Red Sox Agree to Minor League Deal With Yasmani Grandal

[Davy Andrews]

Well, the Red Sox are clearly concerned about the catcher situation after Connor Wong's fractured pinkie. According to Robert Murray of FanSided, they've agreed to a minor league deal with Yasmani Grandal, who, despite his age, was one of the better catchers on the free agent market this offseason, but never got signed. The team has Carlos Narváez taking over the starting role for Wong, and they called Blake Sabol up Blake Sabol to serve as the backup. The team also has Seby Zavala in Triple-A, but they clearly feel that the position could use reinforcement. Grandal put up 2.0 fWAR with the Pirates in 2024, which was tied for 16th-best among catchers. We'll have more on this move first thing on Friday.

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[moonslav59]

I thought he must be 38-39, but he's 36.5.

Gotta be better than Sabol.

[notin]

His opt out should tick off Seby Zavala…

[mvp 78]

He was a guy that I mentioned here and there in the offseason due to his framing. On an MiLB deal, at least you are bringing him in to see what he has. I heard concerns about clubhouse issues, but I didn't look into it. 

[vegasbob]

11 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

He was a guy that I mentioned here and there in the offseason due to his framing. On an MiLB deal, at least you are bringing him in to see what he has. I heard concerns about clubhouse issues, but I didn't look into it. 

This clubhouse or team in general may need a disruptor in the clubhouse.  They have become way too comfortable with weak performances . AC is a supportive cheerleader who leans over to make them all comfortable . 

 There's little veteran leadership.   Famously, the only homegrown  veteran, Devers, is not interested in that role.  Bregman didn't grow up with these guys, nor did Story.  Casas and Duran are head cases anyway battling OCD or demonic possession induced by his father.   

I am not advocating it, but the more   sense I get from the outside, the more I'm thinking the change may need to come from the top , AC,  although I do not believe that is in the cards,  nor will be this year.   Another .500 season failure could change things. 

[mvp 78]

Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson reportedly was involved in a physical altercation with teammate Yasmani Grandal, less than a month before his suspension for squaring up in a benches-clearing brawl with the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday.

Grandal allegedly slapped Anderson in the face and the two had to be separated in the clubhouse prior to the White Sox’s game with the Cardinals on July 9, according to Shane Riordan, an executive producer for the “Parkins & Spiegel” show on 670 The Score in Chicago.

Riordan reported during Monday’s show that things escalated when Grandal complained in the clubhouse about not being in the lineup for Chicago’s home game against St. Louis, which took place a day before the All-Star break.

Grandal, in an expletive-filled rant, said he wanted to leave for the break a day early since he was not in the lineup, multiple sources told Riordan.

When Anderson, who was in the cold tub at the time, overheard Grandal’s comments, he offered to help remove Grandal from the clubhouse.

According to Riordan: “Tim Anderson says, ‘Well, f–k you f–k that,’ if he wants to get out of here now, I’ll pay for his flight and bring him there myself.

“Yasmani Grandal walks over to Tim Anderson and slaps him across the face and they got into a fight from here. They had to be separated.”

He's a guy that tears down teammates rather than builds them up per reports. Not a great combo for this team IMO.

 

[Hitch]

On 4/12/2025 at 5:18 AM, vegasbob said:

This clubhouse or team in general may need a disruptor in the clubhouse.  They have become way too comfortable with weak performances . AC is a supportive cheerleader who leans over to make them all comfortable . 

 There's little veteran leadership.   Famously, the only homegrown  veteran, Devers, is not interested in that role.  Bregman didn't grow up with these guys, nor did Story.  Casas and Duran are head cases anyway battling OCD or demonic possession induced by his father.   

I am not advocating it, but the more   sense I get from the outside, the more I'm thinking the change may need to come from the top , AC,  although I do not believe that is in the cards,  nor will be this year.   Another .500 season failure could change things. 

How do you know they are way too comfortable with weak performances? 

Don't make the mistake of watching a highly edited and stylistic documentary series and thinking you know them intimately. You can trust me on this, I've just made one of these series (my 3rd), and things get left on the cutting floor that would utterly change your mind on what so you're so sure of now. 

People have really got their heads up their arses over this (admittedly) not amazing start. People need to chill out. Half the players should be demoted or traded and all the staff should be sacked off if we took a consensus of Sox fans this past week. Lunacy. 

[mvp 78]

I think we need to trade about half our fanbase and consider demoting some posters to https://talksox.com/forums/forum/42-red-sox-minor-league-talk/

[moonslav59]

Sometimes a big change can spark a turn-around, but sometimes not.

Change just for change's sake is rarely a good idea.

I wonder what Cora is doing or not doing that is causing this small sample size near .500 stretch.

I can see what Casas, Duran and a few others are doing. I can't see anything Cora is doing that I'd change all that much. He adjusted the line-up, almost exactly as one of my suggested moves. Maybe another adjustment is coming, soon.

I think we are close to the time we can call up Mayer and/or Anthony and not lose a year of control. I'm not sure who should get demoted to the bench, but they better start hitting, ASAP.

Cora has already benched Casas vs lefties and demoted him to 6th in the line-up- maybe he'll go to 7th, next.

I've heard some say we should bench Devers or trade Duran. I'm glad they are not the GM/manager.

[Hitch]

24 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I think we need to trade about half our fanbase and consider demoting some posters to https://talksox.com/forums/forum/42-red-sox-minor-league-talk/

I second this proposal. Until I find out I'm one of the people getting the call and being sent down, and thus forced to slap Tim Anderson across the face. 

[Hitch]

25 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Sometimes a big change can spark a turn-around, but sometimes not.

Change just for change's sake is rarely a good idea.

I wonder what Cora is doing or not doing that is causing this small sample size near .500 stretch.

I can see what Casas, Duran and a few others are doing. I can't see anything Cora is doing that I'd change all that much. He adjusted the line-up, almost exactly as one of my suggested moves. Maybe another adjustment is coming, soon.

I think we are close to the time we can call up Mayer and/or Anthony and not lose a year of control. I'm not sure who should get demoted to the bench, but they better start hitting, ASAP.

Cora has already benched Casas vs lefties and demoted him to 6th in the line-up- maybe he'll go to 7th, next.

I've heard some say we should bench Devers or trade Duran. I'm glad they are not the GM/manager.

The thing is, I get the frustration. I definitely think there's legit reasons to question a few things - our hitting with RISP has been utterly abysmal for what feels like two years, we're striking out a lot, and we seem to have gone quite a way away from the team that grinds out bats and wears out the SP - now whether these are simply player or coach issues is hard to say (and too reductive), but it's fair to question this stuff. 

But the absolute assurance some people post things with as if known fact is hard to stomach, especially when they're just pulling it from their ass. It's mid April. People are expecting perfection already. The game threads are a tough read. To say the least. I think taking a few days off watching the team would do a lot of people some good. 

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, Hitch said:

I second this proposal. Until I find out I'm one of the people getting the call and being sent down, and thus forced to slap Tim Anderson across the face. 

We've seen Tim Anderson's boxing skills, I think a few of the posters on here could get a few punches in. I'm not sure which ones though. 

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Chicago White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson reportedly was involved in a physical altercation with teammate Yasmani Grandal, less than a month before his suspension for squaring up in a benches-clearing brawl with the Cleveland Guardians on Saturday.

Grandal allegedly slapped Anderson in the face and the two had to be separated in the clubhouse prior to the White Sox’s game with the Cardinals on July 9, according to Shane Riordan, an executive producer for the “Parkins & Spiegel” show on 670 The Score in Chicago.

Riordan reported during Monday’s show that things escalated when Grandal complained in the clubhouse about not being in the lineup for Chicago’s home game against St. Louis, which took place a day before the All-Star break.

Grandal, in an expletive-filled rant, said he wanted to leave for the break a day early since he was not in the lineup, multiple sources told Riordan.

When Anderson, who was in the cold tub at the time, overheard Grandal’s comments, he offered to help remove Grandal from the clubhouse.

According to Riordan: “Tim Anderson says, ‘Well, f–k you f–k that,’ if he wants to get out of here now, I’ll pay for his flight and bring him there myself.

“Yasmani Grandal walks over to Tim Anderson and slaps him across the face and they got into a fight from here. They had to be separated.”

He's a guy that tears down teammates rather than builds them up per reports. Not a great combo for this team IMO.

 

That’s not a flattering story about Grandal.

Anderson certainly has shown he has some temper issues as well, but Grandal should have known better.  And there’s no excuse for leaving a day early outside of certain family issues. (Or you’re a SP.) Catcher off day or not, you dont leave your team short-handed.

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, notin said:

That’s not a flattering story about Grandal.

Anderson certainly has shown he has some temper issues as well, but Grandal should have known better.  And there’s no excuse for leaving a day early outside of certain family issues. (Or you’re a SP.) Catcher off day or not, you dont leave your team short-handed.

Yeah, there was a lot of crappy things going on in that org, but even adding Grandal to this team short term may not be a good idea. I don't know why they didn't bring Zavala up to begin with.