Red Sox Rumors

Latest On The Red Sox’ Starting Pitchers

By charliewilmoth | December 8, 2016 at 10:15am CDT

The Red Sox had a busy Winter Meetings, trading for Chris Sale and Tyler Thornburg and signing Mitch Moreland. Here are a few notes on the Red Sox, specifically focusing on their rotation, as their front office heads home to Boston.

With Sale in the fold, the Red Sox have a surplus of starting pitching, leading to a flurry of calls from rival executives. The Red Sox are more interested in trading Clay Buchholz than Drew Pomeranz, WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford writes, noting that according to one source, the Red Sox have shown no interest at all in sending Pomeranz packing. Buchholz could generate some interest due to his strong finish in 2016, although his $13.5MM salary could be an obstacle.
The Marlins spoke to the Red Sox about Buchholz but balked at his salary, Bleacher Report’s Scott Miller tweets. The Marlins recently acquired Jeff Locke at significantly less to fill out their rotation; they also signed Edinson Volquez earlier this winter.
Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski says the Sox have received calls about their starting pitchers, likely Pomeranz, Buchholz and Steven Wright, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald writes. Dombrowski adds, however, that he’s in no rush to make a deal. “We had a lot of phone calls on our pitchers today, and different ones,” he says. “But we’re just kind of sitting back at this point and kind of collecting thought processes. I can’t say we’re aggressively looking to doing something.” Mastrodonato notes that if Pomeranz stays, the Red Sox will have four lefties in their rotation, also including Sale, David Price and Eduardo Rodriguez, plus an abundance of lefty depth in Henry Owens, Brian Johnson and Roenis Elias. The Red Sox, though, say they’re not concerned about that. “I have no driving force to make any trades just because four of the guys are lefties,” Dombrowski says.

Rule 5 Pick Justin Haley Traded To Twins

By charliewilmoth | December 8, 2016 at 8:47am CDT

The Angels have agreed to trade Rule 5 Draft pick and right-handed pitcher Justin Haley for cash, Pedro Moura of the Los Angeles Times tweets. His ultimate destination will be the Twins, as Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press and others tweeted. When the Angels announced the deal, however, they announced that they had traded Haley to the Padres. The Padres also acquired first overall Rule 5 pick Miguel Diaz from the Twins, so it seems that Haley was part of that deal as well.

Haley was the eighth pick in the draft from the Red Sox system, and the Twins had already selected a player, Miguel Diaz, by that point. (Diaz is also a candidate to be traded at some point today.) The 25-year-old Haley pitched 146 2/3 innings between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Pawtucket and posted a solid 3.01 ERA, 7.7 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9. He was a sixth-round pick of the Red Sox in 2012.

Red Sox Tried To Acquire Wade Davis From Royals

By Connor Byrne | December 8, 2016 at 4:09am CDT

Before Boston acquired reliever Tyler Thornburg from Milwaukee on Tuesday, the Red Sox made a run at then-Kansas City closer Wade Davis, reports Rob Bradford of WEEI. Corner infielder Travis Shaw was the major league headliner the Red Sox surrendered for Thornburg, but he wasn’t enticing enough to the Royals in a Davis deal, a source told Bradford. The Royals instead preferred now-former Cubs outfielder Jorge Soler, whom they acquired for Davis in a one-for-one swap on Wednesday.

Landing Davis would have given the Red Sox two of the majors’ most proven closers in him and Craig Kimbrel, though the former has more setup experience and likely would have served in that role in Boston. Davis has been dominant since 2014, his first year as a full-time reliever, but picking up him instead of Thornburg would have put a greater dent in the payroll of a Red Sox franchise that’s trying to stay under the $195MM luxury-tax threshold. The 31-year-old Davis would have cost the team $10MM in 2017, the last season of his contract, while Thornburg is set to rake in a much more modest salary (an estimated $2.2MM, per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) in his age-28 campaign. Thornburg is controllable through 2019 via arbitration and could potentially give the Red Sox a top-caliber setup man over the next three seasons. While he doesn’t have Davis’ track record, Thornburg is nonetheless coming off a breakout year, having recorded a 2.15 ERA, 12.09 K/9 and 3.36 BB/9 across a career-high 67 innings.

As is often the cases with pitchers, both relievers carry health risks: Davis was on the disabled twice last season because of forearm and flexor strains, and the Brewers shut down Thornburg early in 2014 on account of a UCL injury that nearly led to Tommy John surgery.

Meanwhile, that the Royals went for the upside play in Soler over Shaw is understandable. The soon-to-be 25-year-old Soler’s also younger (2017 will be Shaw’s age-27 season), though he comes with less control. Shaw won’t be a free agent until after the 2021 season, and he has two pre-arbitration years remaining, whereas Soler can hit the open market at the end of the 2020 campaign. He can also opt into arbitration beginning next winter, which seems likely if he comes closer to realizing his vast potential. For now, though, the Cuba native is due a modest $15MM over the remainder of the nine-year, $30MM contract he signed with the Cubs in 2012.

AL Notes: Holliday, Chapman, Royals, Sox

By Connor Byrne | December 8, 2016 at 3:19am CDT

The newest member of the Yankees’ lineup, outfielder/designated hitter Matt Holliday, clearly didn’t enjoy his 93-game stint with the Athletics in 2009. Included in the one-year, $13MM deal Holliday signed with New York is the ability to block a trade to one team – the A’s – tweets Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. Acquiring Holliday from the Rockies in November 2008 cost the A’s reliever Huston Street and, more painfully, outfielder Carlos Gonzalez. Former big-time first base prospect Brett Wallace headlined the package the A’s received from St. Louis for Holliday in July 2009, but Wallace never played a game for Oakland. The A’s dealt him to Toronto for now-former big league outfielder Michael Taylor (not to be confused with the member of the Nationals) the next offseason.

Red Sox Don’t Plan To Talk David Ortiz Out Of Retirement

By charliewilmoth | December 7, 2016 at 7:20pm CDT

A provocative Instagram post from David Ortiz following news of the trade of Chris Sale to Boston yesterday had some Red Sox fans wondering if their team planned to talk the retired slugger into returning for 2017. But the team has no such plans, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal writes.

“My boy Sale to Btown? You guys got me thinking,” Ortiz wrote on Instagram yesterday.

Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski says he thinks Ortiz was joking, and adds that the team will not initiate talks designed to lead to his return. “I wouldn’t want to reach out to him,” says Dombrowski. “I know David well enough — and I know that if he really had sincere interest, that he would call.”

MacPherson notes that, regardless of Ortiz’s intentions, he cannot come off the voluntary retired list for the first 60 days of the season. It’s easy to see why Red Sox fans would have interest in his return, however — the Red Sox have had a high-profile offseason without making a high-profile acquisition to fill Ortiz’s spot in the lineup (although they did add Mitch Moreland earlier this week). Ortiz departed last season at the top of his game, having batted .315/.401/.620 while leading the AL or tying for the AL lead in doubles, RBIs, slugging percentage and OPS in 2016.

Diamondbacks Willing To Listen On Starters

By Steve Adams | December 7, 2016 at 12:43pm CDT

Arizona’s recent acquisition of Taijuan Walker gave the team quite a bit of depth in the rotation, and Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports that the D-backs have shown a willingness to listen to offers on their starters during this week’s Winter Meetings. Per Piecoro, the Diamondbacks are most open to moving left-hander Patrick Corbin and right-hander Shelby Miller. Elsewhere in the rotation, the Diamondbacks have Walker, Zack Greinke and Robbie Ray, with young right-handers Braden Shipley and Archie Bradley behind them. The asking price on both starters has been lofty, Piecoro adds.

Miller is still young, as he’ll pitch next season at the age of 26, but his first season in Arizona was an enormous struggle, as he posted a 6.15 ERA and saw each of his K/9 rate (6.4), BB/9 rate (3.8), ground-ball rate (41.9 percent) and average fastball velocity (93 mph) trend in the wrong direction. Miller’s struggles led to a Triple-A demotion that would’ve seemed unfathomable on Opening Day, and he also spent time on the disabled list with a sprained index finger on his pitching hand.

While all of those red flags are cause for concern, Miller’s age and the fact that he’s just a season removed from 200+ innings with a 3.02 ERA could certainly make him an intriguing rebound candidate for teams on the hunt for pitching help. Furthermore, the demotion to the minors delayed his free agency by a season, so Miller is still controllable for three years before he’ll hit the open market. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him to earn $4.9MM next year.

Corbin, 27, broke out for the D-backs in 2013 when he posted a 3.41 ERA in 208 1/3 innings with 7.7 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 46.7 percent ground-ball rate. Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2014 campaign, but Corbin looked similarly encouraging in a half season when he returned in 2015, totaling 85 innings with a 3.60 ERA, a higher strikeout rate (8.3 K/9) and a lower walk rate (1.8 BB/9). Like most of Arizona’s pitchers, though, Corbin found the 2016 season challenging and struggled to a 5.15 ERA in 155 2/3 innings. His walk rate spiked (3.8 BB/9), and though his ground-ball rate increased, Corbin struggled to strand runners and found himself increasingly susceptible to home runs. With two years of team control and an affordable $4.2MM arbitration projection from Swartz, Corbin makes financial sense for plenty of teams.

It’s not entirely clear exactly how high Arizona’s asking price is, though one exec speculated to Piecoro that the team might be seeking a potential starting catcher. Piecoro cites multiple sources in reporting that Red Sox GM Mike Hazen and his staff checked in with their former Red Sox colleagues on the availability of Blake Swihart and Christian Vazquez — not necessarily in connection to Miller or Corbin — so teams with readily available catching help could line up as potential trade partners.

Mariners Reportedly Shopping Seth Smith

By Jeff Todd | December 7, 2016 at 8:50am CDT

DEC. 7: FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweets that the Mariners are more than simply open to the idea of moving Smith and are actually shopping him around. Seattle would like to free up some money to further invest in its rotation, per Heyman, who also reports that Smith nearly went to the Red Sox before Boston agreed to a deal with free agent Mitch Moreland.

DEC. 5: The Mariners are listening to offers on outfielder Seth Smith, reports Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Indeed, the M’s have long been willing to consider moving the veteran, who’ll earn $7MM this year after his club option was picked up, according to the report.

Smith, 34, could certainly hold appeal to other organizations. Teams such as the Orioles and Blue Jays have been tied to left-handed-hitting corner outfield bats, and surely would like the idea of taking on a more limited commitment than might be found on the open market.

In all likelihood, rival teams would view Smith much in the same way the Mariners have — as a lefty platoon piece who might see 400+ plate appearances. He slashed .249/.342/.415 with 16 home runs over 438 plate appearances last year. That production fell a bit shy of his work over the prior two years, but is largely in line with his career numbers.

AL East Notes: Sox, Rays, Erasmo, Bautista, Iannetta, Cashman, Orioles

By Mark Polishuk | December 7, 2016 at 1:16am CDT

Today’s acquisition of Tyler Thornburg from the Brewers will end Boston’s foray into the relief market for the winter, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters (including Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe). Most notably, this would seem to end any chance of the Sox re-signing Koji Uehara or Brad Ziegler. Thornburg will join closer Craig Kimbrel, Joe Kelly, Matt Barnes, Robbie Ross, Fernando Abad and (when he is healthy) Carson Smith in the Sox bullpen, plus with Chris Sale now in the rotation, Clay Buchholz, Drew Pomeranz or even Eduardo Rodriguez could now be bullpen options. Pomeranz or Rodriguez would help add some left-handed depth to the pen, as Abad struggled mightly after coming to the Sox last season. Here’s more from around the AL East…

With Sale off the board, the Rays’ starting pitchers could become even hotter trade commodities, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. Some of the teams connected to the Rays’ pitching in trade talks already this winter (such as the Nationals, Astros and Braves) were also suitors to land Sale from the White Sox. The Rays have received more interest in Drew Smyly and Alex Cobb than Chris Archer and Jake Odorizzi since the latter two come at much higher asking prices.
Erasmo Ramirez has also drawn some interest, Topkin reports. The former starter-turned-workhorse reliever for the Rays in 2016 posted a 3.77 ERA, 52.5% grounder rate and 6.25 K/9 over 90 2/3 innings, with 63 of Ramirez’s 64 games coming out of the bullpen. MLBTR projects Ramirez to earn a $3.5MM salary through arbitration next season, which could be a bit pricey for Tampa’s liking.
The Blue Jays’ talks with Jose Bautista’s representatives today didn’t appear to bring much progress towards a reunion, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reports. Bautista’s market seems rather unclear at this point, with some wondering if a more creative contract (such as front-loaded deal with a player opt-out clause after the first year) could be in store for the veteran slugger.
The Blue Jays also spoke with catcher Chris Iannetta’s representatives today, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link). The Mariners declined their $4.25MM club option on the veteran catcher following a season that saw Iannetta hit .210/.303/.329 over 338 PA, eventually ceding regular duty to Mike Zunino in Seattle. The Jays are in need of a backup catcher for Russell Martin after parting ways with Josh Thole and Dioner Navarro testing the open market.
Yankees GM Brian Cashman doesn’t expect to add a starting pitcher at the Winter Meetings, telling reporters (including George A. King III of the New York Post) that “it’s a tough market and the price tags are extremely high. We could play on a lot of things because we have a lot of prospects people desire and we desire them, too. I would say it’s less likely for us to acquire a starter.”
The Orioles have had success in landing qualifying offer free agents late in the winter, and Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun writes that this strategy could benefit the team again this offseason. Edwin Encarnacion’s eventual deal will bring some clarity to the market for big bats, though there is still enough uncertainty around the likes of Mark Trumbo and Ian Desmond (not to mention other non-QO free agents) that the Orioles could find some quality hitting at a relatively low price come January or February.

Nationals Offered Victor Robles, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez In Chris Sale Bid

By charliewilmoth | December 6, 2016 at 11:28pm CDT

The Nationals were outbid by the Red Sox in their attempt to acquire Chris Sale, but that wasn’t for lack of trying, as Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post (Twitter links). Remarkably, the Nationals were willing to deal outfielder Victor Robles and both their top young starting pitching prospects, Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez, for Sale. But the White Sox instead opted for the Red Sox’ incredible offer, topped by Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech.

Robles, Giolito and Lopez are the Nationals’ top three prospects, according to MLB.com. All three of them rank among the top 40 in baseball and Robles and Giolito rank among the top ten. Robles has earned praise as a five-tool talent with good hitting ability and exceptional speed. Both Giolito and Lopez could make an immediate impact in a big-league rotation, and all three players have enormous upside once they reach the big leagues for good. That the White Sox were able to get one offer this good is incredible in its own right; that they had to leave it on the table because they found one they liked better is even more so.

Now that Sale is off the table, the Nationals are no longer willing to deal Robles, Chelsea Janes of the Post tweets. But the Nats could very well still pursue Andrew McCutchen, according to Svrluga. What that might take is unclear, as Robles is the name that has most frequently arisen as a possible Pirates acquisition in a potential McCutchen deal. The Pirates could perhaps continue to pursue the trade, hoping to land a package of young pitching headed by a player like Lopez or Joe Ross, whose names have both arisen in reporting about the potential swap.

Red Sox Sign Mitch Moreland

By charliewilmoth | December 6, 2016 at 5:01pm CDT

The Red Sox have announced that they’ve signed first baseman Mitch Moreland to a one-year contract. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal was first to tweet news of the deal. Moreland will receive $5.5MM, Rosenthal’s colleague Jon Morosi tweets. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that the two sides were in talks. Moreland is represented by RMG Baseball.

[Related: Updated Boston Red Sox Depth Chart]

Moreland hit a disappointing .233/.298/.422 with 22 home runs in 2016 and has been inconsistent in his seven years in the big leagues, although his .278/.330/.482 season in 2015 shows what he’s capable of in a good year. He’s also a capable defender at first base, with a 6.4 UZR and 7 DRS there last season, and he’s capable of playing corner outfield in a pinch. The 31-year-old Moreland has hit .254/.315/.438 with 110 home runs in a big-league career spent entirely with the Rangers.

The deal caps what’s been a huge day for the Red Sox, who have also acquired Tyler Thornburg and, more notably, Chris Sale. Moreland should provide Boston with help at the first base and DH spots, likely in tandem with a right-handed hitter — he’s batted just .240/.275/.398 against lefties in his career. The Red Sox need help at DH following the retirement of David Ortiz, and Moreland would seem to be at least a hedge against the possibility that they’ll acquire a higher-profile player, like Edwin Encarnacion (who they seemed unlikely to sign anyway, in part due to luxury-tax concerns) or Mike Napoli. In fact, with Hanley Ramirez also in tow, Moreland’s signing but all but shut those doors. The team also recently lost Travis Shaw in the trade that brought Thornburg to Boston, and Moreland will replace some of the at-bats the lefty-swinging Shaw took at first base. It would appear, then, that the Red Sox are attempting to compensate for Ortiz’s departure by strengthening their rotation, rather than by adding a superstar to replace him at DH or first base.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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