sk7326

Butterfield would make an obvious bench coach candidate as well ... although I would expect the Sox will push hard for an older hand for the bench coach position ... whether it be an actual former big league manager, or bringing DeMarlo Hale back

Catcher is actually one of the places we need the least amount of help Vasquez is just fine. He takes good at-bats, seems capable of being a consistent .270 sort of hitter - and given his defense that is terrific. The power is limited, and offense will never be why you pay him ... but I am comfortable that he is a long term starter for any number of teams, including this one. We could possibly upgrade at backup catcher - but again, for a backup, Leon is about as good as you will probably get. Now in 2018 maybe try to get it to more like 120 starts for Vasquez and it'll be okay.

Could Cora fall flat on his face? Sure. But - much like Francona in 2004 ... if you were to build a profile for a perfect managerial prospect for the Red Sox, he is as good a resume as it gets.

No it doesn't - the Red Sox have not made any announcement. This is a report that the Sox WILL. And yeah - the Astros gave him permission to interview, it was a promotion. (the former is the key - note the Sox denied Lovullo permission to interview in 2015 iirc)

Martinez can probably play 1B - probably can't do anything else well. Given that 1B/LF are your usual positions to put players who can't do anything else defensively (and DH is taken). Hosmer has had meh results, but is much younger than the cohort - so you can at least dream on him a little. Santana is the best of the other options (besides Hosmer and Martinez) ... good on base skills.

He hit them to right field in 2015, he laid off of them in 2016 ... the impact of hand injuries to players is significant enough to give benefit of the doubt

His future health is the question - and it is a fair one. The Red Sox certainly need to mitigate the risk. We know if he is healthy he is still really good ... if he only had 1-2 years left on his deal, there would probably still be a market just because he is a known good player. But that is not the world we are in.

The one thing in the pro-hosmer column is ... he's the youngest of the major FAs. You can at least imagine that last year's results will stick. Also, if you look around the league, not many teams have true openings at 1B. Indeed Kansas City might be the stiffest competition here. I would not stick around for a big bidding war here - but I'd at least kick the tires.

This is entirely due to contract length - and given how cheap it is, I am not fully convinced it's a dealbreaker.

I would not be surprised at all that if Cora gets hired he and dd identified Hale to come back here as a bench coach

A 3-4 win player at Pedroia's salary is a steal.

Manager/general manager in winter ball. Which counts every bit as much as managing in the minors (for instance). Has also done television - which doesn't hurt given the importance the media facing part of the gig has.

Did he? I get the sense he knew Devers was staying the entire time.

the lack of power definitely needs to be fixed. the homeruns could be overlooked a tad if the doubles held it up - which was the real disappointment. Any team which plays at Fenway should not be outside the Top 2 or 3 in that area.

WAR is a counting stat, so this runs right into the health caveat ... even then he was a 2 win player this past year, which justifies his salary. He was a 5 win player in 2016, which put him as one of the league's best position players. Given his injury history - of course you want someone of Nunez' quality on the roster. When he has been healthy, Pedroia has still been extremely effective.

They struck out remarkably little for a team that did not recognize pitches.

I hope so. Obviously Cora could fall on his face. But from a "Red Sox managerial prospect" point of view - nobody else checks all the boxes.

This is all true. Of course, this is not school - this is a job. And unlike a lot of other jobs - baseball is a job where you fail all the time, even when you did everything correct. Look at when Betts lined into the double play in Game 4. Everybody did the right thing there. Benintendi made a secondary lead to 2nd base but had his head up ... Betts made as perfect contact as anybody could make. And they got 2 outs for it. And then the previous game, Devers muscled a ball he was fooled on into a double. From the stuff I've read - it seems with our kiddos in particular, the problem is not they weren't whipped enough. The problem is the kids whipped themselves when stuff was happening, and the coaching staff did not have the personalities who could come, crack and joke and tell them "just keep at it. it's nothing that a ball falling between two fielders can't fix." It is possible that the coaching staff was not very good at making the clubhouse a great office to go work at. Now this does not mean Farrell was without strengths. The team did take on his professionalism and intensity. He managed the pitching staff very well. But when the young guys collectively underperformed - then sure, the approach needs review.

If Henry wanted keeping the kids to be a priority for this aim, Dombrowski would have a different approach. (or not been hired) And - given that, Dombrowski has handled the farm kind of well. He was aggressive in identifying his keepers - Benintendi and Devers ... and used the rest as currency. His approach given Boston's market, payroll and priorities is entirely defensible. Now the farm system needs to be reloaded - but that was going to be the case anyway ... the kids were not going to be in AAA forever. Now could he have waited longer to see if Moncada was a thing? Maybe - but he was raw enough that he might not have fit the Red Sox timeline. Minor league pitching is always the trickiest thing. On one hand, having high quality young arms is what every team wants. On the other, the volatility of young pitchers, especially with regards to health, is so high that I can't blame any organization for trading low level arms.

i agree - it behooves them to resign Nunez for a reason like this. In the land of 13 man pitching staffs, we know the benches will be tiny - and you need multipositional skills. Nunez is a good fit for this.

sure. but again, a wheelbarrow approach to the bullpen is the right way to do it - so I think they should sign any reliever who can strike out hitters.

Fine is an extreme understatement ... if he's healthy he's still one of the league's best 2B. Unfortunately that is not an "if" we can take for granted. But he was a 5 win player as recently as 2016. His dropoff in performance has been from "Top 10 player" to "Top 10 2nd baseman"

When I said "that side of the ball", I meant overall - 3rd base/SS was not great ... actually, for fun ... going by position. (the Red Sox led the bigs in UZR) Catcher: 1st 1st Base: 10th 2nd Base: 3rd 3rd Base: 24th Shortstop: 17th Left Field: 20th Center Field: 5th Right Field: 1st (BY A LOT) I expect Benintendi to get better in LF. Bogaerts is probably what he is - an okay defensive shortstop who needs to hit to be the 4-win player he has shown in 2015-16. Third Base will be on Devers to improve.

trying being playing through the hand thing - wish he were a bit better defensively ... though on whole the team was excellent on that side

Stanton has also missed a lot of games for someone to sell the farm on ...