Red Sox Rumors

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/1/16

By charliewilmoth | April 1, 2016 at 1:59pm CDT

Here are today’s minor moves from around the league:

The Mets have announced that they’ve selected the contract of righty Jim Henderson. The former Brewers closer will be back in the big leagues for the first time since 2014. Henderson has battled shoulder issues in recent seasons, but he got good results in Spring Training, whiffing 13 batters in 10 2/3 innings. The hard-throwing 33-year-old has a lifetime 3.44 ERA, 12.1 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 in three big-league seasons.
The Red Sox have announced that they’ve signed outfielder Justin Maxwell to a minor-league deal, and he’ll report to Triple-A Pawtucket. The Marlins released Maxwell earlier this week. The 32-year-old hit .209/.275/.341 in 274 plate appearances with the Giants in 2015. Previously, he had played for the Nationals, Astros and Royals.
The Rockies have signed shortstop Jeff Bianchi to a minor-league deal, Matt Eddy of Baseball America tweets. Bianchi played briefly for Boston last year, spending most of the year at Triple-A, where he hit .262/.329/.315. He has a .531 OPS in 404 career big-league plate appearances spread over four years, most of them coming with the Brewers.
The Orioles have released 1B/OF Mike Carp and 3B/1B/OF Alex Liddi from minor-league camp, Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun writes. Carp, who’s played six seasons in the big leagues with the Mariners, Red Sox (with whom he won a World Series in 2013) and Rangers, played only briefly at the Triple-A level in the Dodgers organization in 2015. He’s a lifetime .254/.330/.414 hitter in the big leagues. Liddi played parts of three seasons for the Mariners from 2011 through 2013 and spent last season split between the Royals’ Double-A Northwest Arkansas affiliate and Jalisco in the Mexican Pacific Winter League.

Padres Have Had Internal Talks About Trading For Pablo Sandoval

By charliewilmoth | April 1, 2016 at 12:35pm CDT

The Padres have had internal discussions about the possibility of dealing for Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval, Jon Heyman tweets. (Via WEEI’s Rob Bradford, the Padres deny that there have been any substantive talks.) The Padres are not among the three teams to whom Sandoval can block a trade, Heyman adds. Sandoval is still owed $75MM through 2019, including a $5MM buyout on his 2020 option, so as Heyman notes, a deal to send Sandoval from the Padres to the Red Sox would likely include money to offset his contract.

The Red Sox recently named rookie Travis Shaw their starter at third base ahead of Sandoval, even though they’re only one year into Sandoval’s contract. The Padres, meanwhile, reportedly had a scout watching Sandoval, although it wasn’t clear how much interest they had in him or whether that scout might be watching someone else. The Padres had interest in Sandoval during their splashy 2014-15 offseason, reportedly offering Sandoval a nine-figure deal that exceeded the Red Sox’ offer in total value.

The Padres might now see Sandoval as presenting an opportunity to buy low, although it’s not clear whether Sandoval is an upgrade over current Padres third baseman Yangervis Solarte. Solarte hit .270/.320/.428 last season and projects to produce 1.6 fWAR, via ZiPS. Sandoval, meanwhile, batted .245/.292/.366 and projects to produce 0.9 fWAR (although another projection system, Steamer, rates him as being likely to produce half a win better than that). Sandoval would seem to be a curious addition for a Padres team that was badly burned by veteran additions two winters ago and now seems more focused on trading high-profile veterans rather than on adding them.

There’s been some speculative conversation about a trade that could send Sandoval to San Diego and James Shields to Boston, and a Sandoval/Shields framework might make some sense, at least on a purely financial level — the Padres still owe Shields $65MM on the deal he signed with them last offseason. While Shields’ home-run-heavy first year with the Padres was merely a relatively small disappointment, though, Sandoval’s first year with Boston was a disaster, so the two players’ current values seem somewhat different.

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Rays, Kim

By charliewilmoth | April 1, 2016 at 11:15am CDT

At $17.6MM and $11.3MM, respectively, Pablo Sandoval and Rusney Castillo will give the Red Sox two of the AL’s three most expensive bench players this season, writes Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. (Those salary figures include portions of those players’ signing bonuses.) And in addition to Sandoval and Castillo, the Red Sox will also have Allen Craig, who has a $9MM salary, at Triple-A. The only more expensive reserve than Sandoval or Castillo will be Josh Hamilton, who will make about $26MM, most of it paid by the Angels. The Red Sox’ projected $48MM bench is almost four times more expensive than that of the average AL team. Of course, the Red Sox have enough money to have very expensive players, but the cases of Sandoval, Craig and perhaps Castillo are reminders of some of the organization’s past mistakes. Here’s more from the AL East.

In the Rays’ additions of Hank Conger, Corey Dickerson, Brad Miller, Logan Morrison and Steve Pearce and subtractions of Jake McGee, Nathan Karns, Rene Rivera and James Loney, the Rays might be straying from their pitching-and-defense-first philosophy, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. Rays president of baseball operations Matt Silverman says the team has merely made a slight adjustment to take advantage of what was available — making itself better by finding better offensive players that are capable enough defensively. Chris Archer, at least, agrees with their new approach. “You have to have balance,” he says. “We learned for the last eight years that just being pitching heavy is probably not the way to do it. You’ve got to have defense. You’ve got to have pitching — the teams that win get high-level pitching, starting and relief. But you’ve got to have offense, too.”
The Orioles’ situation with Hyun Soo Kim is “a mess,” Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com writes. The two sides currently disagree about whether Kim is ready to play in the Majors, but Kim has the right to refuse a minor-league assignment. This isn’t the first time the O’s have run into had a hard time due to an interaction with a Korean player, Connolly notes — they had to release pitcher Suk-min Yoon last year when it became clear they had little use for him, allowing him to go back to the KIA Tigers in Korea. And they were briefly banned from scouting in Korea after offering a deal to amateur pitcher Seong-Min Kim.

Quick Hits: Shields, Sandoval, Cardinals, Astros, Twins

By Connor Byrne | March 31, 2016 at 10:57pm CDT

On the notion of the Padres trading right-hander James Shields to the Red Sox for benched third baseman Pablo Sandoval, one scout told Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune, “James Shields is not good in Fenway Park in his career. Some people think he’s a National League pitcher at this point of his career. But it’s one fewer year (on his contract) than Sandoval. I think Sandoval would be better off outside of Boston. I think he’s been eaten whole there. That trade actually would make some sense.” Both players are coming off down seasons, albeit Shields was easily the more valuable of the two in 2015. Shields, 34, exceeded the 200-inning barrier for the ninth straight year and set a career high with a 9.61 K/9, but he also logged personal worsts in BB/9 (3.6) and FIP (4.45) to accompany a mediocre 3.91 ERA. Sandoval is a half-decade younger (29), though that plus is offset by a well-known weight problem and the fact that he had the worst fWAR in baseball in 2015 (-2.0). Moreover, the two carry undesirable financial commitments. Shields is due $60MM over the next three years, though he can opt out and become a free agent after next season. That would mean leaving $44MM on the table, however. Sandoval, meanwhile, is owed $70MM through 2019. Both players’ deals have expensive club options at the end that their respective teams surely won’t exercise, which will lead to buyouts ($2MM for Shields in 2019, $5MM for Sandoval in 2020).

Red Sox Name Travis Shaw As Starting Third Baseman, Pablo Sandoval To Bench

By Mark Polishuk | March 31, 2016 at 9:36am CDT

Red Sox manager John Farrell informed media members today that Travis Shaw has won the starting third base job. The move relegates Pablo Sandoval, still owed $75MM on his contract through the 2019 season, to a bench role.

While the Sox have openly stated all spring that roster spots will be determined by performance, it’s still eye-opening to see Sandoval go from vaunted offseason signing to backup in the span of just one year. Sandoval struggled badly in his first season in Boston, hitting just .245/.292/.366 over 505 plate appearances and posting terrible defensive numbers (-21.9 UZR/150, minus-11 Defensive Runs Saved) at the hot corner.

Farrell noted (hat tip to Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald) that Shaw’s defense clinched the decision, which makes sense given that both players hit well during Spring Training — Shaw has an .898 OPS over 58 spring PA, while Sandoval has an .848 OPS over 39 PA. Sandoval also missed some dealing with a bad back, which looks like it cost him valuable playing time.

Though Sandoval was recently scouted by the Padres, there hasn’t been much trade chatter about the veteran third baseman, which isn’t exactly surprising given his big contract and poor season. The Panda is just one of multiple payroll albatrosses on Boston’s payroll; between Sandoval, Rusney Castillo and Allen Craig, the Red Sox have almost $38MM tied up in players who aren’t expected to be everyday players (or, in Craig’s case, even in the majors). That’s not counting Hanley Ramirez, who also heavily underachieved in his first year in Boston and is owed $66MM through 2018 with another $22MM available in a vesting option for 2019. If the Red Sox were to trade Sandoval or any of these players, they would very likely have to eat more of the salary owed or take on another bad contract to facilitate a deal.

Shaw, meanwhile, is under team control through the 2021 season and has made a semi-out of nowhere ascent to a Major League starting lineup. A ninth-round draft pick in 2011, Shaw was a decently well-regarded prospect (Baseball America ranked him as the 19th best prospect in the Red Sox system prior to 2015, and 26th prior to 2014) who made a large impression in his rookie season, hitting .270/.327/.487 over his first 248 PA in the bigs. Shaw is a first baseman by trade but has appeared in 104 games at third in the minors and eight games at the position last season with the Sox.

West Notes: D’Backs, Padres, Sandoval

By Zachary Links | March 29, 2016 at 10:20pm CDT

When Dave Stewart transitioned from being a successful agent to becoming the GM of the Diamondbacks, he left his agency behind. However, the firm – Sports Management Partners – stayed in the family, as Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic writes. Initially, the plan was for former big-leaguer Dave Henderson to take over SMP, but the firm was left in limbo after his untimely passing, which led to Lonnie Murray taking on Stewart’s roster of clients.

Of course, there are obvious conflict of interest concerns, particularly with SMP clients Chris Herrmann and Enrique Burgos competing for roster spots in Arizona. While the MLBPA has been aware of Murray managing SMP, the commissioner’s office apparently did not know Stewart’s wife was representing players until very recently. For the full story, we highly recommend reading Piecoro’s article.

Here’s more from the West divisions:

The Padres reportedly sent a scout to watch Pablo Sandoval, but San Diego GM A.J. Preller downplayed the possibility of anything brewing with the Red Sox. “Our pro scouts work really hard to look at all 30 clubs. … That’s the nature of what goes on,” Preller said (Twitter link via Dennis Lin of U-T San Diego). In a twist that surprised many this month, Sandoval is currently competing with Travis Shaw for Boston’s third base job.
Yasmany Tomas got a $68.5MM deal when he signed with the Diamondbacks, but making the jump was still tough decision for the outfielder as he had to leave one of his children behind, USA Today’s Jorge L. Ortiz writes. “Here you have everything, but in some ways you don’t have anything,’’ Tomas said. “There are times we may be at home and we’re down because we don’t have relatives or neighbors we can talk to and say, ‘Hey, let’s do this.’ In Cuba you always find people out, during the day or night. Money is not everything. You can have all the money in the world and not be happy.’’
The Rangers traded for Bryan Holaday on Tuesday night in a deal that should strengthen their catching situation behind Robinson Chirinos. The Tigers got right-hander Myles Jaye and catcher Bobby Wilson in the deal.
On Tuesday night, the Angels acquired right-hander Chris Jones from the Orioles in exchange for minor league outfielder Natanael Delgado and infielder Erick Salcedo.

AL & NL East Roster Decisions

By Jeff Todd and Zachary Links | March 29, 2016 at 7:05pm CDT

The Red Sox intend to use Brock Holt as their primary option in left field against left-handed pitching, Ian Browne of MLB.com tweets. That means that high-priced Cuban outfielder Rusney Castillo will be battling with Chris Young for playing time against righties. While both could certainly be in the lineup at the same time, manager John Farrell suggested that he sees both Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts as more or less everyday options, as Rob Bradford of WEEI.com reports. That certainly could leave few options for Castillo, who is looking to make good on the big contract he signed as a free agent out of Cuba.

Here’s a look at more notable roster moves to come from the East divisions:

It’s “a given” that Juan Lagares and Yoenis Cespedes will both be in the Mets’ lineup against left-handed pitching, ESPNNewYork.com’s tweets. It’s not yet clear whether Michael Conforto or Curtis Granderson will see the lion’s share of time in right field when a southpaw is on the mound, he adds, but the scenario figures to cut into their time. As for Alejandro De Aza, it’s unclear when and how he’ll get action, though a late-spring trade still seems possible.
Meanwhile, the Mets appear not to have any cause for concern with righty Matt Harvey, who is dealing with blood clots in his bladder but is expected to open the season on the active roster, according to WFAN’s Ed Coleman (h/t to MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, via Twitter). Alarm bells were rung after the team announced an undisclosed medical issue for the star hurler, but it seems he’s still in line to take the ball on April 3rd.
Erasmo Ramirez will start out in the pen for the Rays, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (Twitter links). He’ll presumably move back into the rotation when the need for a fifth starter arises, but Tampa Bay is set to use four starters for most of the first five weeks of the year.

AL Notes: Panda, Rangers, Sanchez, White, Angels

By Mark Polishuk and Jeff Todd | March 28, 2016 at 6:23pm CDT

The Padres have sent a scout to watch Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports. It’s far from clear whether that is an indication of serious interest, of course, let alone whether the scout is watching more than just Sandoval. Regardless, it’s the latest hint that there could be some remaining trade chatter to be held between these organizations, who already struck a significant swap early in the offseason.

Here’s more from the eastern divisions:

The Rangers are not only continuing their search for another catcher, but could look outside the organization for rotation help, according to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. A.J. Griffin may have the inside track to take the fifth starter’s job at present, says Grant, but there’s some concern about the overall starting pitching depth as camp comes to a close. As for the backstop situation, it doesn’t appear that much has changed, but Texas is still looking to improve upon its reserve options — if not to strike a more significant upgrade. (Grant notes that the club has inquired on Derek Norris of the Padres and Bryan Holaday of the Tigers.)
Of course, interest doesn’t always mean that a deal gets done, and significant spring trades are rare. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports also reports that the Rangers have real interest in both areas (Twitter links), but he says the club thinks it has only an “outside chance” at adding a catcher and is “doubtful” to find a new pitcher. All in all, both reports suggest that Texas is looking at its options but is hardly certain to add outside pieces. And still others suggest there’s not much reason to expect movement. Jeff Wilson of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram tweets that outside inquiries have mostly been tire-kicking exercises, while MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan adds on Twitter that club officials have suggested to him that the final rotation piece will come from inside the organization.
Reclamation righty Matt Bush isn’t in the mix for an Opening Day pen spot with the Rangers, Grant also writes, but he has been enormously impressive this spring and could be an option later in the season. Bush’s story is well-known, of course — the former first overall draft pick recently finished a prison term for severely injuring a man in a DUI.
Aaron Sanchez has been named as the Blue Jays’ fifth starter, manager John Gibbons told reporters (including John Lott of Blue Jays Nation) this morning. It won’t be a season-long assignment for Sanchez, however, as the righty seems to be under an innings cap and will eventually be transitioned into the bullpen as he approaches his limit. The 23-year-old has never thrown more than 133 1/3 innings in a season. Sanchez and Gavin Floyd emerged as the top two contenders for the fifth starter’s job during camp, and Floyd will join Jesse Chavez in the bullpen while Drew Hutchison has been optioned to Triple-A. It stands to reason that Floyd, Chavez or Hutchison will all be rotation candidates when Sanchez is moved back to relief pitching.
The Astros have decided to give an Opening Day roster spot to young first baseman Tyler White, as Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle reports. Houston’s first-base situation has been in flux all spring, but it appears that the 33rd-round draftee is in line for a significant opportunity to take the position and run with it. He is one of several players in the organization who have impressed this spring; third base prospect Colin Moran has also compiled a 1.000+ OPS in more than thirty plate appearances, though Drellich notes on Twitter that he’s not considered a roster option at this point. The same holds true of A.J. Reed, of course, who could also have a chance to make an impact later in the season.
Angels GM Billy Eppler says that he is “not optimistic” of adding to his roster before the season starts, MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez reports. Gonzalez provides a deep rundown of the club’s remaining roster considerations.

Red Sox Release David Murphy

By Mark Polishuk | March 28, 2016 at 3:21pm CDT

The Red Sox have released outfielder David Murphy, the club announced. Murphy opted out of his minor league deal with the team yesterday, and the Sox had 48 hours to either release him or add him to the 25-man roster.

Murphy, 34, was signed last month to add some left-handed hitting depth to Boston’s outfield. Murphy’s chance at a roster spot, however, seemed to diminish as the Red Sox seemed to prefer two internal lefty-swingers (Brock Holt and Travis Shaw), and Murphy has no interest in a Triple-A assignment, hinting that he’d consider retiring before going back to the minors.

As Murphy’s release wasn’t unexpected, the Orioles and other teams have already been rumored to be interested in the veteran. Baltimore has been linked to such left-handed hitting outfield options as Murphy and the Pirates’ Matt Joyce since the O’s already seem disenchanted with Hyun Soo Kim. Murphy hit .283/.318/.421 with 10 homers over 391 plate appearances with the Angels and Indians last season. This is just my opinion, but a reunion with either of those teams wouldn’t be out of the question since both L.A. and Cleveland have unsettled outfields.

Red Sox Release Carlos Marmol

By Mark Polishuk | March 28, 2016 at 9:15am CDT

The Red Sox have released veteran reliever Carlos Marmol, who was in camp on a minor league deal. The Sox announced the release along with several other roster moves this morning (hat tip to Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald).

Marmol was looking to return to the big leagues for the first time since 2014, though his career-long control problems resurfaced in Boston’s spring camp. Though Marmol only pitched four spring innings, he walked seven batters (to go with five strikeouts) while posting a 6.75 ERA. At age 33, the question of whether Marmol has thrown his last Major League pitch has to be asked, though his track record and still-tantalizing ability to miss bats may get him another minors deal with another team.

The former Cubs closer has long been defined by his high strikeout and walk totals, posting an 11.6 K/9 and 6.2 BB/9 over his 577 career innings with the Cubs, Dodgers and Marlins from 2006-2014. He spent most of the 2015 season pitching for the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate.

With this morning’s flurry of moves, Boston now has 27 players in its Major League camp as the Sox prepare to get down to 25 men for Opening Day.

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