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Reds Claim Deivy Grullon

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The Reds have claimed catcher Deivy Grullon off outright waivers from the Red Sox, per announcements from both teams. Boston’s 40-man roster is full (following this afternoon’s signing of right-hander Matt Andriese), while Cincinnati’s 40-man roster is now at 33 players.

Grullon, 24, has made extremely brief appearances in the Majors with both the Phillies (2019) and Red Sox (2020) over the past two seasons. In 13 plate appearances, he’s collected two hits, including a double, with a walk and three punchouts. There’s little to glean from such a small sample, but Grullon carries a .283/.354/.496 slash in 457 Triple-A plate appearances and a .264/.302/.494 line in a similar body of work in Double-A.

Baseball America ranked Grullon among the best prospects in the Phillies’ system each year from 2014-20, right up until the Phils designated him for assignment in September and lost him on waivers to the Red Sox. While he never cracked the organization’s top 10 and was generally considered to be in the back half of the club’s top farmhands. Above-average power to his pull side and a strong throwing arm are regarded as his best tools.

Grullon still has minor league options remaining, so he can give the Reds an additional depth option behind veteran Tucker Barnhart (assuming he isn’t traded as part of the team’s efforts to pare back payroll), young Tyler Stephenson and utilityman Kyle Farmer. Cincinnati non-tendered Curt Casali earlier this month.

Red Sox Sign Stephen Gonsalves To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox have re-signed left-hander Stephen Gonsalves to a minor league pact, per Christopher Smith of MassLive.com. The team previously outrighted Gonsalves in late August. His new deal includes an invitation to major league spring training.

Gonsalves, now 26 years old, became a pro when the Twins used a fourth-round pick on him in 2013. He eventually became a top 100 prospect, though he didn’t see much major league time with the team or make a notable impact in Minnesota. Gonsalves concluded his Twins tenure with 24 2/3 innings of 6.57 ERA/5.72 FIP ball with ghastly strikeout and walk numbers (5.84 K/9, 8.03 BB/9). The 2018 season has been his lone big league experience to this point.

The Twins moved on from Gonsalves going into 2020, when the Mets added him via waivers. Gonsalves didn’t last long with the Mets, though, as the Red Sox picked him up as a waiver claim in July. He’ll continue trying to work his way back to the majors as a member of the Red Sox.

Jason Varitek Tests Positive For COVID-19

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Jason Varitek’s wife revealed on Twitter today that the former catcher tested positive for COVID-19, writes Christopher Smith of Masslive.com.

Varitek is preparing for his first season as a full-time coach on Alex Cora’s robust coaching staff in Boston. Varitek will be the Game Planning Coordinator, presumably drawing on experience from his playing days as a game-managing backstop for the Red Sox. The role figures to be an extension of his previous responsibilities as a special assistant and catching coach, a position he’s held since 2012. He’s been a member of the Boston organization since July 31, 1997 when he arrived with Derek Lowe as part of a deadline deal with the Mariners.

Varitek, of course, is a legend in Boston for his role on the 2004 and 2007 World Series winners. He served as a regular catcher with the Red Sox from 1998 until 2011, finishing his playing career with a .256/.341/.435 line across 1,546 games amassing 5,839 plate appearances. He made three All-Star teams and totaled 24.2 bWAR.

Red Sox Rumors: Outfield, Rotation, Second Base, Barnes

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The Red Sox signed Hunter Renfroe to a one-year deal earlier this week, adding a power bat to pair with Andrew Benintendi and Alex Verdugo in the outfield. However, general manager Brian O’Halloran said in an interview on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM this morning that the addition of Renfroe does not prevent the Sox from further adding to their outfield corps (Twitter link, with audio). “The door is definitely not closed on adding to the mix, and that could certainly be a traditional center fielder that has experience — a guy like Jackie Bradley Jr.” said O’Halloran. “We’ve said that Jackie remains on our radar, and nothing is foreclosed there.”

O’Halloran went on to note that at the moment, the likeliest in-house replacement for Bradley in center field would be Verdugo, not Benintendi. Presumably, the current group would line up with Benintendi in left, Verdugo in center and Renfroe in right. Bringing a center fielder into the mix could push the right-handed-hitting Renfroe into more of a platoon role, which could prove beneficial for Boston. Renfroe is a career .216/.268/.449 hitter against righties but has clobbered lefties at a .258/.339/.573 clip.

Some more notes out of Boston…

  • The rotation remains a priority for the Sox, with Alex Cora telling reporters Thursday that Halloran and chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom have been “relentless” in their exploration of the market for starting pitching upgrades (link via Christopher Smith of MassLive.com). It’s perhaps notable that Cora specifically referred to an “intriguing” crop of starters that are available on the international market. The Red Sox have already been connected to Yomiuri Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano, who has been posted for MLB clubs, and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters have also posted righty Kohei Arihara. The Sox will hope to have a trio of Chris Sale, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nathan Eovaldi healthy by this summer, but each has his own slate of health concerns and the organization is thin in terms of upper-level rotation depth.
  • Speaking of the international market for players, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe lists Ha-Seong Kim as a fit for the Red Sox in looking through their need at second base. While the connection to Kim here is framed a bit speculatively, Speier writes that “in all likelihood,” he’s the only free-agent option at the position to whom the Red Sox would be willing to commit more than two years, as his youth and upside fit with the team’s long-term goals. Most other options are likely to be viewed more as stopgaps or bridges to prospect Jeter Downs. Via Speier, Bloom suggested that the Red Sox are open to adding an established, everyday option at second base but aren’t dead-set on doing so. A multi-position piece who could leave some opportunity for in-house options like Christian Arroyo and Michael Chavis to seize regular playing time remains a possibility as well. For what it’s worth, Cora spoke highly of Arroyo in today’s call with reporters, praising his “upside” and noting that he’d previously recruited him to play for team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic.
  • While Cora was reluctant to discuss specific roles for players, he called right-hander Matt Barnes someone the team “should consider” for the closer role in 2021 (link via Steve Hewitt of the Boston Herald). Cora emphasized that it’s unfair to any player to speak as though he has a defined role now, with months of offseason transactions still to come, but he also praised the manner in which Barnes handled ninth-inning duties in 2020. “If the season starts tomorrow and we have the lead in the ninth inning and we haven’t used Matt in the seventh or eighth, I flip him the ball and I believe he can get the three outs and get us to the next day,” Cora said before going on to call Barnes one of the game’s best relievers over the past few seasons. Some may raise an eyebrow at that description, given Barnes’ 3.83 ERA since 2017. It’s worth noting, though, that of the 232 pitchers with 200-plus innings thrown over the past four seasons, only six have struck out a higher percentage of opposing batters than Barnes (34.1 percent), and only 22 have a lower FIP than Barnes’ 3.30.

Red Sox Sign Hunter Renfroe

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The Red Sox announced they’ve signed outfielder Hunter Renfroe to a one-year contract (via Chris Cotillo of MassLive). He’ll be guaranteed a base salary of $3.1MM with an additional $600K available in incentives, reports Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (Twitter link).

Renfroe, 29 in January, became a free agent after he was outrighted by the Rays last month. Tampa Bay decided it wasn’t prepared to tender him an arbitration contract, projected in the $4MM range, on the heels of a disastrous 2020 season. The right-handed hitter managed just a .156/.252/.393 slash line with eight homers over 139 plate appearances in his lone season in Tampa Bay. That certainly wasn’t what the Rays had in mind when they acquired Renfroe as part of the deal that sent Tommy Pham and Jake Cronenworth to the Padres last offseason.

That the Rays were willing to part with talented players to bring Renfroe aboard in the first place, though, speaks to the decent player he’d become in San Diego. Between 2018-19, Renfroe hit .231/.295/.496 with 59 home runs (106 wRC+). That made him slightly better than the average hitter in aggregate, but the shape of that production was more variable. Over the course of his career, Renfroe has mashed (.258/.339/.573) against left-handed pitching, while posting subpar numbers (.216/.268/.449) against righties. That could point to a future as the short side of a platoon, but Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom told reporters (including Jen McCaffrey of the Athletic) Renfroe could be an everyday option in the grass.

That’s a testament to his defensive aptitude. Despite his size, Renfroe has generally rated as a strong corner outfielder. Over the past three seasons, he’s racked up 23 defensive runs saved between left and right field. Much of that value comes from his plus arm, although Statcast’s range-based metric also pegs Renfroe at five outs above average in that time. That defensive prowess has helped differentiate the former first-rounder from other on-base deficient sluggers around the league. During his final two seasons in San Diego, Renfroe accrued a solid four to five wins above replacement, in the estimation of FanGraphs and Baseball Reference.

If he can recapture that level of production, Renfroe could find a home in Boston for a few seasons. He remains controllable via arbitration through 2023. In the immediate future, he joins an outfield consisting of Alex Verdugo and Andrew Benintendi (as well as primary designated hitter J.D. Martinez).

Both Verdugo and Benintendi worked in the corner outfield last season in deference to Jackie Bradley Jr. Either could be capable of replacing Bradley, who has since hit free agency, if the Sox see Renfroe as an everyday player. Bloom told reporters (Cotillo link) that Verdugo would open the season in centerfield as things stand but didn’t rule out the possibility of future additions to the outfield.

Free Agent Notes: Sugano, Teheran, Semien

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The Blue Jays and Rangers are among the teams interested in Tomoyuki Sugano, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. They join the previously-reported Padres and Red Sox as known suitors for the 31-year-old. Sugano has spent the past eight seasons with the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball, where he’s generally been brilliant. He sports a career ERA of 2.32 at Japan’s highest level. Sugano was excellent as ever in 2020, tossing 137.1 innings of 1.97 ball, backed up by a strong combination of 8.6 K/9 against 1.6 BB/9. The NPB team formally posted Sugano last week, giving major league teams until January 7 to work out an agreement with the right-hander.

Some more notes on the open market:

  • Right-hander Julio Teheran is planning a showcase for interested teams in mid-January, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). The 29-year-old is coming off a dismal season with the Angels where he allowed 35 runs (including 12 homers) with a 20:16 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 31.1 innings. Heyman notes that shoulder discomfort may have played a role in those struggles, but Teheran’s peripherals and velocity had been trending in the wrong direction for a few seasons even before the wheels fell off completely in 2020.
  • The free agent market for Marcus Semien is progressing and could reach a resolution in the coming days, Passan further reports. The 30-year-old is one of the market’s more interesting evaluations. After a stellar 2019 effort that earned him a third place finish in AL MVP voting, Semien had something of a disappointing follow-up this past season. His .223/.305/.374 line matched the worst offensive output of his career. That comes with obvious shortened season caveats, though, as well as a career-low .260 BABIP that looks primed for a bit of positive regression. The Reds and Phillies are the most obvious shortstop-needy contenders, but plenty of teams could move other players (or even Semien himself) around the infield to accommodate his addition to the roster.

Latest On Mets’ GM Search

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TODAY: Porter and Scott seem to be the two favorites for the job, as per Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link).  Also from Puma, J.P. Ricciardi is the other unknown finalist for the GM job.

DECEMBER 11, 8:13pm: The Mets are actually still considering other candidates in addition to Scott, Porter, Owens and Hill, Tim Healey of Newsday reports.

7:52pm: Scott, Porter, Owens and Hill are indeed the Mets’ GM finalists, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets. They have all interviewed for the position, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.

5:20pm: Led by the newly minted duo of owner Steve Cohen and team president Sandy Alderson, the Mets are off to an active start this offseason. They’ve already signed reliever Trevor May to a two-year, $15.5MM contract, and they seem to be the front-runners to add catcher James McCann. They’re also surely moving to acquire other players. The Mets have done all their work in recent weeks without a general manager, but that might not be the case for much longer. The club could hire someone as early as next week, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports.

It’s “likely” the Mets will choose Red Sox assistant general manager Zack Scott, Diamondbacks assistant GM Jared Porter, Athletics AGM Billy Owens or former Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill to become their new GM, according to Heyman. Hill interviewed for the position in the first half of November, but it’s unclear if the Mets have spoken with him again since then. It’s also unknown if (or how many times) they have talked to the other candidates.

Hill’s vast experience as the leader of a front office could give him the leg up in New York, as Cohen said when he took over the franchise last month, “I’m not crazy about people learning on my dime” (via Lou DiPietro of WFAN). That said, Scott, Porter and Owens have plenty of experience in their own right. Scott has been with the Red Sox in various roles since 2004; Porter also started in Boston in 2004, and he has since been a key part of two other front offices (Cubs, D-backs); and Owens has held multiple roles with the A’s since the late 1990s. Owens even worked with lderson for a couple of years when the latter was in Oakland’s front office.

Red Sox Interested In Sugano, Odorizzi, Hill

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After getting meager results from their rotation in 2020, the Red Sox continue to explore a wide range of options on the free agent market.  Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports that the Sox have interest in Jake Odorizzi and former Boston hurler Rich Hill, while Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal writes that Japanese right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano (who was posted earlier this week) is also on the list of targets.

Between this trio and Boston’s previously-known interest in Corey Kluber, it’s clear the Red Sox are considering pretty much any and all options, ranging from injury reclamation projects like Kluber, familiar faces like Hill, x-factors like Sugano, or Odorizzi, who is arguably the best starter remaining on the market aside from Trevor Bauer and possibly Masahiro Tanaka.

MLBTR’s list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents ranked Tanaka 10th and Odorizzi 11th, with Odorizzi’s track record serving as a bigger argument for a multi-year contract than his injury-marred 2020 season.  The righty was limited to only 13 2/3 innings last year, though none of Odorizzi’s injuries were particularly serious or cause for any long-term doubts about his ability to contribute in 2021 and beyond.

There has been enough interest in Odorizzi that he would likely be the most expensive option possible for the Red Sox, though it’s possible Sugano could cost more in pure dollars spending on the size of the posting fee his new team will have to pay the Yomiuri Giants.  The 31-year-old Sugano is moving to MLB after eight outstanding seasons with the Tokyo-based Giants that saw Sugano post a 2.32 ERA, 4.59 K/BB rate, and 8.0 K/9 over 1362 innings.  The Padres and Blue Jays are two of the clubs who have been linked to Sugano, though it’s probably safe to assume several more teams will be in touch before his posting period ends on January 7.

Speier reports that there is mutual interest between Hill and the Sox, which isn’t surprising given that Hill was born in Boston and still lives in the area.  It would be Hill’s third stint with his hometown club, after pitching three seasons (but only 31 2/3 innings thanks to Tommy John surgery and other injuries) with the Red Sox from 2010-12, and then a return trip in 2015.  It was during the 2015 season that Hill famously enjoyed a career reawakening, posting a 1.55 ERA over four starts with Boston that served as a springboard for five largely successful (if still injury-shortened) seasons with the Athletics, Dodgers, and Twins.

Hill would be the least expensive of the trio, as he would likely only require a one-year deal as he enters his age-41 season.  For a Red Sox rotation that has a lot of durability questions, however, signing someone with “few guarantees about the frequency with which he could contribute” (as Speier puts it) might not be the best course of action.  Sugano naturally carries some risk given that it isn’t known how well he’ll adjust to Major League batters, and Odorizzi can’t be seen as a sure thing given his lack of results in 2020.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/11/2020

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Rounding up some minor moves from around the baseball-sphere…

  • The Dodgers are nearing a minor league pact with Carlos Asuaje, per J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group (via Twitter). The 29-year-old utility-man appeared in 175 games for the Padres from 2016 to 2018 with a triple slash of .240/.312/.329. He saw 49 games of action with the Lotte Giants of the KBO in 2019. On a minor league deal, Asuaje is likely to get an invite to Spring Training, but he’s likely being brought on board primarily to serve as minor league insurance.
  • The Red Sox have depth outfield Cesar Puello back into the fold on a minor league deal, according to Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe. The 29-year-old returns to Boston after appearing in five games last season. Puello has also seen Major League action with the Angels, Rays, and Marlins. He provides right-handed depth for the Red Sox with the ability to play all three outfield positions. He runs well, and he’s shown marked improvement in his command of the strike zone, walking at a 13.2% rate across 167 plate appearances while with the Angels’ Triple-A club in 2019.

Red Sox Rumors: Lester, Kluber, Shoemaker, Morton

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  • Red Sox fans hoping to see a reunion with lefty Jon Lester don’t seem likely to get their wish, as WEEI’s Rob Bradford reports that Boston hasn’t reached out to its former ace this offseason. Right-handers Corey Kluber and Matt Shoemaker are among the names the Red Sox have contacted as they look to stabilize the back of their rotation, per Bradford. Boston also had interest in Charlie Morton before he signed with the Braves, although remaining close to his family’s Florida home was a priority for Morton.
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