Red Sox Promote Jedixson Paez To Make Start Today

Ziehl pitched very well with WOO last night. That doesn't mean he'd have done better, but I do wonder if he was even considered over Paez. (I doubt Holobetz got more than a peep.)

9 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Ziehl doesn't exactly have a lot of MiLB experience and currently has a 801 OPS at WOO. Not sure it would have been much better. This is just what happens when you trade all of your pitching depth over 12 months. 

Like you said earlier, Eyanson and Witherspoon were not 2026 depth.

Early is still on the IL, so nix him from the 2026 SP'er depth traded away.

A look at last winter's moves does show more possible SP'ers traded away than added, but not by much, and the quality comp is a plus for the Sox:

Added:

Gray

Bennett

Suarez

Oviedo

(Sandoval was added the previous winter but essentially for 2026)

Paez was lost and gained back via Rule 5

Ziehl is borderline 2026 depth.

Subtracted:

Harrison (We can count on him as an earlier add, then subtraction- same as Priester in 2024)

Drohan

Dobbins

Fitts (0 IP in 20260

Uberstine (2.2 IP in 2026 3.38 ERA)

Perales (3 IP and 21.00 ERA in 2026)

Not 2026 SP'er depth:

Clarke, Fajardo, Travieso, Aita

So, basically you are saying trading away Harrison, Drohan & Dobbins while adding Gray, Bennett, Suarez hurt our SP'er depth and is a reason we are now stuggling?

10 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

You can repackage an argument into a turd if you want. I don't care. 

They traded away their depth. Their depth last season was atrocious and the reason they got knocked from the playoffs. They fixed their rotation for 2026, BUT traded away much of their depth options. Both parts can be true.  

I'm not repackaging anything. You mentioned last 12 months of trading away the SP'er depth, and I provided the list of all pitchers traded and added in 12 months.

I guess this mean you like Harrison, Drohan and Dobbins better than Gray, Bennett and Suarez, or you view Fitts, Perales, Uberstine and a guy on the IL (Early) as the kind of depth we need right now.

Which one is it?

Maybe we'd be better in 2026 had we signed Bregman and kept Harrison & Drohan. No Durbin, Suarez, Monasterio & Seigler- maybe not, but that would have "helped" the SP'er depth.

To me, the Gray and Bennett trades outweigh all the "depth" we traded away. Maybe down the line, Clarke, Fajardo or Tarvieso will make us sorry we traded them, but none are 2026 depth. I doubt  Early comes back, but he could be 2026 depth later on in SEPT, I guess.

It sucks we never gave Harrison a real chance and he exploded for MIL, but I like Durbin and still think Suarez will out fWAR Bregman over 5 years.

7 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Gray and Suarez didn't replace Harrison, Drohan or Dobbins. They came in to be #2 and #3 starters, so replacing Giolito and Bello. Other rotation arms that left at the end of the season: Richard Fitts, Dustin May, Walker Buehler and Cooper Criswell. 

When you add a #2 and #3, you push back your 2 and 3 to 4 and 5, and your 5 and 6 take the place of Harrison and Drohan. No, that's not repackaging either.

Before the winter, our depth chart was maybe:

5: Crochet, Houck (IL)> Early, Bello, Crawford, Oviedo

Depth: Tolle, Sandoval, Fitts, Dobbins, Harrison, Drohan, Perales, Uberstine/Sikkema/Anderson

Did I miss anyone, or am I off somewhere?

By the end of winter, some pitcher's ended up on the IL, but it was not known in December/January, and many were expected back by mid season at the earliest, except for Houck. The rotation and depth was supposed to be and was planned as maybe this:

5: Crochet, Suarez, Gray, Bello, Early (for Houck)

Depth: Crawford, Oviedo, Tolle, Sandoval, Bennett, Houck by Aug/Sept, Uberstine/Sikkema/Anderson/Burgos/Ziehl

Which 6-12 looks better to you, or explain where my presentation went wrong.

I am not arguing that Brez was okay not adding a SP'er at the deadline, but only that we started the season with a much better starting 5 and a stronger and deeper 6-12 SP'er depth chart. Too many injuries to depth guys and our ace caused an epic collapse to the chart. We saw it happen before the deadline, and we knew Tolle & Bennett could reach their limits. Instead, Brez took the Fred add bats outlook and failed at that one, too.

20 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Gray and Suarez didn't replace Harrison, Drohan or Dobbins. They came in to be #2 and #3 starters, so replacing Giolito and Bello. Other rotation arms that left at the end of the season: Richard Fitts, Dustin May, Walker Buehler and Cooper Criswell. 

Having Houck, Crawford and Oviedo all miss the entire season probably hurt more, especially since only Houck was expected to miss that much time (as far as I know).

Losing Crochet after 6 games also hurt that depth.  If you think about it, Crochet, Houck, Crawford and Oviedo is 4/5 of a pretty good rotation on their own.

The Sox did have plenty of starter depth when those trades were made.  They’ve just burned through most (all?) of it…

On 9/2/2026 at 8:53 AM, Tedballgame said:

I hope Sox fans don't have to see Paez pitch again this season.

It was frustrating, but it was also just one start.

3.2 IP 10 H  8ER 3K 2BB

Surprisingly similar to another first career start from long ago back in 1987 where the pitcher went 3.2 IP 10H 6ER 1K 2BB against a bad (76-86) Houston Astros lineup.

And I bet a lot of Braves fans hoped they’d never see Tom Glavine start another game after that.

Not saying Paez is a future Hall of Famer.  He very, very likely isn’t.  Heck he might not even be a future Major Leaguer.  But I am saying it’s one start, and I wouldn’t put too much weight on it just yet…

13 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Was someone expecting Houck to be a contributor after having midseason TJS last year? 

Didn’t I mention Houck was the only one expected to miss that much time (as far as I know)?  Haven’t I mentioned it twice now?

What do you think had the bigger impact - trading away Dobbins, Fitts and Harrison?  Or losing Crochet, Crawford and Oviedo for all but 6 games?  
 

And while Harrison has been good, do the Sox really miss Dobbins and Fitts?  They’ve been closer to being a reason you need depth as opposed to actual depth.  Dobbins has 54 IP for the Cardinals this year and another 15 in AAA.  Fitts just has 15 IP in AAA.

The Sox could use Harrison, but they also could use Durbin…

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Oviedo hasn't been the picture of health in his career.

 

Not like those bastions of durability Dobbins, Fitts and Drohan.

Aren’t Dobbins and Fitts both injured right now?

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

 

Crawford hasn't seen the mound in two years at this point. He may never pitch again for the Sox. Why expect anything from him? 

Who did you expect more from in March - Crawford or Drohan?

Sale went 4 years barely seeing the mound, and not being his former self when he did actually get out there.  Also he was 35, unlike Crawford.  And I keep hearing it was wrong to give up on him.  By which I mean I keep hearing after he bounced back.

(It was wrong to, but also understandable.)

11 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I would have expected more from Drohan TBH. Crawford had a lingering injury that kept him out all of last year after a season where he lead the league in HR allowed. The silence surrounding Kutter's return and place on the roster was deafening. 

I don't think Bres believes in his stuff at all. 

His HR thing was largely carried by a 3 start stretch right after the All Star break.  The rest of the season, he was fairly average in home runs. Unlike Drohan, he had actual MLB success prior to this year.

Drohan was nothing special in the upper minors, and was selected and returned as a Rule 5 pick by one of the worst teams in MLB history. (Arguments that they didn’t get to be that bad by making good decisions acknowledged, as long as you acknowledge they didn’t return him for being “too impressive”.)

Breslow might not like Kutter.  He probably doesn’t like us much either.  The man seems unpleasant to anyone who doesn’t pitch left-handed…

15 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

They could also use Drohan. 

Astros were looking to dump Paredes. 

It seems like the Astros were willing to move  Paredes, but they were not willing to flat out dump him.  They wanted something useful back.  Do not overstate their case…

11 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Sox had enough assets to deal Duran PLUS to get a Paredes deal done. They just overstated how much Duran was worth. That was a big swing and a miss IMO. 

So Duran was worth 10.9 fWAR over the two previous season while Paredes posted 5.7 fWAR in that same timeframe.  Duran had more years of control and made less money.

So your argument is the Sox should have traded the better, cheaper and more controllable player and the Sox are the team that screwed up by not adding more to the package?  Nothing there seems right…

10 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Nobody in their right mind believes Jarren Duran is going to repeat his 2024 season. I would have been right to trade for Duran PLUS for Paredes. 2026 has proven that. 🤷‍♂️

And you only needed to see 86% of 2026 to come up with it.  

It’s not about repeating 2024.  Paredes simply isn’t as good of a player as Duran.  But you’re saying one bad year from Duran disproves than and justifies the deal?  

17 hours ago, notin said:

It was frustrating, but it was also just one start.

3.2 IP 10 H  8ER 3K 2BB

Surprisingly similar to another first career start from long ago back in 1987 where the pitcher went 3.2 IP 10H 6ER 1K 2BB against a bad (76-86) Houston Astros lineup.

And I bet a lot of Braves fans hoped they’d never see Tom Glavine start another game after that.

Not saying Paez is a future Hall of Famer.  He very, very likely isn’t.  Heck he might not even be a future Major Leaguer.  But I am saying it’s one start, and I wouldn’t put too much weight on it just yet…

Watch the pitches next time. Granted he should not have been out there in the first place, nor left to hang in the 3rd/4th but Paez had nothing to offer. 

22 hours ago, notin said:

Having Houck, Crawford and Oviedo all miss the entire season probably hurt more, especially since only Houck was expected to miss that much time (as far as I know).

Losing Crochet after 6 games also hurt that depth.  If you think about it, Crochet, Houck, Crawford and Oviedo is 4/5 of a pretty good rotation on their own.

The Sox did have plenty of starter depth when those trades were made.  They’ve just burned through most (all?) of it…

Add to this the Belloyips and that's 5 guys with only Houck known to be out all or most of 2026.

Crochet was our clear ace. He turned 27 this year.

Houck was the ace before Crochet arrived. He just turned 30 and is younger than Crawford.

Crawford was the 2024 team leader in IP and had a 102 ERA+ from '23-'24. He turned 30 to start this season.

Bello gave us 486 IP in the previous 3 seasons with a 106 ERA+, including 123 last season. He's just 27.

Oviedo was the unknown and is only 28. soxprospects often slotted him as our #5-6 starter early and mid winter. He had a 110 ERA+ over the previous 4 seasons but just 274 IP.

Also, Sandoval missed over half the season after bein expected back at the end of 2025. Early went on the IL before we traded him: he's still on the IL. Count their time missed and we are over a combined 5 SP'ers missing all their starts.

21 hours ago, notin said:

Who did you expect more from in March - Crawford or Drohan?

Sale went 4 years barely seeing the mound, and not being his former self when he did actually get out there.  Also he was 35, unlike Crawford.  And I keep hearing it was wrong to give up on him.  By which I mean I keep hearing after he bounced back.

(It was wrong to, but also understandable.)

Changing criteria when judging the Sale trade and his injury history vs future expectations and these other guys. Granted, these guys weren't Sale quality, but many had very nice ERA+s over the previous 1-2-3-4 years, and we could use just a 100 ERA+ guy or two right now.

7 hours ago, vegasbob said:

Watch the pitches next time. Granted he should not have been out there in the first place, nor left to hang in the 3rd/4th but Paez had nothing to offer. 

Yes for this one outing.  It doesn’t mean he is done.   Do people think in Glavine’s very similar debut, he looked sharp?