Positional depth

grimshaw

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May 16, 2007
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Obviously the roster isn't completely set yet, but game action is less than two weeks away. I thought it would be interesting to talk about the non starters and NRI's who could potentially have a shot due to injuries or trades.

1b - Sam Travis - 24. If he has a great spring and there are some lefties they face early in the season, then that's a scenario where he could make the team. Moreland could use a platoon partner, but Nunez' flexibility and Hanley still being on the roster probably squeezes him out otherwise.

2b - Now that Nunez is likely back, Marco Hernandez - 25 can be brought along slowly. He really struggled defensively at 3b, but should be at least passable at 2b and bats lefty so could take some at bats from Nunez before Pedey returns.

Lin - 24 is a long shot now and Holt -29 could be out the door. He kind of fell apart in the second half after showing so much early but looks potenially like a more well rounded utility guy than Marerro if he can hit above AA. I'd like to see him play some more center since it's a bit thin in the system.

Ivan De Jesus Jr. - 30 and Chad De La Guerra - 25 are also in camp. De Jesus tore it up in AAA last year, so has that going for him. De La Guerra is just a body we'll get tired of seeing in 5th innings. He can hit a bit, but is old for AA.

Last is Esteban Quiroz - 25 who has been in the Mexican League since 2011 and has handled that level of competition very well. I've read that it's more like high A/AA level competition so doubt we'll see much of that translate, but he's a new youngish player to watch. 2b is very well stocked.

SS - Marrero - 27 and Lin are on the fringes here, but I would assume Marrero has the edge of making the team as the best fielder in their minor league system. The less we see of Nunez at short the better.

3b - Guess I'll stick Michael Chavis -22 here. I don't see a scenario where he breaks camp but hope he soaks in as much fielding instruction as possible. Luckily the middle guys can also play some 3rd if needed, so there is some vanilla depth at least.

Catcher - For advocates of Leon losing his job to Swihart -26, I'm going to have to disagree. There is zero depth here. Daniel Butler -31 is the break glass in case of emergency guy. I think there is room for Swihart and Leon to co-exist and hope they do that. Pitchers love throwing to Sandy and he is really great defensively. Since most of the staff is back I think it's good to have continuity. Oscar Hernandez - 24 was signed from the D-Backs and has had a few cups of coffee but appears to be more of an emergency guy to this point, though he is still young. He also made it from A to the majors in 2015 and hasn't had many minor league at bats. Jake Romanoski -27 just got busted for PED's again so is out for 100 games. Austin Rei -24 is the only pseudo prospect of the crew but will probably start in Portland.

Outfield - Brentz - 29 comes up a lot, but my binky is Jeremy Barfield - 29 who obliterated AA pitching .288/.359/.584 with 27 home runs in 384 at bats. The odds are against him, but I think he's just as good as Brentz and both bat right handed. Rusney - 30 has been talked to death in the minor league thread but there just isn't room for him. I think he'd be perfectly fine because of his defense alone but he really made some strides with the bat. It's a shame. Last is Aneury Tavarez - 25 who has reached Pawtucket in 3 straight seasons. He handled AA very well in parts of 2016 and 2017 but couldn't stay healthy last year. I think he'll be up for DL stints at some point once if/when he's added to the 40 man.

My best bench guess is Leon, Swihart, Marrero and Brentz. I would prefer Barfield or Tavarez if they show anything though if JDM signs he's probably the 4th outfielder unless they DFA Hanley. If Hernandez plays well they can still stash him in AAA while trying to decide what to do with Swihart.
 
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chawson

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Aug 1, 2006
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Barfield is an interesting binky and a fun guy to root for, even notwithstanding his two-way status (though he seems to be done with pitching now). He's not young, but seems like something clicked at the plate last year.
 

The Gray Eagle

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Aug 1, 2001
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This was written by Cafardo last week:
"7. Brock Holt, UTL, Red Sox — It’ll be interesting to see whether the Red Sox entertain trade options for Holt if they feel Blake Swihart will be their utility player. Several teams would love to get Holt, but the Red Sox still want to see how well Swihart handles that role."

If it's true (I know it's Cafardo but he seems to just print whatever he's told by whoever his latest unnamed source is, so it could be true, depending who the source is) then swapping Holt for a minor leaguer seems to make sense for this roster now that Nunez is back.

There's not going to be room on the bench for all of Holt, Brentz, Swihart, Leon and Marrero. Holt supposedly has an option but they are paying him over $2 million this year, so if there are teams that would love to get him, trading him seems like a good idea.

It would be ideal to pull off a "3 dimes for a quarter" deal where we move several guys on the fringes of the roster for one better player, but those deals are very hard to pull off. Every team wants to be the team giving up the dimes to get the quarter, not the other way around.

We have guys on the fringe who are out of options on the pitching side too, like Hembree and Johnson. We should be looking to see what we can get for some of these guys. The return wouldn't be great but if we don't trade any of them we will end up having to release some of them. Trading a couple of them for players who could ride the Pawtucket shuttle would help a lot with with roster flexibility.
 

chawson

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There's not going to be room on the bench for all of Holt, Brentz, Swihart, Leon and Marrero. Holt supposedly has an option but they are paying him over $2 million this year, so if there are teams that would love to get him, trading him seems like a good idea.

It would be ideal to pull off a "3 dimes for a quarter" deal where we move several guys on the fringes of the roster for one better player, but those deals are very hard to pull off. Every team wants to be the team giving up the dimes to get the quarter, not the other way around.

We have guys on the fringe who are out of options on the pitching side too, like Hembree and Johnson. We should be looking to see what we can get for some of these guys. The return wouldn't be great but if we don't trade any of them we will end up having to release some of them. Trading a couple of them for players who could ride the Pawtucket shuttle would help a lot with with roster flexibility.
Nunez is a fine backup outfielder and someone like Brentz/Barfield/Tavarez should get a shot, so I don't think that quarter would be a position player. I'd look at good-stuff, non-closer relievers underplaying their peripherals getting too expensive to play for the cheap teams they're on.

Something like Holt and Johnson for Brandon Maurer or Liam Hendriks would work. Maurer was awful in KC and hasn't figured it out yet, but much of it was bad luck. He's got one of the harder fastball/slider combos in the league and could make for a cheap late-inning guy the next couple years if LeVangie and Bjornson could tweak him. He had an arb hearing yesterday.
 

Buzzkill Pauley

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Jun 30, 2006
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This was written by Cafardo last week:
"7. Brock Holt, UTL, Red Sox — It’ll be interesting to see whether the Red Sox entertain trade options for Holt if they feel Blake Swihart will be their utility player. Several teams would love to get Holt, but the Red Sox still want to see how well Swihart handles that role."

If it's true (I know it's Cafardo but he seems to just print whatever he's told by whoever his latest unnamed source is, so it could be true, depending who the source is) then swapping Holt for a minor leaguer seems to make sense for this roster now that Nunez is back.

There's not going to be room on the bench for all of Holt, Brentz, Swihart, Leon and Marrero. Holt supposedly has an option but they are paying him over $2 million this year, so if there are teams that would love to get him, trading him seems like a good idea.

It would be ideal to pull off a "3 dimes for a quarter" deal where we move several guys on the fringes of the roster for one better player, but those deals are very hard to pull off. Every team wants to be the team giving up the dimes to get the quarter, not the other way around.

We have guys on the fringe who are out of options on the pitching side too, like Hembree and Johnson. We should be looking to see what we can get for some of these guys. The return wouldn't be great but if we don't trade any of them we will end up having to release some of them. Trading a couple of them for players who could ride the Pawtucket shuttle would help a lot with with roster flexibility.
By God, if it’s really true that “several teams would love to get Holt” then DDski absolutely needs to oblige.

There is no room on the roster for him, so long as Nunez’s knee checks out to be good enough.
 

grimshaw

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May 16, 2007
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The best Nunez could get was 4 mill for one year Holt is making 2.2 this year though I think he would have been lucky to get a major league contract offer if he were a free agent.

I don't think he has any trade value unless the Sox pick up the tab.
 

Rasputin

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The best Nunez could get was 4 mill for one year Holt is making 2.2 this year though I think he would have been lucky to get a major league contract offer if he were a free agent.

I don't think he has any trade value unless the Sox pick up the tab.
There's no way it makes sense to pick up the tab. The point of trading him is to get rid of his salary because his skills are redundant. His ability to play multiple positions fairly well has value. It's fairly likely that someone will want that and be willing to give up someone with potential who isn't going to make the Opening Day major league roster.