After a promising run right before the All Star break which
saw the Red Sox go 13-8 coming within four games of the division leading
Yankees and only five games under .500, Boston is back to their inconsistent
ways. The Sox started the second half of the season by dropping four straight
games and getting out scored by a staggering 22-4 margin while being shut out
twice. So what now? Being nine games under .500 all but eliminates Boston from
the wild card race with far to many teams to leap frog, making winning the
division the only hope for October baseball. Hard to imagine while also being
nine games behind the Yankees. Even if a miracle happened the only likely
outcome for the team would be to fight to avoid getting swept in the ALDS.
So what are
Boston fans in for in the next few months? A lot more mediocre baseball riddled
with flashes of “what could have been” followed by losing streaks where the
team struggles to hit, score, and pitch. More importantly what will the Sox be doing at
the trade deadline? For one thing the Red Sox are strapped with some extremely
bad contracts that will be almost impossible to move. No expecting a mass
exodus that occurred in 2012 when the team sent Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford,
Josh Beckett and their $250 million to the Dodgers.
David Ortiz
has a club option next year for $10 million which the Sox would find hard to
pick up, however if he reaches a certain amount of plate appearances this
season his option will be picked up automatically. Here is how that breaks
down.
425 plate
appearances: $11 million
475 plate
appearances: $12 million
525 plate
appearances: $13 million
550 plate
appearances: $14 million
575 plate
appearances: $15 million
600 plate
appearances: $16 million
So let us all
just hope we see a lot less of Ortiz this year, and a much hungrier and more energized Ortiz in 2016.
Absolutely
no one in the league would be stupid enough to take on Rick Porcello and his
horrendous contract that the Red Sox front office foolishly dished out to him
before his first start. Porcello’s league worst 5.79 ERA hardly calls for his
$12.5 million contract but to make matters worse next season that number
balloons up to $20 million until 2018 when it makes another jump to $21 million
until 2020 when he is back on the free agent market. The only hope for the Red
Sox faithful regarding Porcello is that he lives up to his big money contract,
or at least shows enough that a team would be willing to take a gamble on him towards
the back end of his contract when the Sox would be able to eat up some of that
money.
One of the
Sox other free agent signings this year hasn’t been a complete disappointment
so far. Hanley Ramirez is leading the team in home runs and before his July
slump was batting .281. His $19 million salary which bumps up to $22 million
from 2016 to 2019 is not ideal, but if he can provide power in the middle of
the order and stay relatively healthy there is no reason he can’t be the DH of
the future for Boston. Worst case scenario that contract is not completely
unmovable in the future because some contender would be willing to pay big
money for a power bat in their line up.
Pablo
Sandoval’s contract is much like Ramirez’s but a little cheaper topping out at
$18 million with a buyout opportunity in 2020 for $5 million. Sometimes
adjusting to Boston is tough for players, just ask Carl Crawford, but I figured
coming from San Francisco it wouldn’t be too big of a challenge. We will just
chalk up Sandoval’s season as a wash because even if he turned out ridiculous
offensive numbers the team probably would be in no better shape. No more
pressure this year Pablo, just get your swings in and maybe some reps at first
base and come back next year ready to win.
As for the
other three additions to the starting rotations:
Justin
Masterson will thankfully be off the books next year and by the looks of it he
might have to settle for a minor league contract somewhere else next season.
Low risk/ High reward move in the offseason that obviously didn't work out, oh well.
Joe Kelly
will be under team control until 2019, making very cheap money (2015 salary
$603,000). Might as well hold on to him considering many say he has the best
pure stuff on the team. He is young and could turn it around in the upcoming
years but the team certainly can’t rely on him carrying the staff.
Wade Miley’s
contract steadily increases from $3.5 million to $12.5 million over the next
four years. Definitely not a front end of the rotation guy but has shown
glimmers of hope throughout the year. He could have a future in the rotation
with a relatively affordable contract.
One player
from the 2013 title winning team that will not be around to see the team turn
back into a contender is Mike Napoli. Its hard to dislike the Italian Stallion
but there is no argung with his .198 average and lack of power totaling only 10
home runs. He has hit the ball hard at times and it always seems to be right at
the defense, not his fault but those are the breaks you get sometimes. Thank
you for being part of the bearded brothers and embracing this city, but sadly
come August 1st and the passing of the deadline if he is not traded
to another team it would not be surprising if the team out right releases
Napoli.
The Red Sox
do have a young core of players under team control until at least 2020 for very
little money. Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Eduardo Rodriguez all have some
growing to do but have all shown they could be the future of this club.
Sprinkle that in with some talented veterans like Sandoval, Ramirez, and
Pedroia the Sox could have a bright future.
Boston
needs to be sellers at the deadline, clearing as much money as they can. David
Price and Jonny Cueto will be free agents after the season and while the team
probably won’t be in the race for them during the deadline at the risk of
trading prospects just to lose them in the offseason, they must be able to make
serious offers to them on the free agent market. So outside the young core
players the team hopes to build around, it would be safe to assume that no one
is safe at the deadline even though it would be hard to imagine the front
office finding suitors for some of the expensive contracts.
Contract info thanks to Rotoworld.com
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