2013-2014 Red Sox ML Comings and Goings

Plympton91

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It will probably be hard for the Red Sox to accumulate AAAA pitching depth this offseason, with no openings in the major league or potentially even the AAA rotation.  That always struck me as part of the reason why the pickings were so slim in 2011, because the team went into the season with the starting 5 seemingly locked down and that situation likely scares away fringe veterans.
 

Quintanariffic

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Plympton91 said:
It will probably be hard for the Red Sox to accumulate AAAA pitching depth this offseason, with no openings in the major league or potentially even the AAA rotation.  That always struck me as part of the reason why the pickings were so slim in 2011, because the team went into the season with the starting 5 seemingly locked down and that situation likely scares away fringe veterans.
 
True, but with Ranaudo, Barnes, DLR, Webster, Workman and possibly even Owens knocking on the door, they've got quality depth options in the system already.  Not all of those guys will pan out, but you have to figure that 1-2 of those arms will be able to hold the fort if needed.  So if there was one season where you'd be limited in gathering useful AAAA depth, this is the year to do it.
 

Crazy Puppy

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BCsMightyJoeYoung said:
Looks like the Sox are tendering Bailey a contract .. Otherwise , why keep him on the 40 man roster?
 
Today is the deadline for adding players to the 40-man to protect them from the Rule 5 draft, but you can still take players off. The deadline for tendering contracts to arb-eligible guys like Bailey is 12/2. Bailey is still likely to be non-tendered, IMO.
 

Mighty Joe Young

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Crazy Puppy said:
Today is the deadline for adding players to the 40-man to protect them from the Rule 5 draft, but you can still take players off. The deadline for tendering contracts to arb-eligible guys like Bailey is 12/2. Bailey is still likely to be non-tendered, IMO.
40 man slots are golden to major league teams. Why would they sacrifice one if they were planning on cutting Bailey two weeks from now? That makes no sense to me.
 

Crazy Puppy

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BCsMightyJoeYoung said:
40 man slots are golden to major league teams. Why would they sacrifice one if they were planning on cutting Bailey two weeks from now? That makes no sense to me.
 
With today's additions, the 40-man roster is at 39. I'm quite confident that if they need Bailey's roster spot before 12/2, they'll make the necessary move.
 

Mighty Joe Young

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Crazy Puppy said:
With today's additions, the 40-man roster is at 39. I'm quite confident that if they need Bailey's roster spot before 12/2, they'll make the necessary move.
I think the point I'm trying to make is the 40 man has to be set by tonight .. So they need those spots now. Bailey's is a completely wasted spot if they're just going to dump him two weeks from now. They stand to lose someone in the Rule V (?) draft that they could have, otherwise, protected. This would seem to indicate they plan of keeping him.
 

Mighty Joe Young

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Papelbon's Poutine said:
It would indicate they've protected everyone they care to and still not at 40. Why cut Bailey loose before they need to? Is there a particular two players you think they are making a mistake leaving exposed?
The Sox minor league system is supposedly one of the best .. And deepest .. In baseball. You don't think they could find a couple of guys worthy of protecting from that draft? I understand there are ramifications to putting a guy on the 40 man .. Requiring options etc .. But still ..
 

Mighty Joe Young

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Papelbon said:
Well, again I would ask what two players you see in the minors that fit the criteria that they would be exposed and also worthy of protection from fear of losing them? Just doing a quick scan of sox prospects top 40 no one jumps out at me. I guess an argument could be made for Almanzar but otherwise who do you see? (Honest question).
This article outlines the non protected guys (down near the bottom) .. And your right .. No one is jumping up and down screaming "draft me"

http://news.soxprospects.com/2013/11/cecchini-ranaudo-brentz-added-to-40-man.html

I suppose the classic profile is a toolsy OF or a kid pitcher with great stuff and horrible command. I would agree that Almanzar is the most likely - he really had a nice breakout season and probably rescued his prospect status.

Edit: Luis Diaz is also intriguing
 

Plympton91

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Are the Astros and Marlins planning on punting another season?  If they are, then drafting someone like Almanzar would make sense; there's high upside there and if you're not going to compete anyway it's fine to waste the 25th man slot.  I am a little surprised they have room and didn't add him given what many of us in this forum thought was a breakout year that would see him promoted to AAA next spring.  Perhaps the Sox still see him getting exposed by higher level pitching and plan to keep him in Portland.
 
Compensation for Theo: Aaron Kurcz and Chris Carpenter may draw interest, and an outside shot that some team looks at former bonus baby, Madison Younginer, who was great down the stretch and in the playoffs for Salem as a 2 inning reliever.  Given the success of Ryan Pressley after having a similar role, a rebuilding team may look to strike lightning twice.
 

Hendu for Kutch

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BCsMightyJoeYoung said:
The Sox minor league system is supposedly one of the best .. And deepest .. In baseball. You don't think they could find a couple of guys worthy of protecting from that draft? I understand there are ramifications to putting a guy on the 40 man .. Requiring options etc .. But still ..
 
 
I'm not 100% sure about this, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but once you've got a guy on the 40 man roster, if you want to get him off you have to waive him and expose him to all other teams, right?
 
We're going to need several 40 man roster spots coming up...we currently have no starting catcher, 1B, or CF.  So why promote someone to the 40-man roster and thus force someone you'd like to keep around to be waived?  There's a small chance that someone could claim Almanzar and stick him on their roster for the whole year.  But if that's true then there's a much larger chance someone would claim him (or the player you'd have to waive to keep him on the 40 man) if he was waived and his new team could keep him in the minors all year.
 

Mighty Joe Young

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Hendu for Kutch said:
I'm not 100% sure about this, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but once you've got a guy on the 40 man roster, if you want to get him off you have to waive him and expose him to all other teams, right?
 
We're going to need several 40 man roster spots coming up...we currently have no starting catcher, 1B, or CF.  So why promote someone to the 40-man roster and thus force someone you'd like to keep around to be waived?  There's a small chance that someone could claim Almanzar and stick him on their roster for the whole year.  But if that's true then there's a much larger chance someone would claim him (or the player you'd have to waive to keep him on the 40 man) if he was waived and his new team could keep him in the minors all year.
I agree with you .. because they could be adding 3-4 guys over the winter , it's better to expose them to the draft than to have to waive them through the league three weeks later.

In regards to Bailey .. Still not sure what they plan to do with him. One assumes they non-tender him and then try to give him a minor league contract?
 

nattysez

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norm from cheers said:
per Abraham:
 
#Cubs have signed Ryan Kalish to a minor league deal. He re-unites with execs who drafted him.
 
not sure how to link "tweets"
 
Is there any Sox castoff who the Cubs will not sign (though I expect Kalish will be the best of the lot)?
 

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nattysez said:
 
Is there any Sox castoff who the Cubs will not sign (though I expect Kalish will be the best of the lot)?
 
Not a one, at least not one who was in the system before the 2011 Collapse. Theo still hankers after Glory Days.
 
I hope Kalish recovers, but his shoulder problems have cost him a lot of developmental time. He's a long shot at this point.
 

Stanley Steamer

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Sprowl said:
Not a one, at least not one who was in the system before the 2011 Collapse. Theo still hankers after Glory Days.
 
I hope Kalish recovers, but his shoulder problems have cost him a lot of developmental time. He's a long shot at this point.
Agreed. And it will be interesting to see how his neck fusion affects his play. He was such an athletic player, I wonder if the other facets of his game can rise to compensate for a presumed loss. I hope he can do it, and if he does, at least it'd be for the Cubs.
 

The Gray Eagle

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John Ely's had kind of a weird career. But in 2012 he had a really solid year in the hitter-happy PCL, and looked like he had figured it out. Then got traded to the Astros, and in his first game with their AAA team, he hurt his arm and had to have Tommy John surgery. They released him in November. He's 27, not sure what we''ll get from him, but Pawtucket's going to have some competition for pitcher roster spots. The rotation looked pretty full and the bullpen not exactly empty before we signed Ely and Watanabe this week. 
 
Competition is good. 
 

mabrowndog

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Per BA's Matt Eddy, catcher Matt Spring is back on a minor league deal for his 4th year in the system.
 
Released earlier this month: RHPs Yunior Ortega & Stephen Williams; LHP Dylan Chavez; 1Bs Jake Davies & Boss Moanaroa; and OFs Jose Colorado, Iseha Conklin & Felix Sanchez.
 

mabrowndog

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Per SoxProspects, ex-Astros RHRP Jose Valdez is aboard. Depth move only, since he's out of options. Today is his 31st birthday.
 
 
The Red Sox have announced a deal with right-handed reliever Jose Valdez on a minor league contract.
 
Valdez, 31, made 24 major league appearances for the Houston Astros between 2011 and 2012, posting a 5.88 ERA and 1.692 WHIP across 26 innings. The 6-foot-4, 200-pound righty was originally signed by the Yankees out of the Dominican Republic back in 2000. In 2002, Josh Boyd of Baseball America considered him to have the highest ceiling in the New York system. However, ineffectiveness and an injury that cost Valdez the entire 2005 season stunted his early development. He returned in 2006, pitching exclusively out of the bullpen, and has now logged 321 career minor league appearances.
 
Because he was added to the Astros major league roster in advance of the 2009 Rule 5 draft, Valdez usd the last of his major league options in 2012. He was ineffective in  2013 in the Triple-A Oklahoma City bullpen, where he had a 5.72 ERA and 1.602 WHIP in 39 1/3 innings, before getting released in mid-July.
 
According to David Coleman at The Crawfish Boxes, Valdez features a traditional repertoire for a right-handed power reliever: mid-90's velocity on his fastball, complemented by a slider.
 

Corsi

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The Red Sox have signed outfielder Corey Brown to a minor-league deal that includes a spring training invite, ESPN Boston's Gordon Edes tweets. The Athletics designated Brown for assignment to clear space for Eric O'Flaherty last week, and Brown opted for free agency after the A's outrighted him.
 
Brown, 28, hit .254/.326/.473 for Triple-A Syracuse in the Nationals' system in 2013, splitting time between all three outfield positions. He has collected 45 plate appearances in parts of three seasons in the big leagues. He was a first-round pick of the Athletics in the 2007 draft.
 
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/02/minor-moves-corey-brown.html
 

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mabrowndog said:
Per SoxProspects, catcher Mike Brenly signed for minor league depth.
 
Also per SoxProspects, David Renfroe's conversion experiment to pitching is over and he's retired from baseball.
 
I followed the link over to SP to get the news on Renfroe, a proud son of Panola County, Mississippi, to discover that the Red Sox have released Cody Koback.
 
Apparently he was involved in a really ugly domestic situation. 
 

mabrowndog

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someoneanywhere said:
 
I followed the link over to SP to get the news on Renfroe, a proud son of Panola County, Mississippi, to discover that the Red Sox have released Cody Koback.
 
Apparently he was involved in a really ugly domestic situation. 
 
Jesus, you ain't kidding. He was first arrested in December, then had another incident a couple of weeks ago.
 
Cody Koback, 23, of Stevens Point, who now plays with the Boston Red Sox, was charged Tuesday [January 21] with stalking, intimidating a victim and two felony counts of bail jumping after he followed a former girlfriend in her car after she left a bar, according to police.
 
According to a criminal complaint, the woman was cited for underage drinking at a bar, and when she left, Koback followed her and her friend as they drove down Brawley Street. The woman told police that Koback then swerved his car in front of them, trying to get them to stop. They drove around the car and continued, according to the complaint.
 
The car then caught up to them and swerved in front of them again, the woman told police. According to the complaint, the woman told police that she backed up her car and drove down another street, then called police.
 
The woman told police that Koback sent text messages to her and tried to call her on several occasions prior to the incident, according to the complaint. She also told police that Koback had driven by her apartment several times and left notes in her car.
 
Koback was arrested Dec 13 on charges of battery, false imprisonment and strangulation and suffocation after a former girlfriend told deputies about a domestic abuse incident at his house the previous day [after she'd broken up with him]. He was ordered to have no contact with the woman as part of his bond.
 
Yeah, innocent until proven guilty and all that happy bullshit, but good fucking riddance.
 

mabrowndog

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Frankly the Sox haven't had a ton of luck lately with (or against) guys named Cody:
 
* Cody Kukuk, LHP - Arrested for DUI in May 2012, charges later dropped, but he was suspended for most of that season.
* Cody Ross, OF - Calls Ben a liar after negotiations broke down last winter.
* Cody Koback, OF - Chokes and stalks his ex-girlfriend.
* Cody Asche, 3B - Goes 5-for-5 with 4 RBI and a HR for Lehigh Valley in a 9-4 win over the PawSox last August.
* Cody Ransom, IF - After replacing Derek Jeter, he hits 2 HR against the Sox on 9/26/2008, part of a 19-8 Yankees blowout win.
* Cody Dent, IF - Son of Motherfucking Bucky, spoiled a combined perfect game last August against the Spinners -- a blooper over the SS with 1 out in the 9th.:
 

mabrowndog

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Missed this one from last month, but the Sox signed 24-yo Venezuelan RHSP & long reliever Wilfredo Boscan to a minor league deal. He had signed with TEX as a 17-yo and spent 6 years in their system, then was traded to SDP. He lasted just a few months with the Padres before they released him in June after he struggled at both AA and AAA.
 
He did make 9 starts this off-season for Águilas del Zulia in the Venezuelan Winter League: 1-3, 2.81 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 9.7 H/9, 4.5 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, .281 BAA.
 

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mabrowndog said:
Missed this one from last month, but the Sox signed 24-yo Venezuelan RHSP & long reliever Wilfredo Boscan to a minor league deal. He had signed with TEX as a 17-yo and spent 6 years in their system, then was traded to SDP. He lasted just a few months with the Padres before they released him in June after he struggled at both AA and AAA.
 
He did make 9 starts this off-season for Águilas del Zulia in the Venezuelan Winter League: 1-3, 2.81 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 9.7 H/9, 4.5 K/9, 3.2 BB/9, .281 BAA.
 
J.J marconi ‏@jeywilmarconi19  Feb 26
Wilfredo Boscan no podrá estar en los campos de entrenamiento de #Boston por problema de visado. Se espera que llegue en abril a EEUU. #MLB
 
translation: having visa problems, may not be in the States until April.
 

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From a couple days ago.  Bo Greenwell, son of Mike, has been signed to a minor league deal.
 
25 years old, 6th round draft pick of Indians in 2007.  471 career games, 461 of them in A, 10 in AA.
 
Career line of .278/.353./.386
 
The very definition of minor league filler.

 
The team announced Sunday that they signed Bo Greenwell, the son of former Red Sox All-Star left fielder Mike Greenwell. Bo, 25, was originally drafted by Cleveland in the sixth round of the 2007 MLB June Amateur Draft. It won’t be a long trip to camp as he went to Riverdale High School in Fort Myers.
Happy to be moving forward with The team that I grew up watching. #RedSoxNation
— Bo Greenwell (@BoGreenwell) March 1, 2014
 
 
http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/this-just-in/21420426/bo-greenwell-signs-red-sox
 

OttoC

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Shouldn't this thread be renamed 2014 or a new one started for this season?
 

mabrowndog

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OttoC said:
Shouldn't this thread be renamed 2014 or a new one started for this season?
 
The thread was started in November to track offseason player movement. It's still the offseason, though I agree a title change ("2013-14") would help, and that a new one should be started once the season begins.
 
Anyway, the Sox signed RHRP Michael Olmsted to a minor league deal today, bringing him back into the fold just a few days after the Brewers cut him loose. He left for the Brewers as a 6-year ml free agent after the 2012 season, but things didn't exactly work out in their system as he had the worst year of his career. SoxProspects has more on his return and a recap of his past.
 
B-Ref page
SP.com page
 

Sprowl

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mabrowndog said:
 
The thread was started in November to track offseason player movement. It's still the offseason, though I agree a title change ("2013-14") would help, and that a new one should be started once the season begins.
 
Title change made.
 

Plympton91

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mabrowndog said:
2010 first rounder Kolbrin Vitek is retiring from baseball. A Bust with a capital B.
 
An ongoing 7-day vigil will be held at his Adopt-A-Prospect page, where messages of condolence will be passed on to loved ones.
 
 
Wow, does that suck.  He seemed like such a good pick on paper, but never had even a moment in pro ball where he looked like a prospect.  Who was picked in the 10 slots after him (I could look that up probably, sorry).