If you could dump him, you do so to get out of paying the rest of his contract, and worry about who is going to take the lineup spot later. I'd happily play Dalbec every day if that's what it meant.
Yes. Players who are outrighted still count against CBT as of 2018. https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2018/01/boston_red_soxs_rusney_castill_13.html
Hmm, you might be right, this isn't a situation that comes up much and I didn't realize that service time mattered, but I think you're right that it does.
FanGraphs says he is not useful thus far in 2024 (fWAR of -0.3). Don't forget his complete absence of foot speed has an impact.
Players with less than 5 years of service time can be outrighted to the minor leagues once without their consent (the Sox did this with Christian Arroyo last year, and of course Rusney also). If it is someone who has been outrighted before or has 5+ years of service time, the player can either accept an outright assignment or choose free agency.
I think what's frustrating everyone here is that this happened before - same kind of rollover IF hits. And it was addressed in 2023 and fixed: https://www.mlb.com/news/red-sox-masataka-yoshida-changed-batting-stance
Yeah, and I mean, me too. But I suppose when some hitters get into a funk they encounter the same issue they always do. I remember the change he made. Sometimes it takes a guy a long time to get his mechanics sorted out when an issue like this arises.
This is well said. It's incredibly early. In the 10 day stretch last year starting on April 20 he went from 189/317/264 to 276/373/460.
Frankly, losing more games is probably long-term better for BOS than getting to .500 (or what not).
.500 is 81-81 for a full season. Playing just 5 games better than that puts a team in the WC mix. Any team that is playing .500 should not be making any drastic moves before mid July... but REALLY need to take a tough critical look at what the chances are that those 5 games can be made up by a trade. I'm Agnostic on Bloom (despite being called a supporter/defender) but his biggest flaw was not seeing the shit-show in the '22 trade deadline. Last season I can excuse him with the level of talent returning from injury, but I get the argument (and don't want to parse it out) why people fault him for that trade deadline too.
Devers did have a double and 2 walks last night before leaving the game.
Sure.... a smaller sample size than the small in-season sample size of him with a .760 OPS so far. I REALLY like Raffy, don't love him... but for what he's being paid the Sox need him to be hitting at least around the .900 OPS, 30 HR guy. Again, just SSS as with Yoshida, Rafaela, etc.... But Devers hitting .760 and playing in only 66% of games this entire season isn't going to be good for the team. Am I wrong?
I don't want to turn this into a Raffy thread, but only 7 players had a .900+ OPS and 30 HRs last year. If you extend that range to an .850+ OPS and 30 HRs, you get 10 players, including Raffy. If you extend that to .850+ OPS and 20 HRs, you get only 18 players, and it includes Triston Casas. Devers is earning that contract, and Casas is on track to get an equivalent one. Yoshida may not be in the DH role next year or long term, but nobody seems to be pushing those two guys out of their positions and into his slot. If he doesn' t get his swing back, It's not like the Sox have so many good hitters they can't find a position for right now. Until that changes, why not give Yoshida time to work thing out. Putting Pablo Reyes in his slot is not helping. It's not like guys who are hitting well on other teams are going to be getting traded right now, or that guys off the street would improve things.
Of course it's not good for the team, but what is the alternative? Devers has been playing hurt.
I'll continue the derailment I started but am stopping after responding here.... .I'm not advocating for benching Raffy at all (and don't think anyone is saying I thought that). To put this back into "Yoshida" context, it was in the discussion of what to do with a team sitting around .500 and wouldn't hurt playing Yoshida either way. I said that a team at .500 in early July is on track for an 81-81 record which is only 5 games out of what I think is a reasonable WC spot, so no... a team playing .500 isn't out of it. BUT.... that team really needs to look at whether it's worth doing something at the deadline to make up those 5 games or to decide that it's just not worth it. And (back to Devers)..... if Devers is playing injured, 66% of the time, hitting .760 OPS and the team is at .500... then the team isn't going to make up those 5 games IMO.
If Cora says Yoshida isn't injured then I guess we have to believe him. Yoshida did get hit by a pitch last night and was immediately pinch run for but I guess that probably had nothing to do with an injury and more to do with the game situation.
He got hit on his elbow pad, and was removed for speed by Hamilton, who was going into the game anyway. Yes, that was totally about the game situation.
The trouble is the bats that aren't struggling are all outfielders (Abreu, Duran, Refsnyder), so how do you squeeze him into the lineup, especially using the DH spot to give guys like O'Neill and Devers soft returns? The only non-use of Yoshida I might question was Sunday (Heineman), but even that can be explained by the desire to stack the lineup with RHP against the lefty.
Today I get. Yesterday I mostly get (could have put him in for Ref or Dalbec given a RH but whatever, maybe they don't think Ref can handle 1B).
This is getting silly. Yoshida hasn't hit consistently this year and the team is dealing with transitioning important players back onto the field. If the DH slot were open he'd be playing. He's available to play. He played yesterday.
It was just one game. (Couldn't resist.) But seriously, they had a switch hitting call-up, and this is Alex Cora. Also, there's no guarantee that on Sunday they knew for certain O'Neill and Devers were coming back, or that the field would be wet yesterday and frozen today.
Please consider tonight's line up construction. Raffy is DHing for obvious reasons. Which outfielder do you want to sit?
agreed-but how's he supposed to hit when he never plays? he finally showed some signs of life but then sat for several games. I can understand why Yoshida has been out, especially when Devers has to DH but it's frustrating as I was hoping Yoshida was finally (perhaps) going to get going. I guess we'll see once Devers is able to return to the field.
We are seriously just 25 games into the season with some pretty extreme situations that are forcing some unconventional decisions. Oh and the team is currently sporting a record that is better than the majority of us felt possible at this point under the best of circumstances.
