MLB Notebook: Red Sox leaving the AL East to others; Casas studying up

As you may have noticed, the Red Sox aren't much of a factor in the American League East.

Entering Saturday's play, they were lodged in the division basement, 14.5 games out of first and five full games behind the fourth-place Baltimore Orioles, the team thought to be the East's worst team, by a longshot, when the season began six weeks ago.

ESPN.com gave the Red Sox a 0.2 percent chance of making the postseason, which, frankly, seems wildly optimistic.

A last-place finish would be the fourth for the Red Sox since 2012.

Given that the Red Sox have made themselves irrelevant, it seems like a good time to examine some other teams in the division:

TAMPA BAY: If you're wondering what Chaim Bloom is trying to accomplish in Boston, look no further than his former franchise, the Rays.

In the same week the Rays claimed the best record in the American League, their farm system was ranked as the best in the game by MLB.com's MLB Pipeline.

It's exactly this kind of twin-track progress that Bloom is seeking -- a consistently competitive team on the field, backed by a development system in position to supply constant reinforcements to the major league roster.

On the field, the Rays are coming off of consecutive 90-win seasons. They're on track to reach the postseason for the second straight season, and given the relative youth of their present major league roster -- among major contributors, only starting pitcher Charlie Morton is both over-30 and not under control past this season -- it seems like a given that the Rays will be championship contenders for several seasons to come.

Of course, what makes that feat doubly impressive is that the Rays have reached this status without spending much in the way of major league payroll. Their payroll, adjusted for a full 162-game season, would come in at $77.68 million in 2020, ranking them 28th among the 30 major league teams. Only Pittsburgh and Miami have spent less.

It's worth noting, too, that the other model franchise -- that is, combining on-field success and development -- is the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers have the NL's best record, are about to clinch their eighth (!) consecutive N.L. West title and while their farm system has slipped to 11th in the MLB Pipeline rankings, that's only because the team has recently graduated pitchers Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin and Dennis Santana to the big league roster.

It is probably not an accident that the executive in charge of the Dodgers' twin supremacy is Andrew Friedman, former GM in Tampa Bay, who hired Bloom and gave him first full-time baseball job with the Rays some 16 years ago.



NEW YORK: So much for the Yankees' on-paper talent superiority. The addition of Gerrit Cole was supposed to be the missing piece to the Yankees' puzzle, but Cole has been only average (4-2, 3.91 ERA and a league-leading 12 homers allowed). Worse, the Yankees have, for the second-straight season, been blitzed by a never-ending series of injuries.

Last year, remarkably, the Yankees withstood all the challenges to their roster. Gio Urshela proved to be a revelation at third when Miguel Andujar went down for the year with a shoulder injury, Luke Voit provided unexpected pop to help cover for the loss of Giancarlo Stanton, Mike Tauchman and Cameron Maybin were valuable depth pieces in the outfield when Aaron Hicks and Aaron Judge went down and Domingo German provided quality innings in the absence of Luis Severino.

But it would appear that expecting to cover for a rash of injuries for a second straight year is asking too much of even the deepest organizations. Already, the Yankees have experienced a seven-game losing streak and entered Saturday's action tied with the Blue Jays for the division's second-best record.

More alarmingly, there are questions about the fragility of their stars. For the second straight season, Stanton has been severely limited by nagging injuries -- he's played in just 14 of the first 38 games. Judge, too, can't seem to stay on the field, missing 20 games.

Judge's chronic injury history has the Yankees debating whether it's worth the risk to extend him long-term.

Gleyber Torres, meanwhile, is set to return this week and sure has underachieved. Shifted to short after the free agent departure of Didi Gregorius. Torres -- currently on the IL, too -- has been strangely quiet with the bat, having hit jut one homer in 78 at-bats, to go along with an anemic .636 OPS. His defense (-2 defensive runs saved) has been sub-standard, too.

Incredibly, the Yanks may not be guaranteed a playoff spot in the expanded field and may have to beat out a team in their own division to qualify.

NEW YORK vs. TAMPA BAY

By virtue of their horrific play, the Red Sox have forfeited their right to claim any rivalry with the Yankees for the time being. New York is 7-0 against the Sox in 2020, and dating back to last season. For now, the "rivalry'' has reverted to the hammer-and-nail variety -- which is to say, none at all.

Things aren't much better for the Sox against the Rays, who are 5-1 against the Red Sox. When you look at the Sox' 1-12 combined record against the Yankees and Rays, you get A) an idea of why the Red Sox are where they are in the current standings and B) how much work Bloom has ahead of him.

Meanwhile, the Rays have not only stepped into the rivalry vacuum created by the Red Sox' disappearance, but dominated the Yankees in head-to-head action, winning seven of their 10 meetings.

And some of the orneriness that once typified the Red Sox-Yankee games has transferred to the Rays-Yanks. This past week, the teams exchanged beanballs and harsh words while emptying their benches.

With memories still fresh regarding some brushback pitches to D.J. LeMahieu and Urshela from a series at the beginning of August, closer Aroldis Chapman threw high and tight near Mike Brosseau. In response, an enraged Kevin Cash ominously warned: "I’ve got a whole damn stable full of guys that throw 98 mph, period,'' earning him a hefty fine and warning from the commissioner's office.

An interesting sidelight: a number of Rays, led by Cash, agreed that the empty stadiums are helping to lead to heightened tempers on the field. Why? Because with ballparks so quiet and devoid of fan noise except for the artificial sort being pumped in, players are far more likely to overhear incendiary remarks from opponents.

That, and the compressed schedule which features more meetings between divisional rivals in a shorter period of time, has helped inflamed tensions.

TORONTO: The Blue Jays are surprise postseason contenders in the division and the league, and there could be a lesson here for Bloom. For those wondering how quickly he might be able to rebuild the Red Sox' starting rotation, the Jays serve as a model.

Since the end of last season, Toronto's entire starting rotation has been acquired from outside the organization, all at little player cost.

Start with Chase Anderson, obtained in a deal with Milwaukee last November. Then, the Jays added free agent Hyun-Jin Ryu to a three-year deal, giving them a veteran presence. Ryu got $20 million AAV, but only for three seasons, limiting Toronto's long-term exposure. The same goes for free agent Tanner Roark, inked to a two-year, $24 million deal.

Then, in a series of moves just before the deadline, the Jays added three more starters: Ross Stripling from the Dodgers, Taijuan Walker from the Mariners and Robbie Ray from the Diamondbacks.

Granted, these are decidedly short-term solutions for the most part, with every pitcher except Walker and Ray currently over 32, and only Stripling and Ryu under control beyond 2021.

Eventually, the Jays will need to depend on the likes of homegrown prospects such as Nate Pearson, Simeon Woods Richardson to front their rotation.

But this point is this: rotations can be remade on the fly, and they can be remade to provide stability while waiting for prospects to develop. So, while the Red Sox can't expect that Jay Groome and Bryan Mata can contribute this year, it shouldn't be difficult for Bloom to augment Chris Sale, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nathan Eovaldi with either some short-term veteran free agents, or to make deals to acquire similar assets.

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By any measure, Tristan Casas is either the Red Sox' No. 1 or No. 2 prospect in the rankings. Just two years removed from being selected in the first-round of the 2018 draft, Casas has tried to turn what would otherwise be a lost season into a learning experience.

Since arriving at Boston's alternate training site in Pawtucket a little more than two weeks ago, Casas has been measuring himself against more experienced and advanced prospects. He's nowhere near ready to compete at the major league level, but he's eager to pick up what he can from those above him on the organization's development ladder.

"I was really excited to get up here,'' Casas said recently. "I knew the level of talent was not anything like I’ve faced before. I was really excited to test what I had against the best guys in our organization besides the guys in the big leagues. I’ve definitely come up here and tried to take full advantage of the opportunity, take every at-bat with purpose and go out there and compete.''

Casas was not at McCoy in the early portion because the Red Sox wanted to ensure they had sufficient depth in the event that an outbreak of COVID-19 cases required players more advanced in their development. Once that fear passed, younger players like Casas were brought in.

But even before Casas arrived, he was studying, dedicating himself to watching at least one major league game on TV each day and carefully examining at-bats.

"I just tried to be in the hitters’ heads,' he offered, "Think about what they could be getting in that at-bat or how they were getting pitched throughout the games in terms of situations, counts, and I would just pick a couple of hitters out of a game that I thought I related to, or a left-handed hitter, that sort of thing. I was definitely trying to stay in tune with the game that way and trying to focus on a couple of things every once in a while.”

Casas has grown to be 6-5, 250 pounds, but is still athletic enough to play either first or third. Not wanting to be drawn into controversy, Casas diplomatically said: "I feel most comfortable in the lineup.''

With a first baseman's mitt, a sweet lefty swing and big frame, it's perhaps no surprise that he's taken to emulating Cincinnati's Joey Votto.

"I love his approach. I love his swing,'' Casas said. "I love the way he approaches the game, and the way he takes his at-bats are second to none. I don’t really try to copy everything he does, but the other day I hit a home run in the sim game, and looking back on it, I was like, ‘Wow, I actually do look like Joey Votto.’ ''

The guess is that the Red Sox would be quite satisfied if that comp extended to his major league career.