Its been an interesting month for the Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball as a whole. On November 17, Eduardo Rodriguez signed a 5 year deal with the Detroit Tigers to open a gaping hole in the Red Sox rotation. The Sox also bid goodbye to the 10 million dollar waste Garrett Richards and Martin Perez as well. The Sox then signed 3 pitchers that were all question marks to try to fill out the roster. The Sox signed 30 year old Michael Wacha from the Tampa Bay Rays who's best season was six years ago. Then on Wednesday the Sox brought back 41 year old Rich Hill for his THIRD go around with the Sox on a one year deal. Then the Sox took the 10 million that Garrett Richards left behind and flushed it down the toilet by signing 33 year old James Paxton who spent 2 injury marred seasons with the New York Yankees before pitching in exactly 1 game in 2021. Replacing Rodriguez, Perez and Richards with Wacha, Paxton and Hill is basically rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The Sox are banking on Tanner Houck taking the next step, Nathan Eovaldi behind healthy and Chris Sale to rediscover his 2017-18 form and hopefully getting something out of these three. Hill went 7-8 last year with the Rays and New York Mets and Wacha was last seen getting stomped by the Sox in the ALDS. There's always time to make another move but right now the rotation is in the exact same spot it was last year...that's not good.
But wait there's more! Late Wednesday night the Sox pulled off a shocking trade, sending Hunter Renfroe to the Milwaukee Brewers for old friend Jackie Bradley Jr along with two prospects. Those prospects were 24 year old Double A infielder David Hamilton and 21 year old year old Single A third baseman Alex Binelas. Renfroe had a hell of a regular season for the Sox, slamming 31 home runs and driving in 96 runs to get the Sox to October. Then he turned into a pumpkin once the playoffs started and was a big reason in the Sox falling in six games to the Houston Astros. JBJ hit a terrible .163 for Milwaukee last year and apart from outfield defense, it makes no sense to bring him back if he can't hit. Still, the sad part was Renfroe carried the Sox during the season but collapsed in the post-season whereas JBJ hit .234 in 2018 but was ALCS MVP and hit the big home run to tie Game 3 of the World Series in the ninth inning. As for the prospects, Hamilton missed his senior year at Texas University in 2019 and Covid wiped out 2020 after he was drafted in the 8th round of the 2019 draft. The centerpiece of the trade was Binelas. He was drafted in the third round of this year's draft, 11 picks after the Sox chose Tyler McDonough, and hit 9 home runs despite only playing 29 games. Add Renfroe to the list of one year wonders with the Sox along with Adrian Beltre and Nick Esasky, its too bad he couldn't contribute in October. If JBJ can flash the glove he was known for between 2013 and 2020, maybe that'll offset the loss of Renfroe in the regular season.
OUT
IN
Welcome Back
But wait there's MORE! Apparently we may not even have a season after all. Late Wednesday night after the Sox announced the Renfroe for Bradley/Binelas/Hamilton trade, MLB officially announced they had initiated a lockout. After the 2016 CBA expired, players and owners couldn't hammer out a deal in time and so here we are. The players want more money, especially the minor league players making peanuts on the road. The owners are sick and tired of paying players 300 million dollars to play a kid's game and you can't fault either of them. This could last all the way to the end of 2022 just like the NHL lockout wiped out the 2004-05 season or it could be settled next week. As of now we got nothing for 2022. David Hamilton can't catch a damn break!
"Well this sucks...." - Rob Manfred
