The Red Sox announced the signing of lefty reliever Danny Coulombe to a one-year deal. Boston placed utilityman Romy Gonzalez on the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. Coulombe, a client of ALIGND Sports Agency, is reportedly guaranteed $1MM.
Coulombe lands a big league contract for his age-36 season. The southpaw is coming off an excellent 2.30 earned run average across 43 innings between the Twins and Rangers. Coulombe punched out an above-average 24.4% of batters faced behind an excellent 13.1% swinging strike rate.
It was the third consecutive sub-3.00 ERA showing for the veteran reliever. Coulombe’s age and lack of velocity have nevertheless limited him to a series of modest one-year contracts. With a fastball that checks in around 90 mph, Coulombe leans most heavily on a mid-80s cutter. It’s a relatively platoon neutral profile, though he was more aggressive in attacking the strike zone against left-handed hitters.
Assuming he’s able to ramp into game shape within the next two weeks, Coulombe will slot into Alex Cora’s middle relief group. Boston was light on left-handed bullpen help in front of Aroldis Chapman. The out-of-options Jovani Morán and trade pickup Tyler Samaniego, who has yet to make his MLB debut, are the other lefty relievers on the 40-man roster. Coulombe should raise the floor over the less established southpaws.
Boston still has up to three bullpen spots for grabs. Morán’s lack of options could give him a leg up on one of those. Rule 5 pick Ryan Watson can’t be optioned but seems a longer shot to break camp after giving up six runs in as many innings this spring.
Gonzalez will be out at least until late May. The Sox announced that the righty-hitting utilityman underwent an arthroscopic debridement procedure on his left shoulder. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that it’s a cleanup surgery that could come with a 2-3 month recovery timeline. Gonzalez should be back midseason to reprise his role as a short side platoon bat.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported Coulombe and the Red Sox had a major league deal. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reported the $1MM salary.
Image courtesy of Jerome Miron, Imagn Images.
Good move, the waiting finally paid off!
Great news!
I had forgotten he was still available wow…
Those 15 games in Texas probably cost him 5M or more and multi year deal. He had been killing it as a twin last year
Romy to 60 day to make room for Coulombe incoming
Or Casas.
Ugh. Casas to waivers. I’m so sick of seeing him run around in Florida while knowing he won’t make it to Fenway until like June.
baron – Casas realizes his job is in jeopardy and seems to be dedicated to getting healthy as soon as possible. He reported to camp a lot lighter too.
The question is, will the Sox keep him in the minors until they feel they need him? It’s probably going to play out like it did last year with Yoshida.
Can’t understand why it took so long for him to find a team.
Tyler Rogers signs for 3/37M at age 35 and Coulombe gets 1/1M at age 37.
If you follow the history of submarine pitchers, they all break down early.
Coulombe’s arm slot and pitch mix ages a whole lot better than Rogers submariner repertoire and statistically, he has been nearly as good over the past three seasons.
I cant make sense of this one. Coulombe should have had a far bigger deal for at least two seasons.
It’s because he can barely heave it up to the plate at a steamy 90 mph and he’s older than Grandpa Moses. Also due for reliever regression if not altogether bullpen coach material.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
5 hours ago
It’s because he can barely heave it up to the plate at a steamy 90 mph and he’s older than Grandpa Moses. Also due for reliever regression if not altogether bullpen coach material.
___________________________________
Coluombe uses his cutter against both right- and left-handers 40 percent of the time.
His fastball is 19.6 percent against right-handers, his sweeper 18.2 percent against right-handers, and his sinker 19.2 percent against left-handers.
It’s not like he uses a 90.3 mph fastball 40 percent of the time, so he remains an effective reliever at 36 years old.
C.Martin 39 Age, A.Chapman 38 Age, K.Jansen 38 Age, B.Treinen 37 Age, D.Pomeranz 37 Age – These relievers are older than Coluombe and continue to play effectively at their age.
Your emphasis on age is inappropriate and ridiculous.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
6 hours ago
Any reliever can regress regardless of age, many factors can influence regression – injuries, personal problems, psychological problems, etc., but you don’t take these factors into account when looking at other relievers.
They almost all regress past 35 but 1 million is an absolute steal for the Red Sox. And there are many players his age and older pulling in a lot higher salary for similar production
Fantastic signing
FPG
There is always a spot on the roster for a crafty , veteran,lefty. He has proven the last several years he can get outs. That’s what is important. Not every pitcher has the 98+heater. Should be an excellent , effective reliever for the Sox. Surprised it took this long for a team to sign him.
Jay Groome ,,,, I had high hopes for that guy..
cdc – hi!
I always enjoy how you bring up names I haven’t heard in a while, I almost forgot about Groome.
BTW have you seen what Tibbs is doing and saying? In 42 PA’s he is batting .324 with a 1.057 OPS, this after raking in the minors last year with the Dodgers.
Last year in AA with the Sox he batted .297 with a .586 OPS, and with the Dodgers AA team he had a .900 OPS.
Worst of all, he had this to say: ““[When I joined the Dodgers, they] were like, ‘Hey, you know, we just want you to be yourself. We want you to do what you need to do to be successful. Like, we believe in you, we believe in what you did in college. We want you to get that back and be able to be successful with how you swing the bat and how you play defense, and like, we don’t want to take that away from you.’ I think for the most part, they just allowed me to be me.”
The way the Red Sox utilize Driveline and their philosophy is not working, they are messing up prospects who are too reluctant to say no. They keep shoving their one-size-fits-all approach to hitting and pitching into the faces of players and those who follow along are suffering from it.
42 PAs is nothing unless you are an anti-Red Sox troll. Let’s see if Tibbs can get his strikeout rate under control. You have no idea what Red Sox coaches are doing.
FPG
Groome has signed with an Independent league team. As far a the Sox approach to developing young hitters,I don’t think you can say or do just one thing. Maybe it will work for one but not another.like maybe it works for Roman Anthony or The Password,but not for K.C. Launch angle and hard hit rates ,ect,ect.have been the rage for several years now. Each player must find something that works on a consistent basis. Hitting coaches should be tasked with finding that out about each individual. I don’t know if Tibbs is going to be any good.
Just started reading about Kyle Boddy he developed Driveline. I will know more after reading more about him and his staff.
cdc – hi!
Yeah I totally agree with you 100%. It’s not just about individual players having different strengths and weaknesses, it’s also about letting them do what works for them because it helps them build confidence. It’s been like that since the beginning of time, I’m sure you remember Charlie Lau and Walt Hrniak ….. both very successful, but their methods didn’t work for everyone.
FPG
There is an excellent article on Driveline by Alden Gonzalez of ESPN you can look up if you want. It features S. Ohtani. Also several articles about the pros and cons of the Driveline approach. Velocity is there main goal, whether hitting the ball harder or throwing it faster. Could be a double edged sword as you weigh possibility of injuries to achieve higher rates of velocity. Half the teams are using some sort of Driveline now. Bill James was not well liked at first…. Thoughts…
FPG
Walt Hrniak was great for Dwight Evans,not so much for Rich Gedman.
cdc – hi!
Thanks, I’ll have to look up that article. Yes I am aware Driveline is hyper-focused on max, whether it be velo or bat speed. It drives me up a wall.
I have always adhered, in both baseball and all other aspects of life, to the belief that we should incorporate the best of everything rather than picking Option A or Option B and going all in like the Red Sox do. Whether it’s politics or religion or whatever, each side has both qualities and flaws.
That’s the problem, the Red Sox are completely immersed and obsessed with certain things such as Driveline and are reluctant to consider anything else. It’s a common flaw with people like Breslow, tunnel vision.
The Jim Rice incident still bothers me to this day, shutting him down as if he has absolutely nothing of value to contribute to young hitters. To put it nicely, it’s idiotic and disgusting.
FPG
Yeah the Rice incident was not a good look. I’m sure the H.of Famer could teach very good lessons. Driveline is a tool that can be helpful,but not exclusively.
Interesting that both Hriniak and Lau were former catchers and really could not hit particularly well.
One would think that the better hitters could teach what they did better but most of these coaches were good players.
Each side has both qualities and flaws.
In the immortal words of Rodney King can’t we all just get along.
Lefties getting paid tonight!
Wondered if they might have a look at a reunion with Kopech. That’s why I added him in the league. Could use another righty arm in the pen too.
Looks like it’s in the 1M range
This has felt like the perfect fit all offseason.
Made too much sense.
Danny Coulombe!!!!! play tessie will love this
Coulombe has to be one of the most disrespected players lately. Get non tendered by Baltimore for no reason, signs a modest deal relatively late last year, and now doesn’t get signed until we’re about two weeks out from opening day. All the guy does is put up results
He probably doesn’t throw 100 mph fastballs and have spin rates in the upper 5%.
He just does a fairly consistently good job.
I wonder how many of these GMs just look at numbers and not results.
Numbers are literally results.
Numbers are misleading.
“Numbers” say Skenes is a .500 pitcher by W/L. Id argue that does not reflect his results on the field.
Don’t patronize me. I’m not grotesquely stupid.
I’d argue that the win/loss stat is archaic and relatively meaningless in today’s game. That’s not one of the numbers Esl was referring to.
Enjoy – I guess it all depends on how each person looks at the definition.
To me, results for a pitcher is Run Prevention – which means ERA. That’s the primary goal, preventing the other team from scoring runs. You can have a 12-K game, but if you give up a lot of runs the K’s don’t matter much.
You’re going to far the other way.
Win/Loss is all that matters. The problem is that past win/loss are less predictive of future win/loss than many other statistics. Also, pitcher win/loss record doesn’t fully account for their effect on the team win/loss record.
Fever, add in the defense behind you and the home park. I’m anticipating Sox pitchers to overall make less pitches and have better stats with their likely improved defense.
100% – ML Pitchers barely average 5 IP’s per start now.
As opposed to 7 +IP’s thru the 1970’s.
A lot can happen in 4 innings Vs 2.
dewey – Yes of course those are factors in ERA, and bullpens impact starter ERA’s.
I agree the defense is much improved, especially at 1B and 2B. Maybe a slight decrease without Bregman.
Esl-GM’s need to look at both the statistics which are results and the most important ones which produce the performance.
Also past results do not always predict future performance.
Pitchers can still be productive without having the standard performance metrics that when taken in a vacuum are thought to produce good results.
As can be seen by the various posts Coulombe is thought to be a good pitcher even though his numbers may not be anywhere near overwhelming.
Let’s see third this season before grading although Bregman was an A++ after the years we had with Devers. While I appreciated his amazing bat and his willingness to to try to improve with the glove, each season he was at the bottom of the ratings by season’s end.
Fever- Ranger Suarez has not looked very impressive in the World Baseball Classic. Too soon to be concerned, but I was hoping he would be dominant when representing Venezuela. Luckily we should start getting players back to get more of a feel of how the team is going to look this year.
Coulombe seems like a solid addition, just need to get him game ready.
Uncle – Agreed, hopefully Ranger isn’t hiding an injury.
So happy for Abreu, he will remember that homerun forever.
Japan not making the Final Four is shocking.
Made way too much sense not to happen. Traded Bernardino and Murphy for some reason and had a clear lefty shortage in the pen. About time
Chuck – The Red Sox needed the roster spots for Rule 5 adds at the time, and Drohan and Harrison were seen as better options. When Durbin popped up they ended up trading Drohan and Harrison in that deal which left them short.
Matz and Wilson – free agent
Murphy, Bernardino, Drohan, Harrison – trades
The Red Sox have plenty of left handed pitching in the system, they still want to try them as starers.
Hayden Mullins and Eduardo Rivera are well regarded lefties who may make their MLB debut later this year from the farm . Early, Tolle, Bennett are all available if the Red sox want them in the bullpen from the left side.
Harrison IS a better option.
Hammerin – yes, Harrison AND Drohan were better options than Bernardino and Murphy, and that is why Bernardino and Murphy were traded. Had Drubin not been acquired Drohan and Harrison probably would have been the lefties in the Red Sox bullpen to start 2026. Durbin and the other two infielders really added a starter plus depth that the Red Sox needed, so lefty bullpen/starters were traded to Milwaukee as the Red Sox have plenty.
Surprised he was out there this long.
Only thing I can think of is that teams were throwing minor league deals his way because of his age and he wanted a guaranteed deal. Because I can’t imagine that his phone wasn’t ringing.
Why the orioles didnt bring him back is a mystery
Rocked in Texas. 3 bombs in 12 innings.36 years old. I don’t know. Coin flip.
Bookmark this page.
Check his stats from minny last year. 40 games vs 15 games. Hope that’s the one we get.
He really just had 2 terrible appearances with TEX which combined for 6 of the 7 runs he allowed in a combined 0.1 IP. But 12 other 13 appearances with them were scoreless.
Age could catch up to him at any time, but I’ll take that bet on his overall track record, especially where it fills a big team need.
With all the stats that GMs have now I wonder whether many knew that he had just two awful outings.
Line – That’s why so many in the game feel there is information overload with some teams. It’s truly a “can’t see the forest for the trees” mentality.
I think that that was what occurred in Philadelphia with McFail and Klentak.
Dombrowski is much more prone to at least listen to scouts and use common sense.
Common sense is not so common anymore.
I have long been a proponent at looking at at least relievers to throw out the best and worst 10% of appearances to get a more relevant average performance criterion.Everybody has bad and great days.
Statistics and their evaluation should be an important criterion in evaluating future performance but the data needs to be refined or at least appreciated for how accurate it is in evaluating the past.
Line – I totally agree! They should basically focus on the median.
Yes Dave believes in using a blend of analytics and traditional methods, if it ain’t broke then no need to fix it.
It’s not analytics itself that’s the problem, it’s the fact many people don’t know how to properly use them …. quite often because they have tunnel vision, which is common for many numbers people.
At least your team finally realized having Schwarber bat leadoff was idiotic.
Actually my team is the Pirates but because of my dotage I sometimes wander where I should not go!
I have lived near Philadelphia for 48 years but grew up north of Pittsburgh for the first third of my life.
Some people mistake me for an adult because of my age.
I know a fair amount about both teams but usually do not stray among others because it is better to be quiet and thought stupid than to post and remove all doubt.
I am here because of Coulombe because a couple of Pirates posters wanted him and the price is right up Nutting’s alley.
There is a lot more to pitching than throwing hard and looking at statistics.
Tunnel vision is not only common among railroad engineers.That is because it is much easier to just deal with numbers than with the many nuances that players have
I still am mystified that a common plan is to bat the best home run hitter first.It did not work that way for 80 years and that worked just fine.I do believe that it can be easily shown that the chances of having men on base for the home run is much much higher for the number one and two hitters than for the eight and nine hitters even without the pitcher batting.
To my mind the leadoff hitter gets 36 more plate appearances that the number three hitter in a year.That equates to about three home runs.
How many runs does the team lose because ten of those home runs are guaranteed to have no one on base?
I may be missing something but if not maybe the Ivy Leaguers who make these decisions are.
Mendoza Line 215
6 hours ago
___________________________
When age is no death sentence.
Reliever’s first season with the Red Sox:
2013 – K. Uehara (1.09 ERA; age 38) – career-best season;
2023 – K. Martin (1.05 ERA; age 37) – career-best season;
2025 – A. Chapman (1.17 ERA; age 37) – career-best season.
Mendoza Line 215
7 hours ago
________________________
As I recall, Uehara didn’t have a killer pitch, but he had amazing ball control, his splitter often left-handers out of business and Koji showed excellent results in the Red Sox bullpen at the age of 38-41.
Mendoza – My favorite NL team has been the Pirates since they won me over in 1979. They were so entertaining, that WS comeback was thrilling against an O’s team that I despised. Combine that with the Steelers and Flashdance, I seriously considered going to college in Pittsburgh. I never made it to Three Rivers but PNC is my favorite park not named Fenway.
I go all the way back to Forbes Field and attended the last game there in 1970 with a couple of friends which was a doubleheader against the Cubs.
I wanted to go with the same guys to the last game at Three Rivers Stadium but they declined.
The Pirates beat the Orioles in the 1971 World Series too which is the year that the Orioles had four twenty game winners.
at $1MM, you can give him a short leash and then DFA him when another arm they prefer is available. effectively league min for a lefty that was effective as recently as 16 games ago.
Or trade him at the deadline for a kings ransom from a small market team if the bullpen is solid without him
a “kings ransom” _ Maybe in fantasy baseball
“ One more thing…”
“I’ll be a son of a gun….”
“You’ll be the first to know”
Great move. LH reliever was one of the things I was most worried about with this club. When I saw Coulombe was still a free agent I hoped a deal like this would happen.
Ag36.11yrs. Better than League avg in ba,obp,slg,Ops,babip,hr%,K%,EV,LD,FB%. Career bb%8.8,
Mlb avg 8.3%.
Good signing for $1 million.
(Please forgive the difficult reading, not very good at this keyboard)
Why? Are the keys in the wrong place?
Probably a lefty using a righty keyboard. Or hes a righty using a lefty keyboard.
Nah.my fingers just keep hitting the wrong keys.
Took me three tries to type this.
crs – Try the keyboards that have keys which are labeled, not everyone can type from memory.
That’s funny.Appreciate the humor.
Only two tries for this ppost!
Breslow finally got his lefty reliever
This leaves Sandoval in a tough spot. Sounded like these would be his innings.
Sandoval hasn’t thrown a competitive in over a year and a half. Not sure when he’ll be ready, but hard to count on him for anything at this point.
He’s now at 21 months for what is normally a 12-13 month recovery.
swan – Sandoval isn’t thrilled with the idea of pitching out of the pen, he even made it a point to publicly say he’s never relieved before (even though he has). It’s gonna be a sticky situation with him.
He also said this: “I’ve been going pretty hard out here since the beginning of January. I’m not the biggest fan of this deload.”
Big fan of Coulombe, $1M seems criminal for his services.
…underated…
Honestly shocked this worked out so well for the Red Sox.
They’ve been “interested” in him all offseason, and he’s been out there for so long.
Originally thought he’d be in the 5-6 range, then 3-4.
Once Beeks succumbed to a minor league deal he answered the phone in a hurry.
Great signing for Breslow and keeps them under the second luxury tax tier (I don’t care, and it will be gone next year, but they do for sure)
He was really effective last year, I can’t believe no one signed him earlier if he was willing to take $1 million.
Phils- its always really tough to guess what he was willing to take, from who, and when…
Did his price drop so he could get into ST?
Was he waiting for a team with legitimate postseason shot to come calling?
Did he have a higher mult-year price tag to start, and, once the music stopped he just watched for a guaranteed mlb deal anywhere left available?
It’s so hard to say, especially with players at the end of their careers, what went into their decision. Maybe itll eventually come out in an interview
Laughing and cringing at naive and gullible Red Sox fans dancing a joyous jig thinking they signed 1989 Norm Charlton when in fact he’s an underhand throwing leprechaun of 36 going on 56 drastically overdue for career regression if not career extinction. Normally you get what you pay for in life and for one million bucks it ain’t gonna be much.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
gullible Red Sox fans …thinking they signed 1989 Norm Charlton when in fact
=================
This RS fan thinks we are getting a lefty who BR projects a 3.42 and FG projects a 3.76. So either:
1-You think a LH RP with 3.59 ERA isn’t worth $1M, or
2-You think you know more than BR and FG.
Which is it?
No one is ‘dancing a joyous jig” you oddball.
Read the comments. Everyone seems very giddy. I am just calling it Irrational Exuberance for now. Red Sox fans are acting like they have Stockholm Syndrome and are praising their captor after handing out a cookie. But things have not been nearly that dire up in Beantown.
In past off seasons, when there were holes remaining in the roster this close to the season start the approach has normally been doing *nothing* and waiting to see if someone would step up and surprise us, or, simply roll with what we had.
The fact that the front office is taking a *continuous* approach to keep tweaking the roster where theres deficiencies is a positive change.
There’s less excitement that we just signed the next coming of Cy Young than there is that the team brass is indicating they arent taking a set it and send it approach to the season
I read them. No everyone does not seem “giddy”
Okay perhaps giddy didn’t cut the mustard…how about effervescent ? thoughtlessly positive ? artificially stoked ? heedlessly gleeful ? Much ado over a well traveled late spring pickup for basically the league minimum. Good to have a second lefty in there fwiw.
Ignorant Son-of-a-b
1 hour ago
Laughing and cringing at naive and gullible Red Sox fans dancing a joyous jig thinking they signed 1989 Norm Charlton when in fact he’s an underhand throwing leprechaun of 36 going on 56 drastically overdue for career regression if not career extinction. Normally you get what you pay for in life and for one million bucks it ain’t gonna be much.
——————————————————-
2026 Relievers
Cubs
C.Thielbar 39 Age
S.Miller 35 Age
H.Milner 35 Age
Yankees
T.Hill 36 Age
F.Cruz 36 Age
M.Leiter Jr. 35 Age
Padres
R.Suarez 35 Age
J.Adam 34 Age
W.Peralta 34 Age
Blue Jays
Y.Garcia 35 Age
T.Nance 35 Age
Metz
Ty.Rogers 35 Age
H.Brazoban 36 Age
Braves
R.Iglesias 36 Age
P.Johnson 35 Age
Red Sox
A.Chapman 38 Age
D.Coulombe 36 Age
Dodgers
B.Treinen 37 Age
K.Yates 39 Age
Rangers
C.Martin 39 Age
S.Armstrong 35 Age
Reds
B.Suter 36 Age
E.Pagan 35 Age
Angels
K.Jansen 38 Age
D.Pomeranz 37 Age
Rays
C.Sulser 36 Age
S.Matz 35 Age
Arizona
P.Sewald 36 Age
Twins
J.Topa 35 Age
Orioles
A.Kittredge 36 Age
Nationals
K.Finnegan 34 Age
Astros
S.Okert 34 Age
Rockies
B.Bernardino 34 Age
By your logic, all the relievers listed above are 34-36-year-old leprechauns facing regression in 2026, but for some reason you chose Columbo as your victim.I don’t care how a pitcher throws the ball as long as it gets results.
I don’t think anyone expects Colombe to be Dennis Eckersley or Koji Uehara.
The Red Sox needed a competent lefty, and that’s enough; your skepticism is misplaced.
You’re either a troll or a Red Sox hater.
*D.Coulombe
“Youre either a troll or a Red Sox hater”
Absolutely a troll, but probably doesnt even know it. He sees a dozen “good pickups” in the comments and, in his mind, it adds up to “1989 Norm Charlton” somehow.
BTW, Good Pickup Sox.
@Bogey, your entire post lacks understanding.
Dan Quisenberry was an elite reliever into his age 34 season, at age 34 he broke down.
Brad Zieglar, an elite reliever, got a late start at age 28 but broke down at age 36 after 500IPs in the MLB.
Chad Bradford had a successful but short career, was out of the league at age 34.
Darren O’Day was an elite reliever, didnt pitch over 20IPs in a single season past his age 34 season.
The submariners have shown a proclivity for breaking down early yet it is Rogers who landed a 3yr/37M dollar deal from Toronto and Danny Coulombe with a 1yr/1M dollar deal when Coulombe is far less of an injury risk.
Maddux threw four-seamer, sinker, cutter, curveball and pitched 20 seasons.
Danny Coulombe also throws four-seamer, sinker, cutter, sweeper, it is a pitch mix that holds up very well. Coulombe can likely pitch well into his 40’s effectively and has been outstanding over the past three seasons out of the bullpen.
In 124IP over the past three seasons, Coulombe has posted:
2.47 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 9.1 K/9, 3.5 K/BB, 0.7 HR/9
Id take Coulombe over Rogers this season and he is getting paid 11M less.
Coulombe must have an injury, it is the only reason I can think of for him going unsigned and getting such a low deal but there hasnt been any report about him being injured so its a mystery in some sense.
No ABS in ’27
1 second ago
@Bogey, your entire post lacks understanding.
___________________________
I understand the problem very well.
You’ve given some bad examples, but I can also give many good examples of relievers who are still playing successfully past age 35 – Chris Martin, 39; Drew Pomeranz, 37; David Robertson, 40.
C.Martin Red Sox – 2023/2024 – 37/38 Age
J.Wilson Red Sox – 2025 – 37 Age
**@Bogey is doing the JoeBrady thing, quoting a comment and posting his rebutal below. I have Ignorant Son of a B blocked and @Bogey’s comment was in some way confusing.
My point wasn’t related to the effectiveness of one style over another, it was related to the durability of submariners compared to the durability of sinker ballers.
No ABS in ’27
2 minutes ago
**@Bogey is doing the JoeBrady thing, quoting a comment and posting his rebutal below. I have Ignorant Son of a B blocked and @Bogey’s comment was in some way confusing.
My point wasn’t related to the effectiveness of one style over another, it was related to the durability of submariners compared to the durability of sinker ballers.
_________________________
Ok.
Got it.
Let’s hope Coluombe is doing well and contributes to the Red Sox this season.
Im an advocate for Coulombe, everything Ive posted is in regards to how absurd of a contract it is. Its a million bucks, the money isnt the part that hurts, its the lack of recognition in a way. It would have been nice to Coulombe get a fair shake after having three excellent seasons.
He probably had his heart set on a new boat, or something to that effect, knowing he earned it, and its like they took it away from him for looking ahead.
Now he has to pitch with the pain of crushed hopes and dreams in his heart.
Nice post ABS.Coulombe is really pitching now for service time towards his mlb pension.He has a little over 7 yrs(7yrs and 8 days) in and needs 3 more for the max 10 yrs.Hopefully he will get there.
A million bucks still buys a nice boat.
Excuses and reasons mean nothing since none of us were in on the negotiations. I am surprised at the value of this deal. While we’re at it, it could also be that he got higher offers but wants to pitch on a club that is competitive. I doubt that’s it but again none of us were in on the negotiations.
Im sure there are many nice boats affordable to him.
He is a human, intelligent, he knows his stats are solid for three consecutive seasons, knows the market for relief pitching, and being human, has his sights set on a nice paycheck.
White Sox paid Anthony Kay 2yr/14M. I would have thought that deal to be high for Coulombe but reasonable. A 2yr/10M still a fair payday. I would have thought 2yr/7M to be low considering his stats and some of the market comps. I could have made sense of 1yr/5M. 1yr/3M feels like a lowball deal. 1yr/1M is better than shoveling horse shxt at Santa Anita.
Bogey-Please don’t be too hard on Ignorant son of a b.Anyone honest enough to use a poster name like he does which reflects him accurately is alright in my book.
Sure he is 36 years old but how does he only get 1 million with how good he has been the past couple seasons. The wage imbalance between elite stars and solid talent is ridiculous.
I might add, some aren’t even elite stars they are just being paid like it. 1 year deal somewhat makes sense with his age but the salary..
Midinfieldlifer
1 minute ago
I might add, some aren’t even elite stars they are just being paid like it. 1 year deal somewhat makes sense with his age but the salary..
________________________________
He may have been hoping until the very end that one of the playoff contenders would offer him a good contract, but given the fact that the Red Sox are offering you a chance two weeks before the season starts (even if it’s only $1 million), it’s unlikely you’ll refuse.
Yes quite possibly.
I just cant wrap my head around the insane contracts being thrown around and this guy only gets a mil.
Supply and demand. It wasn’t that long ago in the grand scheme of the game that $1 million was a sizable deal.
It mightve been about to get $400k/yr for 10 years starting in 2037 if he wanted.
Hopefully he has a great year with the Sox and they reward him like Chapman last year. As you get older, being in your mid thirties seems like being a kid. Nothing to say he can’t keep going strong for 3 or 4 more years.
The Cuban Missile at 38 is still pitching pretty well.
Mendoza Line 215
9 minutes ago
The Cuban Missile at 38 is still pitching pretty well.
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Not bad results is an understatement; Chapman produced the best results of his career at the age of 37, literally.
I was chastised by Pirate fans when they signed him a couple of years ago for $10.5 M but he came in handy when Bednar imploded.You cannot have too many closers as they can pitch in the 7th and 8th innings when you occasionally need them to do so for the matchups.
I think that Chapman at like 15 years is a HOFer.It may take five years of voting but he has consistently been very good to excellent.
Great numbers with inherited runners as only 24% have scored lifetime .(47 out of 194).
Finally! Free agents coming off the board again, and when’s Giolito signing?
Not sure, is he eligible for unemployment?
GaSox – Wouldn’t you think if he was TRULY 100% healthy, he would have pitched in the WBC to prove he’s okay? Italia could have used more MLB pitchers. I really think he’s hiding something, again.
Fever, not really sure what to think. I mean, rationally I can see why an unsigned pitcher might sit out because you never can tell about injuries coming out of nowhere…
But, I do remember how the red sox werent committing to him coming back in the postseason, and you could say the quick rejection of the player option stemmed from him knowing what the medical staff already knew.
I think he’s worse than he was letting on. But who really knows
GaSox – I think Gio was hoping the Sox would offer him the QO, which would have also given him some time to gauge his market before deciding whether to accept the mutual option. He would have made $23.5M if the Sox had offered the QO and he accepted. Instead he got the $1.5M buyout and so far that’s it.
I agree with your last sentence.
Fever – i think the mutual option decision was actually due before the QO wouldve been. And regardless, the QO was for more money, and equal term.
Could be he hoped the sox were thinking of picking up their end of the option and hoped to force them into issuing a QO for about what, 3 million or so more?
Either way, whatever he was thinking, it didnt work.
He probably expected a payday comparable to what guys his age, and similar ceiling were pulling down, ignoring his injury history
GaSox – Correct. Once Gio declined the mutual option, he became a free agent. Then the Sox were eligible to offer him the QO.
I might be in the minority, but I think this is a good signing. At just $1M tt’s low cost, but if it works they have a lefty that can give them 40-50 innings of sub 3.00 era ball. I don’t understand why people are down on this just because he doesn’t throw 97 mph.
Just about everyone thinks its a good signing.
The Royals released Ted Abernathy in the early 1970s after the submariner turned in a season where his era was 1.70.The reason? Abernathy was 40 yrs old.
Mrbarky-Congratulations on your poster name,it is a doggone good one!
I remember Abernathy well and after googling him it is surprising that many teams did not vie for his services after his release.
Unless there is something behind the scenes that was generally known about him it seems that ageism was alive and well during that period.
Thank you for the kind words but the Mendoza Line is far superior.The great Tom Paciorek came up with that one.He had a brother John who had a lifetime batting average of .10000! I agree the situation with Abernathy has to be about age and nothing else.He was dominating.In 2010 Spring Training the Red Sox released 41yr old Brian Shouse a side arming lefty despite making 10 appearances and posting an 0.96 era.Red Sox manager Terry Francona said they just weren’t wowed by him.
It is common to underestimate players who do not have the shiny statistics but still get the job done over time.
John Paciorek I think went 3 for 3 for the Astros in the last game of the season so he gets the honor since no one else ever had three hits.
I lived north of Pittsburgh when Mario came up and he truly had soft hands and was a fine fielder.There are about 15 guys I think who had lifetime batting averages between 200 and 215 so I thought it unfair that Mendoza got the moniker but one poster pointed out that at the time the Line was established no one knew what his final lifetime batting average would be.
It is said by some that everyone has 15 minutes of fame but no one forgets Mario Mendoza.
I still like Mrbarky!
Mendoza – I am really liking your posts! I didn’t even know there was a John, I thought perhaps you meant his brother Tom whom I remember well.
Whenever I watch the Red Sox in Pittsburgh I stay north, it’s such a great city. I have a shirt from Church Brew Works and Penn Macaroni Company is one of my favorite stores, I’ve spent a fortune there.
FPG-I have always considered you a fine poster.
Some have no semblance of personality but I like guys like you who I can have easy repartee with.It is entertaining which a site like this hopefully has posters who can add that.
Fenway and Wrigley are my two favorite parks because of the historical significance of each.I did get to go to a game at Fenway in 1980 and enjoyed it very much.
I am still mad at Red Sox fans though because of the comeback that you made in the first World Series in 1903.
The Pirates have won five but the only other loss was to the greatest team of all time,the 1927 Yankees.
I hope that we get our revenge against you in this year’s World Series.
Mendoza Line 215
3 minutes age
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I’ll tell you this: the Pirates have a bright future – Skenes, Griffin, Garcia, Chandler.
This season, they’ve added veterans – O’Hearn, Ozuna, B. Lowe.
The Pirates could surprise us this season.
It would be interesting to see the Boston Red Sox vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series finale; I wouldn’t mind.
It really depends on what happens to the agreement at the end of this year.The eight small market teams have a total of one World Series win since 1991.Some have been much better than others and a few have gone to the WS without winning.
There is no question that small market teams can be competitive and get into the playoffs but they really cannot afford to keep the great players that win championships.It is also very difficult to have the depth that some of the big market teams can afford.
Hopefully the Pirates will begin to be competitive enough to get into the playoffs over the next three to four years and once a team does it does have a chance to upset better teams.
Mendoza – Thank you, I appreciate it. I always say I’m here to talk baseball and have fun. Bringing interesting facts and humor into discussions makes for a more enjoyable experience.
I’ve never been to Chicago, hopefully one of these years I will.
I attended a very special Turn Back The Clock game in Pittsburgh 23 years ago. Both teams dressed like they did in 1903, no PA system ….. announcements were made through a huge megaphone.
And you can watch it right here!
youtu.be/x0zFZQjaCkE?si=AMHu-AHI1vyRVfj-
Thanks for the game inclusion.
I saw a few pitches and heard your broadcasters.
Interesting to note that my one game in Fenway was in 1980 or 1981 and I remember before the game Jerry Remy was jogging along the outfield fence as he was having some knee problems I think.
He had been an all star with the Angels but I realized at that time how fragile these careers can be.He was never quite the
same afterwards.
We can never really know how well these guys’ bodies and minds are working but as long as they are doing their best that is all that the fans can expect.
Fever Pitch Guy and Mendoza Line 215 get what baseball is all about.They get guys who played both a major and minor role on a big league roster.Wether it’s Jim Rice/David Ortiz/Bob Heise/Mike Myers for Fever Pitch Guy.Mendoza Line 215 cares about Dave Parker/Bert Blyleven/Andy Hassler/Enrique Romo.What I’m trying to say these 2 guys know their stuff.
Mrbarky – Thank you for the kind words, I enjoy your posts as well.
Mendoza is in the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame.Defense wins championships.Give me guys like Mendoza,Belanger Dal Maxvil,Darrell Chaney any day.
Thank you Mrbarky.
And if I ever do get a dog I will know what to name him.