1:57pm: The Sox have now officially signed Lowe and designated Sanchez for assignment. They also placed outfielder Rob Refsnyder on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 15th, due to a left oblique strain and recalled infielder/outfielder Nate Eaton.
1:26pm: The Red Sox will designate catcher Ali Sánchez for assignment today, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. The team has yet to announce the move, but they’ll need roster space for their reported agreement with veteran first baseman Nathaniel Lowe.
Sánchez, 28, appeared in only one game with the Red Sox and was hitless in his lone plate appearance. He was 5-for-21 with a couple doubles as a member of the Blue Jays before landing in Boston via waivers after being designated for assignment. Sánchez has appeared in parts of four major league seasons and suited up for five teams but has just 132 plate appearances in 47 games overall. He’s a .185/.222/.235 hitter in that tiny sample of scattershot playing time.
Unsurprisingly, Sánchez’s work in the upper minors has been far better. He’s played in parts of six Triple-A seasons and carries a .269/.340/.399 slash in 1266 trips to the plate. He’s a better-than-average defender who excels at blocking balls in the dirt and boasts a superlative 39% caught-stealing rate in his 12-year professional career.
Sánchez is out of minor league options, so any team that claims him off waivers will have to plug him right onto the big league roster. Waivers are the Red Sox’ only possible course of action with Sánchez, now that the trade deadline has passed. He’ll be placed on outright or release waivers within the next five days (very likely the former). He’s been outrighted multiple times in his career, so if Sánchez clears waivers, he’d be able to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency
Cool. Dump Isaiah Campbell next
He has been God awful. Bring Berny back up to take his spot.
Slaten and Winck can’t come back from the DL soon enough.
Absolutely co-sign this
Not sure I want to ever see Winck again
Rather him than Campbell or Hicks.
Hicks at least has the stuff to be a difference-maker if they can ever figure out his control issues. Winck, to put it mildly, does not. For the life of me I don’t know why they’ve kept Berny down for so long though.
re: Hicks, the obsession with turning elite starters into relievers and elite relievers into starters across the league is a little bewildering to me, though I suppose when it works it really works (hello Garrett Crochet)
Dirty – Bernie is not gonna replace Campbell, they won’t have 5 lefties in the pen.
Slaten begins his rehab assignment tomorrow, could be back next week.
I get it he is best deployed against lefties but I think he could hold his own in a couple of general appearances until Slaten is ready to take that spot back. We know Campbell can’t be trusted to.
Yeah I keep hearing that but Campbell has no business relieving any games at the MLB level. He’s got nothing of value.
Dirty – I think it’s far more likely Bernie comes up to replace Moran, who has sucked as expected.
I also think they have been keeping Bernie down in AAA to give him the rest he needs. He’s pitched only 4 innings in the 3 weeks he’s been in Woosta. Obviously he can’t get that kind of rest with the Sox.
Sean – I agree, but what dependable RH reliever do they have in Woosta right now? I’d say call up Criswell or Fitts, but I can understand why they want to keep them as starters instead of converting them to relievers.
Let’s face it, they shoulda got a solid RHR at the trade deadline but instead got a LHR because the price was right (cheap).
I agree I think the reason they’ve kept him down there is to preserve him a little bit. He is one of Cora’s favorites, he would be getting rode hard right now. Best to hide him for a little bit to get some rest.
Fever- I would give Burdi a try. His numbers have been solid. I know he is very injury prone, but he has to be better than Campbell. Not sure why they ever brought up Moran when they have better options. The bullpen is a definite weakness at this point. I really thought they would grab someone at the deadline, even if they had to overpay. Since they are using Criswell in the bullpen in the minors now, he would also be an option. They can’t let the bullpen keep blowing games.
What was the purpose of picking up Sanchez if they were not even going to use him and just designate him for assignment? I had assumed they would give him some playing time to see how he performs. I guess they thought Narvaez was heading to the disabled list and were desperate.
Just not sold on the handedness of the reliever being more important than the quality of the pitches he throws. I would bet that you could throw a dart at the pitching roster in woostahhhh and that guy would be as good as Campbell, if not better. Stats, metrics, results, and most importantly the eye test (lol) all agree he sucks. He wasn’t any good in AAA either so I really don’t get why he’s here.
Agreed, Sean. There’s no way anyone else on the 40 man can be any worse than Campbell or Moran.
Sean – So very, very true!
I LMAO last Friday when the Marlins manager brought Simpson into the bottom of the 9th of a tie game only because he’s a lefty and only because he was going to face two lefties in Anthony and Duran. The fact Simpson sucks with a 6.62 ERA apparently didn’t matter, he’s a lefty and that’s all that mattered to the Marlins manager. Thank God opposing managers can be just as dumb as Cora!
Neither Isaiah nor Ali belong on an MLB roster.
And Toro and Hicks
Red Sox as always being hunter scavangers. Terrible pitchers and hitters. Cora sucks because at the end he is the one who decides who to play. Fu… Cora stuck to losers pitchers and hitters. Honestly he should be investigated about his bad decisions to have bad players in the roster and the way he plays them. It has been many years the same bad decisions when the team needed to win.
“He should be investigated”
Ok buddy.
Well if we are going there, technically he already has been investigated once.
Fire Cora
Yep
Toro has been a fine fill-in at 1B, but ultimately he’s shown that he’s a bench player at best in MLB. His efforts are surely appreciated by his teammates and coaches.
That said, wouldn’t Campbell be a better option as a role player on the current roster? Or is Eaton the guy? I suppose they want Campbell getting regular starts every day and he wouldn’t get those in Boston.
I just struggle with them keeping Toro. He’s not fast. Not great on defense. And his poor hitting is the reason they “need” Lowe. Seems like they could improve by using someone else.
Toro can play 3B, that’s why he’s still around. Eaton is roster filler as another RH hitter on the bench. Could be they don’t want Campbell riding the bench in Boston when he can get regular AB’s in Worcester
Toro “can play” 3B only in the loosest sense
Sort of like Devers did.
Rsox – Eaton has 54 innings at 3B with the Sox this year, and he looked quite good for the most part.
Campbell is best suited to be playing every day, as you said. He was struggling to hit big league pitching, so he needs to be getting regular AB’s and keeping his focus on learning how ML pitchers are going to attack him so that he’ll be ready to adjust and counter-adjust. He showed flashes so we know he can hit up here, it’s just working on his consistency. Putting him into a utility/supersub role with limited AB’s is one of the worst things they could do for him right now. Just have to wait it out until he hits that level of progress where he’s ready to come back up for good.
DirtyWater – at this point I think I prefer Campbell to play out the remainder of the season in AAA and come back to a clean slate next year.
I think I’m with you, unless he really gets on an otherworldly tear that can’t be ignored. Best to leave the pressure off him and just let him do his thing, barring him forcing the issue.
Dirty – What do you think of Eaton batting leadoff instead of Roman or Duran?
I was not a fan of tonight’s lineup. Duran shouldn’t be hitting as low as 6th and why the hell is Story batting behind Romy? Story had a single and double, but nobody was on base to drive in.
I’m with you, I didn’t like that. Felt like tinkering for the sake of it, and what a surprise, it didn’t work. I like that Cora isn’t afraid to move guys around when they are struggling to try and give them a different look, but he does plenty of fiddling that he just does not need to and it’s counterproductive.
FPG
The lineup was odd. I guess Duran was batting 6 th because a lefty was on the hill.??? I still don’t like it. I’m curious about tonights lineup. I assume Lowe will be in there against the righty. Where do you think he fits in ?? Not being able to take advantage of good starts ,can’t afford to do that. Beuhler has not been good at Fenway in several starts. May need the offense to really step up tonight.
Dirty – It’s long been said players are creatures of habit. The NESN guys were talking about how important it is for the players to know if they are in the lineup tomorrow when they leave the park at night, and to know where they will be hitting. It’s hard to get into a groove when there’s constant change. The analytics guys just don’t understand human behavior.
cdc – That’s fine about Duran, but Romy is batting .192 with zero extra base hits and zero walks in his last 7 games …. he shouldn’t be batting ahead of Duran. And why wasn’t Anthony leading off?
I think Lowe should be around the 7rh spot, definitely ahead of Rafaela and tonight’s catcher.
The Sox *should* put a pounding on Sugano.
FPG
Romy is a tough play against rhps. Lowe will be in there against rhps. I would like to know there process of determining the lineup…. Does Cora , Breslow confer , what the analytic equation says to do.??? What went into the decision to bat Duran 3rd( it worked). and Anthony leadoff, ( high obp). I know I don’t want Duran batting 6th …
I agree up to a point. Sometimes that habitual routine can work against you, I think at times it can be beneficial to change something up when things aren’t working. But yes, he needs to communicate it to guys so it isn’t catching them by surprise.
Dirty – Of course, I totally agree.
I know Roman isn’t the best basestealer on the team, but he’s probably already the best at getting on base …. so why was he moved out of the leadoff spot?
Exactly. He was not struggling at all, there was no need to mess with him like that. If a guy has had a rough week or two and you think he might benefit from a lower spot you think will come with lower stress, sure. No need to fix what isn’t broken.
Dirty – Cora always overmanages, it’s the massive ego. He makes excessive changes because he wants the attention and praise.
Typical of these new age guys, most of them have “smartest guy in the room” syndrome. What I really don’t understand is how Cora, Breslow, and Kennedy all manage to stay on the same page about so much with such consistency, while all 3 of them you can tell have that need to be thought of as the brains of the operation. Egos battling on a scale like that should’ve come crashing down by now.
Dirty – Now that’s the sort of big picture topic I like discussing, as I find it so interesting.
We all know Cora was instrumental in the firing of Bloom, they didn’t get along and Cora showed him up several times. Kinda ironic considering Cora’s success over the past couple months or so is largely due to players brought in under Bloom.
Cora is savvy enough to know he used his mulligan with Bloom and therefore cannot get engaged in another battle with the CBO/POBO. He also knows his closeness to Henry gives him support that most managers wouldn’t have. That’s why if you remember it was Cora who refused to ask Devers to learn first base, Cora insisted Breslow had to ask Raffy. Very unusual for a manager to do that, right?
And when there were interviews going on for Bloom’s job, everyone was told they’d have to keep Cora …. again, highly unusual and clearly the result of Cora’s close relationship with Henry.
And it was Cora who was the driving force behind signing Bregman, everyone knows that.
As for Kennedy, his position as president and CEO means he is not as involved in baseball ops as Breslow and Cora are. He devotes most of his time to finances, PR, marketing, etc. I really don’t think there’s been a situation where Kennedy has strongly opposed a decision Breslow has made … because Kennedy simply doesn’t have time for it.
Kennedy is a FSG partner, he’s a part owner since March 2021. He’s absolutely not involved in day-to-day baseball ops.
A very good book about Cora is called Winning Fixes Everything, and that title says it all. If the Sox were still under .500 there absolutely would have been egos clashing a lot.
But for now, Cora can’t complain about the players being given to him because they have been winning. And Breslow can’t complain about Cora’s managing because they’ve been winning.
Plenty of highly dysfunctional MLB teams in baseball history have gone on to win championships, because when a team wins the manager and CBO share the wealth.
Very well put. The only other manager I am aware of that has that kind of backing from on high like Cora does is Rocco Baldelli. He’s become pretty deeply entrenched in Minnesota even though the fans more or less all hate him and his teams have been mostly underwhelming on his watch. This after Derek Falvey was forced by ownership to keep Molitor on for at least one more year when he came into their PBO role. Although the dissimilarity is – I have some Twins friends who suspect Rocco’s seat hasn’t gotten warm because he’s a good puppet for the front office, as opposed to Cora who is more the puppetmaster in Boston.
All of this stuff just really makes me miss Tito Francona. Man, I hope his Reds find a way into the playoffs.
Dirty – That’s interesting, I didn’t know any of that about Rocco.
My impression is Boone also is a good puppet for the Yankees front office.
Yeah sure would be nice to see Tito in the postseason.
I honestly have no idea what to make of what’s going on in NY. Other than to say without a doubt that Hal is certainly not his father. George would’ve fired Cashman and Boone five times over already had he lived through the last 15 years. Makes me wonder, do they have dirt on Hal or is he just that into breaking the cycle of constant turnover that defined the Yanks of the 80’s and 90’s?
Eaton has been on fire this past month. Plus if you bring him up, make him play all over the field, move him up and down the lineup, and totally screw his head up… like Cora is bound to do… then its still just Nate Eaton (and not Kristian Campbell)
Didn’t the sox bring Eaton back yesterday?
Yeah he’s here. I was justifying the decision to bring Eaton up over KC.
Eaton also fills the role of late game Pinch Runner if they need a base stolen…. while Hamilton is not on the roster.
I’d rather have Eaton playing. Campbell I don’t think he is ready and what happenned to his mindside. Lowe of course a better option guaranteed but Mr Cora will always make the bad decisions regarding whom to play. Toro is a Triple A player and nothing more. I’d rather give the chance to Burdi to play.
Ger – I totally agree, KC was horribly mismanaged and mentally abused under Cora. Now KC is just trying to pick up the pieces and get back to that happy place before Cora became his manager.
I can’t believe this is the lineup he is rolling out when we absolutely need the win tonight.
How the heck does this bonehead not pinch hit for toro in the 10th?!?!? Just asking for the DP. And that’s exactly what happens
Are f’n kidding me?!?!? Hudson better be fired tonight.
Sean – I dunno, not a lot of options right now.
I agree Eaton could have DH’d with Lowe playing 1B, but other than that there was only Rafaela (sucking for a long time), Narvaez (started the last two games and has been in a slump), and Abreu (injured) so not much else could have been done.
Toro’s been playing decent defense, but his hitting is atrocious. He really needs to become a bench player, he shouldn’t be starting anymore.
Sean – I really don’t mean to sound like one of the pathetic team suckups that I’ve muted here, but when you’ve got only 3 healthy bench players and one of them has already been used (Rafaela .721 OPS) that doesn’t leave many options (Eaton .612 OPS or Narvaez .721 OPS).
They were 0-for-13 with RISP tonight, they are back to being the first half Sox again except without the Great Raffy.
It’s gonna be a challenge the next 10 games. Yanks are hot again and have already hit 8 homeruns tonight in just 6 innings, the O’s have been playing great and should have Westburg back next week, and then Skenes will likely start next Friday.
Sean – Again I apologize if I sound like one of the pathetic team suckups I’ve muted, but Hudson’s decision is defensible. Cowser has a strong arm, the ball wasn’t hit all that deep, and they still had only 2 outs with Bregman at the plate. It’s impossible to know in advance Cowser’s throw would be that off target.
if it’s any consolation, even if the Sox had tied the game in the 11th they’d have probably lost in the 12th with Campbell likely pitching.
At least the Sox made it to extras thanks to Sugano’s gift balk and Lowe’s monster homerun.
I would’ve taken my chances with Narvaez pinch hitting. Even in a slump he can hit a ball into the outfield. Exaggerating only a little when I say I can’t remember the last time I saw a memorable Toro AB that didn’t end in a GIDP or strikeout.
Dirty – The problem with that, Lowe would have had to move to 1B which means the pitcher would have to bat for the DH.
Narvaez in his last 7 games is batting .150 with a .450 OPS, not much of an upgrade over Toro’s .125 BA and .370 OPS.
There’s just no way around it, half the Sox lineup is in an awful slump. Thank God for Roman and Story, those guys have carried the offense for a while now.
For sure, the decision wasn’t without its risks. But a moderately deep fly ball ends the game. Didn’t need to be a hit with the bases loaded & 1 out. Risk I was willing to take. Especially since half our lineup was doing absolutely nothing anyway. As you correctly stated in another comment, we were headed towards an L anyways if the game went any longer because it would’ve been Campbell pitching at that point, so even if it ultimately failed my stance is that the decision making should’ve been ultra-aggressive in extras to make sure it didn’t get to that point.
I was wrong about who was available to start last night. You are correct. But absolutely do you send the runner there. Eaton has elite speed. With no outs? I understand. With 1 out? Nope that’s the hand you are dealt and you send the runner.
Yep game over once Campbell comes in.
Dirty – Yeah I see your point. Actually anything from Toro except a forceout at home or strikeout or shallow fly ball or popup or doubleplay would have won the game. But the Sox have had their share of getting out of bases loaded nobody out jams, so it all evens out.
Funny, to this day I still remember a game in Detroit where the Sox had the bases loaded and nobody out, and Willie Hernandez struck out the side in a 2-1 Tigers win. If I recall correctly, it was the same game Kirk Gibson bowled over the home plate umpire. Why do I remember these things? LOL
Sean – Cowser has the 17th-best OF arm in MLB, and Bregman was up.
In a tie game I’d maybe take the risk, but not down a run.
Oh well, they are in solid shape for a playoff spot …. that’s all that matters. And are one game better than last year’s pace. LOL
Eaton 95th percentile in sprint speed. In a game where you’ve been gifted a balked in run and the new guy ties the game… I’m taking my chances at a singular play that requires perfection from the outfielder and a simple straight line sprint and slide from 90ft. Agree to disagree?
Sean – Absolutely, every person has their own idea of which risks are worth taking. There’s no concrete right or wrong opinion, yours is as good as mine. And I fully acknowledge I’m more averse to risk than most, I generally like to play it safe.
In the end, the decision to hold was obviously the wrong one.
See on Eaton I can see the logic in keeping him because if we are all in agreement that we lose the game if Campbell sets foot on the mound, then we need 2 runs in the 11th. Playing to tie is no good. So in that spot if you are trying to play for a 2 run Breggy Bomb, I get it. On a night where so many guys were struggling to do anything, I can see the appeal in hoping he can end it on one swing instead of trying to score on the sacrifice and then still having to find a way to manufacture a run with the bases empty. But if that’s the thinking I wish Cora would have just said that instead of the whole spiel he sat and gave after the game. We hoped Bregman was going to be the hero tonight, he wasn’t, the end.
Dirty – Tek looked great swinging away in BP yesterday, they should activate him. Can’t be worse than Toro and others.
Fair point.
Now we’re talking!
See I would have been ok with the game ending on a perfectly executed throw/catch/and tag against one of the fastest players in the league. I take that chance 10/10 times, all things considered.
While I do agree that putting Campbell in almost certainly amounts to the O’s scoring 2…3…4 or more runs in the 12th… I’m pretty sure that Baltimore was down to their mop up guys as well.
Anyways… would have been nice going into the yanks series on a high note. A comeback win on a walk off, along with Lowe’s clutch HR in his first game here would have been huge.
Sean – Baltimore’s entire bullpen is pretty much garbage.
Hiraldo pitched the 9th, he has a 4.76 ERA
Cano pitched the 10th, he has a 5.40 ERA
Martin pitched the 11th, he has a 6.17 ERA
I’d be curious if there was any chance Whit would have come out for a 2nd inning …. he threw only 16 pitches in the 11th. Sure it would have made him unavailable until Friday, but in that situation I think it would have been justifiable.
All I know is they need to figure out how to beat the O’s next week, when they probably have Westburg, Rutschman and Basallo back in the lineup. They will also be facing Kramer. That 4-game series could bring back memories of 2011.
Quad 4 guy
I see the giants on the phone for anyone with a catchers glove…
So…. Why even bother claiming a third catcher? The move raises more questions now that they’re dumping him so quickly.
Because they knee-jerk (pun intended) reacted to Narvaez having knee soreness and claimed Sanchez but since Narvaez didn’t need an IL stint they were stuck with 3 Catchers. Narvaez is clearly ok now and Wong’s bat has sporadically shown signs of life so Sanchez on the roster was redundant
I will say that I personally might have preferred to give Sanchez a little leash and send Wong to AAA to figure it out, since their total lack of offensive prowess and Wong’s down defensive year make them more or less a wash. But I guess it does make sense to stick with the guy who knows the staff (and vice versa).
Ali G In Da House!
Respect
And out da house
Sweeney is just one of the rights call girls
What’s the point in keeping Toro around now that they have Lowe. Seems like the waste of a roster spot.
Perhaps clubhouse mixture at this point. If the team makes the playoffs and barring injuries, I still see Hamilton as the 26th man.
Molly – At the very least, Toro is good to have around when the grass gets too high.
Perhaps they think it would be easier to find someone similar to Sanchez than to find someone similar to Toro.
Toto Toro is a quad 4 player-why is he getting legitimate at bats on a playoff team?
Tar – Because he started his season really hot at the plate …. and even though he was in a deep slump at the trade deadline, the Red Sox cheaped out and refused to upgrade.
Now with Lowe on the team, Toro’s PA’s should decrease drastically.
I suspect Ali Sánchez would be a decent #2 for some clubs, very solid #3 for most. With no options left though he’ll have trouble sticking anywhere.
Down goes Ali! Now do Adam Frazier
Worst game ever where Nick Lowe should have been the hero. When the opposing pitcher walks the bases loaded, MAKE HIM THROW A STRIKE. Story and Toro had AWFUL at bats! They deserved to lose that game and now they can go to New York and get it handed to them.
Freaking hell.
What happened to the suicide squeeze bunt? In one of those situations it could have worked
The most concerning thing is we can’t win against a Baltimore team that was a seller at the deadline. If we can’t win against them our chances don’t look good for the playoffs. In general we have lacked offense and there have been some terrible performances from pitchers in the bullpen that should not be in the majors. There have been multiple games when the opposing pitcher could not find the plate and our offense is swinging away and hitting into double plays.
We needed to make a few more moves to improve the bullpen at the deadline (dependable right-handed pitching). At least Campbell and Moran are done and Brennan is back up. Sad to say, but time for Toro to go down and bring back up a 13th pitcher. We need all the pitching we can get unless we have a hot bat at AAA.
Why is Toro getting serious at bats on a playoff team? Why isnt Varitek the coach instead of cora who constantly makes bad decisions? Why did Breslow let Heinemann walk to a division rival where he’s doing great and we NEED him? Why does cora constantly let Hicks pitch in late innings when he knows he’s the knock around guy? Why not send him down and call up Burdi or Criswell? Why why why? Inquiring minds want to know..))
I can’t figure out why they are avoiding Burdi. I am fine with Brennan instead of Criswell as long as they don’t overuse Criswell as I am sure we are going to need him. I think they still are hoping that Hicks is going to find his control to go with the 100 mph pitches.