Interesting. I remember Ben being high on him before. Could be another decent depth piece if he makes the team.
Red Sox select Josh Rutledge in Rule 5 draft
- Thread starter Tyrone Biggums
- Start date
He was with the team all of last year. I just can't remember a time when a team takes a guy of their 40 man roster at the end of the season, the player electing to become a FA, only to reselect him in the rule 5 draft
This allows them to start the season with Rutledge as the utility man and keep Hernandez in AAA for extra depth. Of course, it's unlikely Rutledge stays on the 25 man the entire year unless one of two things happens: he plays better than expected, which would be good, or there is a rash of injuries, which wouldn't be.
Way back in the big ol' offseason thread I mentioned the Sox might want to add a Rutledge-type to the bench. DD doesn't mess around.
"just when I thought I was out. They pulled me back in"
This quote sums up Josh Rutledge and his Red Sox tenure
They outrighted him because there wasn't room on the roster when they had to clear the 60-day DL at the end of the year. He was a victim of a roster crunch that they now have the room (3 open spots on the 40-man) to bring back. And if he doesn't stick, they send him back to the Rockies for a cost of what, $50K? I don't see the harm.
Better than that. Sox pay $50K to select him, if he doesn't stick in the bigs they have to offer him back for $25K. If the Rox don't want him we don't get the money, though
The genius of Dombrowski will be confirmed in August of 2018 when he pulls off the blockbuster trade that will forever be known as "the Rutledge deal."
Am I the only person wondering if this means Holt is being moved (maybe along with one of the SPs)? Holt and Rutledge on the same roster doesn't make much sense to me, unless you're thinking of Holt as primarily a backup outfielder.
Basically, I'm baffled. I mean, is there anything Rutledge is actually good at? Why would we tie ourselves to keeping him on the 25-man all year?
Basically, I'm baffled. I mean, is there anything Rutledge is actually good at? Why would we tie ourselves to keeping him on the 25-man all year?
I think Rutledge is going to be a utility payer who can be the weak side of a platoon at third base against tough lefties.
Wouldn't this acquisition just fall under the asset accumulation department? Not sure that there is a lot to lose here aside from the $50k, which I would hope they are not worried about. I guess you could add that he is currently taking up a 40 man spot, but I doubt they would let that get in the way of any other significant moves.
Yep. I had been hoping we would get a Rutledge type player who was a little better than Rutledge, but this plus Moreland is in line with the same overall plan for platoonable depth at the corners.
Based on how the roster shapes up now, if it isn't Rutledge, the last guy on the bench is most likely Hernandez, so I don't see where adding Rutledge changes the equation on Holt at all. In fact, Rutledge being a RHH gives them more flexibility on the bench.
Without Ortiz, they essentially have a five man bench to work with. One of them is in the DH spot (either directly or by defensively replacing one of the regular position players so he can DH) and that still leaves a 4-man bench.
Rutledge is the RHH utility IF
Holt is the LHH utility IF/5th OF
Young is the RHH 4th OF
Moreland is the LHH 1B/DH
Then there's the backup catcher
Best part is if they find a way to further upgrade the bench, Rutledge is easily discarded.
It's too small a move to draw any conclusions about Holt's future. Yes, Rutledge is an additional alternative to fill Holt's spot in case of a trade, but he's also an additional option to fill the hole if Holt gets hurt. Given the modest cost, injury insurance alone is sufficient to justify the move.
I don't mean to be a downer on Josh's thread, but in what universe is he better than Marco Hernandez?
Are we tying ourselves to keeping him on the 25 man roster all year? As mentioned earlier, we can send him down after offering him back to the Rockies for $25K. We can also trade him to a team that might want him who perhaps wasn't able to add a player in the Rule 5 draft for whatever reasons.
Holt, Rutledge, and Hernandez won't all be on this team at the same time in 2016. He cost $50,000 today to give the team some options. That spot on the 40 man roster wasn't doing anyone any good being empty. And if something better comes up you can let him (or someone else) go and it only cost you $50K.
In what planet isn't he? At the least, they are the same player. Josh has over 1000 career PA in the major league level with an OPS comparable to Marco Hernandez's career minor league OPS. They put up basically the same numbers last year in the majors. Plus Josh hits right handed which fits the team better.
A reasonable ask, since Rutledge is a replacement-level player. He's bad at hitting and worse at fielding. He's basically Nick Green redux.
Isn't that Holt, though? 3b might be Holt's worst defensive position, but he's adequate there, and he's a below average but adequate bat, and he has no platoon split during his career.
In that our other two 3b both hit lefty.
EDIT - misquoted his 2016 split as career, but he does show signs of potentially being a short side platoon guy (pronounced split since arriving in Boston; .859 OPS vs LHP last season in a small sample).
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The case for Hernandez over Rutledge is if you believe that Hernandez can play credibly at shortstop and Rutledge can't. We do need someone on the roster who can play there behind Bogaerts. (Which might well be Holt.)
Yes, Farrell needs to give Xander and Dustin more days off than he did in 2016, so Holt should play more IF than OF in the coming season.
Yeah, I just made a post defending Marrero's roster spot so that is a valid point. I don't think they view Marco as a SS though and most scouting reports see him as more of a 2b. Of course, Brock Holt isn't a SS either and that didn't stop him from getting some time there the last 2 years.
If Marco were a *good* shortstop who had a solid chance to post a 100 OPS+, we wouldn't have gotten him in exchange for the last gasps of Felix Doubront's career. All three of these guys can hit enough that if they could play the position well they would be competing for starting roles. We have to figure out which of them are tolerable for a ten day DL stint when Xander fouls a ball of his foot and needs to wait for the swelling to reside.
I think that's probably Marco, of the three. He's the only one who played more SS than 2B or 3B at all levels in the minors, which is one shorthand.
Who is the third? Marrero? His problem is the reverse which is why I think he'd be the most likely to stick. They wouldn't want to sacrifice defense at SS for 2 months. Unless you mean Rutledge.
To the contrary, I'd say it shows he isn't counting on anything from Panda.
If DD had Panda locked into the 3B spot, Holt would be the utility infielder, with Hernandez stashed in Pawtucket; Rutledge would be superfluous unless two of the three guys ahead of him got hurt before Opening Day. But if it's not a sure thing that Panda will be on the Opening Day roster, there's the potential for both Holt (as the starting 3B) and either Hernandez or Rutledge (as the UI) to make the 25-man, and the deal makes a lot of sense, at least as injury insurance.
I mean i guess, but that is a lot of games you are left asking out of Brock Holt at third if the Panda situation goes belly up early.
Plus it is then just kind of hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that going out and filling that final bench spot with a guy like Plouffe isn't the much better approach to begin with.
Holt is likely to put up a 700 OPS with fringe-average D at 3B. You won't do materially better than that without trading prospects or handing out a multi-year contract, neither of which DD will (or should) do before seeing what he's got in Panda.
Plouffe works and likely raises that ops in either scenario though, and might be had on a 1 year deal that is going to be a lot less then the current $13m we are projected to pay Buchholz to come out of the bullpen. Plus he's the only guy in the backup plan equation there that actually has any extensive experience playing 3B on a full time basis.
Just failing to see why we wouldn't want to go that route if we could is all.
I agree that Plouffe will only get a one-year deal. I disagree that he's better than Holt. And at this point in his career, I don't think you can throw Plouffe in the field at SS or 2B even on a stopgap basis, which I think is a requirement for anyone who would replace Holt.
Plouffe wouldn't be replacing Holt in either scenario. He'd be making the 25 man roster over the likes of Rutledge or Hernandez.
I thought the new CBA doubled the amounts to $100k and $50k. Not that that makes much difference in the overall scheme of things - if there's a chance of adding 1/4 of a win with his presence that's all chump change.
Basically they paid 100 grand for early season Pablo insurance. Will he be able to play decent defense? Will he need a RH platoon partner? We should be able to determine that in spring training. If he looks like he might not be able to get the job done full time, they will have Rutledge already in house for cheap, and if things are still problematic at the trade deadline they can make a move then.
They get all of spring training to evaluate Sandoval. If he looks like he will need help, then they keep Rutledge. If Sandoval is looking good, then they just send Rutledge back and get 50k back.
They get all of spring training to evaluate Sandoval. If he looks like he will need help, then they keep Rutledge. If Sandoval is looking good, then they just send Rutledge back and get 50k back.
What are the odds Rutledge sticks on the roster all season? I'd guess pretty low, but $50K isn't that much to lose on a short-term bench bat. Seems like a smart use of money by Dombrowski, continuing his strong offseason.
All of this talk about Rutledge as a "short-term bench bat" or a "RH bat perhaps to handle 3rd vs. LHSP" seems predicated on the assumption that he actually hits LHP well. In fact, his career split vs. LHP is only modestly higher than Sandoval's, .721 to .673. Granted, it's been a while since Sandoval hit LHP even that well, but still, that's not a large advantage, and it essentially disappears when you compare him to Holt (.709 career). And for that matter, Marco Hernandez showed fairly modest platoon splits in AA/AAA.
Rutledge isn't really a "bat" of any kind. (Nor, for that matter, a "glove" of any kind.) It's good that he costs so little, but a cheap thing you don't need is still a thing you don't need. If the point was to acquire a backup 3B who hits LHP well, we still don't have that. If the point was to acquire cheap redundancy in the utility IF slot, we already had that.
Rutledge isn't really a "bat" of any kind. (Nor, for that matter, a "glove" of any kind.) It's good that he costs so little, but a cheap thing you don't need is still a thing you don't need. If the point was to acquire a backup 3B who hits LHP well, we still don't have that. If the point was to acquire cheap redundancy in the utility IF slot, we already had that.
I'd agree that absent the 3B situation, he's not an overall compelling piece - we have plenty of regulars who will hit LHP. (Basically everyone but JBJ.) http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/stats/sortable.jsp?c_id=bos#elem=[object+Object]&tab_level=child&click_text=Sortable+Player+hitting&game_type='R'&season=2016&season_type=ANY&league_code='MLB'§ionType=sp&statType=hitting&page=1&ts=1481573308290&playerType=ALL&timeframe=&last_x_days=&split=vl&sortColumn=ops&sortOrder='desc'&extended=0
However, Rutledge actually fills the role of a backup 3B who hits LHP at a league average clip (given his past 3 seasons). 'Course, he does not have to be a lefty masher to be a significant upgrade if:
- Sandoval replicates his '15 campaign against LHP - .465 OPS, or is injured.
- Holt replicates his '16 campaign against LHP - .350 OPS, and/or must play somewhere other than 3B.
- Marco can't hit MLB LHP well (who knows?)
Odds are that Sandoval/Holt bounce back, but Rutledge may well be needed as a band-aid/insurance, since we don't have Shaw anymore.
What's our depth at 3B anyway? Sandoval - Holt - Rutledge/Marco - Aaron Hill?
Jantzen Witte has about a 900 OPS in about 200 PA against left handers in AA and AAA over the past two seasons?
In the world were Hernandez still has options and both are the definition of MI rotation fodder? I mean, optioning Hernandez and going with Rutledge only extends the period of control over Hernandez and Marco could easily take the job away fro Rutledge in ST, with strong early play in AAA, etc.. Low cost pocketing of assets.
A little digging into those splits gives a more vivid picture however:
2012 - 86 PA, .798 OPS
2013 - 113 PA, .533 OPS
2014 - 90 PA, .840 OPS
2015 - 26 PA, .748 OPS
2016 - 19 PA, .859 OPS
A lot of players have a freak reverse split here and there early in their careers despite an otherwise strong platoon trend, Rutledge is no exception. His mL + ML splits run the same course (RHP/LHP):
2012 - .731/1.068
2013 - .835/.607
2014 - .680/.929
2015 - .692/.874
2016 - .684/.845
It's surprising how quickly Rutledge moved through the Rockies system. He was drafted in the 3rd round in 2010, got half a season at the ML level by 2012 entirely skipping AAA, and currently has almost as many games at the ML level as in the minors (333 to 350). Coupled with some injuries the last few years and there's a worthwhile argument that his early ML numbers aren't very predictive. Not that he's a real prospect or anything mind you, but if given the choice between him and say, Andres Blanco (the best FA comp who could be had cheap I could think of) it wouldn't be totally off the wall to prefer Rutledge for league minimum and a $100K Rule 5 fee over paying Blanco $1.5-$2M.
Since Holt can move into an OF role as needed while Hernandez still has options I can see the argument for wanting more utility IF redundancy. Also, Hernandez was a non-prospect when acquired for Doubront then suddenly found his bat after the trade and a promotion to AA in 2015. That stuck around in 2016, but he's still somewhat limited on his AAA and ML exposure. There is potentially real value in pushing his control years to more align with the end of Brock Star's cost controlled years instead of burying Hernandez as the 25th man.
If someone like Trevor Plouffe would take a relatively low dollar short term deal I'm sure the FO would be more than happy to sign him up and cut bait with Rutledge. But we'll have to see how the market settles to see if they find someone like that. Given what David Freese got last year I'm not sure if the market for middling 3Bs is one we want to be buyers in with Sandoval already on contract for another three years (including this one).
Aaron Hill is a free agent. Sandoval, Holt, Rutledge/Marco would be the 3B depth right now.