Looking For A Match In A Jackie Bradley Jr. Trade
Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. has been popular in trade rumors in the past, though no club has come up with a compelling enough offer to pry him out of Boston yet. Now, however, Bradley is approaching his last year of team control – in which he’ll make a projected $11MM – and the Red Sox may be on the verge of reducing payroll. With those factors in mind, Bradley may be heading into the offseason as one of the majors’ strongest trade candidates. Bradley, with his combination of defensive adeptness, passable offense and quality base running, remains valuable enough on the field for the Red Sox to tender him a contract at a fairly high cost. But if the Red Sox decide it would be wise to move on via trade in the coming weeks, there would surely be interest from elsewhere. Bradley probably isn’t going to require a sizable return in a trade, after all, and free agency isn’t exactly rife with appealing center fielders teams could count on as starters.
Here’s a look at several clubs that could inquire about Bradley…
- Braves: Center field isn’t a pressing need for the Braves, as they could continue to go with superstar Ronald Acuna Jr. as their man pick there (at least until hyped prospects Cristian Pache and Drew Waters show up). The Braves also have two other viable outfield starters in Ender Inciarte and Nick Markakis, though they’re facing a decision on the latter’s $6MM club option/$2MM buyout. If the Braves part with Markakis, would they send Acuna to a corner? Even if Markakis stays, MLBTR’s Steve Adams raised an interesting question when the two of us were discussing Bradley: Would Atlanta and Boston consider a swap around Bradley and Inciarte? Both teams would come out with capable center fielders, with the Red Sox cutting some of their payroll for 2020. They’d get two years’ control over Inciarte, who’s due a guaranteed $16.025MM through 2021 (including a $1.025MM buyout for 2022).
- Cubs: Center field was a sore spot during a bitterly disappointing 2019 for the Cubs, whose top choice, Albert Almora, posted horrific numbers. The Cubs had to consistently turn to Jason Heyward amid Almora’s struggles, so they could simply keep the former in center next next year. But if Chicago wants to shift Heyward back to right field on a full-time basis in favor of a more traditional center fielder, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the team at least check in on Bradley. Who selected Bradley in the first round of the 2011 draft? Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, then Boston’s general manager.
- Diamondbacks: Arizona may have its center fielder in breakout star Ketel Marte, though if the club would rather put him at second, a Bradley pursuit would make sense. Like Epstein, Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen happened to be in the Red Sox’s front office when they drafted Bradley.
- Giants: The Giants already have a pricey veteran center fielder in Kevin Pillar, who’s projected to make $9.7MM in 2020. Whether they’ll keep or non-tender Pillar is up in the air, though, considering the 30-year-old’s offensive limitations. Although Bradley isn’t a world-beater at the plate in his own right, his .317 career on-base percentage is an improvement over Pillar’s .296 mark. That said, even if the Giants were to cut the cord on Pillar, it’s possible they’d just hand center to Steven Duggar to evaluate whether he’s fit for the role.
- Mets: Center field is a question for the Mets, who would likely be better off playing Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto in the corners instead of forcing them into the outfield’s most challenging position. The problem, as MLBTR’s Jeff Todd noted Friday, is the club’s lack of financial flexibility. Fitting Bradley into their payroll would be tough without shedding a similar salary or salaries (Jed Lowrie, for example).
- Phillies: The Phillies figure to have Bryce Harper and the returning Andrew McCutchen in the corners next season, though it’s unclear what they’ll do in center. While the team does have some in-house options in Odubel Herrera, Scott Kingery, Adam Haseley and Roman Quinn, it’s highly debatable whether any would be preferable to Bradley. Herrera might not even play for the Phillies again after missing most of this year because of a violation of the MLB-MLBPA joint domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse policy.
- Rangers: This would partly hinge on whether the Rangers want to deploy slugger Joey Gallo as a full-time center fielder next year. If so, Bradley to Texas would be all the more improbable. Gallo aside, the Rangers have seen Delino DeShields struggle mightily as their primary center field choice over the past couple seasons.
- Reds: Not only does Cincinnati seem to be preparing for an aggressive, payroll-increasing offseason, but center field stands out as an area it could plausibly upgrade. However, that depends on whether the team wants to line up Nick Senzel in center, where he played as a rookie in 2019, or move him to second base.
- White Sox: A change of Sox for Bradley looks like a possibility, as Chicago is in obvious need of outfield help. The unit may have been the worst of its kind in 2019, when Leury Garcia and Adam Engel combined for uninspiring production in center. Going forward, only left fielder Eloy Jimenez looks like a lock to return as a starter next season. Likewise, stud prospect Luis Robert could play an important role in a year, though his forthcoming arrival won’t stop the Sox from seeking veteran help. Of course, if the Sox decide Robert’s ready to take over center imminently, they’ll probably be in the market for a big-hitting right fielder instead of someone like Bradley.
Red Sox Release Steven Wright
The Red Sox have released knuckleballing right-hander Steven Wright, per a club announcement (h/t Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald, via Twitter). Wright had been projected by MLBTR to earn $1.5MM in arbitration, had he been tendered a contract.
This move doesn’t come as a surprise for a 35-year-old hurler who wasn’t a significant contributor in 2019. The Boston organization is known to be looking for ways to trim payroll and obviously didn’t envision Wright as a part of the staff.
Wright had a strong showing in 2016, pitching to a 3.33 ERA in 156 2/3 innings. But he was alternatively hurt and/or suspended for most of the next three campaigns.
When he was available, Wright wasn’t always very effective. Though he did end with a 2.68 ERA in 53 2/3 frames in 2018, that came with a less-than-inspiring combination of 42 strikeouts and 26 walks. He allowed nearly a run per inning in short stints in the 2017 and 2019 seasons.
There may yet be hope of a rebound, particularly for a pitcher that relies upon guile rather than power. But Mastrodonato tweets that there’s some additional health uncertainty at play here, perhaps involving Wright’s elbow.
Quick Hits: Maddon, Sasaki, Red Sox
In an interesting bit of “what if” history, Scott Miller of Bleacher Report runs down the story of how new Angels manager Joe Maddon almost become the club’s skipper at the tail end of the ’90s (link). Apparently, former Angels GM Bill Bavasi identified Maddon back in 1996 as a potential future manager and hatched a plot to install the pitching mind as something of an heir apparent–assuming, of course, that Bavasi could secure the managerial services of Sparky Anderson to serve as Maddon’s mentor. The plan went awry, however, when Bavasi, then-team president Tony Tavares, and Anderson met for a fateful lunch. Apparently, Tavares was offput when Anderson, then 62, struggled to raise a soup spoon to his mouth with a steady hand, and the prez nixed the Anderson-Maddon succession plan immediately after the lunch date. The club later went with Terry Collins as manager (with Maddon serving as bench coach), with the club later going outside the org to hire Mike Scioscia after the ouster of Collins.
If Maddon is harboring any resentment over the way things worked out, he’s doing a good job of hiding it. “I couldn’t be more grateful, sincerely, for how things have worked out for me in my baseball career,” Maddon says in Miller’s article. “I’ve always been a big believer in not having anything happen to you before it’s time. In other words, I had to earn this opportunity, and I felt like I did by 2006.”
More news from around the diamond…
- Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki was selected today in NPB’s amateur draft by the Chiba Lotte Marines, according to the Japan Times (link). Sasaki, 18, was clocked at 101 mph during his time in high school, and many major league scouts were said to have an interest in luring the pitcher to the States. Had the youngster decided to forego the NPB draft, he could have signed with an MLB club in June; instead, he will report to the Marines under the guidance of Chibba Lotte captain and former MLB infielder Tadahito Iguchi. Iguchi, for one, is eager to have the firearmer in the fold. “He’s an extraordinary pitcher,” Iguchi said. “It’s scary to think how far he might go. He was the best player available and now it’s incumbent on us to nurture his potential.” Unlike the MLB Draft, every team in the NPB has an equal chance of landing the first overall pick; teams provide their first choice in secret to the league, and the player’s negotiating rights are decided by the drawing of lots. Some Japanese teams, including the Yomiuri Giants and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, have refused in recent years to allow for the posting of players before they become nine-year veteran free agents. The Chiba Lotte org, meanwhile, has taken no such public stance, so it is not impossible to imagine Sasaki being posted for MLB clubs in the coming years.
- Conversations surrounding the Red Sox bullpen continued for much of the 2019 season, as the club’s decision to forego the Craig Kimbrel market caused many fans to wonder about front office priorities. It’s rather kind then, for Jen McCaffery of The Athletic to offer some free bullpen scouting in her latest piece, in which she looks at a few outside acquisitions who might be a fit in a Boston uniform. Trade options (Brandon Kintzler) and impending free agents (Steve Cishek, Will Harris) are both bandied, with McCaffery wondering aloud if Boston’s new leadership might be inclined to keep Brandon Workman in the ninth inning role he handled for much of 2019. The Sox recorded a collective 4.40 relief ERA last season, 18th among major league teams.
AL Notes: Red Sox, ALCS
Although Boston owner John Henry stated last month that the Red Sox were going to begin by “looking outward” in their search for a new GM/President, Rob Bradford of WEEI believes there is a “growing belief” around baseball that the club will ultimately hand the reins to an internal candidate (link). Although no sources are named in Bradford’s report, the silence surrounding Boston’s hiring search leads the writer to believe that the club may look inward in search of Dave Dombrowski’s successor. As Bradford points out, it’s possible that Henry’s comments were made with half a mind toward luring one of Mike Hazen, Theo Epstein, or Andrew Friedman to Beantown. Now that those potential candidates are staying put, it seems reasonable to wonder if ownership might be evaluating which of the four people currently running Boston’s baseball ops–Eddie Romero, Brian O’Halloran, Zack Scott and Raquel Ferreira–would be best suited for supreme leadership.
A serious offseason agenda will await whoever ultimately lands the job in Boston. The club has a stated goal of limboing under the CBT “luxury tax” line–an initiative that should prove mighty tough with both big contracts (David Price, Chris Sale) and forthcoming arb raises (Mookie Betts) on the 2020 ledger.
In other news from the American League…
- Mother Nature gave baseball an unscheduled rest day on Wednesday when she decided to pour vociferous showers along the East Coast–could she also have handed the Astros a competitive advantage in the ALCS? This is one question explored by Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle, who notes that the pause in the action has allowed manager AJ Hinch to skip Wednesday’s planned Jose Urquidy-plus-bullpen game (link). Instead, the ‘Stros will skip straight to a Justin Verlander/Zack Greinke 1-2 combo for games 4 and 5. “As soon as we can use our best pitchers, the better for us,” Hinch told reporters via teleconference. “It was an easy decision.” The rain delay will force both teams to play the next four games without delay (if games 6 and 7 prove necessary). This state of affairs figures to favor Houston, considering that their rotation makes them slightly less bullpen-reliant than New York. Of course, October is where the unexpected so often comes to pass, so it’s important to remember that Rome’s forecast is exactly that.
Red Sox Likely To Tender Jackie Bradley, Explore Trade
The Red Sox’s payroll has already emerged as one of the top stories to monitor in the upcoming offseason. With Boston’s “goal” of dropping their competitive balance tax number for 2020 south of the $208MM threshold, some difficult decisions are surely looming. After all, the Sox already have north of $150MM on the luxury tax ledger next season, per Spotrac, not counting arbitration-eligible players. (If J.D. Martinez were to opt-out of the remaining three years and $62.5MM on his deal, that would knock $22MM off the Sox’s tax ledger but potentially cost the team their best hitter).
On top of that, Boston’s upcoming arbitration class is massive, with twelve players projected to earn upwards of $70MM. A few (Chris Owings, Gorkys Hernández, Steven Wright) are easy non-tenders, which will knock the projected arbitration earnings down $5-6MM. Still, it’s clear that the math doesn’t position the Red Sox to reset their tax number especially easily. The team’s yet to be determined long-term baseball operations head will have some challenges to overcome.
To that end, Christopher Smith of Mass Live hears that the current front office is already discussing potential non-tenders which could ameliorate payroll concerns. While Jackie Bradley, Jr. (projected $11MM salary) may stand out as a speculative non-tender candidate, Smith opines it’s more likely than not the Sox will indeed tender the 29 year-old a contract. (Catcher Sandy León, Smith hears, is in bigger jeopardy of losing his job after another abysmal offensive showing.)
2019 was a disappointing one for Bradley, although he did rebound from a nightmarish April to post a pretty typical .225/.317/.421 line (90 wRC+). That marked the third straight season of below-average offensive production for Bradley, making his strong 2016 season look like an aberration. Of course, Bradley’s selling point has long been his outstanding glovework in center field, and that remains a strong suit, even if he’s not quite the defender he was at his peak. While DRS and UZR each considered him to be an average center fielder this season, Statcast was still enamored of his work, crediting him with six outs above average. That’s a far cry from the 15 and 12 outs above average Bradley was worth in 2017 and 2018, respectively, but he still remains an asset in the grass.
While Bradley’s absolutely still a major league caliber player, that estimated $11MM price tag is not insignificant for an organization looking to shed payroll. Indeed, Smith notes it’s likely the Red Sox would shop Bradley if they do follow through with an arbitration offer. The upcoming free agent market for center fielders is woeful, but Bradley would likely take a backseat in trade talks to Starling Marté, whom the Pirates should market this winter. Marté, while two years older than Bradley, has been the more productive of the two each of the past two seasons and comes with one additional year of team control.
Entirely speculatively, the Cubs, White Sox, Rangers and Phillies, among others, stand out as teams looking to contend in 2020 who have uncertainty in center field. Bradley’s price tag and lackluster offensive production mean he won’t return a huge prospect haul if Boston were to pull the trigger on a trade, so any team in baseball could put together an adequate package. With the Red Sox still on the lookout for a permanent voice atop the baseball ops department, it’s impossible to handicap at this point the odds of Bradley going elsewhere, much less pinpointing an exact destination. Nevertheless, it’s at least notable to hear that, as of now, the organization doesn’t seem inclined to let their longtime center fielder depart for nothing more than cash savings.
AL Notes: Yankees, Astros, Red Sox
Ken Davidoff of The New York Post spoke with a Rays official in the wake of the team’s close-but-not-quite battle with the mighty Houston Astros, and the Tampa employee believes his team’s ALDS strategy could end up changing the shape of the postseason. “We gave the Yankees a blueprint for how to pitch them,” the official told Davidoff (link).
There’s certainly some merit to that takeaway. Although the Astros have been expected to steamroll their way to the Fall Classic for most of the year (Fangraphs’ playoff odds have tabbed Houston with a 30 percent-or-better chance to win the championship for much of the season), the Rays came awfully close to taking them down within the first round of the playoffs, in part via a bullpen-heavy mix-and-match pitching strategy. As Davidoff points out, just one Rays pitcher–starter Charlie Morton–threw long enough to qualify for a decision in the ALDS, with manager Kevin Cash calling on 11 separate pitchers to tame the wild Astros offense. Houston’s offense mustered just a .700 OPS in the divisional round against this all-hands-on-deck approach, and will now square off with a Yankees team that, for what it’s worth, notched a competent 4.08 collective bullpen ERA in 2019 (good for 9th in MLB). However, Tampa’s approach, it should be noted, may have had something to do with the fact that Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell, two of their frontline starters, were forced to work in limited capacity; the Yankees should be able to sport a more traditional look with their James Paxton/Luis Severino/Masahiro Tanaka starting triumvirate, although Severino’s own 2019 injury considerations could preclude an early dip into the pen by manager Aaron Boone.
- After reassigning Dana LeVangie to their scouting department, the Red Sox are in search of a new pitching coach. As Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe opines, that’s a search that could have great import for the club moving forward, as the Sox will be on to their fourth pitching coach in the last six seasons in 2020 (link). It’s also a hiring search that carries far more nuance than it might have in previous eras, as modern pitching coaches are expected to blend data and biomechanical considerations with the more traditional soft skills involved with instruction–and that’s before accounting for a coach’s personal baseball-playing background. As Abraham notes, the Twins hired Wes Johnson to be their main source of pitching instruction in 2018, despite Johnson’s complete lack of professional playing experience. The club’s ultimate selection should give some indication of the philosophical leanings of Boston’s current, interim leadership group, which includes assistant GM Eddie Romero; the new coach’s ability to reign in the talents of David Price and Chris Sale should go a long way toward finally bringing some stability to the Boston pitching post.
Quick Hits: Nix, JBJ, Alfaro
Padres minor league piitchers Jacob Nix and Tom Cosgrove were arrested on criminal trespassing charges Sunday in Peoria, Ariz., after Nix allegedly entered a home through a dog door, per Jessica Suerth of 12 News. The homeowner caught Nix trying to break in at 3:30 a.m. and kicked him in the face, at which point Cosgrove reached into the dog door in an attempt to get Nix out. The homeowner then hit Nix in the torso with a Taser as he and Cosgrove tried to flee the premises. The police found Nix and Cosgrove at a different home about 10 minutes away and took them into custody. Nix was ordered to post a $100 bond and appear in court Oct. 14, while Cosgrove was ordered to post a $50 bond. Cosgrove appeared in court on Tuesday. This bizarre story looks like the biggest professional setback yet for the 23-year-old Nix, a promising prospect who missed most of 2019 with damage in his right ulnar collateral ligament. Nix, who joined the Padres as a third-round pick in 2015, ranks as their 28th-best farmhand at MLB.com.
Now for some more conventional items from around the league…
- With the Red Sox set to embark on a payroll-cutting campaign this offseason, center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. could wind up on the outs, Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic observes (subscription link). “You always think about it,” Bradley told McCaffrey in regards to a potential trade, adding, “It’s one of those things you just have to wait and see what happens.” Trade rumors centering on Bradley aren’t anything new, but no other club has convinced Boston to move him yet. However, the soon-to-be 30-year-old’s team control is dwindling – he’ll be a free agent after next season – while his salary is rising. Bradley’s projected to earn $11MM in 2020, and that could be too rich for the Red Sox’s blood in the wake of a modest season for JBJ. He totaled just 1.4 fWAR, his lowest since 2014, while hitting .225/.317/.421 with 21 home runs, eight stolen bases across 567 plate appearances. Although Bradley’s offensive output in 2019 wasn’t much different than the production he posted over the prior two seasons, his defensive numbers fell off, as he notched both a negative DRS (minus-1) and UZR (minus-0.7) for the first time since 2013.
- While Jorge Alfaro will go into next season as the front-runner to start at catcher for the Marlins, they’ll at least “explore” adding depth at the position this winter, Joe Frisaro of MLB.com writes. Alfaro, whom the Marlins acquired from the Phillies as part of last offseason’s J.T. Realmuto blockbuster, batted .262/.312/.425 with 18 homers over 465 plate appearances during his first season in Miami. Those are acceptable offensive numbers from a catcher, though it’s troubling that Alfaro struck out in at least 33 percent of PA for the second year in a row. Defensively, the cannon-armed 26-year-old did throw out 33 percent of would-be base-stealers, but he struggled in the framing and blocking aspects.
Red Sox Announce Coaching Staff Changes
The Red Sox announced several notable changes to the coaching staff under manager Alex Cora. In particular, the club will be hiring a new pitching coach duo.
While the Boston organization will retain the services of pitching coach Dana LeVangie and assistant pitching coach Brian Bannister, both will be reassigned. The former will join Steve Langone (who had been manager of advanced scouting) as pro scouts. Bannister will become VP of pitching development, thereby turning his attention to the organization’s farm system.
In addition, the club announced that Andy Barkett will not return as the assistant hitting coach. He had been in that role since the 2018 season, working alongside hitting coach Tim Hyers.
It isn’t entirely clear whether the Red Sox are contemplating any further changes to the staff, though it seems reasonable to presume that they’ll retain the remaining coaches. The club has continued to move ahead with fairly significant decisions even though it still lacks a single chief of its baseball operations department.
AL Notes: Adell, Etch, Mookie
A quick word of update on Angels outfielder Jo Adell, who has been turning heads in the Arizona Fall League–which isn’t to say that eyes weren’t already trained on him to begin with. After a 2019 season that saw Adell hit .289/.359/.475 with ten home runs across three levels and 341 plate appearances, the Kentucky native entered AFL play last month as MLB Pipeline’s 5th-ranked prospect in the game. As Kyle Glaser of Baseball America points out this morning, Adell is bolstering that pedigree with his most recent performance for the Mesa Solar Sox (link).
The 20-year-old Adell, who was selected 10th overall by Los Angeles in the 2017 draft, went 7-for-17 in AFL play last week with a home run and a balanced 5-to-3 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Adell reached as high as Triple-A in the Los Angeles system in 2019, although the team may want to see him improve upon the production he posted there in a small sample of 130+ plate appearances (to say nothing of the potential service time considerations involving a prospective star such as Adell). With outfielder Kole Calhoun a possibility to move on in free agency, there does figure, at least, to be some MLB opportunity for the youngster in 2020 when GM Billy Eppler deems him ready.
More from around the AL this Monday morning…
- A sad note of remembrance in recognition of the passing of Orioles organizational fixture Andy Etchebarren, who died this weekend at age 76. Etchebarren, an All-Star in his rookie season of 1966, was an important part of Baltimore’s mid-century dynasty. Perhaps most notably, the backstop helped catch, along with Elrod Hendricks, the Orioles’ four 20-game winners of 1971; it’s probably not un-noteworthy that the man known as “Etch” was also the last man to ever record an at-bat against Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax. After his playing career, as noted in a post from MASN’s Roch Kubatko (link), Etchebarren carved out a nice career for himself as a coach in the Baltimore pipeline, including stints as manager of the club’s Triple-A and Double-A affiliates, and time spent as the bench coach for former manager Davey Johnson.
- The site has already thoroughly explored the ongoing contract outlook for Red Sox superstar Mookie Betts. To recap, the club’s forthcoming CBT trapeze act, Betts’ impending arbitrational raise, and the player’s apparent ambivalence to signing an extension with the team have all coalesced to the point where the near-unthinkable–a trade involving the near-peerless Betts–may be a consideration this offseason. One factor that won’t figure into Betts status for 2020? Organizational tension. As noted in a piece from Chris Cotillo of Masslive.com, the four executives* in charge of Sox operations in the wake of the Dave Dombrowski firing–including assistant GM Eddie Romero–are not holding Betts’ businesslike approach to negotiation against him (link). “I think he’s doing what’s in the best interest of Mookie and I think that’s what athletes should do,” Romero told Cotillo. “Every situation of these is case-by-case. Mookie has been the one who has sacrificed his body and has put in the work. He has the right to decide what he wants to do.” In addition to Romero, team president Sam Kennedy and chairman Tom Werner both comment in Cotillo’s piece on their faith in Betts as both a person and a player, and Romero goes as far as to say that the player has “earned” the right to hit free agency. While this dialogue could just be seen as an encouraging bit of rationality in the front office realm, it is fair to wonder, for those reading tea leaves, whether such a congenial atmosphere could be foreshadowing to an amicable parting of ways between player and team.
*An earlier version of this post mistakenly referred to “four men” running the baseball operations department, when in fact the group of four executives is made up of one woman (Raquel Ferreira) and three men (Eddie Romero, Zack Scott, and Brian O’Halloran). We regret the error.
AL Notes: Alvarez, Astros, Benintendi, BoSox, Rays
The Astros and Dodgers “were at an impasse” in trade negotiations over reliever Josh Fields at the 2016 trade deadline, Houston GM Jeff Luhnow said, before Luhnow decided to aim beyond L.A.’s farm system. As Luhnow tells MLB.com’s Alyson Footer, the Astros had had interest in Yordan Alvarez as an international signing before he agreed to a deal with Los Angeles in June 2016. “Really, it wasn’t until the day of the deadline that I remembered the Dodgers had signed Alvarez, and I thought, ‘Well, if we can’t get a minor league player that we’re really excited about, why don’t we just take a flier on this young guy that they just signed that I know we like?’ ” Luhnow said.
After that sudden brainstorm, the Fields-for-Alvarez trade was concluded fairly quickly, putting Alvarez (then a somewhat obscure 18-year-old prospect) onto a new team less than two months into his pro career. “I was surprised and a little worried. I didn’t know what a trade was,” Alvarez said. “I thought they might have been releasing me. I was really surprised, but when they explained it to me, I understood.” The rest, as they say, is history, as Alvarez blossomed in Houston’s farm system and then made an immediate impact at the big league level, hitting an incredible .313/.412/.655 with 27 homers over his first 369 Major League plate appearances.
More from around the American League…
- Andrew Benintendi put on some weight last winter in an attempt to add more power to his game, though in the wake of a down year, the Red Sox outfielder tells WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford that the new goal is “to get lighter and more athletic this offseason.” Many tabbed Benintendi to break out into superstardom in the wake of his impressive 2018 season, though he ended up hitting only .266/.343/.431 over 615 PA in 2019. Some nagging injuries played a role, though Benintendi’s added bulk didn’t translate into more power, as he posted a lower slugging percentage and fewer homers (13) than in 2018. Benintendi is hoping that better health and a more back to his old speed-based game will result in a better 2020 season.
- Also from Bradford’s piece, he notes that Trey Ball and Teddy Stankiewicz have reached minor league free agency and could be unlikely to remain in the Red Sox farm system. Ball was chosen seventh overall in the 2013 draft while Stankiewicz was Boston’s second selection (45th overall) from that same class, though neither player has reached the big leagues. Bradford takes the opportunity to look back at a draft year that ended up as almost a complete miss for the Red Sox, as only five (Mauricio Dubon, Carlos Asuaje, Matt Thaiss, Gabe Speier, and Kyle Martin) of the 40 players selected have reached the majors, and none ever suited up in a Boston uniform. Still, the 2013 draft class did plant some indirect seeds for future success — Asuaje was part of the trade package the Sox sent to the Padres for Craig Kimbrel, while Speier was included as part of the Rick Porcello trade with the Tigers.
- The Rays used a trade-heavy approach in building their roster, though beyond the low-payroll franchise’s usual tactic of trading veterans when they become too expensive, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times notes that the Rays have also looked to add MLB-ready players rather than younger prospects, while also being willing to move minor leaguers of their own. “But increasingly we’ve been more open to swapping players…earlier in their career. I think at the end of the day, we recognize that we have to be wide open to any acquisition method that gives us a team that we like better than the one we had previously, be it for today or be it for tomorrow,” GM Erik Neander said. “The more near-term sensitivity we have competitively the better position we’re in, so that’s the goal. Striking that balance has to be a constant….Where you want to be is having a mindfulness on the short-term and not having it 100 percent pushed out to the future.” A whopping 16 of the 25 players on Tampa Bay’s ALDS roster were acquired through trades, most in under-the-radar swaps.