I’m increasingly convinced that the move is to trade Grissom. It’s clear that they can get by with the current group holding down the MI in some combination, and he’s probably got the highest trade value out of everyone other than the prospects. Would be kind of unfortunate to watch him succeed elsewhere, but if Detroit is offering Jack Flaherty, I’d probably strongly consider it.
Glad I don't have to make this call and the liklihood of it being the "wrong" decision is pretty high... but Breslow has to make some decisions, which I think was one of Bloom's Tampa hoarding instincts gone awry.
Could his trade value possibly be any lower than it is right now though?
I'd imagine teams put more weight on his pre-Boston performance than a handful of injury- and illness-riddled games.
I'm curious what the delusion of their trade value would be? I would hope nobody's expecting to flip Valdez or Yorke as the center of a deal for a front line/elite pitcher or anything like that. But as a piece of a deal that brings in a starting pitcher with more than one year of control seems to me to be the pie in the sky ideal. Frankly I'd be okay with any deal that takes from a deep position and supplements a less deep spot (specifically pitching but RHH pop of any kind works too).
I don't see it. The RHH LF/DH PA are being covered by O'Neill and Refsnyder; the RHH infield PA are being covered by González and Rafaela. Yorke is too short to play 1B (especially on a team with some poor-throwing infielders) and adds too little defensive value to leapfrog any of those other guys.
Turning one subsidized year and an affordable club option of Chris Sale into three months of Jack Flaherty is pretty grim IMO.
Tbh, I was just trying to think of a team who needs a 2B and they were the first who came to mind (I’ve read that Detroit’s current guy should probably play third instead).
Fair! If we're trading position players to the Tigers for Flaherty, do we think there's a chance they're ready to give up on Torkelson? He has an option remaining after this season and is only 24.
I agree. Plus Sale had been more recently effective despite both guys' numerous injuries and has been the far superior pitcher career wise. And pitching is at less of a premium this season since scoring is down.
Just to remind, a year ago half this board would have been fine DFAing Sale.
The Sox can definitely make hay in the near future by moving second baseman. I mean, 2 of the top 5 2b hitters are Jonathan India, and Isiah Falafel right now.
This is hilarious. I love your posts, dude, but there's NO way 3 months of Flaherty costs Mayer. Also, what half this board thinks would have been best is often very, very silly. Sale was worth 2.1 fWAR in a shortened season last year, and had an excellent xERA and a track record of being one of the best pitchers of all time. Jack Flaherty is having a very good year. He also pitched to a 4.99 ERA last year. And again, it's just three months.
Either you read it wrong or I wrote it wrong.
I read it a few times, but it wouldn't have been the first time I displayed borderline illiteracy. My apologies if so!
This is my concern, the obvious hit the wall stuff, but the good news is the schedule breaks could help all but Houck (assuming he goes to the ASG). Winck gives them that sixth starter and maybe a swingman if guys arent getting length in their starts. Fungible starter acquisition should be on their radar.
That's not entirely true. He's had two starts against the Twins, two against the Astros, and one against the Red Sox - all of whom are playoff contenders as of today. AT THE TIME those teams may have been below .500, but that doesn't mean they're bad in the context of a 162 game season.
I keep thinking about how Peavy's occasionally really good, occasionally really bad, but mostly OK 10 starts kind of saved a faltering staff in 2013.
Let's pump thre brakes HARD on Flaherty. He has back issues and is missing his next start...
Frankie Montas might be an okay choice in this regard, assuming the physicals are okay - he’s got an almost precisely league-average pitching line. Although if there’s ever a team who didn’t need to trade for a young MI brimming with potential…
That's true, but when he saw them they were playing bad baseball. When he first saw the Twins on 4/14 they were 6-7, then when he caught them again later that same week they were 6-11. Last time he saw Houston they were 32-38. I guess we were .500 going into our game, but we also had Cooper and Grissom on the right side of the infield, not exactly frightening.
Looks like you're onto something!
Yes. They would be 2 1/2 behind the MFYs for the first WC. Or not, depending what the Twins do.
As noted, they're still have the WC #3 spot.
How about Lorenzen himself? He's pitching decently well for a falling-out-of-the-race Texas team, and I can't imagine he'll cost much.
Is it awkward, though? Flaherty and Montas were signed before Giolito got hurt and Lorenzen was signed before Whitlock got hurt. Even without those two guys the Sox have gotten good starting pitching out of the six guys they've used. So they had depth (even if we fans might not have been sold on it at the time) I don't think trading for any of them now is some kind of tacit admission that they should have signed them during the winter. It's more an acknowledgement that the team is performing well enough to invest in depth for the second half.
I was thinking of him earlier today. Not a pure rental as he'll be entering his last arbitration season and a FA in '26. Colorado's going nowhere (are they ever?), but they weren't last year and their reluctance to move players at the deadline was puzzling. I wonder what their needs are.
