Red Sox re-sign Mitch Moreland for 2 years, 13 M
- Thread starter DeadlySplitter
- Start date
Still. Its a foregone conclusion that the Sox will eventually be over 200 million in payroll. This is where a good development system would really help. Point is if people are cool with giving JD freaking Martinez 30 million why should anyone have a problem with more for Harper or Machado? Both better players than JD.
I like it if they still add an impact bat to the line-up. If not, it’s essentially wasg, rinse and repeat of 2016’s finishing line-up, and that line-up was good but not good enough.
Including the Sox there are at least five to seven teams that can pay a boatload of money and give Machado and Harper a chance at a ring next off season. The idea that any team is a shoo in is a bit laughable. I am interested to see what the next shoe to drop is. If there isn't any I will not be dissapointed. The more I thought about it, the less I liked spending big bucks on Martinez when there is better players to spend big bucks on next off season. I also like the fact that DD is seeming reluctant to give up draft picks and money for international signing. While this is not a hundred percent it does seem like another sign that he either wants to mitigate the rebuild in 2020 or at least shorten the time it will take considerably.
I'm sure they won't be thrilled, but the players' union is not going to file a grievance because a guy who gets hurt all the time and put up a 750 OPS last year is being forced into a platoon/10th-man role, and Hanley has to understand that no team is going to guarantee him the PA necessary to vest that 2019 option.
So the question is whether he is so unhappy that he's going to pitch a distracting fit and demand to be DFA'd or traded for pennies on the dollar so he can go not make that money playing in a city he isn't familiar with on a team that isn't competitive. I suspect the Red Sox have reason to believe that won't happen.
Castellanos is a very interesting potential breakout candidate. It would be cool if the Red Sox could identify the next "JD Martinez" (like the Tigers did when they picked him up at age 26 after being released by the Astros), rather than paying top dollar for past performance.
Mitchy 2-Bags better NOT be DD's "middle-of-the-order bat". If JD Kong is the next Sox acquisition, than this move is solid. Definitely better than grossly overpaying for Hosmer's "intangibles".
Excellent news. I was pretty sure they weren't dumb enough to pay Boras for Hosmer's career year, but it's still a relief to have that in writing.
When he came to Boston, folks here who had followed him in Texas pegged him as streaky. To me, his August & September look like that. The six weeks in June /July he was very obviously playing injured.
Incoming a lot of complete flip flops of perspective in the name of supporting what actually was decided on.
Even if salary constraint is a surrounding issue, which I'm half left guessing that this might confirm, re-signing Morland is still going down as a DD failure. Especially if guys like Morrison and Duda fall anywhere close to this. Moreland doesn't offer enough reasonable offensive upside at 1B to a lineup in desperate need of it, and he was committed one year too many to boot.
Terrible double down here, even if DD goes on to venture back into his element by handing JDM a terrible contract to compliment it.
Even if salary constraint is a surrounding issue, which I'm half left guessing that this might confirm, re-signing Morland is still going down as a DD failure. Especially if guys like Morrison and Duda fall anywhere close to this. Moreland doesn't offer enough reasonable offensive upside at 1B to a lineup in desperate need of it, and he was committed one year too many to boot.
Terrible double down here, even if DD goes on to venture back into his element by handing JDM a terrible contract to compliment it.
He's a bad defensive right fielder. He'd probably be no worse than Manny was out in left in Fenway, though. And as a DH who is spelling LF, I think his value would be somewhere in the range of David Ortiz over the last 4-6 years of his career. He's bad enough in right to cover the difference in the positional adjustment between LF/RF and DH.
Now that sanity has broken out at 1B, can we do something with JBJ rather than sign on to 5-7 years of a guy the Sox don't really want? Whacky idea but might the Pirates be tempted to consider JBJ for McCutchen+? The + part being obviously critical considering you're giving up 3 years of control for a player in his walk year.
Relegating a former star player with an ego like Hanley's (not a criticism) to a backup role at 33 would seem to severely handicap Cora's efforts to bring good vibes back to the clubhouse.
Yeah, I just don't get the second year. Seems like the chance that he has a bump in performance and turns 2019 into a bargain is minimal. Isn't there a chance Travis will be ready at that point? They can't find another Moreland in 2019 if they have to?
This will make more sense if 2019 is a team option.
What standing would the player's union have to complain about a reduced role if the team clearly had better options for the bulk of playing time? If the Sox sign Martinez and don't trade an outfielder, their best lineup vs. RHP, i.e., about 3/4 of the time, does not have Hanley Ramirez in it. At that point the union would have to complain that the Sox shouldn't have signed Martinez because it would cut into Hanley's playing time, which is absurd.
If it becomes a serious problem, then they release him and eat the money. They're not going to decline a chance to make themselves a much better team for fear that Hanley will be a clubhouse PITA.
Good signing. I look at this signing as both injury insurance and hedging their bets at 1B. The most likely end result is JDM at DH with Moreland/Ramirez battling for playing time at 1B. That would help avoid the Ramirez vesting option, while ensuring the hotter hitter is getting the most playing time at 1B.
Most importantly, it adds a depth piece in case of injuries. In my opinion, one of the biggest reasons the Sox lacked power last year was due to so many of the starters attempting to play through injuries (Betts, Bogaerts, Pedroia, Moreland, Ramirez, Nunez) instead of letting the next man up do his job. Hopefully we can land Nunez or Kendrick to start at 2B til Pedroia is back, then take on a super-sub / depth role after that.
Most importantly, it adds a depth piece in case of injuries. In my opinion, one of the biggest reasons the Sox lacked power last year was due to so many of the starters attempting to play through injuries (Betts, Bogaerts, Pedroia, Moreland, Ramirez, Nunez) instead of letting the next man up do his job. Hopefully we can land Nunez or Kendrick to start at 2B til Pedroia is back, then take on a super-sub / depth role after that.
- The Red Sox were 6 of 15 in runs scored last year
- They won 93 games and the division
- They lost 3 games in a best of 5 series (mostly due to pitching)
I'm fine with them standing pat this year. The Yankees are going to score 1,000,000 runs so it's all about a wild card lottery game.
I wonder if this isn't a shot fired across Boras' bow. "Play your games, Scott...but we're not participating - so we'll move on with pitching and defense..."
I hope this means they don't pursue JDM. No one-dimensional player (not named Ortiz) is worth what he'll get. Let him go to the Yankees.
I love Moreland's defense given the iffy infield. I love what JBJ does for the other outfielders.
I would guess that the point of the second year is to keep the AAV down. For a rich team like the Sox, $13 million over two years is better than $10 million over one year, for luxury tax purposes. That assumes Moreland wasn't willing to sign a one year deal for $6.5 million, which seems like a reasonable assumption.
There's also a pretty weak market at 1B next year and nothing really in our pipeline, Travis notwithstanding, so Moreland may indeed be useful in 2019. And I don't think $6.5 million in 2019 is really going to tie up the team if there are other better options out there when the time comes.
I mean, I guess. I'm glad they're not overpaying for Hosmer. I'm eh @ 2 years of him but it's hard to complain about the cost for either year so w/e
With Devers and Bogaerts on the left side, they might need someone great with the glove at 1st to scoop errant throws. DD may have decided that this was an important enough factor that he wanted to lock down the defense for the rest of Sale's tenure in Boston and worry about adding a power bat in another way.
Short of moving Martinez to 1st (and he could be awful there if they did), there wasn't really an elite power bat option available on the free agent market this winter or next. So why not focus on defense and figure out the power some other way?
What are the odds that Moreland re-signed last week, but the Sox deliberately chose to delay the announcement until after Saturday's Christmas at Fenway event?
Weird that they just flipped Chris Young’s money to Moreland.
This move really has me wondering if DDski is all-in on a Mookie extension this offseason.
I’m trying to think of other reasons to feel good about this, when so many other non-Hosmer options with more HR power remain out there.
This move really has me wondering if DDski is all-in on a Mookie extension this offseason.
I’m trying to think of other reasons to feel good about this, when so many other non-Hosmer options with more HR power remain out there.
Those numbers are what they are and your points are well taken. But I think the presence of a big bat in that line-up would make everyone better and take the pressure off many of them. I like Moreland but I will like him a lot more if they otherwise upgrade.
Supposedly, talks heated up on Friday after the Santana signing resulted in more teams sniffing around Moreland. And they didn't really flip Young's money to Moreland. They paid Moreland $5.5M last year, so this is a modest raise, leaving most of "Young's money" yet to be spent.
Matt Adams - Platoon bat. Not as good with the glove.
Yonder Alonso - Massive outlier year, mostly in the 1st half. Not good with the glove.
Lucas Duda - Not as good defensively.
Adrian Gonzalez - Likely toast.
Logan Morrison - Another big outlier year. Also not as good defensively.
I'm not sure any of those guys are really upgrades over Moreland in the power department to a degree that offsets the areas in which Moreland is superior.
Nobody was paying Mitch Moreland $10m/per.
Surprised he already even got $5m in this market, but I'd personally guess that boils down to DD outbidding himself there more then anything else. With this being a good indicator that upside value shopping in FA doesn't look like it's going to be one of his strong points here. Not to mention highlights the bad side of GM who lacks a certain level of patience if/when needed.
They were 13 of 15 and 22 of 30 in wRC+. That runs scored number represents a lot of luck (as well as, to be fair, excellent baserunning). They were not a good hitting team. And one of the principal reasons why they were not a good hitting team is that they were dead last in the AL in ISO. For a team that plays half its games in a doubles factory to be dead last in ISO is a problem.
My preference was JD Martinez, full stop. That idea was based on Hanley being a playable 1B. If Hanley isn't playable at first, we need a 1B — and Hanley may have no place on the roster.
We still need a big bat.
At this point, Hanley seems like nothing more than insurance for us missing out on JDM.
His $22M for 2018 is a sunk cost, but I'm sure getting out from the $22M he's owed in 2019 would be extremely useful.
Love the guy. Really wish Cherington had just signed him to play third base.
His $22M for 2018 is a sunk cost, but I'm sure getting out from the $22M he's owed in 2019 would be extremely useful.
Love the guy. Really wish Cherington had just signed him to play third base.
I was thinking about it more in terms of CY (money) = platooned bet (money). More a roster spot issue than a defensive positional one, if you will.
Because frankly, between Moreland being what he is, and the risk that Benintendi is for at least a couple years, too... well, it’s probably a good thing the Sox have a virtual monopoly on premium LH starters in the AL.
Dombrowski essentially confirms (through Tim Britton's twitter) that the plan is to platoon Moreland/Ramirez at 1B and that they can still add a big bat without trading someone to make room (JBJ, Ramirez).
Here's the thing with that though, imo. JDM by himself probably isn't going to be some silver bullet fix that is going to single handily solve the current offensive problem as a whole, and I'm only willing to bank on internal rebounds to a small extent.
I actually like the overall idea of paying out the wazoo for JDM's front end appeal even less if we aren't bothering the attempt to upgrade our 1B offense from Mitch Moreland.
I think it's pretty clear the second year is what it to to get the deal done. Moreland is a good option who provides decent production for a relatively small contract. If he blows up or is surpassed by Travis, dumping $6.5 million contract isn't that hard.
I don't see why it wouldn't happen. Signing JDM to DH seems like clearly the best choice to get the best possible offense/defense combo. It keeps outstanding defense at 1B/OF, puts an elite bat at DH and gets solid production out of a platoon at 1B.
If Dombrowski was simply saying stuff to try to give himself leverage, he would have said that Moreland/Ramirez are the every day players at 1B/DH and that they don't need to add anyone else.
His response was to a question about whether the Moreland signing precludes the Red Sox signing another bat. He gave the most diplomatic answer available.
Hanley had a .679 OPS against LHP last year and a .710 OPS against them in 2015. He's an unlikely candidate to be a $22M lefty masher/10th player next year.
I don't really see any reason for it not to happen. It's what the skills are. Reduced playing time helps keep them healthy. It provides matchup protection in close games.
I'm sure it won't be a perfect platoon because it never is, but the two of them splitting time at first and getting some DH time makes loads of sense.
In addition, it would allow the team to move on from Holt as super sub and go with a more traditional UT infielder.
Ok, so you're essentially saying that Ramirez will be traded or DFA'd? I don't see his contract as tradeable and I doubt they would DFA him since he has more upside than someone like Travis, who would play a similar role.
Also, I wouldn't look at it as a straight up RH vs LH platoon, but more of playing the hot hand at 1B and creating depth.
That's certainly not a slam-dunk statement about the FA 1B options. It was true in 2017.
Career --- 2017 --- 2018 Steamer
Moreland - 25.3 PA/HR, .439 SLG --- 26.2 PA/HR, .447 SLG --- 22.6 PA/HR
Morrison - 27.5 PA/HR, .433 SLG --- 15.8 PA/HR, .516 SLG --- 21.6 PA/HR
Alonso - 42.8 PA/HR, .407 SLG --- 18.6 PA/HR, .501 SLG --- 27.9 PA/HR
Duda - 22.4 PA/HR, .457 SLG --- 16.4 PA/HR, .496 SLG --- 18.5 PA/HR
Hosmer - 34.6 PA/HR, .439 SLG --- 26.8 PA/HR, .498 SLG --- 24.7 PA/HR
Adams - 24.7 PA/HR, .469 SLG --- 18.4 PA/HR, .522 SLG --- ?
The only one I'd be confident in saying that about is Duda (whom I would've preferred in a vacuum). You're paying for 2017 while wholly banking on it repeating itself in the case of any of the others except Adams, who is strictly a platoon player.
http://www.espn.com/espn/now?nowId=21-40013077-4
Last line says it all for me. Defense at 1B means very little to me, one position where I dont think it matters much. I'd have rather paid Hosmer that sign Moreland for 2 years(but I liked Hosmer more than the nay-sayers) Moreland is a bench bat to me at best.
Last line says it all for me. Defense at 1B means very little to me, one position where I dont think it matters much. I'd have rather paid Hosmer that sign Moreland for 2 years(but I liked Hosmer more than the nay-sayers) Moreland is a bench bat to me at best.