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Another gut punch: Bogaerts Gone to Padres

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The Red Sox had their chance to put their much-valued payroll flexibility to good use. Instead, once again, as they had in 2022 Spring Training, the front office dramatically under-bid for Xander Bogaerts at this year’s Winter Meetings in San Diego. On Friday, a smiling Bogaerts made his debut in a Padres uniform.

The just-turned-30 shortstop capitalized on the Padres’ largess, signing on for 11 years and $280 million in a deal that includes full no-trade protection. In Bogaerts San Diego get not only a solid performer, but a team leader with a consistently positive attitude and championship bona fides.

Earlier, as the Winter Meetings wrapped up, Sox brass had seemed positive about their reported offer of $160 million over six years. There was a sense of momentum, with many press reports indicating that a deal was near at hand.

Later that evening, as he waited at the San Diego airport, Boston baseball president Chaim Bloom seemed blindsided by the Padres when the news reached him just before the long flight home to Boston. Bloom’s crew had again miscalculated Bogaerts’ value. Worse, the Padres offer wasn’t an outlier. The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham tweeted that three or four other teams had been willing to go to $200 million or more to land Bogaerts.

Bad start ends worse

The week at the Winter Meetings started badly. Bloom seemed outmatched, missing out on a deal for Jose Abreu, which had been reported to be the team’s No. 1 outside priority. Later, the Sox thought they had a deal with reliever Zach Eflin only to see the Rays steal it away. Boston also whiffed on reliever Tommy Kahnle when the Yankees swooped in with a better offer.

But things brightened for Bloom with the signings of relievers Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin and then on the surprising news that the Sox had signed Japanese star Masataka Yoshida.

Those positive vibes immediately evaporated with the news of Bogaerts’ departure, leaving many in Red Sox Nation angry and reasonably questioning whether Bloom is out of touch and over his head.

Bogaerts’ Legacy

Xander Bogaerts finishes his tenure in Boston having played the most games at shortstop in franchise history (1,192) while recording the fourth-most hits of any Boston player before turning 30 (1,407). Only three Hall of Famers, Carl Yastrzemski (1,480), Bobby Doerr (1,437) and Jim Rice (1,429), had more.

The two-time World Series champion had four All-Star selections with the Red Sox and won an American League Silver Slugger Award five times.

Just three qualified Major Leaguers had a .825 OPS or better in each of season from 2018 to 2022. Two of them used to play for the Red Sox: Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Bogaerts.


RSNStats on Mastodon, too

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For years now, Twitter has seemed as commonplace as the kitchen sink. Open the faucet and water just flows out. But now, the future of Twitter is murky, at best. New owner Elon Musk has reportedly told employees that given the run rate of losses, bankrupcy for Twitter is a real possibility. That doesn’t mean it will just disappear, but then it might mean that. Things seem too big to just vanish until they do.

Photo by Souvik Banerjee on Unsplash

I like our RSNStats community on Twitter and I’d hate to see it gone. So lately I’ve been exploring Mastodon, which is another kind of free social network.

I hope exploring Mastodon is just a fun technical exercise. I hope Twitter remains much as it is. As things stand, I’m committed to sticking with Twitter for RSNStats now and in the future. But there’s enough tumult around Twitter that it’s seems a good idea to have a backup plan, too.

Understanding Mastodon

In a lot of ways Mastodon feels like Twitter but it’s different in a some important ways, too. Mastodon is not owned by any one entity, it shows posts chronologically, not according to some hidden algorithm, and it’s ad-free.

You join the Mastodon community by creating an account on the Mastodon server of your choice and then you can communicate with other Mastodon users on other servers around the globe. The new RSNStats presence on Mastodon is at @RSNStats@opalstack.social.

As with Twitter, you can view RSNStats on Mastodon with your web browser or, more conveniently, by downloading an app for your computer or mobile device. There are many apps to chose from, I started with a free one called Metatext for iPhone and iPad. It’s great, but lately I’ve been exploring some new paid apps that add a bunch of conveniences.

Early days

In a lot of ways, Mastodon feels a lot like Twitter in its early days. There are plenty of warts, plenty of things to work out. And while I’m no expert on Mastodon, I’m learning more every day. Given the circumstances, you might considering exploring for yourself. There are some good Mastodon explainers here, here, and here.


Last, Again

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At the 2021 end of season press conference, an efforvescent Chaim Bloom, fresh off almost making the World Series, talked about his progress towards ending Boston’s feast-or-famine cycle of big seasons and last place finishes. The Red Sox baseball boss was positive. “In terms of this being the start of something, in terms of us feeling like we have a bunch of guys who joined this group, who are ready to help us win going forward, I think we’re there.”

A year later, the Red Sox finished back in the cellar, last in the division for the fifth time in eleven seasons. Sandwiched between those nadirs were five postseason appearances and two World Series wins.

The 2022 Red Sox finished at 78-84 (.481), the sixth lowest win percentage of the 15 American League teams. It’s the 43rd losing season in franchise history, the fifth since 2000.

Up and down, back and forth, feast or famine. It seems clear now, we’re not there yet.

Kennedy: Baseball Operations Responsible

This year’s end of season wrap up was a more sober affair. Sitting alongside Bloom, his boss, Red Sox President and CEO Sam Kennedy was unequivocal. “Finishing in last place is brutal,” he said. “The leadership of the organization is responsible for it…that’s on us, we need to be better.”

Kennedy drew a distinction that can be easy to overlook for some. The Red Sox ownership group provides the resources. They hire the executives to put those resources to work and those executives are responsible for the results. In other words, Kennedy’s own baseball operations group.

Ownership’s “commitment to spending has been there,” Kennedy told the assembled press. “How those resources have been allocated, the under-performance, just not getting it done, that’s on us, that’s not an ownership level thing. That’s on our level. We’re responsible for that.”

What’s lies ahead

Chaim Bloom surely anticipated a question about takeaways from the 2022 season. When it came, he pointed to two specifics.

First, Bloom said, the front office needs to build a roster “that can withstand some things going wrong because in most seasons, unless you get lucky, they do.” That seems, on its face, to be too obvious for someone of Bloom’s background not to have understood before this year.

Bloom’s second point was even more curious. “We all need to work together,” he said, “making sure that we are getting the most out of all the talent we have.” The unsaid part of that seems to be that Bloom believes the team didn’t get optimal performance from the players the front office signed. If that’s the case, it’s logical to assume Bloom favors changes in the way the team has been managed and coached.

Rafael Devers

Not surprisingly, Bloom was light on specifics of what the team is planning for 2023. While saying he’s not inclined to give blanket assurances generally, trading Rafael Devers isn’t “on our radar”. Devers is “a guy that we want to build around, and he’s hugely important to what we’re doing,” Bloom said. “We hope he’s here not just next year but in the years to come.”

Xander Bogaerts

The Red Sox have until five days after the World Series to make a new deal with Xander Bogaerts following his expected opt-out on the rest of his contract with Boston. At that point, other teams will be able to talk with him.

“Nothing I say really maters, unless there’s a deal,” Bloom said, “But our position’s been the same: we want to keep him here for a long time, we want him here on a deal that we’re going to look back on and say, ‘This is great for everybody.'” Bloom said the kind of deal he’s looking for would be similar to the one that just wrapped up with J.D. Martinez.

First base

Bloom had some nice things to say about rookie Triston Casas. “Sometimes the results were there, sometimes they weren’t, but he was a tough at-bat every single time, which is going to be one of his calling cards as he goes forward.”

Bloom admitted, “with what we went through this year,” having two quality options at first base with Casas and Eric Hosmer is a problem he’s happy to have. That said, though, he acknowledged that agreeing to bring Hosmer on was originally meant to keep from rushing Casas to the big leagues.

The front office will need to weigh whether Casas’ performance so far is enough to bet on him for the long haul, leaving Hosmer available to be part of other deals.

Catchers

In response to a question about Red Sox catchers, Bloom was positive about newcomers Reese McGuire and Connor Wong, “I think both of these guys showed well, which is good for them, good for us.” And while he was pleased with their work, he also plans to look for more. “This is one of the areas that I full expect we’re going to explore additions,” Bloom said. “We owe it to ourselves and everybody who cares about this team to look to get better.”

Pitching

In the understatement of the morning, Bloom talked about the issues he saw in the Red Sox pitching staff. “There’s a lot we that need to do this off-season, so we need to be focused on the whole board, but because of some of the depth on the pitching side that we built up, I think we’re going to be considering a different set of possibilities.”


Now & Forever: He’s Hall of Famer David Ortiz

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This weekend at Cooperstown the greatest Red Sox hitter of our generation will forever become known as “Hall Of Famer David Ortiz.”

At the Induction Ceremony on Sunday Big Papi will join Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva and the late Bud Fowler, Gil Hodges, Minnie Miñoso and Buck O’Neil in baseball’s forever shrine. Major League Baseball expects more than 50 Hall of Famers to attend the festivities.

You’ll be able to follow full coverage of the events exclusively on the MLB Network beginning at 11:00 am Eastern Time (8:00 AM Pacific) with the Induction Ceremony scheduled for 1:30 ET (10:30 PT).

Bob Costas is set to interview Ortiz, Kaat, and Oliva. The network says Ortiz will be fêted further by Hall of Famers Pedro Martinez, Vladimir Guerrero Sr., Ken Griffey Jr. and Derek Jeter, as well as by Ronald Acuña Jr., Mookie Betts, Albert Pujols and Mike Trout.

Re-broadcasts

The Red Sox will be playing the Blue Jays at Fenway Park on Sunday afternoon at 1:35 ET (10:35 PT). If you’re following the game you’ll be happy to know the Induction Ceremony will re-air Sunday evening at 8:00 ET (5:00 PT) on the MLB Network, the MLB website, and on the MLB app.


Kutter Crawford Shines

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When the Red Sox announced Michael Wacha to start against the Rays for the Fourth of July game at Fenway, many reasonably expected a good pitching performance. Wacha has been outstanding in his first year with the Sox, compiling a 6-1 record with a 2.69 ERA after 13 starts. Bringing Wacha to the Sox this off-season was a big win for Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom’s front office. They swooped in to sign Wacha after the Rays passed on bringing him back for a second season. In 2021, Wacha was 3-5 for Tampa Bay with a 5.05 ERA. Bloom’s team saw potential and they were right.

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And while Red Sox pitching was outstanding on Monday, it wasn’t Wacha who on the mound. Manager Alex Cora had told the press the day before that the 30-year-old righty was experiencing a “tied arm” and that he might be scratched from Monday’s start. That came to pass and the Sox opened instead with Austin Davis, who provided two no-hit innings, followed by Kutter Crawford, for what turned out to be a stellar outing.

5+ shutout innings

Expectations for the 26-year-old rookie were likely tempered by Crawford’s most recent outings. At Triple-A in 2022, he has gone 1-0 with a 5.18 ERA after six games (four starts) for the WooSox. His 11 outings for the Major League team in 2022 have been mostly a mixed bag, with several good relief appearances, but also some tough starts, like his last against the Cardinals where Crawford allowed four runs over four innings.

More troubling, perhaps, was that Crawford would be facing a resurgent Tampa Bay team that arrived at Fenway having scored 24 runs on 41 hits, including eight home runs, over their last three games. The 24 runs were their most over any three-game span since scoring 24 last September against the Red Sox at Fenway.

But Crawford was unfazed. When all was said and done, he had pitched 5.1 shutout innings with just two hits and a walk allowed to go with eight strikeouts. He joined Chris Sale (2017), Rich Hill (2015), and Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez (2000 and 2002) as the only Red Sox pitchers ever to do that against the Rays.

To finish the game, lights-out reliever John Schreiber allowed nothing over 1.2 innings.

Monday’s was the just 10th of 425 all-time meetings between these clubs in which the Red Sox limited the Rays to just two hits, and the first such game at Fenway Park since April 27, 2002 in a 10-0 home team win.

High potential

Crawford is just the 19th Red Sox pitcher in franchise history to allow no more than two hits, one or no walks, and zero earned runs while striking out eight in an outing of at least 5.1 IP. He’s the first with such a game against a division rival since Sale on June 30, 2018 against the Yankees.

Over his eight seasons in Boston, Hall of Famer Cy Young recorded just three such games. Roger Clemens also had three; Sale has had four, and Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez did it a club-record eight times. Martinez, who has 10 such career appearances, is one of just four MLB pitchers in history with that many such games (also Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, 12; Max Scherzer, 11; and Clayton Kershaw, 11).

Crawford is the just the fourth ever with such a game in relief for Boston (and 21st in Major League history). The others with such a game for the Red Sox are Cy Young Award winner Sparky Lyle (1968), two-time All-Star Dick Radatz (1963), and Norwood Gibson (1903).