Waiting is hard.
You’d think Red Sox fans would be used to waiting, having spent 86 years doing exactly that. Four World Series rings in 17 seasons tends to erase a lot of bad memories though, and winning at that rate can shorten the fuse of even the most patient fanbase. Nobody wants to go back to losing once you get that first real taste of glory, and the Fenway Faithful are no exception.
Chaim Bloom, however, clearly has no issues waiting. Following a catastrophic season where the Sox finished in last place in the AL East while their former franchise player led his new team to a World Series title, Boston’s Chief Baseball Officer and his staff opted for a glacial pace to start the offseason. Granted, that matched the rest of Major League Baseball, but in a market where plenty of big name players remain readily available, frustrations grew after the Red Sox, repeatedly linked to players who ultimately signed elsewhere, kept striking out (with a few exceptions).
That script flipped over the last few days, when Boston’s interest finally paid dividends. The Red Sox made three moves that, while not particularly splashy in comparison to acquisitions of Dave Dombrowski offseasons past, are at least finally giving shape to the team’s 2021 roster.
The first domino fell on Friday, when the Sox signed utilityman Kiké Hernandez to a two year, $14 millon deal. $7 million AAV is a seemingly steep price to pay for a role player like Hernandez with a career 98 OPS+, and at least as far as on-field performance goes I think that money could have been better served elsewhere. Boston is likely bringing him in to play second base on a full-ish time basis, and while there are certainly worse options to be had (as the Red Sox are aware, they’ve ranked 28th in WAR and 27th in wRC+ at that position over past 2 seasons), I won’t act like this is writing prime Dustin Pedroia into the lineup every day.
Having said that, Hernandez does bring a couple of elements that last year’s Red Sox team was sorely lacking: flexibility and fun. Kiké has played every position on the field at the major league level except catcher, and has been described as “an athletic version of Brock Holt” by former teammate (and former Red Sox reliever) Joe Kelly. He’s got some pop, and hits lefties pretty well. He’s shown a penchant for clutch moments too:
Most importantly, Hernandez is, by all accounts, an awesome teammate and a genuinely hilarious dude. He’s also been known to don a banana suit from time to time, for whatever that’s worth.
There’s a real chance Hernandez is an official fan favorite by June, and that alone makes him worth nearly every penny, especially considering how gloomy last season was.
But Bloom didn’t stop there. On Saturday, he inked pitcher Garrett “The Spin Gawd” Richards to a one year, $10 million deal to help bolster a starting rotation that has posted a 5.04 ERA over the last two seasons. Richards’ signing is a less sexy version of the Yankees’ signing of Corey Kluber. He’s a former #1 caliber starter with electric stuff and an extensive injury history. On one hand, Richards has only made 41 starts and thrown 198.2 innings since 2016. On the other, he’s posted a 3.56 ERA over that span. His consistent trips to the DL haven’t sapped his stuff much either: Richards still throws heaters upwards of 95 mph, and generates whiffs at roughly the same rate as he did before getting Tommy John surgery in 2018. Per Statcast data, he allowed his lowest hard hit % (balls batted with an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher) since 2017. His fastball and curveball ranked in the 97th and 99th percentile respectively in spin rate last season too, per Baseball Savant.
If Richards can stay healthy, and pitch either at the level he performed for the Padres last season or even approximate something close to his best moments with the Angels, this could be a game-changing get for the Sox. He could also only make 4 starts and spend the rest of the season on the DL. Bloom, by building up the pitching depth of the 40-man roster to a point where it’s at minimum acceptable (vs the dumpster fire it was in 2020) enabled a high risk, high reward swing like this.
Finally, yesterday, the Red Sox made more noise by trading for Yankees reliever Adam Ottavino. First and foremost, I loved Bloom’s response to questions about trading with Boston’s archrival:
Second, I love the move for what it represents. The Yankees dumping salary to stay under the luxury tax is hilarious for a multitude of reasons on its own. That the Sox got a much needed bullpen arm (and a prospect with decent upside!) out of it just makes it that much better.
Third, Ottavino is a perfect fit in one of Boston’s biggest areas of need. His 5.89 ERA from last season might be worrisome at a glance, but his peripherals show a pitcher who struggled with poor fortune in a small sample size. Ottavino maintained a similar K-BB% and FIP last year as in 2019, and his stuff was still nasty:
Where he struggled most was with batted ball luck (a .375 BABIP is nearly impossible to overcome) and with stranding runners. Ottavino’s 66.2% strand rate was his worst since his first season in the bigs, back in 2010. If the Northeastern University alum can reverse those flukier trends back to more average marks, there’s no reason he can’t return to the elite reliever status he held in 2018 and 2019.
It’s unclear just how good the Red Sox are going to be in 2021. Even in a best case scenario, it’s hard to imagine them sniffing the same success they did in 2018. But Bloom is quietly building a roster with a firmer foundation than the last two seasons with shrewd, low cost moves that have the potential to pay off in a big way this season, without mortgaging assets and flexibility for future campaigns. Going grocery shopping to re-stock the fridge isn’t always exciting, but you sure feel better when that thing is full of food than when there’s nothing to eat. There are still absolutely holes to fill, a challenge made more difficult by Boston’s reticence to spend into the luxury tax this year. However, there’s no denying that the Red Sox are in a better position at the Major League level thanks to the past few days.
Bloom inherited an impossible task last offseason in the wake of Dombrowski’s tumultuous departure. This winter, the Sox are pointing back in the right direction thanks in no small part to their front office’s measured, consistent approach to team building. Turning the Red Sox back into a self-sustaining contender is going to require patience, and waiting, but the best things in life often do.
For The Love 