Red Sox Rumors: Adam Duvall signing more of same old stuff
The Boston Red Sox signed former Atlanta Braves outfielder, Adam Duvall to a one-year,$7M deal.
Yet, this signing signals that little has changed in this offseason of disappointment and discontent for the red hose. It’s just same-old, same-old, all over again.
More of the same small-market moves from the team that used to be a Major League Baseball powerhouse and now acts like it’s a “Little engine that might”.
The Red Sox are now a shadow of their former self and it’s due to their inability to put together a club in the offseason that can grow into the future.
Duvall’s one-year deal is another flier on a former top player who’s on the downside of his career and has had a major injury issue.
Those are deemed assets to the Red Sox because the players in those brackets are more “cost-effective” (read: cheaper), than bonafide major league stars or even non-star players.
Rather, to more observant and astute thinkers, those traits are actually and objectively liabilities. Let’s take a look at this deal and its ramifications for the Red Sox.
Boston Red Sox signing of Adam Duvall is another roll of the dice
Adam Duvall is a 34-year-old player who according to mlb.com is coming off an injury and surgery “to repair a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist”. He fits the profile of an older, injury-risk player that is the staple of the Boston Red Sox recently.
Also according to form, Duvall only played in only 86 games in 2022 with a dismal stat line of a .214 batting average, with only 12 home runs and a mere 36 RBIs.
Those stats aren’t really likely to add much excitement to the reeling Red Sox fanbase outside of the totally rose-colored glasses part of Red Sox Nation.
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John Tomase of nbcsports.com thinks the Duvall may have “potential that he serves as more than just filler”. He talks about the injury,
"The key will be how well he recovers from surgery to repair a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist. A similar injury slowed David Ortiz in 2008 and again in 2014, and to correct something I wrote about Duvall on Monday, Ortiz never actually underwent surgery to repair the problem, instead relying on a cast in 2008 and an offseason of rest in 2014 before finishing his career with two of his best seasons."
Duvall certainly has had some fine years earlier in his career he’s hit more than 30 home runs three times, most recently in 2021 when he blasted 38. Nice output there but a wrist injury for a hitter ain’t the best thing. Yet, after all, it is only a one-year deal.
The Boston Red Sox signal in signing Duvall
Look, Duvall’s best case maybe he’s another Hunter Renfroe (remember him?), signed to a shorter deal in the 2021 offseason. It worked brilliantly, Renfroe proceeded to rip the cover off the baseball to the tune of 29 HRs and 96 RBIs.
Then, Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom inexplicably spun this top player off in a trade to Milwaukee for former Sox cast-off Jackie Bradley Jr. and two prospects. Bradley flopped as anticipated and didn’t last the season.
Maybe Mr. Bloom will strike gold again with Duvall. But neither Renfroe nor Kyle Schwarber who was a trade deadline acquisition with a minor injury, who worked out great was retained by the Red Sox after they were big contributors.
So the revolving door policy continues with new players, mostly more “affordable” older ones with injury histories who continue to be cycled in as the team sits firmly ensconced in last place in the AL East.
Instead of building on the two great 2021 signings (along with Kike Hernandez that offseason), Mr. Bloom tore that very good 2021 team apart last season and the results were predictable, last place yet again.
So Duvall may work out, fine. But the moral of the story is this, best to aggregate your funds, spend them on top players, and then and only then add less costly fringe or injured players to the equation.
Next. Boston Red Sox, Chaim Bloom can learn from the Atlanta Braves. dark
Instead, the Red Sox depend on these players, and for two of the last three seasons wound up in the cellar. It looks like that’s the most likely result this season, as well.
They don’t seem to get the message that great players do great things and are worth the freight. Instead, they spend in aggregate money that would have delivered two or maybe even three of those top players on question marks.
It’s one way to run a ship, but it will likely run aground again. Then, the penurious absentee owners will can the current baseball regime and start all over.
It is what it is Red Sox Nation, and that’s depressing.