Only one more week until baseball, I'm so excited! This offseason has just dragged ooooon and oooon. I've already taken next Thursday off from work. I'm working a double shift for someone else in exchange for their covering the 29th, all so I can follow all 15 games played that day.
@redsoxstats
Marrero is making his push, 8 for his last 21 with 3 doubles.
DFA Leon
@PeteAbe
JD Martinez with a wind-blown RBI triple that was more a double and an error. #RedSox up, 6-2. Shooting for a 10th consecutive win, which hasn’t happened in spring training since 1951.
Back to back to back
https://www.overthemonster.com/2018/...-deven-marrero
As is largely the case around the league every year, most of the Red Sox spots are spoken for and the majority of players in their camp have known for a while whether or not they had a good shot at making the roster. That doesn’t include Brock Holt and Deven Marrero, though, who sure seem to be fighting for the last spot on Boston’s bench. Evan Drellich of NBC Boston has said that Blake Swihart, unsurprisingly, locked up one spot, meaning the bench has just one empty spot remaining. According to Drellich, it seems the Red Sox are shopping both Holt and Marrero in trade talks, indicating that Dave Dombrowski could decide to move whichever player he doesn’t keep.
With only one spot left for the two bench players, it’s worth checking to see if other front offices may value either Holt or Marrero more than one would expect. Presumably, neither would bring back a ton in trade, but you never know a player’s worth for sure until you ask. As for which player should be kept, I keep going back and forth and the fact that they could trade the loser may change things. I’ve said on these very pages earlier in the winter that I’d keep Marrero, and the argument was largely because Holt could be optioned and this would allow them to keep as much depth as possible. If Dombrowski decides he’s going to trade whichever player doesn’t make the cut and instead rely on Tzu-Wei Lin as their top Triple-A depth pice — a not unreasonable decision — then nothing matters besides who you think creates more value. Marrero’s glove is obviously far and away better than Holt’s, but if the latter is healthy his bat is much better. I’d lean towards keeping Holt’s bat over Marrero’s glove if the loser is going to leave the organization, but it’s close enough that I could objectively see the case on either side.
One part of this that shouldn’t have any effect on this, and something that I’ve seen come up from enough people in the know that I’m assuming it is having an effect, is Holt’s salary. In this new era of baseball with harsher luxury tax penalties that also have baseball ops consequences, salaries around the league are even more scrutinized than they already were. In 2018, Holt is set to make $2.225 million compared to the major-league minimum being earned by Marrero. Choosing the latter and trading the former would result in a $1.68 million savings for the Red Sox, a team that is ostensibly in a win-now window... If that little amount of money is going to make a difference towards which kind of player the Red Sox will be willing to acquire to improve the team in July, then they aren’t serious enough about putting together the best roster possible. If they decide that Marrero is the better player to keep for baseball reasons and clearing a million and change is just a side benefit, then it’s hard to complain. But if the $1.68 million savings is a deciding factor in all of this, I just have no idea what we’re doing here.
@PeteAbe
#RedSox, once up 7-4, have so far allowed six runs in the sixth inning. Rough outings for Joe Kelly and Robby Scott.
Scott may be on the outside looking in since Cora isn't 100% going to carry a lefty in the pen. He wants guys that can get batters from both sides of the plate out.
The Phillies have released left-hander Fernando Abad and the Diamondbacks have released lefty Antonio Bastardo:
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/...ando-abad.html
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/...-bastardo.html
I mentioned this about a week ago when I read the article where Cora made some interesting comments about this guy. It looks likely that he will not make the 25 man but who knows. looks like he understands something that is very important - how to get people out. Looking forward to following his progress.
This is one of the reasons why it would be unwise for the Sox to limit Hanley's PAs if he is hitting well.
Yes, he would be justified in his grumbling if that were the case. Many people are assuming Hanley will be grumbling even if Moreland is outhitting him and, therefore, justifiably
getting more PAs than Hanley. I don't think that would be the case.