- The Red Sox signed Masataka Yoshida to a five-year, $90MM deal in December, an investment that surpassed all projections for Yoshida as he made the move from Nippon Professional Baseball to the majors. That said, the Sox also feel “other teams were prepared to bid more aggressively for Yoshida than has been widely reported,” the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier writes. The Blue Jays and Dodgers were reportedly the other finalists for Yoshida’s services, though it isn’t known what those two clubs were willing to pay. The $90MM guarantee is also a sign of just how much faith the Red Sox have in Yoshida’s ability to continue his production against Major League pitching, which is a belief born from heavy scouting and evaluation of Yoshida in Japan over the last three years.
Red Sox Rumors
Red Sox Sign Jake Faria To Minor League Contract
The Red Sox have signed right-hander Jake Faria to a minor league deal, according to MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter links). The contract includes an invitation to Boston’s big league Spring Training camp, and a guaranteed $735K salary if Faria makes the active roster.
Since the start of the 2019 season, Faria has pitched only 51 1/3 MLB innings — 32 2/3 frames with the Diamondbacks in 2021, and 18 2/3 innings split between the Rays and Brewers in 2019. In between those stints in the majors, Faria also pitched at the Triple-A level with the Angels in 2021 and with the Twins last season, with a cumulative 6.64 ERA over 80 innings over the last two years.
It has been a tough ride for Faria in recent years, after he came up through Tampa Bay’s farm system with a lot of promise, and had a quick start to his MLB career with a solid 3.43 ERA over 86 2/3 innings in his 2017 rookie season. Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom was working in the Rays’ front office during Faria’s tenure in Tampa, so the minor league deal will give Bloom a chance to see first-hand if Faria can recapture any of that old form.
Not counting those 2017 numbers, Faria otherwise has a 5.65 ERA and underwhelming strikeout and walk rates over 116 1/3 innings as a Major League pitcher. Home runs have been an issue, as Faria has allowed 19 homers in that limited 116 1/3 inning sample size. While Faria has still regularly worked as a starter at Triple-A, he has mostly been utilized as a reliever in the majors since 2018, so the Red Sox likely view him as a multi-inning reliever at best if he can win a job in their bullpen.
AL East Notes: Orioles, DL Hall, Red Sox
The Orioles took a major step forward last season, and now general manager Mike Elias has declared their rebuild over.
“I believe that our rebuild is behind us. We’ve got an incredible chance now to be a very, very competitive team for years,” Elias told reporters, including Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com.
That team will depend on the performance of it’s young core, led by Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and soon to include Grayson Rodriguez. Yet while the team is stocked with exciting young talent Orioles fans may have some reason to feel a little disappointed by the team’s modest acquisitions in the off-season thus far.
They’ve so far brought in starters Kyle Gibson and Cole Irvin, added reliever Mychal Givens, infielder Adam Frazier and catcher James McCann. While that group can all help the Orioles it’s not the splashy addition some might have been hoping for as the O’s look to compete in the tough AL East, yet Elias isn’t ruling out further additions by trade or in free agency.
“There are quality free agents remaining. We’re staying in touch in them. We’re still pursuing opportunities. There are some players on the free-agent market that interest us,” Elias said.
Given the dwindling options in free agency, it’s likely any signing would be more of a depth piece rather than an impact player. Baltimore was connected to free agent starter Michael Wacha throughout the off-season, but the addition of Irvin would seemingly make any more rotation additions unlikely. They’ve also been reported to be in the market for a defensive-minded outfielder.
Here’s a couple more notes from the AL East:
- Sticking with the Orioles to begin with, Elias says there are 12 players in the mix for the starting rotation come Opening Day. Gibson and Irvin are locks, while Elias has already said he expects top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez to make the team’s rotation out of camp, so that’d leave nine players competing for the final two spots. One of them will be prospect DL Hall, with Elias saying he’ll have a chance to compete for a rotation spot in the spring. Hall came in at 84th on Keith Law’s recently published top-100 prospect list. He did get a brief cup of coffee in the big leagues last year, but it’s possible the Orioles look to keep him at Triple-A at least to begin the season.
MLBTR’s Steve Adams took a deeper look at Baltimore’s rotation options recently, but other candidates include Kyle Bradish, Dean Kremer, Tyler Wells, Austin Voth and Spenser Watkins. - The Red Sox won’t be aggressive in seeking further upgrades to their roster, but they are at least keeping the door open to making a move, particularly in the middle-infield, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said the team likes the group they’ve got, so it seems likely that further moves would be minor league deals or bench pieces. Enrique Hernandez and Adalberto Mondesi are slated to handle the bulk of the middle-infield reps in 2023, with Christian Arroyo the top option off the bench.
White Sox Acquire Franklin German, Designate Jason Bilous
The White Sox have acquired right-hander Franklin German from the Red Sox in exchange for righty Theo Denlinger. Both teams have announced the trade, and the White Sox also announced that right-hander Jason Bilous was designated for assignment to create roster space.
Boston designated German for assignment earlier this week, in a bit of a surprising move given that the Red Sox had named German their minor league pitcher of the year. German had a 2.72 ERA and a very impressive 32.49% strikeout rate over 49 2/3 total innings between Boston’s Double-A and Triple-A affiliates, all in bullpen work. This performance earned German his first bit of Major League action, though he had an 18.00 ERA over his four innings in the Show.
2022 was German’s first season as a full-time reliever, as he started to run into some struggles working his way up the ladder as a minor league starter. It could be that the move to the bullpen might be a turning point for the 25-year-old German, and the White Sox seem interested in seeing if his 97mph fastball can translate to consistent results as a relief pitcher.
On the flip side, the Red Sox are also picking up a live arm in Denlinger, who has a 35.02% strikeout rate over 65 innings in the minors. Denlinger only began his pro career in 2021 when Chicago drafted him in the seventh round, but the 26-year-old already advanced to Double-A last season, albeit with a 4.70 ERA over 38 1/3 frames with Double-A Birmingham. Home runs contributed to that total, so if Denlinger can improve on keeping the ball in the park, a Triple-A promotion and maybe even a cup of coffee in the majors isn’t inconceivable for 2023.
Bilous, 25, was added to Chicago’s 40-man roster last offseason in advance of the Rule 5 Draft, though he was coming off a shaky season at the high-A and Double-A levels. Unfortunately for Bilous, those struggles continued into 2022, as he posted a 6.30 ERA over 105 2/3 combined innings (83 2/3 at Double-A, 22 at Triple-A). While his strikeout rates were still respectable, Bilous’ walk rate spiked to 15.74%. It is possible that a bullpen move could conceivably be in Bilous’ future as well, though his four-pitch arsenal might lead the White Sox or another club to continue to explore a future as a starter.
Red Sox Notes: Barnes, Bleier, Paxton, Bello, Pivetta
The Red Sox made a change to their bullpen earlier this week, shipping out Matt Barnes to the Marlins for Richard Bleier. Boston reportedly paid down around $5.5MM to facilitate that deal, a testament to Barnes’ struggles since he signed a two-year, $18.75MM extension in July 2021.
That trade came a few days after the Sox had designated Barnes for assignment, a move that registered as a surprise even given the righty’s uneven past year and a half. The UCONN product had spent his entire career with the Red Sox since being drafted in the first round in 2011, and he indicated he was taken aback by the DFA.
“It was a complete blindside,” Barnes told reporters (including Chris Cotillo of MassLive) about being taken off the 40-man roster. While he indicated he doesn’t have any animosity about his time in Boston, Barnes also intimated he wasn’t enamored with his usage last season. By the second week of May, he was deployed mostly in low-leverage situations. Between May 6 and 30, he was called upon ten times. Seven of those contests saw the Sox either trailing late or leading a blowout contest, with Barnes relegated to mop-up work.
“We got to a point in the season where we were either blowing people out or losing a game and unfortunately for me, those are the games I was throwing at that point,” he said. “My workload in the games increased along with the amount of work I was doing to get back to what was normal for me. That’s when my shoulder flared up.” Barnes hit the injured list retroactive to May 31 with shoulder inflammation, an injury that kept him out of action until early August.
Of course, the lack of high-leverage work was in response to Barnes’ struggles. He’d been tagged for an 8.65 ERA in 10 appearances through May 5. That was on the heels of a 6.48 showing in the second half of 2021 that led the Sox to leave him off the playoff roster. He actually fared quite well to close out the 2022 campaign, posting a 1.66 ERA in 23 games to finish out the year. That wasn’t enough to grab a lasting 40-man spot over the winter, perhaps due to a still diminished 21.7% strikeout rate in that stretch.
Red Sox’s chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom discussed the Barnes DFA and subsequent trade on the Fenway Rundown podcast with Cotillo yesterday. Bloom noted that trading Barnes to Miami was “not something that we knew was going to happen at the time of the DFA,” suggesting the opportunity to make the trade arose after the reliever lost his roster spot. He pointed to Bleier’s propensity for weak contact and previous success in the AL East as a member of the Yankees and Orioles as reasons he was an appealing target for the front office.
Bleier adds a second left-hander to the Boston relief corps, joining offseason signee Joely Rodríguez. The Sox had a decent amount of turnover in that regard, waiving Darwinzon Hernández, trading Josh Taylor for Adalberto Mondesi, and seeing Matt Strahm depart via free agency. Boston has starting pitching prospects like Chris Murphy and Brandon Walter who could theoretically factor into that mix after securing 40-man roster spots.
James Paxton is another southpaw on the roster. He’s pitched just six MLB games over the past three seasons due to arm injuries. That’s raised some speculation about the possibility of the veteran seeing action in relief as a means of building his innings gradually. Bloom didn’t rule that out entirely, though he cautioned that might not be prudent for a pitcher who has started all 137 of his career big league outings.
“At the stage of his career that he’s at and having been through as much medically as he’s been through, adding the variable of asking him to do something he hasn’t really done is something we would have to think long and hard before doing,” Bloom told Cotillo. “That doesn’t rule it out, but you do have to factor that in.”
The Boston baseball operations leader also pushed back against the possibility of using young righty Brayan Bello out of the bullpen, pointing to his “ceiling of being a really good starting pitcher.” Bloom did note that Boston could “creatively” manage workloads early in the season but made clear the team still views Bello’s future as a starter. Jen McCaffrey of the Athletic writes there’s similarly no consideration of moving Nick Pivetta to the bullpen. Between that trio, Chris Sale, offseason signee Corey Kluber and the rotation conversion for Garrett Whitlock, it seems things are trending towards Tanner Houck sticking in relief for the upcoming season.
Red Sox, Marlins Swap Matt Barnes For Richard Bleier
The Red Sox and Marlins swapped relievers Monday afternoon, with righty Matt Barnes dealt to Miami for southpaw Richard Bleier. Boston is also reportedly sending a little more than $5.5MM in cash in the deal to make the transaction nearly cash-neutral.
Barnes, 32, was designated for assignment by the Red Sox last week following the completion of a one-year, $7MM agreement with outfielder Adam Duvall. He served as Boston’s primary closer in 2021, earning a team-leading 24 saves. The 2021 campaign, however, was something of a tale of two seasons for Barnes. He dominated to the tune of a 2.25 ERA and a 42% strikeout rate through Aug. 4. Barnes was impressive enough that the Sox inked him to a two-year, $18.75MM extension in early July.
Over the final two months of the 2022 season, however, Barnes not only struggled but melted down in catastrophic fashion. He pitched just 10 2/3 innings from Aug. 5 onward, yielding a dozen runs on 17 hits and nine walks with 16 strikeouts along the way. It was a calamitous end to a what had begun as one of the best seasons among all Major League relievers.
Barnes hoped to right the ship in 2022 but promptly lost the closer’s job early in the year when he stumbled to a 7.94 ERA through the end of May. The right-hander was always going to be much lower among the team’s high-leverage considerations in 2023, following the December additions of Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin — a pair of moves that was in large part necessitated by Barnes’ struggles.
Nonetheless, it’s worth pointing out that Barnes finished on a high note that likely intrigued Miami and other clubs. He was on the injured list from early June through early August due to shoulder inflammation, and upon returning, he looked much more like the Barnes of old. Beginning on Aug. 4 — the same point at which he began to struggle a year prior — Barnes pitched 22 2/3 innings of 1.59 ERA ball and picked up four saves. His 21.1% strikeout rate was half that of his dominant 2021 form, but it was still an encouraging note on which to end the season.
Barnes might eventually get a fresh chance to carve out some save opportunities in Miami, though Dylan Floro is the current projected frontrunner for that gig. Floro worked to a 3.02 ERA across 53 2/3 innings with the Marlins in 2022, and he has successfully converted 25 save attempts over the last two years. Barnes tallied only eight saves in 2022 and finished with a 4.31 ERA in 39 2/3 frames. He’ll add quite a bit more bat-missing potential to a team that ranked 13th among MLB clubs with a 24% strikeout rate from its relief corps in 2022, though the downside is obvious.
Bleier, meanwhile, can fill the Sox’s need for left-handed bullpen help, even as he enters his age-36 season. The veteran southpaw has registered a 3.09 ERA in 125 1/3 innings since the beginning of 2020, and he’s held left-handed batters to a .225/.260/.313 slash line since he first reached the major leagues with the Yankees in 2016. Boston traded lefty Josh Taylor to the Royals in exchange for Adalberto Mondesi, sent veteran Jake Diekman (signed through 2023) to the White Sox at last year’s trade deadline and lost Darwinzon Hernandez to the Orioles via waivers earlier this offseason — all of which had thinned out the team’s left-handed depth in the ’pen.
They’ll get some quality left-handed innings out of Bleier, although despite his strong track record there are some red flags of note. The soft-tossing southpaw has never missed many bats, but last year’s 14.4% strikeout rate was his lowest since 2019. Bleier has, in the past, offset his lack of whiffs with enormous ground-ball rates. However, while last year’s 52.5% mark was strong relative to the league-average, it was nowhere close to the 63.5% career mark he carried into the 2022 season. Bleier has also regularly avoided hard contact, but last year’s 89.6 mph exit velocity and 40.8% hard-hit rate were both his worst showings since the aforementioned 2016 debut.
Barnes will make $7.5MM in 2023 and is due at least a $2.25MM buyout on a 2024 club option valued at $8MM. Bleier is due $3.25MM for the upcoming season and has a $3.75MM club option with a $250K buyout for next year. Barnes is guaranteed $9.75MM from here on out while Bleier will make at least $3.75MM. The Sox are covering the bulk of that $6MM gap with the $5.5MM+ cash consideration.
The Sox will save a minuscule amount of money and bring in a middle reliever with a solid overall track record and some particularly encouraging numbers against fellow lefties — even if Bleier comes with some potential areas of concern. That he can be controlled through 2024 via that affordable $3.75MM option is icing on the cake.
As for the Marlins, they’ll add more late-inning upside to their bullpen with this swap at almost no additional cost. Fans may bristle at shipping out the reliever with better surface-level numbers for what amounts to a Barnes reclamation project, but the Fish are willing to gamble on the younger, harder-throwing Barnes in hopes of unlocking a high-leverage reliever who can be controlled affordably through the 2024 season via that $8MM option. And, if Barnes is indeed able to round back into form, he’ll give Miami an interesting arm to put on the market this summer if they’re decisively out of postseason contention.
Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported the Marlins were acquiring Barnes. Craig Mish of SportsGrid reported that Boston was acquiring Bleier in return. Jordan McPherson of the Herald was first to relay that Miami was receiving cash considerations, which Mish pegged in the $5MM range. Chris Coitllo of MassLive was first to report the cash involved was a little above $5.5MM.
Red Sox Designate Franklin German For Assignment
The Red Sox have officially announced their trade that sends right-hander Matt Barnes to the Marlins and sees lefty Richard Bleier come to Boston. To make room on the roster for Bleier, right-hander Franklin German was designated for assignment. Barnes was already off the roster since he was designated for assignment last week.
German, 25, was a Yankee farmhand that came to the Sox in the Adam Ottavino trade in 2021. He had primarily been a starter in the minors but he was used exclusively in relief in 2022. The move seemed to suit him well, as he posted a 2.72 ERA over 49 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. His 9.6% walk rate was a tad high but he paired that with a 32.5% strikeout rate. That showing was impressive enough to get him to the majors, though he was lit up for eight earned runs in his first four innings.
The Red Sox will now have a week to trade German or pass him through waivers. Though his first taste of the majors didn’t go well in terms of results, he did average 97.7 mph on his fastball. He could intrigue other clubs with his youth, excellent performance in the minors last year and full slate of options. He has just a few days of MLB service time thus far and can be affordably retained for the foreseeable future.
Brayan Bello Open To Discussing Extension With Red Sox
- Earlier this week, Triston Casas said the Red Sox hadn’t yet broached the subject of an early-career contract extension, but he would be open to discussing such a deal. The same is true for another up-and-coming Sox star, as Brayan Bello told Alex Speier of the Boston Globe and his representatives and the Red Sox “haven’t had that conversation yet, [but] I would definitely listen.” Like Casas, Bello is 23 years old and made his MLB debut last season, with the right-hander delivering a 4.71 ERA over his first 57 1/3 innings in the Show. Bello doesn’t have Casas’ status as a staple of top-100 prospect lists, but he is still a well-regarded young pitcher, and perhaps even more important to Boston’s long-term plans given the organization’s recent struggles at developing homegrown arms. Though a long-term extension might limit Bello’s earning potential if he grows into being a consistent big league-caliber pitcher, he might also have interest in locking in the first guaranteed payday of his pro career, as Bello received only a $28K bonus as an international prospect in 2017.
Red Sox Have Shown Interest In Matt Moore
The Red Sox have checked in on free agent reliever Matt Moore this offseason, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive (Twitter links). The extent of their interest isn’t known, but Cotillo adds that fellow southpaw Andrew Chafin has not been on Boston’s radar thus far.
Moore and Chafin are arguably the two best remaining free agent relievers. Alongside Will Smith, they’re part of a group of quality left-handers whose market has unexpectedly lingered. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal linked a third of the league (Boston included) to the lefty relief market earlier in the week, but we’ve still not seen any notable movement since Taylor Rogers inked a three-year deal with the Giants before the calendar flipped to 2023.
The 33-year-old Moore spent a decade as a big leaguer starter, battling inconsistency along the way. The former top prospect had a couple strong seasons upon breaking in with the Rays but started to struggle in the wake of 2014 Tommy John surgery. He sandwiched a solid 2016 campaign between a trio of 5.00-plus ERA marks between 2015-18. Moore barely pitched in 2019, spent the ’20 campaign in Japan and was hit hard in his return showing with the Phillies two seasons ago.
Moore inked a minor league deal with the Rangers last offseason. He was in the majors again by mid-April and reinvented himself as a power arm out of the bullpen. Texas deployed him exclusively in relief, calling upon the veteran 63 times. Through 74 innings, Moore posted a stellar 1.95 ERA. He struck out batters at a strong 27.3% clip while generating swinging strikes on a massive 14.7% of his offerings. His fastball averaged around 94 MPH and he got excellent results on both his curveball and changeup, giving him a three-pitch arsenal to deploy in short stints.
The sole red flag in Moore’s 2022 performance was his control. He dished out walks to 12.5% of opponents, a rate more than three percentage points higher than average. ERA estimators like FIP (2.98) and SIERA (3.69) weren’t quite as bullish as his sub-2.00 ERA would suggest, as Moore was probably a bit fortunate to strand 81% of the baserunners he allowed. That said, there’s room for Moore to regress marginally from his 2022 level while still remaining a quality high-leverage option if he can sustain last season’s swing-and-miss prowess.
Moore certainly earned himself a big league deal this time around and he has a case for a multi-year pact even headed into his age-34 campaign. Former Red Sox hurler Matt Strahm secured a two-year, $15MM deal from the Phillies on the heels of a solid but arguably less impressive 3.83 ERA/3.30 SIERA showing.
Chafin has an even stronger argument for a two-year contract. He’s going into his age-33 season and coming off a second straight excellent year. He provided the Tigers 57 1/3 frames of 2.83 ERA ball with a 27.6% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk percentage. That was on the heels of a 1.83 ERA season between the Cubs and A’s in 2021. Speculatively speaking, it’s possible that’s leading to a loftier asking price than is coming from Moore’s camp to explain Boston’s seeming lack of interest in Chafin.
The Red Sox have a fairly straightforward desire for left-handed relief help. They’ve added Joely Rodríguez on a $2MM free agent contract but parted with Darwinzon Hernández and Josh Taylor after seeing Strahm leave in free agency. Rodríguez is the only assured lefty reliever on the 40-man roster, though starting pitching prospects Chris Murphy and Brandon Walter could theoretically find themselves in that mix. The Sox have signed Ryan Sherriff and Matt Dermody to minor league deals in recent days to strengthen the depth. Neither would take them out of the market for Moore, who’d be a more significant acquisition.
The Red Sox currently project for a player payroll in the $192MM range, as tabulated by Roster Resource. More meaningfully, they’re around $219MM in luxury tax obligations. That leaves them approximately $14MM shy of the $233MM base threshold, so a Moore deal would be financially viable while still leaving them some breathing room under the tax for midseason additions should they so desire. The Cubs are the only other team known to have checked in with Moore’s camp this winter, though there are surely numerous unreported suitors.
Gary Peters Passes Away
Former big leaguer Gary Peters has passed away at the age of 85, per a report from Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times.
A native of Pennsylvania, Peters signed with the White Sox as an amateur in 1956. He got called up to the majors for brief showings in four straight seasons from 1959 to 1962, never getting to pitch more than 10 1/3 innings in any of those seasons. He finally got an extended run in 1963 and made the most of it. He tossed 243 innings that year over 30 starts and 11 relief appearances, posting a tidy 2.33 ERA that led the American League. He was given the AL Rookie of the Year award for that season. The southpaw built on that campaign with another strong one in 1964. He made 36 starts and one relief appearance, logging 273 2/3 innings with a 2.50 ERA. His 20 wins were tops in the American League and he made the All-Star team, the first of two times in his career.
He would continue to post solid results for most of remainder of the decade, keeping his ERA under 4.00 in each year through 1968. In 1969, his ERA jumped to 4.53 and he was traded to the Red Sox afterwards. He would pitch in three more seasons in Boston with an ERA just over 4.00 in each, with 1972 marking his final major league action.
Peters finished his career with a 3.25 ERA over 2,081 innings pitched in 359 major league games. He is credited with 124 wins, five saves, 79 complete games, 23 shutouts and 1,420 strikeouts. He won the Rookie of the Year in 1963, made the All-Star team in 1964 and 1967, led the AL in ERA twice and wins once.
MLBTR sends our condolences to Peters’ family, friends, former teammates and loved ones.
