Red Sox Rumors

Red Sox Notes: Pitching Staff, Kinsler, Moreland

By Connor Byrne | October 7, 2018 at 1:42pm CDT

We checked in on Boston earlier Sunday in the aftermath of its loss on Saturday to the Yankees, who tied the teams’ ALDS matchup at a game apiece. Here’s yet another set of notes on the Red Sox as they prepare for Game 3 on Monday:

The Red Sox have chosen Nathan Eovaldi, not Rick Porcello, to start Game 3, Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe was among those to report. Porcello is slated to take the ball in Game 4, though manager Alex Cora said that could change if the Red Sox need him out of the bullpen Monday, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com tweets. Game 2 starter David Price also seems likely to be available in relief, Ian Browne of MLB.com relays. As for the 28-year-old Eovaldi, a former Yankee whom the Red Sox acquired from the Rays in July, he’s in line for his first playoff appearance. The hard-throwing right-hander earned his way into Boston’s October rotation by logging a 3.33 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 in 54 regular-season innings with the team.
Second baseman Ian Kinsler – who, like Eovaldi, joined the Red Sox in a late-July trade – may be a regrettable pickup in the wake of an Aug. 3 hamstring injury, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe observes. Kinsler got off to a nice start with Boston, but since suffering the injury, his production has plummeted. The 36-year-old has slashed a measly .234/.280/.295 with a subpar 85.1 mph average exit velocity in 34 games dating back to his return from the disabled list, notes Speier. Further, his ongoing presence in the Red Sox’s lineup has kept Brock Holt – who thrived in September – on the bench. And Speier goes on to point out that adding Kinsler cost the Red Sox young reliever Ty Buttrey, who turned in quality numbers for the Angels after the trade and may have helped shore up Boston’s bullpen had it kept him. Of course, as Speier writes, there’s still time for Kinsler to emerge as a key contributor for Boston this postseason. He did collect a hit in each of their first two playoff games, including an RBI double on Saturday.
After leaving Saturday’s game with right hamstring tightness, first baseman Mitch Moreland is receiving “aggressive treatment,” Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston was among those to tweet. His status for Monday is still up in the air, but as was the case late Saturday, Cora expects Moreland to remain on Boston’s ALDS roster, per Cotillo.

Red Sox Notes: Price, Porcello, Eovaldi, Moreland

By Connor Byrne | October 7, 2018 at 8:40am CDT

Red Sox left-hander David Price has been among the majors’ best starters for the majority of his career, but playoff success has eluded the 33-year-old. In his latest disappointing October performance, Price threw 1 2/3 innings of three-run ball Saturday during a 6-2 loss to the Yankees, who evened the teams’ ALDS matchup at a game apiece. Amazingly, Price now owns an 0-9 record and a 6.03 ERA over 10 postseason starts, though his ongoing struggles on the game’s biggest stage won’t lead the Red Sox to pull him from their rotation. Both manager Alex Cora and pitching coach Dana LeVangie expressed confidence in the five-time All-Star after Saturday’s game, per Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. While Mastrodonato argues that the Red Sox should think about shifting Price to a relief role for the rest of the postseason, the team’s not considering it. Price is “one of our starters,” said Cora, who added that he simply had a “bad outing” in Game 2.

Given that the ALDS is only a best-of-five series, Boston won’t need Price to start again versus the Yankees. But after throwing just 42 pitches Saturday, Price could function as a reliever before the series is out. Price told Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com and other reporters he’d be ready to pitch again as early as Game 3 on Monday, and he also declared (via Mastrodonato) that he’s “looking forward to winning games in October as a starter.”

More on Boston, whose series is shifting to New York for Games 3 and 4:

The Red Sox are deciding between right-handers Rick Porcello and Nathan Eovaldi for the third game of the series, Cora said Saturday (via Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston). It appears they’ll turn to Porcello, though, as Eovaldi suggested he’s lined up for Game 4, Rob Bradford of WEEI tweets. Porcello’s only a few days removed from working out of Boston’s bullpen, having thrown 15 pitches and picked up a pair of outs in the eighth inning of its Game 1 win Friday. The 29-year-old functioned solely as a starter during the regular season, as has been the case throughout his career, and pitched to a 4.28 ERA/4.01 FIP with 8.94 K/9 and 2.26 BB/9 in 191 1/3 innings. Porcello has been more effective on the road than at home this year, which seems to bode well for the Red Sox’s current situation. He posted a 4.77 ERA/4.63 FIP at Fenway Park during the regular season and a 3.86 ERA/3.48 FIP outside of Boston.
First baseman Mitch Moreland exited Saturday’s game in the eighth inning because of right hamstring tightness, Cora announced (via Cotillo). It doesn’t seem to be a serious issue, however, with Cora saying that Boston probably won’t remove Moreland from its ALDS roster. If healthy, the left-handed hitter’s likely to start Monday against Yankees righty Luis Severino, Cotillo writes. Boston replaced him Saturday with the righty-swinging Steve Pearce – who, to his credit, has outproduced Moreland against RHPs this year.

Latest On Steven Wright

By Connor Byrne | October 6, 2018 at 8:21pm CDT

After the Red Sox removed the injured Steven Wright from their ALDS roster on Saturday, the knuckleballer lamented (via Christopher Smith of MassLive.com), “This feels like a nightmare to be honest with you.” Wright aggravated his left knee Friday while warming up before Game 1 of the team’s series against the Yankees, Smith details. It’s the same knee on which Wright underwent surgery in May 2017, thereby keeping him out for most of last year and a large portion of this season. Wright added that “what we think is there’s loose bodies in there.” He’ll know more after a Monday visit in New York with Dr. Riley Williams III, the same doctor who performed his surgery 17 months ago. The loss of Wright’s an unfortunate development for Boston’s bullpen, as the 34-year-old pitched to a 1.52 ERA with a .191/.303/.314 batting line against in 29 2/3 innings in relief during the regular season.

Heath Hembree Added To Red Sox ALDS Roster

By Ty Bradley | October 6, 2018 at 2:11pm CDT

Boston righty Heath Hembree has replaced right-hander Steven Wright on the Red Sox roster for the American League Division Series, the team announced this afternoon.

Wright, whose previous knee issues forced him to miss most of the 2017 season and a sizable chunk this year, was a trusty long option in a suddenly patchwork Red Sox pen. The knuckler’s results wildly outshined his peripherals (as, it should be noted, is wont to occur among knuckleballers) for the fourth consecutive season, with the 34-year-old posting a stellar 2.68 ERA over 53 2/3 IP. The longtime starter figured to be the perfect change-of-pace hurler in a hard-throwing Red Sox pen that struggled mightily down the stretch.

Hembree, 29, was left off the roster for the opening round after allowing a startling 10 HR in an even 60 IP for Boston this season, the second straight in which the righty was plagued by a propensity for giving up the gopher ball. Acquired in a 2014 deadline deal from San Francisco in exchange for Jake Peavy, Hembree has stumbled to a mostly uneven career in Boston, where his early-career command woes have never quite been solved, leading to periodic bouts of wildness (4.05 BB/9 in ’18) and the aforementioned issues with the long ball. Still, Hembree adds a quality right-on-right option (he struck out 31% of same-side hitters he faced this year) to a pen facing perhaps the most dangerous collection of right-handed hitters the game has to offer.

Boston’s bullpen, perhaps the club’s only weak link, is still searching for reliable arms in the most pivotal part of the season. The Sox didn’t look far for upgrades in July or August this season, comfortable, perhaps, with their historically great offense and collection of Cy Young winners at the top of the rotation. Still, the team’s recent configurations hint slightly at a deep unease, with the club calling upon rotation lynchpin Rick Porcello in the 7th inning of last night’s 5-4 win, and stationing highly effective third starter Eduardo Rodriguez in the corps for an indefinite period.

Playoff Notes: Wright, Barnes, Hicks

By TC Zencka | October 6, 2018 at 11:36am CDT

Steven Wright won’t pitch again in the ALDS, per Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston via Twitter. Wright, arbitration eligible for the second time this winter, returned in 2018 to post a 2.68 ERA (4.37 FIP) in sixteen relief appearances and four starts after losing most of 2017 to invasive surgery that repaired cartilage in his knee. The knuckleballer had an MRI after feeling discomfort in the surgically repaired knee before the game, making him a last minute scratch from Alex Cora’s bullpen in Friday’s ALDS game one, and he will see a knee specialist when the team arrives in New York. In an earlier piece, Drellich noted that Wright’s replacement on the ALDS roster would likely come from a pool of Bobby Poyner, Heath Hembree, Hector Velazquez or Brian Johnson. For last night at least, even Rick Porcello was surprised to hear his name called, per this fun peak behind the curtain from Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Boston manager Alex Cora recognized the need for improvisation during the playoffs – as using Porcello in relief was plan “C and a half.” The injury likely affects Boston’s playoff rotation, as mid-season acquisition Nathan Eovaldi could slide up a day to take Porcello’s scheduled start in game three if the latter isn’t ready to go on two days rest.

Ryan Brasier's Unlikely Season

By Mark Polishuk | October 3, 2018 at 10:04am CDT

Hard-throwing Ryan Brasier has become a key contributor to the Red Sox bullpen, posting a 1.60 ERA, 4.14 K/BB rate and 7.8 K/9 over 33 2/3 frames for the AL East champs. It has been quite the showing for the unheralded 31-year-old, who had just nine innings of MLB experience (with the Angels in 2013) prior to this season. As The Athletic’s Chad Jennings (subscription required) writes, it was less than a year ago that a homesick Brasier was pitching in Japan and intent on returning to North America for the 2018 campaign. He sent e-mails to all 30 MLB teams over the offseason in search of a job, finally landing a minor league deal with the Sox, and then excelling after his contract was selected in July.

East Notes: Eickhoff, Phillies, Cora, Gsellman, Lugo

By Kyle Downing | September 29, 2018 at 10:35am CDT

28-year-old righty Jerad Eickhoff gave the Phillies a feel-good story yesterday by tying a club record during his first MLB start in 13 months, as Joe Bloss details in a piece for MLB.com. Eickhoff managed to strike out seven consecutive Braves (eight overall) before allowing a homer to Johan Camargo and a single to Ozzie Albies, prompting an early hook by manager Gabe Kapler. Though Eickhoff was only allowed to throw 54 pitches, he recorded eight of his ten outs via the strikeout and didn’t walk a batter.

It stands to reason that a strong 2019 spring performance on the part of Eickhoff could have him back in the conversation for a rotation spot next year, though he’s likely to face some stiff competition. A rotation featuring Aaron Nola, Jake Arrieta, Nick Pivetta, Vince Velasquez and Zach Eflin has done well in 2018, and each has accumulated at least 2.0 fWAR to date. That’s to say nothing of any potential offseason rotation additions, which the Phillies could certainly afford to purchase given their massive budget and relatively low 2019 payroll commitments. Still, Eickhoff made an intriguing opening statement to support his case last night.

More off the coast of the Atlantic…

Speaking of the Phillies and their big winter budget, Scott Lauber opens an article for Philly.com by bluntly stating that John Middleton is “ready to make it rain.” With less than $70MM in salary commitments for the 2019 season, Lauber echoes the oft-heard sentiments that Philadelphia is firmly in the mix to sign Bryce Harper or Manny Machado (if not both). With that in mind, he embarked on a quest to discover who a panel of experts would prefer to sign. The criteria mentioned in Lauber’s excellent journalistic endeavor operates upon a slew of criteria including pure talent, durability/longevity and organizational fit.
Alex Speier of the Boston Globe recently wrote about how manager Alex Cora has changed the organizational culture of the Red Sox in regards to analytics. According to Speier, some front offices last year weren’t on the lookout for authority figures to serve as their club’s skippers as the were trying to identify someone who could “serve as a conduit for data-driven analysis”. Cora’s been able to do just that, as evidenced in a recent defensive shift detailed in Speier’s piece, though that’s far from the only example. “He’s kind of reformed the culture of how we’re going to integrate data into decision-making,” assistant GM Eddie Romero said of the rookie manager.
The Mets have elected to shut down right-handers Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman for the season, per a report from Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. The decision comes as a result of workload concerns, as the two relievers have combined for 181 1/3 innings on the season. Mickey Callaway offered his thoughts on the subject. “”We feel that those guys have had outstanding years,” he explained. “They both finished with a save, on a strong note. They’ve probably done more than we could have ever asked to this point. And we felt these last three games, we’re going to give these younger guys a shot to go out there and nail down the games for us. We feel this is taking care of them heading into the offseason, so they can come back and be even better next year.”

Latest on Chris Sale's Velocity

By Ty Bradley | September 27, 2018 at 7:30pm CDT

Chris Sale’s radar gun readings are sounding alarm bells in Boston, where the left-hander sat at a career low 90.1 MPH with his fastball in Wednesday’s outing against the Orioles, the fourth in a series of diminished-velocity starts since his return from the DL after a bout with left shoulder inflammation. For his part, Sale insists that a balky shoulder is not to blame, placing much of the onus on an out-of-sync lower body, as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe explains in an information-packed overview of the situation. As Speier notes, Sale’s extension toward home plate has lessened a bit since his return from the disabled list, and is a good deal lower than the 6.19 ft average he established during his lights-out run of mid-summer. A correlation between the extension figures and Sale’s overall performance is somewhat murky, though it’s certainly a mark worth monitoring as the Red Sox enter the 2018 postseason on the heels of their most successful campaign in franchise history. Sale, whose $13.5MM option for 2019 will almost certainly be picked up before he hits Free Agency the following offseason, appears to have capped off a sensational 2018 campaign that saw the hurler post otherworldly marks across the board – his 1.97 FIP and 48 FIP- each rank in the top three in AL history during the live-ball era, and his 13.5 K/9 stands as the best total for a starter (min. 150 IP) since stats were first compiled in 1871.

Red Sox To Hire Mets' Becerra

By Jeff Todd | September 26, 2018 at 2:14pm CDT

In other international scouting news, Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs has tweeted a few recent moves. Frankie Thon has bounced from the Angels to the Mariners, taking over as international scouting director in Seattle. Likewise, the Mets will lose their international scouting director Chris Becerra, who is expected to take a job with the Red Sox.

AL East Notes: Sabathia, Red Sox Bullpen, Second Basemen

By Kyle Downing | September 22, 2018 at 12:04pm CDT

Per a tweet from Marc Carig of The Athletic, Yankees lefty CC Sabathia has decided to play next year. Though he’d indicated early on in the season that he might retire under certain circumstances, more recent statements from Sabathia had suggested he’d like to play another season. Most notably, he’d said he was taking a start-to-start approach to see how he felt, as his ability to pitch in 2019 would probably be contingent upon the health of his troublesome knee. Sabathia has continued to be a useful pitcher for the Yankees; across the past two seasons he’s taken the mound for 55 starts while posting a serviceable 3.73 ERA. There have been some small signs of decline, such as his dwindling innings per start figures across the past three seasons (Sabathia’s only averaged 5.28 innings across his 28 starts so far in 2018), but it seems reasonable to think that even if the Yankees decided not to bring him back, some team would probably be willing to pay for his services next year. That’s notable, considering Carig’s mention that Sabathia intends to play “even if it means signing with a team other than the Yankees.”

Now for a pair of notes related to the Yankees’ chief AL East rivals…

In his latest piece for The Athletic, Eno Sarris takes a deep dive into the statistics in order to answer an interesting question: does Dave Dombrowski have a bullpen problem? Dombrowski, of course, has a track record of success wherever he’s gone throughout the course of his lengthy career (and indeed has helped this year’s Boston team to a stunningly successful campaign). But whether by shortcomings or simply coincidence, the current Red Sox and former Tigers GM has had to answer for poor bullpen production from both of those teams. Notably, Sarris points out that Boston’s bullpen ranks in the bottom 20% of all MLB teams since the club did not acquire a reliever at the August deadline. Of course, it should be noted that one of his first moves as the club’s GM was to acquire Craig Kimbrel, who’s been a fantastic success. And it’s not as though Dombrowski hasn’t made other key moves in the past couple of years to acquire bullpen help; Carson Smith and Tyler Thornburg were headline acquisitions but simply haven’t worked out as fans may have hoped. Overall, Sarris’ piece is quite interesting, and comes with the added benefit of a player-by-player breakdown of the club’s relief corps.
Also for The Athletic, Chad Jennings writes about how three infielders in the Red Sox organization have helped shape expectations about second basemen. Brandon Phillips, Ian Kinsler and Dustin Pedroia have all enjoyed paramount success throughout their careers. “We’re all different in our own ways,” Phillips said. “We’re all productive, and the way we approach the game, we all went out there, and we swung that bat. That’s what we do. We swung the bat.” The piece provides some entertaining insight into the pasts of these three players, and is well worth a read in its entirety, particularly for Red Sox fans.

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