Boston Red Sox Roster Projection…Pt III…

…wrapping things up…

Bullpen:

The gasoline club:  Brandon Workman, Matt Barnes, Heath Hembree, Ryan Brasier, Marcus Walden, Josh Taylor, Darwinzon Hernandez, Austin Brice

DL:  None

Actual prospects that may contribute this season:  I’d normally say Bryan Mata (#4), perhaps with a cup of coffee to give him a brief taste, but with the state of the world, the uncertain status of the season and the fact that he is not on the 40-man roster at the current time, the chances are probably slim.  No other prospects will be up this year.  Even if you are rooting for Jay Groome (#7) to make it up.  Sorry.

Additional flotsam likely to make an appearance or twenty this season:  Check this list out:  Colten Brewer, Matt Hall, Chris Mazza, Josh Osich, Mike Shawaryn, Jeffrey Springs, Phillips Valdez, Trevor Hildenberger, Mike Kickham, Bobby Poyner…and just about anyone else off the scrap heap.  Luminaries.

Comments:  It would be one thing entering the season with a rotation like they are if they had a bunch of good bullpen arms.

But guess what?  No can do with that.

Who in the world expects Workman to duplicate last season?  Or even approach it?  Barnes is useful, especially if not overworked.  But what are the chances that doesn’t happen again with this motley crew?  Plus, he’s nowhere near a closer.  So if Workman returns to Earth, who’s next?  Brasier?  We’ve seen that movie before.  There’s simply no one else capable of closing on the staff.

Hernandez should be in the rotation, as referred to in the starters’ analysis, despite being fairly electric out of the ‘pen last season in his stint with the club.  Of course, he walked way too many guys, so there’s still some work to be done.  Perhaps he should be starting games in Pawtucket this year instead of pitching the 5th-6th inning once a week in Boston.  Maybe he can close?  But again…the walks…

Walden had a nice run until late last year.  There are reasons why guys like him and Brasier spend a decade in the minors.  We are likely to see why with Marcus this year.  And started to late last season.  Hembree is a great 4th-6th inning guy.  Taylor was a surprise and I’d like to see more.  But I said that about Travis Lakins too…and Lakins is long gone.  Brice?  Whatever.

The last group of names starting with Brewer?  Yuck.  But they will all pitch innings for the big club this year.  Provided there is some sort of length to the season.  Actually, even with a half a season they all should make an appearance.

That should excite no one.

This entire staff is kind of putrid.  And any kind of injury to one or two of the “better” arms would be an even bigger nightmare.  The team is not going to trade any prospects to get better arms, so forget about that.  Not sure I want them doing that anyway.

So what you see is what you will get.  Once again, brace yourself…

Outfield:

Unquestioned starters:  Andrew Benintendi (LF), Jackie Bradley Jr. (CF), Kevin Pillar (RF), J.D. Martinez (DH)

Bench:  None

DL:  Alex Verdugo (LF/CF/RF)

Actual prospects that may contribute this season:  Marcus Wilson (#21)

Additional flotsam possibly seeing major league time this season:  None

Comments:  Yup, no Mookie Betts here…so I guess it is official.  I suppose it truly won’t be official until we see Pillar in his spot on Opening Day.  But still…and I guess by then it could still be Verdugo in right instead.  Methinks that with Alex’s back injury and he being young and a big part of the Mookie deal, that the Sox will be overly cautious with him, maybe even throughout the entire season.  Especially with MLB likely trying to stuff as many games as they can on the schedule.

My bigger hope is that we see Pillar in center and Verdugo in right on Opening Day, with Bradley being on a completely different team.  But that’s been my hope for several years now, the latter part anyway.  With any luck, he will start off hot, and at some point in the middle of that, before the trading deadline (whenever that will be), the Sox can pawn him off for something useful.  Probably wishful thinking there as well.  I’m still at the very least praying that the Sox let him leave when he becomes a free agent after the 2020 season.

Ok, enough about JBJ.

But speaking of the trading deadline, don’t be shocked if J.D. is moved then.  I don’t believe the Sox wanted him to opt-in to his contract this past offseason.  No one believes the team wanted him to opt-in.  And that’s even if they were “able to keep” Mookie by cutting Martinez’ costs.

I think the Sox wanted both of them gone.  For “payroll flexibility”.  Along with David Price.  And maybe even Nathan Eovaldi.

That’s how I see it anyway.

As for J.D., let’s hope he is able to start the year out well.  I mean, he made a big deal about not being able to see video between each at bat.  Does that really matter?  Can’t he watch tape AFTER every game to analyze?  Doesn’t matter if we think it matters.  HE thinks it matters.  So let’s just hope that this doesn’t get into his head and he sucks this year.  Don’t ever rule this kind of stuff out with the way professional athletes are so fragile these days.

As for the actual on field product, it’s not horrible.  Especially if Verdugo can pan out.  Not to mention if Benintendi can actually get back on the upward trajectory again.  Pillar was a great signing for the cost, positional flexibility, speed and defense.  JBJ has his moments.  And honestly, J.D should be fine.

Yeah, there will be no Mookie.  And none of these guys will be him either.  Nor will Marcus Wilson, if you were wondering.  Or any other prospects…this season anyway.

With all the salary paring, will this be the year Rusney Castillo makes it back to the majors?  Unlikely.  Unfortunately, while he made a ton of dough on the deal, he likely cost himself a major league career at the same time.

Sure, he gets to play baseball every day for a living, albeit in the minors.  But wouldn’t he have preferred to take a little less to actually see time in the majors?

Maybe he wasn’t good enough for the majors.  But with the amount of stiffs floating around the major leagues, my guess is that he could have been a 4th outfielder somewhere.  For some time anyway.  Maybe he gets a starting gig on a bad team.

But we will never know.  And for all we know, he is just counting his money and doesn’t give a rat’s arse.

There doesn’t appear to be anyone else that should see time in the outfield for the Sox this season, unless they come from outside the organization.

So if you were hoping to see #8 prospect Jarren Duran (Colby??!), you’ll have to wait at least another year or two.

Even without Mookie and with JBJ, I am not going to lose a whole lot of sleep over the outfield, or even the offense in general.  It’s the pitchers that scare the bejesus out of me.  Either way, here’s hoping the season will get off the ground in the first place…and soon!

Mookie!

FINALLY.  Mookie Betts has been traded.  Officially.

Leave it to Red Sox ownership.  Ask for two players they know are already injured in the initial Mookie Betts/David Price deal.  Then when they find out they are REALLY injured (one of them anyway), proceed to hold up all the teams involved in the deal by demanding more compensation.  And yes, I blame ownership and not Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom.  The owners were the impetus for the deal, no two ways about it.

Actually, come to think of it, former GM Dave Dombrowski would have taken the injured players, even if they were more seriously injured than previously thought.  Then have the chance to back out, but say, “nah, we are good!”  Drew Pomeranz deal anyone?

It’s absolutely mind boggling how this ownership group, you know, the ones that oversaw a team that ended an 86 year World Series drought, then proceeded to win three more titles under their stewardship as well, can be so despised.  How’s that for a run-on sentence?!  The answer is:  cry poor mouth when you have more money than you know what to do with.

Listen, when one runs a business, you don’t want your costs spiraling out of control.  In this particular case, it’s paying an incredible amount of luxury tax.

But the Red Sox have the money.  They print their own money for Chrissakes.  Oh, and they charge an arm and TWO legs for EVERYTHING that revolves around the local nine.  Please buy a brick everyone!!

I cringe when I think of primary owner John Henry once calling the Sox a “small market team”.  Sigh…

The Sox could have gotten under the luxury tax by trading the useless Jackie Bradley Jr. and assorted other flotsam and jetsam.

But they chose their best player, and when all are healthy, their second best pitcher.  While eating half of that pitchers’ remaining salary.

For some fans, that is hard to swallow.

Me?

I actually don’t mind the deal.  Despite the fact that I too, feel like this ownership group is a bunch of arseclowns.  And that includes the spirit of Larry Lucchino, who was around for the early days.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again:  I was never trying to run Mookie Betts out of town.

All I know is that if I worked for the Sox and I felt that I could not re-sign Mookie before he hit free agency, I would explore all deals for him.  I do not want to lose him for a mere compensatory pick in return.

Betts was hell bent on getting to free agency.  And that is every bit his right to do so.  He presumably would be looking for the biggest contract.  Again, his right.  Only a handful of teams could pay him big dollars.  But there would be teams willing to do that, that much is for sure.

My feeling is that if Mookie got to free agency, he would not be coming back.  Even if the Sox ended up opening the vault, in the end, he would have been offended that they did not do so right from the get-go.  No doubt in my mind.  He would have felt disrespected.  That’s just what happens with athletes.

He was going.  And the Sox needed to get something in return.

As an aside, I am not giving out 12 year, 420 mil contracts to ANYONE, unless his name is “Mike Trout”.  And even then it’s a lot of commitment.  If I am in charge, no matter how much dough I have at my disposal, those deals are a little too long and risky for me.  In any sport.  Sorry.  But if I am running the business no way I do that.  Then again, no way I pay JBJ 11 mil this year either.  So, there’s that.

Could they have traded Betts at the deadline and gotten a bigger haul?  In my mind that was unlikely.  Not for a mere two months of service time.  Not to mention that if the Sox are in contention (which they should be EVERY YEAR), trading your best player at that time might not be received kindly by Red Sox Nation.

Poor Bloom.  He came into this sorry situation.  Once again ownership didn’t help by publicly announcing their desire (mandate?) to get under the luxury tax limit.  Tying Blooms’ hands a bit.  Then again, he didn’t have to take the job I guess.

But now he has to find a manager too.  Well, I guess he didn’t really have to look hard if they are just going to announce bench coach Ron Roenicke as the hire soon.  Nevermind…

The rest of the players involved?

I would have eaten 95.9 of Prices’ 96 mil remaining on his contract to get him the hell out of town.

Sorry.

This guy is a loser.  Good riddance.

Yeah, he won a couple of games in the 2018 World Series and should have been MVP.  Good for him.  The rest of his tenure other than the last two weeks of the 2018 playoffs (no one remembers he sucked early in those playoffs) was less than stellar.  Especially for 31 mil per.

Sure he had a great record in Boston.  And started out nice last season.  But the overall body of work was less than impressive…of course when you factor in what you would expect for 217 mil overall.

And the attitude?  Ugh.  Yeah, his teammates loved him.  But was that a good thing?  He got them all to gang up on former Sox pitcher and now broadcaster Dennis Eckersley.  All because Eck said he took too long in between pitches.  Or mildly criticized Eduardo Rodriguez in one of E-Rods’ starts.  Or so says Price anyway.

Please.  The subtraction of Price has me overjoyed.  I don’t care if I have to look at Ryan Weber and Hector Velasquez every five days.  I already have to look at Martin Perez every five days now.  Can Weber/Velasquez be worse?  Brian Johnson sure could be, so hopefully, he stays buried in Pawtucket.

The return?  Jury is out.

Alex Verdugo supposedly has talent.  We will see.  Just hope he doesn’t beat up a homeless guy outside Fenway after he goes 0-5 one night.  Ok, that was harsh.  But there is supposedly some “off field” stuff with him.  So we will see how all that goes.  Oh, and a back injury at 23 years old can’t be promising.

The other two guys I know zero about.  Jeter Downs may have some promise, but who knows?  This Wong dude can catch and play infield.  Nice.  But let’s see that in the majors.  By 2025 I would say.

And the “one that slipped away”?  Brusdar Graterol?

I don’t know much about him either.  Except he throws gas.  And is apparently on his way to 400 lbs.

The Twins had no problem dealing him, so maybe I shouldn’t be so worried about what he MIGHT do.

Until he goes 21-2, 2.34, 322 Ks in 2022 I guess…