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Red Sox consider Johnny Cueto

The Boston Herald‘s Jason Mastrodonato says the Red Sox will at least be thinking about Johnny Cueto in rebuilding their rotation for 2016. Cueto, who turns 30 in February, is one of the top tier pitchers that will be on the market.

Royals Johnny Cueto
Photo by Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press

But Cueto in the off-season hasn’t been impressive, leading Kansas City Star sportswriter Sam Mellinger to hang a large “Buyer Beware” sign for whichever team ultimately signs him.

Mellinger wrote that in postseason games since 1903 no starter has ever given up eight or more earned runs while collecting six or fewer outs in a playoff game before Cueto’s performance in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series against the Blue Jays.

Certainly the Royals expected a lot better when they traded with the Reds for Cueto on July 26. He finished the regular season 4-7 with 4.76 ERA in 13 starts for Kansas City after going 7-6 with a 2.62 EA in 19 starts at the beginning of the year with Cincinnati.

There’s likely more postseason to come for the Royals, with more time for evaluation, but ultimately it will fall to Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and his team to determine whether Johnny Cueto is worth Boston’s money and worth the risk.


Press spotlights GM Hazen

Red Sox GM Mike Hazen
Herald Photo by Matt Stone

The Boston Herald offers a glowing look at new Red Sox General Manager and Massachusetts native Mike Hazen.

He’s “a dynamic personality and a guy that is a perfect teammate, a guy you want to spend time around,” says Indians president Chris Antonetti, who worked with Hazen in Cleveland until he left for Boston when Theo Epstein hired him as director of player development in 2006.

Hazen was named a Red Sox Senior Vice President and Assistant General Manager this past January. He played four years of varsity baseball at Princeton University. A 31st-round selection of the Padres in 1998 June Draft, Hazen played in two minor league seasons.


One & Done: Yankees Finished

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When all was said and done, after  a full slate of 162 games, the Yankees wound up playing one more than the Red Sox.

Tuesday’s 3-0 shutout, Wild Card victory by the Astros stung for New York fans, who soundly booed their team, after watching decent pitching but a nearly silent Yankee offense. All during the regular season, the Yankees were shutout just twice at home.

With just three hits, the Yankees were shutout in a postseason elimination game for only the 5th time since 1903. Remarkably, all five of those games have come at home in New York. In 379 postseason Yankees games since 1903, Tuesday’s was just the 15th with three or fewer Bombers’ hits.

New York had averaged 4.72 runs per game in the 2015 regular season, second only to the Blue Jays’ 5.50 mark, the best record in baseball. But of late, Yankee runs have been hard to come by. Over their last 12 games of the season the Yankees were 4-8, averaging just 3.0 runs per game.

The Astros face off against the Royals in the American League Division Series starting Thursday.


Sox home as Postseason begins

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WS15_PostseasonMarks_RGBThe Red Sox, baseball’s winningest Wild Card club ever, are spectators tonight. Those past wins, small consolation as the 2015 postseason begins again without them.

The season rolls on, however, for the Yankees and Astros tonight in the American League Wild Card game. One team will go on, one will go home.

For the Yankees, it’s their 52nd postseason appearance, the most of any MLB club ever. They’ve appeared in 18 of the last 21 postseasons.

The Astros will make their 10th postseason appearance on Tuesday, their first since joining the American League in 2013.  Houston was last in the postseason in 2005, advancing all the way to the World Series by way of the Wild Card.

Yankees are, no doubt, happy to be playing at home in this winner take all game. They were 45-36 in The Bronx this season, clinching a 24th straight winning record there. The 24 consecutive winning home seasons is the second longest such streak in MLB history. The only longer one was set by the Yankees from 1918 to 1964—a remarkable 47 years.

The Astros may have preferred to play at home, but they’re not intimidated by Yankee Stadium. The club beat New York 4-games-to-3 in the 2015 season set, including winning 2-of-3 in New York. In that three game set, Houston outscored the Yanks 21-4 including a 15-1 win in the start made by Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel, who also starts tonight.

The winner of tonight’s game will face the Royals in the Division Series that starts Thursday.

Red Sox in the Wild Card

Though sitting home tonight, the Red Sox are baseball’s all-time leader with seven total Wild Card wins. The Yankees are next with four, followed by the Cardinals and Rockies (3 each).

Boston won the American League Wild Card games of 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009.

AL East teams generally have fared well in Wild Card games with 15 winners coming from that one division, the most in all of baseball.

Former Red Sox ace Jon Lester started for the Athletics in last year’s AL Wild Card game allowing 6 runs (all earned) on 8 hits over 7.1 innings pitched. Despite Oakland’s 7-3 lead in the 6th inning, however, the Royals roared back to tie the game and, ultimately, win 9-8 in 12 exciting innings. Kansas City, of course, went on to win the Division & Championship series before losing the 2015 World Series to the Giants.


2016 management takes form

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John Farrell with NESN's Tom Caron

John Farrell with NESN’s Tom Caron
Photo by RSNStats

With the last day of the season comes news that Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski will stick with Manager John Farrell for 2016.

In a press release Sunday, the Red Sox said Farrell will be back as manager, provided he obtains a “clean bill of health” following his treatment for Stage 1 Lymphoma.

Perhaps more importantly, Dombrowski worked a deal with interim manager Torey Lovullo to return to his role as Red Sox bench coach next season and waive his right to pursue managerial openings in the 2016 season. That’s not an insignificant concession on Lovullo’s part, whose skillful management of the Boston ball club after Farrell’s departure, likely put him toward the top of the list for manager jobs elsewhere. The Red Sox were 28-20 under Lovulllo. 

Dombrowski’s arrangement with Lovullo came with a two year contract extension. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reported via Twitter that the extension included, according to Dombrowski, a bump in compensation that will make Lovullo one of the higher paid bench coaches in the game.

With Lovullo locked in, Dombrowski has a backup plan in the regrettable instance that Farrell has a health setback next season.

He’s back, but should he be?

After such bad, back-to-back seasons, Red Sox fans can be forgiven for wondering whether Farrell deserves another shot managing this club. Indeed, except for the World Championship season of 2013, Farrell has never managed a winning season in five total years between the Blue Jays and Red Sox.

But even the tone-deaf, almost tottering ownership group had to know that firing their beleaguered manager would stimulate more public relations backlash. In that way, the remarkably bad handling of Don Orsillo’s dismissal—and the ensuing extraordinary anger about it, which was said to have caught the business by surprise—may have somehow benefited Farrell’s cause.

Some coaching changes

Sunday’s announcement included news that third base coach Brian Butterfield, pitching coach Carl Willis, hitting coach Chili Davis, and assistant hitting coach Victor Rodriguez, would all be retained for 2016. First base coach and outfield instructor Arnie Beyeler and strength and conditioning coach Pat Sandora, however, have been dismissed.

Beyeler, 51, told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford that Dombrowski contacted him about the move after the Red Sox game Saturday. Asked if there might be another opportunity elsewhere with the club, Dombrowski told him no.

On Sunday, the Boston Globe‘s Nick Cafardo  reported that former Red Sox player Rich Gedman, currently a hitting coach for the Pawtucket Red Sox, may wind up leaving the organization if he isn’t soon promoted to the major league level. We’ll wait to see whether Beyeler and Sandora’s departure means an opening in the big club for Gedman.