Stop being ridiculous. "None should be on an active roster"? How many teams are rolling out five-tool guys off the bench? They're role players for a reason - they have one or two strengths and serious flaws otherwise. The 2018 team - the best in history - had Holt, Swihart, Lin, and Hanley Ramirez spending most of the year as backup (and Nunez, post-trade). How are they much different than the quartet you listed?
Ya, I mean the A's had no use for him last season and he isn't showing the ability to be competent defensively anywhere this season. I was hoping he'd be the casualty.
Aside from Hamilton's speed what are any strengths that any of those listed bench guys bring to the table? Ideally a bench guy can at least play defense or have weak side good platoon split.
I admittedly have not seen every game this season, but I would argue BobbyD has played pretty solid defense at multiple positions. His bat is obviously an entirely different story.
Fair, but it would be tough to envision another team having him anywhere other than AAA right now.
They can play infield for a few games or even a week and not be completely incompetent. Kind of like.......those other guys I mentioned.
Houston is currently praying Loperfido will work out, cause Jose Abreu has somehow managed to be worse than Bobby so far.
Grissom is timing his Red Sox debut perfectly... Considering the fact that everybody else is injured, even if he starts slow the fans are going to be really happy he's in there.
Hamilton also bats left (better than Valdez so far) and can cover both spots (I'm opposed to moving Grissom around before we see what he really is at second). Plus he offers pinch running value.
That‘s pretty much were I’m coming from as well. It seems Breslow agrees on Reyes, which is why he’s been DFA’ed. I’d be incredibly surprised if he’s given an MLB job anywhere.
But there's no real point in DFAing anyone if they don't need the spot on the 40-man. And Reyes can backup all four infield positions, which you can't really say about the other three. Whereas Hamilton can't either hit or field. If this were postseason and you needed a speedster PR, that'd be one thing, but what else does he bring to the ML roster right now?
This is kind of a strange take to me. If you watched him playing in 2021-2022 versus how he looks now, it's immediately apparent that his fielding has improved a ton, and his defensive metrics across the board back that up. He's clearly improved his defensive skills and I'm not sure why you'd expect him to regress to being terrible again.
Im probably guilty of some recency bias from last night, but I guess I kind of expect him to make mental lapses like playing so far pinched in leading to a routine ground ball instead being a run scoring single. That said, he could have been instructed to be playing as such I suppose. Though I don’t recall seeing Casas doing that in similar situations.
If one wanted to get rid of Hamilton instead of Reyes, that’s fine too. I don’t think any of them are good or worth getting worked up over. But they’re who the Sox have. I‘d hope that the plan is Grissom and Rafaela every day and if one gets hurt to go find someone (like Cooper) to cover said position.
Two days ago Romy's wrist was reported as better and he was taking some swings in the batting cage.
Yep, this might be overstating things, but I think you could make an argument that he's already an upgrade in the utility IF spot over Hamilton, Lopez, Romy, et al. I guess you don't want to pigeonhole someone into that role early in their career, but that's how they're playing him in Worcester already. And based on the way things have gone so far this year, a backup infielder should still get plenty of PAs.
I'd be really shocked if he was playing that far off the line of his own accord; I think positioning across the game is purely dictated by data these days.
Probably a lot fewer while Casas is out, but Masa seems to get replaced on base with some frequency.
Reyes OPS+ was 28 for the Red Sox. So they DFA'd him and picked up Garret Cooper whose OPS+ for Chicago was 119.
But in all fairness, I should add that Dom Smith's OPS+ for the Sox is currently 85, while playing a mostly adequate 1B.
Not worth it. He was sent down to the minors last month and hit .318/.375/.546 in 5 games at AAA only to come back and put up a .167/.186/.195 line in 43 PA. He's toast. Casas will be back in a month and Dom Smith has been adequate in his place.
I agree about Smith he's largely been a good defender with a couple of glaring exceptions. Once Casas, Abreu, Romy and Grissom return and the roster gets reset I'd like to see Refsnyder used as the primary backup at 1st as a way to get him into a few extra games when Casas needs a day off or a 1/2 day off in the DH slot.
Refsnyder at first has been a pet desire around here since the off-season and I've yet to see any signals from the Sox that they've even considered it. Not even reports of him taking groundballs/throws during BP. We probably should let it go.
While I was hoping he might see a start or two at 1st against the White Sox, I didn't really see much opportunity for him there with both Cooper and Smith on the roster, O'Neill and Abreu missing starts and Rafaela getting at least a 1/2 dozen starts at SS in the past few weeks.
We probably should, but if/when the roster is back to full strength who's the backup at first? Also IIRC, earlier in the season when Refsnyder was getting ready to return from his toe injury, Cora said he would be seeing some time at first base.
Just wanted to point out, almost everyone will have negative dWAR at first base due to the positional adjustment. In cooper’s case, he was 2 runs below the average first baseman, accounting for half of his negative dWAR.
Casas isn't coming back anytime soon. He is only starting to take swings without a bat in his hands. He still has to progress to dry swings, then BP then finally games on the farm. If he's back by August I'll be surprised. So it would be best to continue to prepare as if he's out for the year.
This is way too negative. The Globe just wrote this:
Even if that’s too ambitious—and Cora says they will be cautious—the idea that Sox should probably proceed as if Casas is gone for the season is silly.
Casas also hoped to be back when he was eligible to return from the 60 day IL (June 21st). He's is a positive energy type of guy and hoping to be back sooner than later would be a natural, optimistic response from him, but the fact of the matter is that he's not yet swinging a bat. When he starts it's likely to be something that is approached in stages and no one can predict how his body will respond. It's really one of those "we'll know when we know" situations. I'm sure the team realizes this and likely has ideas as to how they will approach Casas in the short and long term. Like it or not, ATM Dom Smith and Bobby Dalbec are the short term solution. It would be great if there was another/better 1st base solution in house, but apparently there isn't. I don't see the team committing to another outside solution unless/until the team makes a serious run at a playoff spot and it's clear that Casas will not return prior to the trade deadline. In the meantime, perhaps they take a shot on another castoff or minor trade that can help to better fill the void, but the answer to who's on first is likely to be a familiar one for the time being.
If he gets into a game with the O's, he'll be 60% of the way to a Kelly Johnson; kind of amazing Cooper has never been on the Rays.
Hah, I completely forgot about his (admittedly very short) stint on the Yankees; I also had him confused in my head with Eric Hinske (who got four out of five ALE teams but missed Baltimore).
Pearce is an immaculate grid MVP, especially since I try to always include a Sox WS winner when anyone qualifies.
I was expecting the MFY, who just lost Rizzo and are relying on a prospect in Ben Rice.
