Signing real baseball players hasn’t been much of a priority these days for the Boston Red Sox. Apparently, though, making Christmas videos on social media with Wally dressed as Santa Claus has been the organization’s big focus.
Sorry Wally, but your team is deserving of nothing but coal this Christmas.
Wishing all of Red Sox Nation a safe and happy holidays! pic.twitter.com/23XTLEZRr5
— Red Sox (@RedSox) December 23, 2023
In the 30-second video that features Wally eating cookies and dunking them in milk (which I have no doubt are store brand cookies and milk, because we know John Henry isn’t splurging for the name brands right now…), there’s a white Red Sox jersey hanging in one of the lockers that reads “Claus” with the number 23.
Is this a sign? Does this mean the Red Sox are closing in on signing New England native and left-hander Al Clauss to bolster the rotation?? Unfortunately, good old Al hasn’t pitched since June 17, 1913 and boasts a career 4.73 ERA in all of five career major league games…
Seems like he would fit in seamlessly with a Sox pitching staff full of Cooper Criswells...
Henry is probably formulating a plan to re-gift all of the coal he will be receiving from fans and sell them for $19.95 a piece with a Red Sox logo on them or something, a la the infamous commemorative bricks. No doubt Tom Werner is also on the naughty list for his promises of going “full throttle” this offseason.
Alas, it hasn’t been shaping up to be a very Merry Christmas and holiday season for Red Sox Nation. While our team has forgotten us this Christmas, I remain grateful for all of you — the loyal fans — who continue to pour out your passion into the comments sections and social media.
My sincerest thanks to you for reading. Thank you for bringing the heat, positive and negative. You are the reason for the season (the baseball season, that is). Without your interest and dollars and cents, there would be no Red Sox, no Fenway Park, and no Boston Sports Journal. Keep up the passion, and don’t ever stop demanding the very best from Henry, Werner, Sam Kennedy and your baseball team. Merry Christmas and happy holidays, all!
Good luck Jeter, not so much Dugie…
As we’re left to sit and watch all the other teams’ fanbases enjoy their new toys this holiday season, I find myself appreciative of the opportunity one former Red Sox player is getting with the New York Yankees.
No, certainly not Alex Verdugo…
Jeter Downs is going home, metaphorically. The shortstop who was once the centerpiece of the Mookie Betts trade named after the iconic Yankees shortstop (who still wasn’t better than Nomar at his peak…) gets a chance to walk in his namesake’s shoes as a member of the Yankees. Honestly, how cool is that?
I never understood why Chaim Bloom was so quick to cast Downs aside. There were certainly plenty of other candidates to DFA at the time (and ones who would eventually get DFA’d anyway…) other than Downs, who showed some flashes of promise during his limited opportunities at the major league level here (including slugging his first career home run in “The House That Jeter Built”… again, how cool is that?)
Downs provided infield versatility and depth at an area the team has certainly shown to be sorely lacking. Was he ever going to turn into a Hall of Fame talent like Betts? Highly unlikely. But I would have stuck it out longer with Downs in the system.
As for Dugie, any good graces he had with Red Sox fans was likely undone by his comments throwing Alex Cora under the bus during his introductory press conference as a clean-shaven Yankee. So much for taking accountability for your own actions like you said you were when Cora called you out last season, eh Alex?
And to be excited about inept Aaron Boone being your next manager, that… well, that says all I need to know about you right there.
Next interest target: Teoscar Hernandez
The latest name that Red Sox are reportedly “interested” in (but we all know they won’t sign because they don’t sign those “expensive” baseball players anymore...) is longtime Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Teoscar Hernandez.
The recently turned 31-year-old former All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger Award winner has established himself as a consistently productive offensive player in each of the past six seasons. In that timeframe, Hernandez has averaged 24 homers and 74 RBIs in 124 games per season while slashing .262/.317/.484.
Hernandez certainly profiles as the kind of power bat who would be a nice fit in right field at Fenway (assuming the Sox will slot Tyler O’Neill into his more natural position in left). Spotrac predicts his market value to be around $16.5 million, which would not be prohibitive on a short term deal.
One thing to watch, though, is his declining contact numbers. Hernandez had a career-best .296 average while playing a career-high 143 games in 2021, but has dropped off each season since while posting averages of .267 then .258 respectively. But hey, we don’t care about batting averages in baseball anymore right? It’s all about the power and productivity, and he’s remained solid in those areas.
I like what we saw in a limited sample size from Wilyer Abreu last season, but at 24 years old he may not be ready to be the Red Sox’s everyday right fielder. I’d rather sign a proven commodity like Hernandez while continuing to develop Abreu, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Craig Breslow go with the Abreu plan at this rate.
What’s the plan at catcher?
In a rare piece of actual signing news, the Red Sox reportedly inked a minor league deal with catcher Mark Kolozsvary (who at first glance I thought was “Mark Kotsay”) on Saturday.
This comes after former prospect Ronaldo Hernandez departed the organization earlier in the week by signing with the defending National League Champion Arizona Diamondbacks. (He’s another guy I would’ve liked to see get more of a shot in Boston. He profiles with a little pop and batted .279 across eight minor league seasons, yet was never given an opportunity here for some reason).
So what exactly is the plan at catcher next season? Reese McGuire and Connor Wong would be a serviceable platoon… for a team that is loaded offensively and has production elsewhere in the lineup. Defensively, we’ve seen Wong show flashes as the last remaining piece of the “haul” from the Betts trade… but we’ve also seen him air mail some throws to second into center field on more than one occasion.
It would be nice to see the Sox bring in a catcher capable of some offensive production, like a Mitch Garver or (gasp) Gary Sanchez. Neither would be lineup centerpieces, to say the least, but each would provide a little bit of pop for a lineup that, despite this team’s dire starting pitching needs, still needs a little more pop.
Garver and Sanchez would be two of the more expensive remaining options on the market, as Spotrac projects their market values at around $10 and $9 million respectively. What is more likely, however, is for the Sox to wind up with a Martin Maldonado type (projected at $3 million), who himself is a former Gold Glove winner and the team has already been tied to this offseason.
We need more Pap next season
Now that he is officially part of Red Sox lore as an incoming team Hall of Famer, we need to be seeing and hearing more from Jonathan Papelbon on a regular basis. True, he’s been around in recent years as an analyst on NESN, but it’s time to put Pap front and center.
From an entertainment perspective, Papelbon is nothing less than a modern-day Dennis Eckersley. It’s time for NESN to put him in the booth with Dave O’Brien on a regular basis.
That much was evident form his evisceration of Verdugo this week in a now viral tweet followed by a radio segment with good friend Rob Bradford at WEEI. Pap was, as always, entertaining, but also very insightful given his history having played with Cora.
Jonathan Papelbon doesn’t hold back on Alex Verdugo for throwing shots at Alex Cora!
— Jones & Mego with Arcand (@JonesandMego) December 22, 2023
“Keep your mouth shut, dang mouth shut, you’re not even really that good!”
Agree or disagree? pic.twitter.com/WYWjItgPqr
The only problem is that Pap might be too wild for broadcast television, at times. His introduction to the Twitter world last year showed us as much, but he would be a tremendous asset — if you could rein him in a little.
Of course, there’s the downside of commentators like Eck and Papelbon these days: they tell it like it is, and many of the softer modern day athletes can’t handle that. Talking about you, David Price. After the negative press the Price-Eckersley drama brought the team, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Sox want to steer clear of anything like that in the future.
And that’s a shame. It’s nice to have analysts who actually analyze, good and bad. It seems most team broadcasts these days have become state-run media, which is understandable from a business perspective. But I know I always roll my eyes when the coverage is too overtly positive. Having a color commentator like Papelbon who gives honest assessments would be a breath of fresh air.
Hey, if Red Sox management is going to give us absolutely nothing to be excited about, we might as well be entertained while watching (or not watching) next season…