Dom Smith DFA'd
- Thread starter soxhop411
- Start date
I totally get it, but disappointed too lose his leadership on the team. He seemed to be someone was a mentor to the younger players, played solid defense at first, and has been hitting the ball well.
Man Casas really had better bust right out of the gates at full speed. Super glad he's back, but I think I would have figured out a way to hold onto Smith for another two weeks until roster expansion. Just a phantom injury for two weeks.... something. Maybe he won't get claimed?
As others have said, this was inevitable. They don't have the roster flexibility to carry two LHH 1B-only guys. The only thing I wish they'd done differently is activate Casas yesterday so Dom wouldn't have had to fly to Baltimore only to turn around and presumably fly back to Boston to pack up his stuff. I wasn't as enamored with his defense as some others, but he seemed like a great clubhouse guy. Wish he could stick around for that reason alone. Maybe they can move him to the coaching staff and clear his remaining salary from the books? <ducks>
Smith was signed to fill in for Casas. His work here is done. Hope he catches on somewhere else, but as a 29-year old who’s essentially replacement-level, that’s far from assured. I’d rather give Romy the ABs if Casas needs days off.
Thanks, Dom, for good contributions. Perhaps he will end up with a strong contender by Sept. 1st.
Makes sense but it's too bad. After a little adjustment period splitting time with Garrett Cooper through May, Dom hit .263/.344/.450 (119 wRC+) since May 31st.
Likable player. At the very least it's nice to see someone use Boston as a place they can rejuvenate their career.
Hopefully he doesn't wash up in the Bronx — their rookie first baseman Ben Rice has a .507 OPS since his big three-homer game against us.
Likable player. At the very least it's nice to see someone use Boston as a place they can rejuvenate their career.
Hopefully he doesn't wash up in the Bronx — their rookie first baseman Ben Rice has a .507 OPS since his big three-homer game against us.
Also sad to see him go. Fun player to root for, seems like an awesome teammate. Hope Casas buys him a meal for kickstarting his post-playing days media career.
I sure hope you don't go into "I told you so" mode if Triston is hitting 200/250/350/600 after 2 weeks, because we need Triston Casas, the one who can sport a 800+ OPS, and if it takes 2-3 weeks to get there, I'll wait. Dom was an okay fill-in and fun to root for, but he is *not* a necessry piece of a playoff team, nor is he a part of the 2025 window.
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Dom had a blistering July, but his August line isn't really a high bar to get over: 235/.278/.324/.601 in 11 games. If Casas is doing that after 2 weeks back, we've lost nothing.
edit to add: FWIW, I expect Casas to be better than that.
+1 to this. a real class act and seemingly great teammate. and not a bad pitcher to boot. 0.00 ERA.
I literally saw this and went, “oh, no!” Good luck to Dom no matter what happens. He seemed to be a good mentor for the young guys and we even got the viral BDSM (Big Dom Smith Moment) out of it.
100% I hope his time with the Sox gets him serious consideration with a contender looking for a little LH help and nets him a ring.
I was wondering WTF this “BDSM” here was….
apparently not the first thing that came to my mind
Sox twitter account posted something about "Big Dom Smith Moments" at one point last week
As others have said, I really hate to see him go.
My concern is will Casas hit the ground running or will there be a ramp up period for him/he starts slowly, reports are he's still feeling pain when he hooks a ball foul, nothing thankfully on swings and misses, foul balls or when he makes solid contact.
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My concern is will Casas hit the ground running or will there be a ramp up period for him/he starts slowly, reports are he's still feeling pain when he hooks a ball foul, nothing thankfully on swings and misses, foul balls or when he makes solid contact.
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Casas has been demolishing AAA pitching, for what that's worth. I suspect and hope he hits the ground running.
Hope and think Dom might be able to secure himself another contract. He knows it's business, but I'm sure that doesn't make it any less shitty.
Hope and think Dom might be able to secure himself another contract. He knows it's business, but I'm sure that doesn't make it any less shitty.
I probably would have kept him over Gasper to make sure Casas is healthy, but that would have required dropping someone from the 40-man too. Dom did a solid job but seems to be the definition of replacement level.
This is what I was about to say.
Maybe if we spent less time crying over a JAG that everyone hated 2 months ago and a few more minutes checking in the lst several nights on our young cornerstone building piece Casas not just pain managing and shaking off rust, but roping double after double (7) and going 300/400/550 for 11 rehab games, we would feel less tearful about old Dom.
Or, maybe we can appreciate what the guy brought to the table during Casas' very long absence during which time the team played really well and he had a pretty important role in that. It's possible to have both feelings, you know.
He was a player who was fun to watch, seemed like a good dude, and was important in helping the team stay within striking distance of a playoff spot for three months while our 2nd best hitter was on the shelf.
Not a single person in here is lamenting the return of Casas. Pretty sure every one of us is excited about it.
Your post is ridiculous.
Not my Step First Baseman, but the First Baseman who stepped up.
Great leadership, played well for the Sox. He'll be on a team with at least Wild Card aspirations shortly.
Great leadership, played well for the Sox. He'll be on a team with at least Wild Card aspirations shortly.
The poster child of likable over achievers on a team that is full of likable over achievers. I'll miss him. I hope he gets picked up by a playoff bound team somewhere and cashes a nice playoff paycheck. Good luck to him.
I will sign on to that sentiment. He was a good Casas replacement, threw some leather, and appeared to be happy to be there. Thanks Dom! Go Casas.
I'll always remember his insistence on tossing the ball to the covering pitcher, even when he fielded the ball two steps from the bag. It was endearing, in a way. Thought he must have some kind of weird contract incentive based on assists.
Fun addition and bailed them out. Love this stat: he contributed 0.0 bWAR as a 1B and 0.1 as a pitcher.
A more eloquent illustration of why I do not whole-heartedly trust WAR as a stat I could not ask far. I get WAR, and I have respect for what it attempts to achieve, but I always take it with a grain of salt -- because sometimes it will look you in the face and ask you to believe that Dom Smith provided more value to the Red Sox in his two innings on the mount than in his months at first base.
That isn't what WAR is telling you, because value to the Red Sox is different from value relative to all of baseball. Going from 2 massively negative value players to a replacement level player is pretty much the same value to the Red Sox as if they went from an average player to a decent all star.
He had massive value to the Sox because their options were so completely putrid, but relative to all of baseball he was still a below average glove with a below average bat, which was even more below average when it's 1b/DH only, which is how you get a replacement level WAR. If they never got him and kept sending Cooper and Dalbec out there based on what they'd done so far this year that's another -2 WAR or so to the team instead of the 0 he gave them as a position player.
Do the Sox have a few days grace to pull Dom back from DFA if Casas were to re-injure himself this weekend?
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Yes, this is exactly my feeling about it too. Throwing away hundreds of AB to Bobby Dalbec year after year was such a frustrating experience. To have someone even reasonably competent playing the position in Casas's absence, and seeming like a good guy to boot, seemed like a real treat.
Can't take credit for it. A kid had a sign. I thought it was hilarious.
Also, Sogard's performance tonight is why this was the right move. With Casas, Dom just does not fit on the team.
I assume you're thinking of revocable waivers, which MLB eliminated a few years ago. There's no coming back from outright waivers unless the player passes through unclaimed and chooses to resign with the team (presumably on a minor league/non-40-man roster contract).
They do potentially have a grace period to rescind the DFA. DFA is just the mechanism that removes a player from the 40-man. It is not necessarily an immediate process because they then have 7 days before they must trade, release, outright, or add him back to the roster. Waivers are only necessary for release or outright assignment. As long as they haven't put him on waivers yet, they can just add him back to the 40-man. I think waivers is a 48-hour process, so in theory anyway, he can linger in limbo for up to five days before they take any action at all.
