Red Sox baseball director Chaim Bloom answered a series of questions about the off-season moves they have made (and haven’t made) so far this winter, according to reporters in attendance, including Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com, Alex Speier of the Boston Globeand Jen McCaffrey of Atlético. The call was prompted by the club’s recent (and rare) transaction with its main rival. Bloom noted that they looked “under the hood” at Adam Ottavino2020 numbers and believes that the assumption of its poor performance in 2020 may be wrong. In particular, he notes a particularly bad match against the Blue Jays in which he won six races won without registering an exit. Remove that September 7 apparition and Ottavino’s ERA will drop from 5.89 to 2.95. Of course, that walk did to happen. Even so, there is a positive reading in Ottavino’s 2020 statistics line: 3.52 FIP, 3.62 SIERA, 29.4 percent strikeout rate and 10.6 percent walk rate suggest that the right-handed was Close the same guy he had been in 2019, when he formed an important part of the Yankees’ bullpen. Ottavino appears to play an important role behind the Boston bullpen, although the dispersion of responsibilities between Ottavino and the incumbent Matt Barnes is TBD. More from Bloom …
- The Yankees moved Ottavino to cut wages enough to avoid the $ 210 million luxury tax line, but according to Bloom, it is not a foregone conclusion that the Red Sox will do the same. With Ottavino in the fold, the Red Sox’s luxury tax payroll appears to be around $ 206 million, which certainly doesn’t leave much room to spend. While the plan is to avoid the tax, this is not a firm mandate, notes Bloom.
- Even taking Bloom’s word for it, it’s hard to imagine the Red Soxs overtaking the luxury tax when so many teams today are working so diligently to avoid it – especially in a season when the Red Sox are largely designed to be a reflection late for Rays, Yankees and Blue Jays in AL East. The Red Sox are probably not that quick to cancel their 2021 season, of course. Still, it’s fair to ask if they have the remaining funds to bring back Jackie Bradley Jr. The team remains in contact with Bradley, however, and plans to do so “until his free agency resolves”. Although your reading may be differentBloom’s passive choice of words does not project the image of an upcoming aggressive attempt to lure Bradley back to Fenway, although his point here is that a reunion remains possible.