anthony hasn’t played in the majors, yet you are putting him on the MLB roster ahead of Rafaela. Most times, people earn their spots in baseball.
Stat comparison to enlighten you up to the facts:
Rafaela when he was a black hole in your words:
July – .287/.323/.489/.813 24 games NORMAL
Aug – .260/.290/.355/.655 27 games NORMAL
Sep – .191/.203/.309/.512 19 games BLACK HOLE
Abreu
July – .250/.309/533/.842 21 games NORMAL
Aug – .282/.345/.551/896 25 games NORMAL
Sep – .174/.256/.340/594 25 games BLACK HOLE
Refsnyder
July – .234/.308/.404/.712 15 games
Aug – .230/.277/.443/720 12 games
Sep – .353/.421/.765/1.186 8 games
So your comment about Rafaela only applied to Sep and it could have been said about Abreu too. Refsnyder had one career month in Sep but he only played in 8 games so it’s too small of a sample compared to his months of bad performances earlier in the year.
Oh yeah, did you ever consider how productive these four outfielders were in 2024? Obviously, Anthony produced nothing at the MLB level but here are the productivity numbers for Rafaela, Abreu and Refsnyder.
Rafaela – 70 runs scored, 75 RBIs, 15 HRs, 19 SBs 3 errors in 187 chances
Abreu – 59 runs scored, 58 RBIs, 15 HRs, 8 SBs 7 errors in 238 chances
Refsnyder – 32 runs scored, 40 RBIs, 11 HRs, 2 SBs 2 errors in 122 chances
As far as defense goes
Rafaela – 984 fielding percentage in the outfield
Abreu – .971 fielding percentage in the outfield
Refsnyder – .967 fielding percentage in the outfield
FYI Jared Duran – 111 runs scored, 75 RBIs, 21 HRs, 34 SBs 6 errors in 374
Duran – ..984 fielding percentage in the outfield (same as Rafaela!!!)
Those are all-star numbers for Duran and he does belong in CF as you suggested!!
The facts suggest that the 23 year old who batted 9th because of Cora was by far the most productive of the players other than the all-star Duran. Rafaela was also a comparable defensive outfielder to Duran and both were better than Abreu or Refsnyder.
Also, the black hole comment fit for Sep for Rafaela, but it also fit for Abreu and Devers and several others that started daily.
We all hope Anthony will be the great player you have predicted but it hasn’t happened yet so the team will need 3 outfielders to start the season. Since Duran is an all-star he should start in CF with the most productive of the other outfielders, who happens to be Mr. Black Hole to you (Rafaela) needing to start in Right Field and then Abreu needs to move to LF until Anthony arrives.
If you consider Abreu batted in the middle of the order and produces less than the guy who batted 9th, you have to ask why was the order so poorly designed? The answer is Cora. Part of Duran’s success was from Rafaela’s speed in the 9th hole but the team had many other hitters like Hamilton who could have hit there. Next year, Grissom seems like a possibility.
The Red Sox failed miserably in Sep for good reason. They played 8 series in Sep and only the CWS were a weak team It’s was by far their most competitive month of the season and they failed miserably because they didn’t hit good pitching. During the other months they hit mediocre pitchers playing for non contending teams. They hit .224 in Sep. Specifically, you chose to only single out Rafaela but most of the team was horrible.
Devers hit .188 in Sep and .217 in August. The second half collapse had more to do with a shoulder injury to Devers, a non-inspirational manager who makes many mistakes daily and opposing batters adjusting to the new philosophies of the pitching coaches. The team made a big step forward in that many of the farm players took a step toward stardom with Duran locking down a status of being an all-star. Casas could do the same in 2025 as could Rafaela if he is allowed to bat in the right part of the order and he loses his over anxiousness when he stops batting 9th.
Additionally, we have Campbell (the minor league player of the year), Teel and Anthony all potentially joining the team and carving out starting positions. So 2025 could be better if the injury bug stays away, the pitching continues to improve and Cora makes less mistakes or is replaced by Breslow. I doubt that will happen and I doubt Devers will set aside his ego and do what’s best for the team so there will still be some very big obstacles to success in 2025.
I hope you can appreciate Rafaela now. He was 23 years old as opposed to Abreu being 25 and Refsnyder 33. He has lots of learning to do as do all the young players but his skill level potential is that of Duran and several of the other young players in the program.
Raphaela vs Abreu:
“Aug – .260/.290/.355/.655 27 games NORMAL”
“Aug – .282/.345/.551/896 25 games NORMAL”
When is a .655 OPS the same as an .896 OPS? When KD wants his point to be right.
Didn’t Rizzo cost the Yankees the game on Thursday? A double off his glove earlier and a misplayed grounder to start the tenth. Or am I misremembering?
SPEND MONEY John Henry not prospects
Totally agree! Spend money not prospects!