Red Sox sign Patrick Sandoval

[a700hitter]

What is the latest news on his return?

[Nick]

Probably he'll have another set back. August/September of 2026.

[moonslav59]

It's doubtful he pitched in 2025 (CBS says "out for season"), so my guess is, for now, it's Opening Day 2026.

[Hugh2]

Sandoval was always about 2026, there was a chance he might pitch at the end of this year.  Thats no looking like a reality now so we are back on it being all about 2026

[Duran Is The Man]

Breslow and Henry are paying Sandoval $5.5M this year and $12.5M next year. so...essentially, they are paying him $18M for one year. absolutely f***ing insane. and this is the same owner that traded Sale for a bag of balls because he was tired of paying him not to pitch -even though he was perfectly healthy when he was traded. unreal.

[Hugh2]

12 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

Breslow and Henry are paying Sandoval $5.5M this year and $12.5M next year. so...essentially, they are paying him $18M for one year. absolutely f***ing insane. and this is the same owner that traded Sale for a bag of balls because he was tired of paying him not to pitch -even though he was perfectly healthy when he was traded. unreal.

There’s a saying.  There’s no such thing as a bad one year deal

[moonslav59]

We are essentially paying Sandoval about the same as Giolito ($18M/yr)

Previous 2 years before signing:

4.89 (86 ERA+) Giolito 4.70 FIP in 346 IP

4.45 (98) Sandoval 4.07 in 224 IP (significantly less IP, but a better pitcher)

Previous 3 years before signing:

4.43 (96) Giolito 4.39 in 525

3.84(110) Sandoval 3.68 in 373 (Still less IP but even better numbers)

Previous 500 or so IP

4.43 Gio (2022-2024)

3.80 Sandoval (2021-2024) Still 60 less IP from Sandoval, despite adding one more year. Sandoval was bad from 2019-2020.

 

[Duran Is The Man]

49 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

We are essentially paying Sandoval about the same as Giolito ($18M/yr)

Previous 2 years before signing:

4.89 (86 ERA+) Giolito 4.70 FIP in 346 IP

4.45 (98) Sandoval 4.07 in 224 IP (significantly less IP, but a better pitcher)

Previous 3 years before signing:

4.43 (96) Giolito 4.39 in 525

3.84(110) Sandoval 3.68 in 373 (Still less IP but even better numbers)

Previous 500 or so IP

4.43 Gio (2022-2024)

3.80 Sandoval (2021-2024) Still 60 less IP from Sandoval, despite adding one more year. Sandoval was bad from 2019-2020.

 

i doubt anybody gets worse production per dollar spent on FA pitching than the Red Sox.

[moonslav59]

Just now, Duran Is The Man said:

i doubt anybody gets worse production per dollar spent on FA pitching than the Red Sox.

That is likely a fact, especially since 2020.

Even the Price signing looks bad on paper. (Nate was technically a FA signing, but I don't really count that one.) Lackey was no big prize. We can maybe go back 10-12 years or more.

[Duran Is The Man]

5 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

That is likely a fact, especially since 2020.

Even the Price signing looks bad on paper. (Nate was technically a FA signing, but I don't really count that one.) Lackey was no big prize. We can maybe go back 10-12 years or more.

between that and their utter failure at developing pitching in the minors, it's no wonder they miss the playoffs every year. 

[moonslav59]

51 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

between that and their utter failure at developing pitching in the minors, it's no wonder they miss the playoffs every year. 

I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

The trade for Crochet rivals the Sale, Beckett, Schilling and Pedro trades, but has a way to go.

On this past winter FA signings:

Buehler: bust, so far.

Sandoval: TBD

Chapman: Great!

Wilson: Great for the money.

(The 2024 Gio signing has moved from the bust column to pretty decent in 2025.)

Yes, the Sale & Priester trades look horrible and the Buehler & Hendriks signings look real bad.

I can't blame anyone for not believing in a farm change with pitching, until we see it, but isn't Bello, Dobbins, Crawford and Houck about as good as we've seen from the farm in over a decade? It's still not great, but it's not bad, either. 

While Fitts, Slaten, Whitlock, Wink and others were "developed" more by other clubs, we did get them as prospects. The emphasis on drafting,increased IFA signing bonuses and trading for prospect pitching has taken an enormous step up, and we now see 3 of our top 4 prospects as pitchers and 7 of our top 9 (Tolle, Perales, Witherspoon, then Clarke, Valera, Early & Sandlin. We also have 9 pitchers ranked #10-27th (Phillips, Eyanson, Paez, Fajardo, Uberstine, Mullins, Delzine, Wehunt & Cason.)

Don't be surprised if some of the pitchers jump into the top 20 or 30, soon: Holobetz, J Bello, Monegro, Aita, Travieso, Ingrassia, Foutch, Futrell, Morgan, Tygart, Neely, D Reyes or Patton.

The effort is there, now.

[cp176]

16 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

The trade for Crochet rivals the Sale, Beckett, Schilling and Pedro trades, but has a way to go.

On this past winter FA signings:

Buehler: bust, so far.

Sandoval: TBD

Chapman: Great!

Wilson: Great for the money.

(The 2024 Gio signing has moved from the bust column to pretty decent in 2025.)

Yes, the Sale & Priester trades look horrible and the Buehler & Hendriks signings look real bad.

I can't blame anyone for not believing in a farm change with pitching, until we see it, but isn't Bello, Dobbins, Crawford and Houck about as good as we've seen from the farm in over a decade? It's still not great, but it's not bad, either. 

While Fitts, Slaten, Whitlock, Wink and others were "developed" more by other clubs, we did get them as prospects. The emphasis on drafting,increased IFA signing bonuses and trading for prospect pitching has taken an enormous step up, and we now see 3 of our top 4 prospects as pitchers and 7 of our top 9 (Tolle, Perales, Witherspoon, then Clarke, Valera, Early & Sandlin. We also have 9 pitchers ranked #10-27th (Phillips, Eyanson, Paez, Fajardo, Uberstine, Mullins, Delzine, Wehunt & Cason.)

Don't be surprised if some of the pitchers jump into the top 20 or 30, soon: Holobetz, J Bello, Monegro, Aita, Travieso, Ingrassia, Foutch, Futrell, Morgan, Tygart, Neely, D Reyes or Patton.

The effort is there, now.

who wants to stand in there against Tolle?  He is a beast and looks the part.  We have some potentially very solid pitching depth in our system.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, cp176 said:

who wants to stand in there against Tolle?  He is a beast and looks the part.  We have some potentially very solid pitching depth in our system.

And it goes deep into low A ball and DSL/FCL!

Look at all the promising pitchers who could start a game for the Sox in 2026:

Crochet, Giolito, Bello, Sandoval, Crawford, (Houck will not) 

Dobbins, Harrison, Fitts, Criswell (Hicks, Murphy, Wink & Whitlock used to  start) 

That's 14 pitchers with MLB experience as starters minus Houck & Whitlock and probably Murphy makes 11.

Now, add these guys projected to be MLB ready during the 2026 season:

Tolle, Early, Sandlin, Perales, Uberstine and maybe Wehunt, Drohan & Mullins. Let's just say 4.

That makes 15 on the depth chart before any additions.

The pen has a long list, too, and it could include some of the SP'ers listed above. We do need a closer, but here's a look at the rest:

Slaten, Whitlock, Weissert, Hicks, Bernardino, Murphy, Kelly, Guerrero, I Campbell & Burdi. That's only 10 for the 7 slots beyond our closer TBD, but some of those SP'ers will pitch from the pen. Here is the minor league RP depth that will be MLB ready in 2026 (not listed as SP'ers above):

Mata, Moran, Hoppe, Mills, I Coffey, Harris, Olds, Anderson, Liu, Bolden, Webb, Brand and maybe Wu-Yelland, McShane or Ingrassia. Maybe say 10, here. That makes about 20 pitchers looking at those 7 slots= more like 15 looking to make the final 2 slots on the 8 man MLB pen.

The depth of our farm pitching has taken a big step up under Brez. Soxprospects.com lists 8 pitchers as starting or PB Starters on Woo, next season. Some of them could be counted as AA starters, thereby pushing other level starters down a level, but let's roll with what they project:

AA: (They have Mullins in the AAA pen) : Clarke, Paez, Rivera, Holobetz, Rogers & Dean

A+: Valera, Witherspoon, Phillips, Eyanson, Aita & Tygart (WOW!)

A-: Fajardo, Neely, Travieso, Y Ruiz, Patton, B Morgan & D Brown

FCL: Cason, Delzine, D Reyes, Zink, Cordero & Frias

SPs.com has taken the liberty of projecting some SP'ers to the pen, and certainly some will be and have to be, but these lists could be even longer..