Kiké Hernandez traded to Dodgers

[YTF]

Very impressed that Bloom pulled this off, and I've not been a fan of most of his work, at least with the major league roster.

Now let's see him get something of value for Kluber!

He hasn't hit the ball out of the park every time, but Kike, Renfro and Schwarber were all solid editions and played key roles in 2021's success. Pivetta, Whitlock, Schreiber, Bernandino, Verdugo, Wong, Arroyo, Yoshida, Chang, RFsnyder, Paxton, Reyes, Winckowski, Turner and Duran (who many here wanted to see moved for whatever Chaim could get) have all been contributors of varying degrees and most have come at little expense while the team walks that tightrope of keeping competitive while resetting the payroll.

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

Kluber's gonna go all Derek Lowe in October.

Which tracks, since Derek Lowe is now 50 years now and Kluber throws like a 50 year old.

 

[Yelling At Clouds]

Why do we care where he went?

Because its marginally easier to root for a team that occasionally does something that, on the surface, appears to be a solid for a player who was solid for them. (Maybe they *did* get the best bag of balls from LA; but maybe they were willing to take a slightly dirtier bag. We'll never know.)

I don’t want to overstate this, but I think it’s also the kind of thing that gets noticed by other players around the league, that the Fed Sox took care of him and didn’t exile him to KC or something. Not that I think a top-tier FA would decide to come to Boston because of how they treated Enrique Hernandez, but if they had gone in the other direction, a player from, say, the Justin Turner tier might decide not to come to Boston. Again, probably not a huge effect, but not nothing, either.

 

[chawson]

Man, he really seems like such an awesome person. I will be rooting for him to succeed in LA, as long as they are not playing the Sox.

Agreed. Always seemed like a genuine and likable guy. As a new parent of a toddler myself, I’ve lost about .200 OPS off my game too.

I don’t want to overstate this, but I think it’s also the kind of thing that gets noticed by other players around the league, that the Fed Sox took care of him and didn’t exile him to KC or something. Not that I think a top-tier FA would decide to come to Boston because of how they treated Enrique Hernandez, but if they had gone in the other direction, a player from, say, the Justin Turner tier might decide not to come to Boston. Again, probably not a huge effect, but not nothing, either.

Also agree. For all the dumb handwringing about supposed mistreatment of Plawecki, the Sox do this fairly well, despite the Boston media's ravenous appetite for drama. Playing JDM through September 2022 helped him rebound a bit, and finding Kiké a good landing spot keeps everyone feeling pretty good about cutting ties.

 

[Petagine in a Bottle]

Well, a non contender isn’t going to have any interest in two months of Kike Hernandez, so I think him landing with a good team was kind of a foregone conclusion.

 

[Fishy1]

Let's see if Robertson can stay on the 40, and if Hagenman can make it through the Rule V draft, before calling it a fleece

Fair enough! For anyone looking to project him, here's the fangraphs summary of his time in the minors.



Good minor league reliever underrates him - this is elite stuff for a minor league pitcher. Great k/9, great BB rate, good results. Horrible BABIP in 10 innings (.500!) in the majors, which probably explains a lot of his struggles, as his peripherals still look good otherwise in those 10 innings.

Cost-controlled for the future. He'll probably bump Ort or Garza off the 40 man if they need the space.. Or maybe Wyatt Mills?

 

[JM3]

View: https://twitter.com/jimcallisMLB/status/1684204172407627783

 

[mauf]

By my quick count, the 2023 Sox have gotten 122 IP of relief pitching from guys with 0 fWAR or less. Getting two relievers for a guy who was likely to get DFA’d in the next 30 days (or worse, take a 26-man spot from a more useful player) is a nifty move. One of them just needs to be better than Kaleb Ort for this to be a good deal.

 

[E5 Yaz]

Greetings from my 31st Dodgers home game of the year, aka, the time I check SoSH the most. I started writing this as things were tense and it's now out of hand for the hometown Blue.

This (Dodgers) team is talented, but it's missing glue. Oddly, last season, personality carried the day: Hanser Alberto was the heart of that team. The dude single-handedly created each and every celebration they used (54 home games attended don't lie). Kershaw was footloose and fancy-free in the dugout, giving wet willies to rookies and - miraculously - not at the center of a cultural firestorm. Dave Roberts ran a tight ship from the right side of the dugout, but the left side, where the off-day starters and Hanser sat, was the soul of that team.

And while (our now, but then theirs) Turner was a big presence, there isn't now a rallier, a crier, a glue. Kikélmer's Glue is strong stuff. I think there's a certain amount of genie-bottle-rubbing going on here, and the Sox sold higher than high.

Keekay's glue? Makes sense, since he was the dead horse we kept beating

 

[AlNipper49]

By my quick count, the 2023 Sox have gotten 122 IP of relief pitching from guys with 0 fWAR or less. Getting two relievers for a guy who was likely to get DFA’d in the next 30 days (or worse, take a 26-man spot from a more useful player) is a nifty move. One of them just needs to be better than Kaleb Ort for this to be a good deal.

What’s that trench in the ocean that scientists were surprised to find life in because it’s so deep? Those newly-discovered creatures share their territory with that low bar.

 

[JM3]

By my quick count, the 2023 Sox have gotten 122 IP of relief pitching from guys with 0 fWAR or less. Getting two relievers for a guy who was likely to get DFA’d in the next 30 days (or worse, take a 26-man spot from a more useful player) is a nifty move. One of them just needs to be better than Kaleb Ort for this to be a good deal.

It's just a shame they didn't do something like this 2 months ago. The bullpen is mostly healthy now so there are less innings going to the bad pitchers right now, but it's still a good thing to have.

 

[Big Papi's Mango Salsa]

It's just a shame they didn't do something like this 2 months ago. The bullpen is mostly healthy now so there are less innings going to the bad pitchers right now, but it's still a good thing to have.

Agree across the board with both posts.

Fully agree with how Bloom added two bullpen arms here, but giving up nothing of value. Too bad they weren't here at the end of May (before Hernandez OPS went down another 200 points) but better late than never. Getting anything that might be useful for a DFA candidate is more than fine.

 

[YTF]

It's just a shame they didn't do something like this 2 months ago. The bullpen is mostly healthy now so there are less innings going to the bad pitchers right now, but it's still a good thing to have.

Two months ago Duvall and Chang were on the IL, both just recently returned. Then, Chang's replacement missed roughly a month on the IL. The Sox still had a need for a defensive CF and need in the MI such that he was, Hernandez was the best in house solution to fill both holes.

 

[Rovin Romine]

It's just a shame they didn't do something like this 2 months ago. The bullpen is mostly healthy now so there are less innings going to the bad pitchers right now, but it's still a good thing to have.

Even if they don't throw an inning this year and are lost to Rule 5 in the off-season, they're very good depth to have in case of injury or the like.

The AAA reserve was getting pretty thin there.

By my quick count, the 2023 Sox have gotten 122 IP of relief pitching from guys with 0 fWAR or less. Getting two relievers for a guy who was likely to get DFA’d in the next 30 days (or worse, take a 26-man spot from a more useful player) is a nifty move. One of them just needs to be better than Kaleb Ort for this to be a good deal.

I don't know if fWAR is the best stat to get an angle on relatively short-appearing relievers. By ERA+ (equally problematic in some ways) the type of relievers these guys would replace would be below-average pitchers like Jake Faria, Zack Littell, Justin Garza, Ryan Brasier, Matt Dermody, Kaleb Ort, and Joe Jacques.

Not that some of those guys didn't have good outings/runs, but the two new acquisitions seem to offer just as much a chance as to replicate those performances or improve upon them.

 

[JM3]

Two months ago Duvall and Chang were on the IL, both just recently returned. Then, Chang's replacement missed roughly a month on the IL. The Sox still had a need for a defensive CF and need in the MI such that he was, Hernandez was the best in house solution to fill both holes.

Fair.

Even if they don't throw an inning this year and are lost to Rule 5 in the off-season, they're very good depth to have in case of injury or the like.

The AAA reserve was getting pretty thin there.



I don't know if fWAR is the best stat to get an angle on relatively short-appearing relievers. By ERA+ (equally problematic in some ways) the type of relievers these guys would replace would be below-average pitchers like Jake Faria, Zack Littell, Justin Garza, Ryan Brasier, Matt Dermody, Kaleb Ort, and Joe Jacques.

Not that some of those guys didn't have good outings/runs, but the two new acquisitions seem to offer just as much a chance as to replicate those performances or improve upon them.

The weird thing to me is that they have guys better than those guys... they have just chosen not to use them - most likely because they're worried about the 40-man crunch with all the extra players already in it due to the 60 day DL, so they haven't brought up players like A.J. Politi or Ryan Fernandez when he was pitching lights out & instead have gone with the purely fungible crew.

It has felt almost over-cautious & like they haven't been trying to win every game.

Between these additions & a couple of the minor league free agency pickups (German, Alvarez), it feels like some roster clearing is on the horizon & we may be in for a busy deadline... even if they are all relatively small deals.

 

[joe dokes]

Even if they don't throw an inning this year and are lost to Rule 5 in the off-season, they're very good depth to have in case of injury or the like.



Not that some of those guys didn't have good outings/runs, but the two new acquisitions seem to offer just as much a chance as to replicate those performances or improve upon them.

Or the 2 new guys are part of some other deal down the road; My guess is that in a trade like this, fungibility is the most likely characteristic of the arrivals. So they can fill a gap that's later created. Maybe paying part of the outgoing salary got them something more fungible+.

 

[E5 Yaz]

Or the 2 new guys are part of some other deal down the road; My guess is that in a trade like this, fungibility is the most likely characteristic of the arrivals. So they can fill a gap that's later created. Maybe paying part of the outgoing salary got them something more fungible+.

They've also signed a couple of players to minor-league deals recently that they're stashing in Worcester. Inventory build-up always gets the tinfoil hats buzzing this time of year

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

They've also signed a couple of players to minor-league deals recently that they're stashing in Worcester. Inventory build-up always gets the tinfoil hats buzzing this time of year

There are also seven guys on the Worcester IL at the moment (including the recently signed Frank German). They'd actually be pretty thin on the bench if not for Story and McGuire being there rehabbing (Kluber too). Could be that they're signing free agents just to maintain a full roster once those guys are done rehabbing.

 

[Rovin Romine]

The weird thing to me is that they have guys better than those guys... they have just chosen not to use them - most likely because they're worried about the 40-man crunch with all the extra players already in it due to the 60 day DL, so they haven't brought up players like A.J. Politi or Ryan Fernandez when he was pitching lights out & instead have gone with the purely fungible crew.

Ryan Fernandez had a very good 20 innings repeating AA, then got lit up in Wor.

Politi should probably get a shot soon, unless they think there's something in his stuff that won't translate at the MLB level.

 

[cantor44]

Adding to the chorus: an excellent trade by Bloom. More than I expected could be had for Kiké.

 

[Benj4ever]

I'm happy for him and for the team. I hope there's no void in leadership or fun factor. Cora will miss him more than anyone. I hope he plays well for the Dodgers and we meet him in the World Series, where he proceeds to go 0 for 15 with 10 Ks and 15 LOB.

I hope he has only 1 LOB, on his last at bat, giving the Sox the Series...

 

[JM3]

Where is @JM3 to give of his breakdown of the Dodgers top 200 and how we can excited about prospect #142?

My Red Sox prospect list is updated (it's a Top 205 list, though), & it has Robertson 27th & Hagenman 50th.

 

[Rasputin]

Only makes sense if you are almost certainly going to win your division (i.e. could have big time value this year) AND you think getting him in your clubhouse will have a meaningful effect on convincing him to sign long term.

If its a positive experience for Shohei and he will sign with you for 700M rather than the Mets for 800M, that's obviously meaningful value.

The window is opening. Trading the prospects it would take to get Ohtani would close it some.

 

[radsoxfan]

The window is opening. Trading the prospects it would take to get Ohtani would close it some.

I don't think the Red Sox should trade for him, was just speaking generally.

The Dodgers would make sense to me, assuming the Angels are open to a local trade like that.

 

[JM3]

View: https://twitter.com/tylermilliken_/status/1684297853462511618

 

[jmcc5400]

View: https://twitter.com/tylermilliken_/status/1684297853462511618

Two hits today in his return.

 

[joe dokes]

Two hits today in his return.

Two wins since his departure. Win-win.