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Sox trade for Austin Brice

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The Red Sox acquired righty relief pitcher Austin Brice from the Marlins on Friday, sending 21-year-old minor league shortstop Angeudis Santos to Miami in exchange.

Brice, who has worked exclusively in relief, was drafted by the Marlins out of high school in the ninth round of the 2010 MLB June Amateur Draft. When he made his Major League debut in 2016 he became the first player born in Hong Kong to appear in a Major League game.

Miami traded Brice to the Reds in 2017. In Cincinnati, he recorded a 5.40 ERA over 55 appearances of the next two seasons.

In 2019 the 27-year-old returned to The Fish for an eventful 2019, setting career-bests in ERA (3.43), innings pitched (44.2), appearances (6) and strikeouts per 9.0 IP (9.27). He held opponents to a .214 batting average, with righties batting at just .192 against him. Brice did, however, have three stints on the injured list in 2019. He missed all of September with a right forearm strain.

Brice’s pitch mix last season was 44.6% curveball (with an an average velocity of 81.7 MPH), 31.4% four-seam fastball (93.1 MPH), 19.5% sinker (93.3 MPH) and 4.3% changeup (87.1 MPH).

Sox DFA Marco Hernández

To make room on the 40-man roster for Brice the Red Sox designated Marco Hernández for assignment. As such, Hernández is now off the team’s 40-man roster and, within seven days, can either be traded or placed on irrevocable outright waivers. In the latter case, if no team claims him off waivers, Hernández may be sent outright to the Minor Leagues or released. Since Hernández had just a little more than three years service time he can reject the outright assignment in favor of free agency.


Jerry Remy: “Cancer Again”

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Longtime NESN color analyst and former Red Sox player Jerry Remy says his cancer has returned. 

https://twitter.com/Jerry_Remy/status/831168103631421446

Fans recall Remy has battled with lung cancer three times before starting in 2008. Today he told reporters that this latest recurrence was spotted during a routine follow-up just before Christmas and that he just completed treatment. Remy, 64, said he feels fine, “I feel really good. If we had a game tonight at Fenway, I’d be there doing it.” He said he went public with this news to encourage more people to get regular check-ups.

Remy recently signed a multiyear contract extension with NESN that stipulated he would work 115 games this season. He said he expects to meet that commitment.

Fans rallied to support Remy on Twitter and Facebook as have Sox players, executives, and former play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo.

Now, a few other notes of interest for Red Sox fans:

  • Three of the four major scouting publications, Baseball America, MLB.com, and ESPN, all rank Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi, 22, the game’s top prospect for 2017. Benintendi is still technically a rookie with 105 career at-bats, just shy of the rookie limit of 130 ABs.
  • With Benintendi, Jackie Bradley, and Mookie Betts it’s fair to ask if the Sox will have the best outfield in baseball this season. Over at Fan Rag Sports, Alex Smolokoff analyzes the competition and says Boston, the Marlins, and the Rockies have the best outfields in the sport. Smolokoff says whether Boston is tops depends upon Benintendi and a full season for Bradley that was more like his first half in 2016.
  • It’s easy to be myopic, focusing only on our favorite club, but the Boston Herald‘s Michael Silverman reminds us that there are plenty of interesting stories percolating throughout baseball right now, such as the emergence of the Yankees’ fearsome catcher Gary Sanchez, whether the Blue Jays can recover the loss of slugger Edwin Encarnacion, and whether anyone can stop the Indians, coincidentally Encarnacion’s new club. Silverman also spotlights some interesting things going on with the Cubs, Dodgers, and Nationals. In all, a fun look at what’s going on beyond Boston.
  • Spring Training is finally here and NESN’s Darren Hartwell breaks down what to watch for from jetBlue Park as the next six weeks unfolds. Among the more interesting questions is what Hartwell calls “Castillo’s Last Stand.” Time is running out for Rusney Castillo to be an MLB star, though the 29-year-old had a solid winter ball season finishing at .392 over 14 games.
  • In their first team preview of the new season, FOX Sports picked the Red Sox for analysis and predict that Boston to finish 2017 with a second consecutive AL East title.
  • We finish this roundup of news by noting the passing of longtime Detroit Tigers owner Michael Ilitch, who died late last week at age 87. Ilitch actually played for an affiliate of the Tigers in the minor leagues in 1952, as well as for minor league teams of the Yankees and Washington Senators before his playing career ended with the knee injury. From there he opened a pizza business called Little Caesars and the rest, as they say, is history. Late last year, Forbes magazine estimated Ilitch’s fortune at $6.1 billion. Commissioner Rob Manfred extended his condolences as did Red Sox Baseball President Dave Dombrowski, who worked from Ilitch from 2002 to 2015. “He was driven to win,” Dombrowski said. “My only regret was we never brought home a World Series for him and for the fans.” Update: An interesting side note about Ilitch involves his connection to civil rights icon Rosa Parks as reported by CNN.

Scoring Early & Often

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The Red Sox have been scoring early and often this season, a delightful turn of events given the 2015 club’s frequent need to fight from behind.

With 38 first-inning runs (fully 21% of all Boston runs scored this season and their most scored in any inning), the Sox lead the American League, second only to the Nationals who had 40 first-inning runs entering Wednesday’s action.

Boston leads the Majors when it comes to early inning runs this season, scoring 82 between the first and third innings of 2016 games. The closest competitors to the Sox’ early game dominance are the Mets and Rangers, each of which start the day with 69 such runs.

Record-setting game

Five runs are the most scored by the Sox in the first inning of any game in 2016. That’s a nice start to any contest, for sure, but it is nowhere near the club record for first inning offense. For that, you’ll need to turn the record books back to June 27, 2003,  a special game at Fenway that is tied for an American League record for first-inning scoring.

The heat was on that Friday night, the summer sun still in the sky, the temperature 93ºF as the Sox took to the field to face the Marlins, who would go on to win the World Series that season.

Byung-Hyun Kim was on the mound for the 45-32 Red Sox, then 2.0 games back in the AL East. He immediately surrendered a run before the Sox had even came to bat.

For the 40-40 Marlins it was Carl Pavano—and it was about to be a very bad day for him.

Even today it’s hard to wrap your head around an inning like this. Johnny Damon doubled, Todd Walker singled, Nomar Garciaparra doubled, Manny Ramirez homered, David Ortiz doubled, and Kevin Millar singled. The Sox were up four to one, no one was out and FLA manager Jack McKeon had seen enough. Pavano was out of the game.

The new Marlins pitcher was Michael Tejera. He’d face five Sox batters, get none of them out, but allow five more Red Sox runs. It was now 9-1.

Befuddled, McKeon went to the bullpen again, this time for Allen Levrault in what would be his 56th and last big league appearance. Finally, an out when Garciaparra, in his second at-bat of the inning, popped one up behind the plate. But Boston was nowhere done with the scoring.

Ramirez singled, Ortiz walked to load the bases. Millar sacrificed to center field to score Walker from third. Apparently unsatisfied with an open base, Levrault walked Trot Nixon to reload the bases. Bill Mueller doubled for two more Red Sox runs. So, naturally, Levrault walked Jason Varitek to reload the bases for a fourth time in that half inning.

Johnny Damon, up to bat for the third time in the inning singled. Nixon scored and Mueller, greedy for yet another run, was thrown out at the plate.

When the dust settled, it was 14 Red Sox runs in one amazing half inning of play, tying an AL record for first inning runs that stands to this day and was originally set by the Indians in game two of a doubleheader on June 18, 1950.

Boston would go on to score in every inning of the game but the sixth, ending the day with a 25-8 win.

The 25 Red Sox runs that day are now five shy of baseball’s record for the most runs in any game since 1900. That record was set by the Rangers over the Orioles on August 22, 2007, a 30-3 drubbing.

Even more first-inning runs

Baseball’s record for the most runs in a first inning since 1900 is 15 by the Brooklyn Dodgers facing the Reds on May 21, 1952. The record books also include a 16-run first inning for the 1894 Boston Braves in game one of a June 18th doubleheader.


Badenhop heads to Reds

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News today that the Reds have signed pitcher Burke Badenhop to one year deal. It’s his fourth straight one year contract following stints with the Rays, Brewers, and Red Sox. Badenhop tuns 32 on Sunday.

In 2014 Badenhop reached a 7-year career high for most appearances (70) with the Red Sox. He worked effectively to a club- and career-best 2.29 ERA over 70.2 innings pitched, during which time he allowed just one home run (a one out solo shot off the bat of Yankees Kelly Johnson on April 12). In 32 road games of 2014 Badenhop’s ERA was 0.92. Badenhop’s career best 1.5 WAR last season was third best for the Red Sox behind Jon Lester (2.7) and Koji Uehara (1.7).

Badenhop, who got off to a slow start by allowing 7 earned runs over 9.1 innings (6.75 ERA) April 4-18, hit a particularly rough patch when he allowed runs in 3 straight games from July 5-8. His ratio for strikeouts per 9 innings pitched in 2014 dropped to a career low of 5.1

Grantland’s Jonah Keri reports that Badenhop’s deal with the Reds is for $1 million this season with a $4 million club option or $1.5 million buyout for 2016.


Done with losing

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A 4-game home and away sweep against a good Braves team and the Nation’s relief is almost palpable. No longer preoccupied with the prospect of going 20-142, it’s now time to consider how historic the 10-game losing streak really was.

Setting aside for a moment how great the 2013 team performed, with their much-discussed ability to never drop more than 3 in-a-row, the just concluded 10-game losing streak was the longest for the club in nearly 20 years when they lost 11 straight from June 8–19, 1994.

But as defending World Series Champions the lackluster performance of the team so far has been all the more tough to watch. The Sox came one loss from tying an ignominious record: the most losses in a row by a defending champ (11). It’s happened three times in MLB history: first by the Royals in 1986 and then next by the Marlins, who managed it TWICE in the 1998 season.

In perspective

Since 2000 this was the 4th time Boston has lost more than 6 games straight:

  • In the forgettable 2012 season they lost 7-in-a-row August 28–September 3 followed by…
  • An 8-game stretch from September 25, 2012 through the end of the season.
  • The Red Sox lost 9-in-a-row September 25–October 3, 2001

The 10-game Red Sox losing streak from May 15–25 this year is the 5th-longest in franchise history since 1914. The longest was a stretch from August 20–September 7, 1926, an agonizing 17 games.

As bad as that is, a 17-game losing streak is only the 6th longest in MLB history since 1914. The longest ever in that time was 23 games by the Phillies starting July 29, 1961. The Philadelphia Athletics also claim the National League’s 2nd longest losing streak, 20 games in 1916 and 1943 (as did the 1969 Montreal Astros).

The longest in the American League was a 21 game stretch by the Orioles that began April 4, 1988.