Casas has a left rib fracture. Transferred to the 60 Day IL on 4/27.
- Thread starter soxhop411
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He's going through a historically bad stretch, but he does provide value in that he can competently back up the corner IF spots, has options, and has actually hit lefties pretty well. In retrospect, yeah, they probably should have signed a Justin Turner or someone who was a better bat. But as the club broke opening day, Dalbec was exactly the kind of guy you stash on your 40-man for emergencies.
That's a LONG time in baseball. Regardless of his contract situation the guy is not going to be part of any "winning" equation here. They should have moved him long ago. His last chance is a change of scenery because he's mentally done in Boston. Have you checked out his body language lately? All he does is shake his head when he walks away from the plate. Sorry but I've just seen enough of him. I get the counter argument I just don't agree with hanging on because of the contract. To me the only way you do that is if it involves insane money like Rusney.
Anyway. I guess my opinion is in the minority. OK. Let's hope for the best. Whatever that might be.
I saw some discussion on Twitter of other recent examples of baseball players with rib fractures putting the timeline in the 6-8 week range. Everyone is different, and same with fractures, but something like that appears to be the "internet consensus", for what that's worth. I'm sure the team will be loathe to attach a number to it though.
I’ve been googling ineffectively to find major league players in the past who have broken a rib from swinging too hard. Tons of oblique injuries but not this that I can find. There’s a medical study of a couple of unnamed players who were able to resume playing, but I worry about coming back from something as freakish as this and would be reassured if there were specific examples.
Do we know definitively it was from a swing? I know that's what triggered him to leave the game Friday but I thought I saw something about it having been bothering him for a couple days prior. Which would make the swing the straw that broke the camel's back rather than the root cause.
Yeah, no, sorry, that's a ridiculous opinion. Even in 2022 he was halfways decent against lefties. You're not going to release a guy who has the potential to hit lefties and play third in the majors when he's in AAA and making chump change. The only reason to move him is if you have someone better who needs time at AAA and that's not been the case.
The potential is GONE. I find it hard to beliveve there aren't better guys on the scrap heap.
Sure. And the evidence it was gone in 2022 is what exactly? 'Cause he played 21 games in 2023 and so far, 14 this year. There's no logic in releasing him now. We need to get someone in who's better, send Dalbec to Worcester, and release him when he's out of options next spring, or when we have someone better to put on the 40 man.
Right, yeah, good point.
The guy brings nothing to the table. There's a reason he didn't play a lot of games last year. He can't hit. Just rip off the bandaid and sign somebody from Timbuktu to replace him in the minors. They won't be any worse than Bobby at the plate. Screw the contract.
Most guys on the scrap heap can't be stashed in Worcester when everyone is healthy. Most of them are also probably reluctant to sign on to sit on the bench 120 games a year because they're backing up guys expect to play 150+ games each. I believe wholeheartedly that if they had a candidate who is a better 1B/3B than Dalbec and also could be optioned or was fine with a once a week kind of role, he'd be on the roster already.
The number of chances the team has given Dalbec is bordering on infuriating at this point, but the leeway and acceptance of his presence by many fans should be studied somewhere. It makes absolutely no sense. He does literally nothing well on a baseball field. Nothing. He is, by every measure, comfortably in an era of being definitively overwhelmed, after his extraordinarily brief run of overrated competence. He is considerably worse than several classic Sosh betes noires. There is nothing promising in any data, anywhere. There have been off-ramps for moving on and incrementally improving at several points on his journey here, and yet he remains. It is absolutely mind-boggling at this point.
He must be the nicest guy alive.
Why do so many of you so relentlessly talk yourselves into a worse player because improving would require some creativity or jettisoning an ostensible asset? We can't take a shot at a better player because we already have a player. Ok?
I wholeheartedly agree Cora should say exactly what he said, and that it is not indicative of the actual plan in Casas' absence; but it doesn't it mean that *isn't* the plan, either, and holy hell if this team hands the reins to Bobby Dalbec for that long, I am fuckin' done man.
He must be the nicest guy alive.
Why do so many of you so relentlessly talk yourselves into a worse player because improving would require some creativity or jettisoning an ostensible asset? We can't take a shot at a better player because we already have a player. Ok?
I wholeheartedly agree Cora should say exactly what he said, and that it is not indicative of the actual plan in Casas' absence; but it doesn't it mean that *isn't* the plan, either, and holy hell if this team hands the reins to Bobby Dalbec for that long, I am fuckin' done man.
Don't confuse the explanations of some for the situation at hand with love for Dalbec. They can be and are two very different things.
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He can still be in the organization. I think being on the 40 is a reach. And being in the majors for an extended role is out of the question (if that is in fact their plan, hopefully it is not).
This is fair, and I have thought this in the past, but his continued presence in the organization has made for situations--of their own doing--where he is pressed once more into major league duty. That just can't happen. He's that bad.
In an effort to be coldly rational I will join you in finding his presence in the organization, if safely away from the 40 man, acceptable.
That is incorrect. We shouldn't release someone unless we have a better player to take their spot on the 40 man.
If someone is a historically bad player, it shouldn't be very hard to find someone to take that spot on the 40 man. That is the crux of all of this. Bobby is a terrible baseball player.
They've been more than welcome to approach this shockingly simple task for nearly two years now. That he's still there is damning.
I'm not advocating releasing him just to release him. But part of my point is that he is so bad this bar is nowhere near as high as you're suggesting.
He's literally flotsam.
I’d love to know how Casas sustained this injury. Did he make a diving play in the field that caused the injury only to have the pain become too unbearable with ongoing swinging?
Probably an example where internet consensus is pretty accurate. Unlike meniscus injuries, TJ, rotator cuff, etc, bones are bones. More or less any broken bone you have, doc is going to tell you 6-8 weeks (assuming the broken parts still touch). Ribs are weird because they never stop moving, even while you sleep. Range is likely not much different tho.
So why not wait more than 8 hours after the team gets the official diagnosis on Casas before going getting all worked up. The overwhelming majority of us want better than Dalbec on the 26 man.
It's been years of it. I felt I was very clear. There should not be a situation in which the Boston Red Sox are relying on Bobby Dalbec. He was on the Opening Day Roster.
Considering the offseason, all caveats about what is likely to happen aside, I will breathe easy when a major league caliber player is on the roster to pick up Casas' ABs. My bar is not high. Until then, no, I don't entirely trust they won't continue to run him out there. It isn't a secret how bad he is, so they know too, and yet he continues to resurface.
"All worked up," gtfoh.
I’ve stayed out of this thread because I don’t have much to add.
The word “fracture” isn’t great, but ultimately the timeline is based on symptoms, and that can be variable. The imaging appearance sometimes lags behind clinical improvement, so it just depends how he feels.
Seems like it’ll be more than a few weeks. Other than that, who knows. Could be a month, could be 2-3.
The word “fracture” isn’t great, but ultimately the timeline is based on symptoms, and that can be variable. The imaging appearance sometimes lags behind clinical improvement, so it just depends how he feels.
Seems like it’ll be more than a few weeks. Other than that, who knows. Could be a month, could be 2-3.
Upgrading the third spot on your depth chart at first and third isn't really ever a priority.
When you make the determination he's flotsam is pretty important. If you're doing it after 2022, you're ignoring his adequacy against lefties. If you're doing it between then and this spring, you're ignoring that he didn't have enough ML playing time from which to draw a conclusion, and that he did well in AAA.
To be clear, I think he sucks and I want someone better ASAP, but the idea that he should have been jettisoned from the roster long ago for suckage is just not one that holds any fucking water at all, and is indubitably greatly influenced by his absurd level of suckage this year.
And with that, I'm done with this conversation.
I love you Ras; there's no way we disagree--he's horrible. We can do better. We can't keep finding ourselves in need of his services as a major leaguer. They've had so many opportunities to get better by not having him around. Right now? No, of course you don't release him, and that's sort of my point--now we need him, and he's the only thing we have. That shouldn't ever happen.
But yeah, me too. I don't think what I'm saying is super controversial.
I’ll actually be dumbfounded if this team doesn’t get Garrett Cooper.
They had discussions in the off-season.
He’s actually ready to play right now.
He’s hitting the ball pretty damned well.
He can legitimately field first base.
He’s the most no brainer cheap injury driven acquisition I’ve ever seen. We should be doing back flips he’s available.
They had discussions in the off-season.
He’s actually ready to play right now.
He’s hitting the ball pretty damned well.
He can legitimately field first base.
He’s the most no brainer cheap injury driven acquisition I’ve ever seen. We should be doing back flips he’s available.
Add to this, one would hope that Breslow might be able to come to terms with the Cubs.
They'd need to work out a deal with the Cubs, I'd think? Don't want to rely on nobody below them in the standings putting in a claim?
So you’re saying he’d be a huge defensive improvement on Casas - who is far below average.
Yeah, and yet the Sox have consistently passed on every veteran option available to them -regardless of cost- for months. I mean, with what’s gone on in their middle IF, even before this, you would have thought that Solano or Andrus would have been worth a consideration as well- and yet not even a rumor of interest.
I don’t know, for some reason it feels like this team is ride-or-die with its internal options.
No, I'm saying that Belt's at-best-average defense needs to be evaluated against the defensive skills of other possible replacement players.
Fair enough.
Garrett Cooper, in particular, is almost certainly a superior defender to Belt. Honestly a Belt/Cooper platoon (Belt had an .891 OPS vs RHP last year and Cooper had a .908 OPS vs LHP) might be the one way they could replace Casas’s bat in the lineup while also improving their defense. Not sure how’s they free up the roster space to carry two first baseman, but if they are serious about competing this year it might be worth it.
Rafaella makes it sorta possible, but I don't see them carrying two 1B-only guys.
Apart from your starters, as a strategic matter your 4 remaining roster spots have to be: C, 4th OF, MI-sub, and X.
But we're stuck with the roster we have. Yoshida gives you a bit of a breather re: the 4th OF, but do you send down: Duran, O'Neill, Abreu, Refsnyder, Rafaela (now SS). I don't think you demote anyone, provided Abreu is hitting.
So that gives you two spots left.
How do you give any MIs a day off between now and whenever if you're carrying two first-basemen?
Once he gets healthy, perhaps you consider Casas as DH and trade Masa (for SS or 1B?)?
Or is Casas "too young" to move to DH?
Or is Casas "too young" to move to DH?
I gotta think Masa's trade value was pretty well into negative territory even before the strange usage of the past week.
The Cooper DFA is really strange. They only signed him six weeks ago, and he's had 80 productive PAs (including ST) since. Busch has been good, but they're still not playing him against LHP and they're arguably more in need of his type after Suzuki's injury.
Especially considering Breslow's familiarity with the Cubs FO, the timing of Cooper's cut seems really bizarre to me if he's not coming to Boston.
Especially considering Breslow's familiarity with the Cubs FO, the timing of Cooper's cut seems really bizarre to me if he's not coming to Boston.
Cooper has played some OF (75 G in RF, 8 in LF) with 3 innings this year. Belt hasn't played any OF since 2019 and probably shouldn't.
Isn't this entirely out of our control? Several teams worse than our record could claim him first, including the Astros who have an ugly Abreu contract right now.
I know Dalbec looks completely lost, but here is ZIPs for the rest of the season. Dalbec has a BABIP of .071. Over a longer time span he isn't going to be THAT bad. He projects to an RC+ of 86 by Steamer.
I want someone else but I guess it is worth remembering that there is very good reason he will be substantially better than he has been.
I want someone else but I guess it is worth remembering that there is very good reason he will be substantially better than he has been.
Dalbec with another 100 PA will hit better than 031/114/063. But projection models often don't work great with outlier cases, and Dalbec's K rate is an outlier. I don't see him holding a K rate of 36.7, which would be barely more than what he had last year as a 28 year old in AAA. I'll take the under on those projections, with the hope that we don't get a sample large enough to draw any inferences.
He’s only put the ball in play 14 times this season out of 35 PA, and when he’s done so it hasn’t been pretty. His expected BA per Statcast is .105. Average exit velocity is 83.3 MPH and no “barrels”. That’s the worst EV on the team, by the way, just barely below Rafaela.
He's barely making contact, and when he does, that contact is largely quite weak.