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Red Sox Sign Stephen Drew

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The Red Sox have officially announced the re-signing of Stephen Drew to a one-year deal that is reportedly worth the pro-rated portion of the $14.1MM qualifying offer. In other words, the Scott Boras client will be paid roughly $10.1MM for the remainder of the 2014 season before again being eligible for free agency.

Stephen Drew

Drew’s value this offseason was weighed down by a number of factors. He rejected a $14.1MM qualifying offer last November, meaning that any team (other than Boston) that wished to sign him would have to forfeit its top unprotected pick. Additionally, there were a lack of teams that were willing to spend and had a clear need for an upgrade at shortstop. The asking price of both Drew and Boras likely also weighed on interested parties.

Boston appeared to be a ready to move on from Drew and go with a left side of the infield that included Will Middlebrooks at third base and Xander Bogaerts at shortstop. However, Middlebrooks is hitting just .197/.305/.324 and is on the disabled list for the second time this season already. Bogaerts hasn’t excelled with the bat as they’d hoped, hitting a solid but unspectacular .269/.369/.379. The bigger issue with Bogaerts, however, has been his glove at shortstop. Though he’s made just four errors, his range has been below average, and both Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Saved feel he’s played well below-average defense.

Boston likely expected to receive a compensatory draft pick to go along with their youth movement, but the fact that Drew clearly wasn’t going to sign elsewhere prior to the draft presented GM Ben Cherington with two options: sign Drew now or see him sign elsewhere while receiving nothing in return. Given the club’s deficiencies on the left side of the infield, the Sox opted for the external upgrade rather than hoping that their young infielders would heal up and pick up the pace at the plate.

Drew, 31, enjoyed a nice bounce-back campaign with the Sox in 2013, slashing a solid .253/.333/.443 with 13 homers in 501 plate appearances. He played solid defense at short, per Ultimate Zone Rating (+6.7 UZR/150), though Defensive Runs Saved (-2) wasn’t as big of a fan. The Red Sox loved Drew’s glove at short, however (particularly in the playoffs), and his ability with the leather was enough to keep him from being platooned despite a .196/.246/.340 batting line against southpaws.

Drew will play short for Boston, Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal tweeted yesterday, which of course means that Bogaerts will shift to third. Drew will go directly onto the active MLB roster but spend a week or more getting back up to speed in the minors, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe (Twitter links). (As Joel Sherman of the New York Post explained on Twitter, Drew has to join the active roster because he signed a major league deal.)

The team “back-channeled” with Drew over the course of the season and met with him at least once in April, tweeted Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. Ultimately, the signing came together within the last two days, a source told Alex Speier of WEEI.com (Twitter link).

While a pro-rated one-year deal is hardly an ideal scenario for Drew, the fact that he won’t be on Boston’s roster for the entire season means that he’ll be ineligible to receive a qualifying offer next offseason, which should improve his chances of landing a strong multi-year deal considerably. Of course, he’ll also face steeper competition on the shortstop market than he did this past offseason and will be coming off a shorter season than if he’d simply signed earlier in the year. Hanley Ramirez, J.J. Hardy, Jed Lowrie and Asdrubal Cabrera are all set to hit the open market following the 2014 campaign.

Drew is the first case of a player waiting to sign until after the start of a season to avoid a qualifying offer the following year. Kyle Lohse and Ervin Santana came close by signing in Spring Training in 2013 and 2014, respectively, and Kendrys Morales figures to wait until after the draft in order to avoid such an offer and shed the draft pick that is currently attached to his name (he rejected a qualifying offer from the Mariners).

Boras has used the troubles of Drew and Morales to voice considerable displeasure with Major League Baseball’s qualifying offer system this offseason. While many will be quick to point out that Boras has a clearly biased take, MLBTR’s Zach Links spoke with a number of executives earlier this spring, and even they agreed that the qualifying offer system was advantageous to teams. We at MLBTR even predicted a four-year deal was possible for Drew in spite of a qualifying offer. Morales, Lohse, Santana and Nelson Cruz are examples of additional players that have seen their value likely diminished by their attachment to draft pick compensation.

Ultimately, Drew cost himself roughly $4MM and two months of playing time in order to shed the possibility of being saddled with a qualifying offer again next offseason. If he’s able to land a lucrative multi-year deal, it’s still possible that he could come out ahead in the long run, financially speaking.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the agreement (Twitter link), and Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweeted the terms. 

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Reactions To And Fallout From Drew Signing

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The Red Sox ended the long Stephen Drew saga today, agreeing to re-sign the shortstop at a pro-rated annual salary equivalent to the $14.1MM qualifying offer that he declined before the season. Certainly, the signing is interesting on many levels, not least of which because it came with the team staring at the very real possibility of losing the compensatory draft pick it probably hoped to pick up. Drew now joins Ervin Santana and Nelson Cruz in taking one-year deals at or below the QO rate. In Drew’s case, the timing also seemingly reveals something about the present and future market assessment of his agent, Scott Boras. It seems that either or both of the following is likely true to some degree: first, that Boras did not believe Drew would garner an attractive multi-year offer after the amatuer draft passed; and second, that Boras believes Drew can achieve such a deal on next year’s free agent market. Notably, while Drew will not be eligible to receive a qualifying offer, he will be joined in free agency by some or all of Hanley Ramirez, J.J. Hardy, Jed Lowrie, and Asdrubal Cabrera.

Here’s more on Drew’s signing:

  • Part of the Red Sox’ calculus in making the move for Drew involved his alternate landing spots, Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald reports on Twitter. Several American League competitors could have looked to add him after the draft, including the Tigers and division rivals like the Yankees (if not also the Orioles and Blue Jays).
  • Exactly what kind of interest Drew would have received after shedding draft compensation may never be known, but at least two oft-cited suitors downplayed their interest in the aftermath of the signing. Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said that the move “really hasn’t been discussed internally,” reports Tom Gage of the Detroit News (via Twitter). And Mets GM Sandy Alderson said that his club would not have paid Drew what he received from Boston, tweets Marc Carig of Newsday. Indeed, neither the Mets nor the Yankees were ever really serious pursuers of Drew, according to Andy Martino of the New York Daily News.
  • From the Red Sox’ perspective, adding Drew raised questions about the team’s plans for younger players Xander Bogaerts and Will Middlebrooks. Drew is expected to play short, at least against right-handers, reports Tim Britton of the Providence Journal (Twitter links), who says the team will at least consider keeping Middlebrooks on the MLB roster in some form of an indirect platoon with Drew when he comes off the DL. Presumably, Bogaerts would take short against lefties in that scenario, but as Jason Mastrodonato of MassLive.com reports, statements from manager John Farrell indicate that Drew will handle most of the load at shortstop. Adding to the intrigue, Farrell also said that the team’s lineup would “depend upon who’s on this team” and “what the roster looks like,” Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal reports (Twitter links). As MacPherson suggests, that could suggest that the team views Middlebrooks as expendable. Certainly, it would not be surprising to hear his name arise in trade talks over the summer.
  • The deal is a win for Boston, which needed an upgrade at the left side of the infield and did not pay a big price to do so, writes Dave Cameron of Fangraphs. But it is not a bad result for Drew either, Cameron says, because his loss of salary this year (as against taking the QO at the beginning of the year) could still be offset by gains from re-entering the market without compensation attached. Addressing the same point, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com agrees that things could still work out in the end for Drew, while noting that the vagaries of the market could decide that question.
  • MacPherson writes that the Red Sox did well to shore up their defense and add another bat to play against righties. While the team may have expected, or even hoped, that Drew would sign elsewhere and return a draft pick, that ship had sailed and the team was able to follow through with an attractive back-up strategy when the need arose.
  • The key to the deal for Boston is the short-term nature of the commitment, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Prospects Deven Marrero and Garin Cecchini join Bogaerts as near-future options on the left side of the infield, says Rosenthal, and the signing does nothing to change the club’s bright outlook in that respect.

Daniel Carbonell Weighing Five Offers

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Cuban outfielder Daniel Carbonell has received five offers from Major League teams, all of which range from five to seven years in length, MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez reports.  Carbonell is said to be looking for a four-year deal.  If he doesn’t sign by July 2, Carbonell’s signing bonus will count against his new team’s 2014-15 international signing period pool money.

FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported over the weekend that the Mariners and Yankees were two of the five finalists for Carbonell, though Chavez doesn’t believe either team has made the 23-year-old a concrete offer.  The Dodgers also aren’t finalists and the White Sox, Red Sox and Braves are “not among the favorites to sign” Carbonell, though those teams showed interest in him earlier this year.

The only other team linked to Carbonell on the rumor mill is Minnesota, who attended his recent showcase and are “monitoring” him.  1500ESPN.com’s Darren Wolfson tweeted, however, that the Twins don’t seem to be “heavily involved” to the extent of other clubs like the Yankees.

Carbonell is a 6’3″, 220-pound switch-hitter with four years of pro experience in Cuba.  Chavez notes that Carbonell “is known for his speed and power” and is considered by some scouts to be a five-tool talent.

Red Sox Considering Third Base Upgrades

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The Red Sox are considering potential upgrades, including trades, at third base, WEEI’s Rob Bradford writes, citing a source within baseball. With Will Middlebrooks currently out with a fractured index finger, the Red Sox currently have Brock Holt at third.  The Red Sox were struggling at third base this season even before Middlebrooks’ injury, with Middlebrooks hitting .197/.305/.324 in 82 plate appearances.

Bradford notes that the Red Sox have not recently had discussions with Scott Boras about free agent shortstop Stephen Drew. One potential reason for that, as the Boston Herald’s Scott Lauber notes, is that they are uninterested in moving Xander Bogaerts to third — they want a full season to evaluate Bogaerts at shortstop before considering moving him elsewhere. “We don’t have any reason to believe he can’t play short,” says GM Ben Cherington. “You’ve got to keep going in the right direction, but he looks, to me anyway, a little more comfortable out there making the routine plays. And that’s all he needs to do.”

Quick Hits: Mets, Feliciano, Drew, Rays

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Saul Katz is denying reports that he wants to share his stake in the Mets but a baseball exec tells Josh Kosman of the New York Post that he wanted to do even more.  Katz, according to the exec, tried to get Fred Wilpon to join in so that they could sell majority control.  Wilpon said no in part because he wants to turn the team over to his son, Jeff.  Here’s more from around the league..

  • The Cardinals are close to a minor league deal with free agent left-hander Pedro Feliciano, a source tells Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com (on Twitter).  Steve Nations of KSDK Sports reported yesterday that St. Louis was giving the 37-year-old a hard look.  Feliciano has seen time in nine MLB campaigns, returning to the bigs for 25 appearances (but just 11 1/3 innings) with the Mets last year, putting up a 3.97 ERA. His career mark stands at 3.33 earned per nine over 383 2/3 innings.
  • Signing Stephen Drew would help the Red Sox’s cause, writes John Tomase of the Boston Herald.  Drew, he argues, would give Boston some much needed competition by moving Xander Boegarts over to third where he’d fight Will Middlebrooks for playing time.  The Red Sox are the one team that can sign Drew without surrendering a draft pick, but that window closes once the draft begins on June 5.
  • Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times looks back to reassess the Rays’ offseason decisions.  The three-team deal that brought Ryan Hanigan to Tampa Bay was still worthwhile, Topkin argues, despite having to eat the $5.5MM owed to Heath Bell.   Meanwhile, the deal sending left-hander Alex Torres and right-hander Jesse Hahn to San Diego doesn’t look as good right now.

Cafardo On Lee, Yankees, Maeda, Lackey

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In today’s column, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe discusses the rash of injuries to pitchers.  Some are suggesting that MLB lower the mound, which would reduce stress on the shoulder and elbow by reducing some of the downward force.  Red Sox pitching coach Juan Nieves has a different idea. “You have to stop shrinking the strike zone,” he said. “It has to be expanded. It’s incredible what you’re asking of pitchers nowadays. You expect them to throw the baseball into this tiny box. Do you know how much stress that puts on a pitcher’s arm? Just remembering when I pitched, the strike zone is so tiny compared to back then. It’s impossible to think that you make a pitcher hit that tiny box and not have it affect the health of a pitcher over time.”  Here’s more from today’s column..

  • Baseball executives think they’ll have their eyes on Cliff Lee if the Phillies fall out of the race.  The Yankees would have plenty of competition for Lee, perhaps even from the Red Sox, who have long coveted him, especially given his past relationship with John Farrell. The Red Sox also have more to give than the Yankees in terms of prospects. Lee, 35, will earn $25MM this season and next, and has a $27.5MM option for 2016, which vests with 200 innings in 2015 or 400 innings in 2014-15.
  • It’s expected that teams that missed out on Masahiro Tanaka will bid for Hiroshima Toyo Carp standout Kenta Maeda.  The Red Sox have scouted Maeda quite a bit and he’s garnering attention, even though he is not as accomplished as Tanaka.
  • Cafardo asked four GMs if they would rework John Lackey’s 2015 salary at the major league minimum if they were running the Red Sox. Three said no, that Lackey had agreed to play for the minimum in a sixth year if he lost a year to Tommy John surgery. The consensus was Lackey would be even more motivated to have a big year if he was playing for another big contract.
  • The Phillies didn’t have any suitors for Jonathan Papelbon over the offseason, but now that he’s pitched through some difficulty he may have a market.  The Phillies may not get a whole lot for him, however.

AL Notes: Red Sox, Drew, Angels, Suzuki

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Let’s take a look at a few notes out of the American League to round out the evening:

  • While recent developments have made free agent infielder Stephen Drew a more enticing fit for the Red Sox, the club has yet to re-engage agent Scott Boras, reports Alex Speier of WEEI.com. The fractured right finger of Will Middlebrooks — to say nothing of his sluggish play — has clouded Boston’s third base picture, and it now seems quite unlikely that the team will pick up a draft choice through another club inking the compensation-bound Drew. (With only weeks remaining until the amateur draft, interested clubs will presumably wait until the draft passes and signing Drew no longer requires the sacrifice of a pick.) While Speier notes that the Sox’ approach could still change before the draft, it bears noting that Drew himself is now free of the compensation as a practical matter and has little to lose by waiting for his market to open up.
  • The Angels could stand not only to add to the back of the bullpen, but also the starting rotation, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (video link). Los Angeles looked to add Ian Kennedy last year, says Rosenthal, who opines that the club might be interested in dealing for a mid-level arm like Dillon Gee of the Mets. While payroll space is probably not much of an issue, the club does not have a deep set of prospects from which to deal.
  • Veteran catcher Kurt Suzuki has turned his career trajectory on its head through his first 137 plate appearances of 2014, posting an excellent .322/.390/.424 line for the Twins. Needless to say, that is a nice return on the one-year, $2.75MM contract he signed over the offseason. Minnesota could be interested in discussing an extension with Suzuki before the summer is out, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN, though the club has not yet engaged him. Suzuki has hit well enough that the ZiPS projection system now likes him to produce at a league-average rate for the rest of the year; combined with his well-regarded defensive skills, clubhouse presence, and relatively young age of 30, Suzuki could be setting himself up as a fairly attractive trade chip and future free agent target if the Twins don’t move to lock him up.

Quick Hits: Draft, Coffey, Hill, Bradley, Rockies, Gomes

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Baseball America has released its list of the top 100 amateur prospects for this year’s draft. Interestingly, both Jeff Hoffman and Erick Fedde are still listed in the top ten, despite the fact that the pair of collegiate righties will enter the draft fresh off of Tommy John surgery. Here are some notes from around the game:

  • Free agent reliever Todd Coffey impressed in a workout today, throwing his fastball consistently in the low-90s, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). He could sign by the weekend, according to Passan. Twelve to fifteen clubs were represented at the showcase today, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish lists some of the clubs in attendance. From the American League, the Tigers, Mariners, Astros, Athletics, and Orioles sent scouts, while the Braves and Diamondbacks were among the NL clubs on hand.
  • Reliever Rich Hill of the Red Sox has an opt-out date from his minor league deal tomorrow, tweets Cotillo. The nine-year MLB veteran has been strong at Triple-A, throwing to a 2.84 ERA through 19 innings pitched with 10.4 K/9 against 4.7 BB/9.
  • Diamondbacks top prospect Archie Bradley is set to begin throwing and move towards a return to the rubber, reports Jack Magruder of FOX Sports Arizona (via Twitter). GM Kevin Towers said that the club does not have any further medical tests planned at present for the young hurler. Given his current situation, it seems that the club will exercise plenty of caution in promoting the 21-year-old.
  • With the Rockies off to a hot start, Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post opines that the club should act decisively to seize the momentum by exploring a trade for Cubs pitcher Jeff Samardzija. While the price will surely be steep, Kiszla sas that the team should be willing to deal either of the team’s two prized young prospect arms — Jonathan Gray and Eddie Butler — to make a deal.
  • The Blue Jays never saw in Yan Gomes the potential that has been unleashed since he was dealt to the Indians, writes Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca. In some part, says Davidi, that could be due to the fact that Gomes was buried in the minor league depth charts, such that he never caught more than 58 games in a single season. “Ultimately you wonder if we didn’t have other prospects that were so talented, if Yan had played more, would the development path have changed, would we have had a better feel for him?” Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos said. “We were finding places for him to play, but he was never the everyday catcher because there was always someone else who was there.” Gomes, of course, has excelled (and been rewarded with an extension) in Cleveland after coming over with Mike Aviles in exchange for reliever Esmil Rogers. “We always liked Yan,” said Anthopoulos. “Clearly he’s become a better player sooner than we would have expected. That’s not a slight against him, that’s a full credit to him.”

East Links: Pastornicky, Braves, Sabathia, Mets, Sox

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Dan Uggla’s role with the Braves is becoming increasingly smaller, as MLB.com’s Mark Bowman writes that Tyler Pastornicky will be given the opportunity to serve as Atlanta’s everyday second baseman. Pastornicky has just two hits in 17 at-bats this season but has a solid Triple-A track record. Should he falter, the Braves also have Tommy La Stella waiting in the wings at Triple-A, though his strong OBP (.379) has been accompanied by a notable power outage, as he’s slugging just .328 with a .039 ISO. More from the game’s Eastern divisions…

  • Within that same notebook piece, Bowman notes that the Braves will utilize a six-man rotation at least through next week. Manager Fredi Gonzalez doesn’t like the idea, but the team feels it has little choice with six starting options that are throwing so well. The manager did concede that the six-man grouping might help later in the year by limiting the workload on Alex Wood and Gavin Floyd.
  • The Star Ledger’s Jorge Castillo reports that CC Sabathia’s visit to Dr. James Andrews confirmed that there’s no structural damage in his knee. The Yankees are hopeful that Sabathia will be able to return as soon as he is eligible to help an injury-plagued pitching staff.
  • Bud Selig isn’t concerned over reports that partial Mets owner Saul Katz is looking to sell his shares of the team, writes Christian Red of the New York Daily News. “
  • Jon Heyman of CBS Sports asked Red Sox chairman Tom Werner if the team is committed to using a Will Middlebrooks/Xander Bogaerts tandem on the left side of the infield and was told “for the moment” (Twitter link).

Badler On Top July 2 Prospects

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We’re less than two months from the kickoff of the 2014-15 international signing period, during which Major League clubs will spend a combined hundreds of millions of dollars on amateur talents from Latin America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Many of these players will be as young as 16 years old, and Ben Badler of Baseball America has penned a pair of articles in the past two days highlighting some of the top players and their potential landing spots. A subscription is required and highly recommended in order to read the full scouting report that Badler has on each player. Here are a few of the highlights from his work…

  • Huascar Ynoa, the younger brother of A’s righty Michael Ynoa, could land also land a seven-figure bonus and has been scouted by White Sox vice president Kenny Williams and GM Rick Hahn. The Red Sox have also been tied to Ynoa, and some sources of have told Badler that they expect the Twins to be involved as well. One scout told Badler that Ynoa has the tools to be a frontline starter but lacks consistency. Badler points out that his older brother’s $4.25MM signing bonus from Oakland reduces some of the urgency for Ynoa to sign immediately on July 2.
  • The Blue Jays look like the strong favorites to ink Venezuelan right-hander Juan Meza, who could command a bonus as large as $1.5MM. Meza works out at Carlos Guillen’s baseball academy in Venezuela and has a three-pitch mix (fastball, changeup, curveball).
  • Fellow Venezuelan right-hander Frankin Perez is also likely to land seven figures and has been most prominently linked to the Astros. Houston is also oft-connected to Venezuelan shortstop Miguel Angel Sierra, whose bonus could reach $1MM, and Dominican outfielder Rafael Ronny, who could be the second-most expensive Dominican outfielder in this year’s class, writes Badler.
  • The Yankees, who are reportedly planning to shatter the international spending limitations this signing period, are heavily linked to Venezuelan catcher Miguel Flames, Venezuelan outfielder Jonathan Amundaray and Venezuelan shortstop Diego Castillo, says Badler. Flames and Amundaray should top $1MM, while Castillo could get close to that figure, he adds.
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