The Boston Red Sox inactivity before the Major League Baseball lockout could have big consequences for the team with the adoption of the new universal designated hitter rule.
Baseball finally came to its collective senses and has now mandated that the designated hitter (DH) be utilized in both the American League and the National League. It’s high time. The dual standard was obtuse.
One team’s offseason (among many others) that will be impacted is the Boston Red Sox. Let’s explore just how much this may negatively impact the Bosox.
The Boston Red Sox fiddled around and lost a golden opportunity
The Boston Red Sox were perfectly situated before the lockout to take a major step to keep their team strong heading into the 2022 season. They blew it.
Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom neglected to make the first move he should have made by signing Kyle Schwarber, a trade deadline acquisition who was an impactful player for Boston down the stretch of the season, to a long-term extension.
Schwarber fits the team and the city perfectly, showing both power and average as he contributed to the Red Sox march to within two games of a World Series berth.
He hit .291 and smashed seven home runs in 41 games with Boston and rewarded Bloom’s confidence in trading for him for Aldo Ramirez, a low A pitcher at Salem.
This gaffe by Bloom will at best cost the Sox more money if they do sign Schwarber but realistically, that opportunity was lost by procrastination, if they ever actually had thought of re-signing him in the first place.
That move would have made perfect sense to lock up the power-hitting lefty to a long-term deal and solidify the offense both now and for the future.
The asking price now has certainly risen (more on that later) as the rule change will boost costs to sign weaker fielders who can knock the cover off a baseball as a DH.
They say timing is everything. It probably is. If so, then Mr. Bloom mistimed the Schwarber situation to a fare-the-well and the club will be worse as a result.
Former Boston Red Sox slugger Kyle Schwarber is in his prime
The right move by Bloom should have been to wrap up a deal for Schwarber early in the offseason before the somewhat expected change occurred to the DH rule.
Clearly, as noted, the DH rule change would obviously boost the stature of players like Schwarber, who has limited defensive skills but can mash the ball.
Only 28 years old, Schwarber was reportedly looking for a five-year deal at $70M plus or so. That is exactly the type of deal the Red Sox should be seeking with fewer years at a reasonable salary for a player still in his prime. They regrettably passed.
Since he can play some outfield and first base as well as DH, he would have plenty of opportunities to be in the 2022 Red Sox lineup. While there is still time to make a deal, earlier would certainly have been better.
Bloom missed the boat on making that early deal with Schwarber. He not only makes perfect sense for the 2022 team but also for the future since the current DH, J.D. Martinez, is in the final year of his deal.
The right move to make was to sign Schwarber with a look not only to his great fit in Boston (some players aren’t cut out for the intensity of Red Sox Nation) but also to his versatility in 2022 and then to his perfect transition from into the DH spot in 2023.
He was a ready-made perfect fit to serve as the DH thereafter under a reasonable contract. It was a missed golden opportunity for the Boston Red Sox. This non-action for whatever reasons they had, coupled with several other poor moves, has made this offseason a flop to date.
Boston Red Sox poor offseason moves punctuate the offseason
The perfectly awful trade of Hunter Renfroe to the Milwaukee Brewers for the weak-hitting (.163 average in 2021), great-fielding Jackie Bradley Jr., his $12M salary, and two prospects was another gaffe that made almost no sense whatsoever.
Then, rather than sign a top starting pitched like Marcus Stroman for a reasonable deal for even maybe two years, Bloom rolled the dice on three questionable pitchers to the tune of about $22M.
These pitchers are James Paxton, who will miss part of 2022, Michael Wacha, another reclamation project, and, the best of the bunch, Rich Hill.
Then to bring back Bradley, who had a lousy season in 2021 to say the least (and who the Boston Red Sox and Bloom had chosen not to re-sign the offseason before), is mind-bogglingly bizarre at best and ludicrous at worst.
Sending out Renfroe in the process, who was one of Bloom’s best moves in his short Red Sox tenure, further exacerbated the negative aspects of that truly counter-productive trade.
Hopefully, the Boston Red Sox will come to their senses and re-sign Schwarber. They should also sign star Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp to strengthen the club for the future as well.
The Red Sox weakened their offense significantly by shipping Renfroe out. They then signed the three-headed starting pitching group for a sum that could have landed a top starter with an additional few million. That’s another head-scratcher.
And again, bringing in a .163 hitter with a $12M salary to boot (when ostensibly they are in an austerity mode) is simply horrendous deal-making, prospects or no prospects.
What they have done to date has simply made the team worse. There may still be time to remedy this perfectly abysmal offseason to date. We’ll wait to see what they do when/if the lockout ends.