Beni traded to Royals

[dgalehouse]

In 2019 the pitching fell apart out of the gate. There was really no way to see it coming.

 

The injuries and underperformance of the starting rotation was a stunner. But the bullpen problems were very predictable. We lost the strangely under appreciated Craig Kimbrel , one of the elite closers of this decade. We also lost the popular flame throwing set up man , Joe Kelly. We did not want to pay the price . Understandable. But , absolutely no one was acquired to replace those guys. No one . Instead, the remaining pen guys were all bumped up a notch , out of their effective comfort zones . Not surprisingly, the blown saves came early and often . The pen straightened out a bit late in the season due to Workman and a couple of hard throwing left handers , but it was too late . The damage had been done . This was on Dombrowski. And I am not second guessing here. I predicted the bullpen problems right from spring training. The problems with the rotation were another story. Did not see that coming. Bottom line : The Sox did not exactly stand pat. They did less than that.

[harmony]

The injuries and underperformance of the starting rotation was a stunner. But the bullpen problems were very predictable. We lost the strangely under appreciated Craig Kimbrel , one of the elite closers of this decade. We also lost the popular flame throwing set up man , Joe Kelly. We did not want to pay the price . Understandable. But , absolutely no one was acquired to replace those guys. No one . Instead, the remaining pen guys were all bumped up a notch , out of their effective comfort zones . Not surprisingly, the blown saves came early and often . The pen straightened out a bit late in the season due to Workman and a couple of hard throwing left handers , but it was too late . The damage had been done . This was on Dombrowski. And I am not second guessing here. I predicted the bullpen problems right from spring training. The problems with the rotation were another story. Did not see that coming. Bottom line : The Sox did not exactly stand pat. They did less than that.

This offseason the Red Sox have added Adam Ottavino, Matt Andriese and Garrett Whitlock to the bullpen and reportedly are working on a deal with Hirokazu Sawamura. In a market with 30 teams seeking relief help, the Red Sox did not come up emptyhanded.

[moonslav59]

The injuries and underperformance of the starting rotation was a stunner. But the bullpen problems were very predictable. We lost the strangely under appreciated Craig Kimbrel , one of the elite closers of this decade. We also lost the popular flame throwing set up man , Joe Kelly. We did not want to pay the price . Understandable. But , absolutely no one was acquired to replace those guys. No one . Instead, the remaining pen guys were all bumped up a notch , out of their effective comfort zones . Not surprisingly, the blown saves came early and often . The pen straightened out a bit late in the season due to Workman and a couple of hard throwing left handers , but it was too late . The damage had been done . This was on Dombrowski. And I am not second guessing here. I predicted the bullpen problems right from spring training. The problems with the rotation were another story. Did not see that coming. Bottom line : The Sox did not exactly stand pat. They did less than that.

 

No doubt, 2019 was the beginning of cutting back in some areas. (We also let Kelly go.)

 

Some felt having Eovaldi and Pearce back for a full season would make up the difference.

 

Nobody expected a 24 loss swing.

[harmony]

With the trade of Andrew Benintendi, the Red Sox have made more trades this offseason than the Seattle Mariners.

 

That was not expected.

 

The parallel transactions:

 

James Paxton vs. Garrett Richards (top signing of free agent starter)

Rafael Montero vs. Adam Ottavino (trade for potential closer)

Kendall Graveman vs. Martin Perez (pitchers re-signed after options declined)

Chris Flexen vs. Matt Andriese (pitching depth signings)

Keynan Middleton vs. Hirokazu Sawamura (bullpen additions)

Will Vest vs. Garrett Whitlock (reliever and starter Rule 5 pickups)

 

... and no match:

 

xxx vs. Enrique Hernandez

xxx vs. Marwin Gonzales

xxx vs. Hunter Renfroe (less Andrew Benintendi)

xxx vs. Franchy Cordero (less Jackie Bradley Jr.)

 

And with that the Red Sox are projected to win 87 games in a 162-game season and the Seattle Mariners 74 games:

 

https://www.fangraphs.com/depthcharts.aspx?position=Standings

[mvp 78]

@ChrisCotillo

Royals AGM JJ Picollo says here that KC and the Red Sox made a 2-team deal involving Benintendi and Khalil Lee and then Red Sox informed KC they were flipping Lee to the Mets. Red Sox were the middle man; KC and NYM didn't talk directly.

 

If this is the case, the PTBNL from NYM should be substantial. Otherwise, it's a deal of Lee for Winckowski and something underwhelming. At that point, wouldn't you just keep Lee?

[notin]

@ChrisCotillo

Royals AGM JJ Picollo says here that KC and the Red Sox made a 2-team deal involving Benintendi and Khalil Lee and then Red Sox informed KC they were flipping Lee to the Mets. Red Sox were the middle man; KC and NYM didn't talk directly.

 

If this is the case, the PTBNL from NYM should be substantial. Otherwise, it's a deal of Lee for Winckowski and something underwhelming. At that point, wouldn't you just keep Lee?

 

Also per MLBTR, Mets’ GM and former Sox employee Zack Scott has a long time man crush on Khalil Lee.

 

Obviously the Sox don’t know who they want yet, but it could be someone from a list of intriguing players...

[mvp 78]

Also per MLBTR, Mets’ GM and former Sox employee Zack Scott has a long time man crush on Khalil Lee.

 

Obviously the Sox don’t know who they want yet, but it could be someone from a list of intriguing players...

 

I think it was reported that they sent lists of players to Royals and Mets that they wanted to scout further (probably agreed to since there was no MiLB season last year). Maybe they watch them in ST and need to select them by Opening Day or sometime early in the season.

[notin]

I think it was reported that they sent lists of players to Royals and Mets that they wanted to scout further (probably agreed to since there was no MiLB season last year). Maybe they watch them in ST and need to select them by Opening Day or sometime early in the season.

 

I suspect none will be named until August or so in order to get as thorough of an evaluation as possible...

[Bellhorn04]

I suspect none will be named until August or so in order to get as thorough of an evaluation as possible...

 

So they're PTBNML - Players to Be Named Much Later.

[mvp 78]

I suspect none will be named until August or so in order to get as thorough of an evaluation as possible...

 

(x) doubt

 

I bet the Mets player will be named by mid May. The other two directly from the Royals may drag out, but I bet they'll all be here by ASB.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

(x) doubt

 

I bet the Mets player will be named by mid May. The other two directly from the Royals may drag out, but I bet they'll all be here by ASB.

 

FIVE players for selling low on Beni? If Beni never again approximates past performance, and Cordero ever has a 2+ WAR season, all Bloom probably needs is for just one more of the other guys to make the bigs and this deal could be his signature trade in Beantown. I'd settle for a Varitek on the list to choose from, but the Sox sure could use a D.Lowe for the next decade.

[moonslav59]

I think we not only get something good from the Mets, but by including $2.8M to KC, we’ll get something promising from them, too.

[Kimmi]

No way they are worse than 2020, right?

 

I think the team will compete this year.

 

That said, the fact that we have very little realistic flexibility is a byproduct of the cliff.

[Kimmi]

@ChrisCotillo

Royals AGM JJ Picollo says here that KC and the Red Sox made a 2-team deal involving Benintendi and Khalil Lee and then Red Sox informed KC they were flipping Lee to the Mets. Red Sox were the middle man; KC and NYM didn't talk directly.

 

If this is the case, the PTBNL from NYM should be substantial. Otherwise, it's a deal of Lee for Winckowski and something underwhelming. At that point, wouldn't you just keep Lee?

 

Word on the street is that the PTBNL from the Mets will be rather substantial.

 

Merloni made the very good point that most people criticize these types of trades simply because they don't recognize the names. I was not and still am not happy about trading Beni, but that doesn't mean that it's not a good trade.

[notin]

(x) doubt

 

I bet the Mets player will be named by mid May. The other two directly from the Royals may drag out, but I bet they'll all be here by ASB.

 

Any reason?

 

Personal theory - with all the scouting data being over a year old and potentially outdated, the Sox front office wants to get as much current data as possible. If I'm right, this means taking as much of the 6 months as they can...

[jad]

FIVE players for selling low on Beni? If Beni never again approximates past performance, and Cordero ever has a 2+ WAR season, all Bloom probably needs is for just one more of the other guys to make the bigs and this deal could be his signature trade in Beantown. I'd settle for a Varitek on the list to choose from, but the Sox sure could use a D.Lowe for the next decade.

 

Oh yeah. I'm sure one of those players to be named later will be a Varitek or an Ortiz. But why aim low? There's an equal chance that they'll be a Ted Williams or Babe Ruth.

[notin]

Oh yeah. I'm sure one of those players to be named later will be a Varitek or an Ortiz. But why aim low? There's an equal chance that they'll be a Ted Williams or Babe Ruth.

 

Can't the same be said for Benintendi?

 

Trading Mookie was one thing, but let's not go overboard here...

[moonslav59]

Funny how I never meant to actually compare Cordero to Ortiz- I just brought up the late bloomer aspect, but I read an article whereby some guy from KC mentioned Ortiz & Cordero.

[a700hitter]

Funny how I never meant to actually compare Cordero to Ortiz- I just brought up the late bloomer aspect, but I read an article whereby some guy from KC mentioned Ortiz & Cordero.

I saw that too. The author probably lurks here and saw your post.

[mvp 78]

I think the team will compete this year.

 

That said, the fact that we have very little realistic flexibility is a byproduct of the cliff.

 

They reset last year. Why is there no flexibility this year?

[mvp 78]

Any reason?

 

Personal theory - with all the scouting data being over a year old and potentially outdated, the Sox front office wants to get as much current data as possible. If I'm right, this means taking as much of the 6 months as they can...

 

I think they'll scout the few guys they are looking into and make a quicker decision because they'd rather have them in house.

[notin]

I think they'll scout the few guys they are looking into and make a quicker decision because they'd rather have them in house.

 

Yeah but why grab a guy in May only to see him need TJ in July?

 

Since most of them are probably in A ball, they have time to develop them properly.

 

Hopefully at least one is a high upside catcher. If the Sox farm is devoid of any position, it's catcher. And Vazquez is gone after 2022, barring an extension...

[mvp 78]

Yeah but why grab a guy in May only to see him need TJ in July?

Since most of them are probably in A ball, they have time to develop them properly.

 

Hopefully at least one is a high upside catcher. If the Sox farm is devoid of any position, it's catcher. And Vazquez is gone after 2022, barring an extension...

 

Why ever take a PTBNL then? May as well just postpone every trade because of the off chance a guy gets injured.

[mvp 78]

Why ever take a PTBNL then? May as well just postpone every trade because of the off chance a guy gets injured.

 

Or just bring them in today since they are going to get TJ in the future and you can get the surgery done now rather than waiting.

[mvp 78]

Or just bring them in today since they are going to get TJ in the future and you can get the surgery done now rather than waiting.

 

Or or just force every guy in A ball to get TJ. Maybe they'll all see a post-TJ uptick in velo!!!!!!!!

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Oh yeah. I'm sure one of those players to be named later will be a Varitek or an Ortiz. But why aim low? There's an equal chance that they'll be a Ted Williams or Babe Ruth.

 

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/boston-red-sox-legend-tops-list-10-greatest-players-be-named-later-trades

[notin]

Or or just force every guy in A ball to get TJ. Maybe they'll all see a post-TJ uptick in velo!!!!!!!!

 

Yeah... that's a good strategy.

 

Should have just traded for Taillon. He's had TWO upticks in velocity. One more TJ and he will be Nolan Freakin' Ryan 2.0...

[mvp 78]

https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/boston-red-sox-legend-tops-list-10-greatest-players-be-named-later-trades

 

I love that we can continue to pigeonhole Papi into this trade.

[mvp 78]

Yeah... that's a good strategy.

 

Should have just traded for Taillon. He's had TWO upticks in velocity. One more TJ and he will be Nolan Freakin' Ryan 2.0...

 

They should TJ his other arm so that he can be the next Greg Harris.

[jacksonianmarch]

This was not a 3 team trade, FYI.

 

The sox dealt Beni to the Royals for Cordero, Lee, and 2 PTBNL's

 

They then shipped Lee to the Mets for Winckowski and another PTBNL

 

The only reason why I think these are players to be named is that the sox asked for 2020 draftees who cannot be moved until 12 months after the draft. If so, then the sox dealt Beni for Cordero (fringe MLBer), Winckowski (probably in line for some big league work in 2021) and 3 guys who are a long way's off. You likely won't hear about the 3 players until June 12th, over a year after completion of last year's draft