Red Sox To Acquire Rajai Davis from Oakland

Susan Slusser
Susan Slusser @susanslusser
A's will receive a low-level outfielder, Rafael Rincones, from Boston.

DSL player. It doesn't get any lower level than that

Its just Rincones. No need to worry. A quarter year of Rajaj Davis would never cost a Groome, a Mata, or even a Cedrola.

So far it looks like it's him for Rincones straight-up.

Somebody has a sense of humor. Just checked his Wiki page and no...I did NOT write this!

"Rajai Lavae Davis (/ˈrɑːʒeɪ ˈdeɪvɪs/; born October 19, 1980) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, and Cleveland Indians.

Davis began his career as a switch-hitter, but became a full-time right-handed hitter prior to the 2004 season. He also throws right-handed.[1] The A's traded davis to the Red Sox, so now he gets to beat the tar out of The Nazi War Criminals of the American League. So ha."

Nobody's going to get excited about RD's 75 OPS-plus and .3 WAR (b-Ref) this year but it's a competent move, given the JBJ news. I'm impressed that D-Dom moved so quickly. I expect to see Rajai trotting off the bench to PR a few times this October.

The Sox are 1 million dollars under the tax threshold now.

A lot can happen between now and then, but they aren't going to be taking a 13-man staff in October so in basic terms he's taking Fister's spot. If Holt hasn't righted himself by then, I might prefer Lin over him on the post-season roster. Holt might come around this month, and he might never be the same again. Concussions are awful like that.

Davis is just one year removed from swiping 43 bases in 49 attempts.

Yes everyone brings up TL as a manager that they should of kept and shouldn't of let him leave to Arizona but look at what Dave Roberts is doing as a manager. He pulled Rich Hill last year when he was throwing a no hitter last year. That's a guy who can manage imo.

I think this was an astute pickup by Dombrowski. While I would have liked to have seen a Jay Bruce who didn't fit the luxury tax situation or a Daniel Nava for the bench, a lefty bat off the bench so that Holt is the primary LH hitting pinchhit option, Dombrowski did the next best thing for that 25th spot on the roster.

He got a legit pinchrunner who can play CF. In totality that might not seem like much, but in a post-season series that's a little thing that can become a big thing.

So unless something changes like an injury, the only question left is David Price and if by there's a surprise like Carson Smith being ready to impact the bullpen.

Assuming Price doesn't make it back and Smith doesn't set the world on fire upon his return and there are no further injuries and JBJ makes it back alright, I would think the post-season roster is about set.

The rotation would be: Sale, Pomeranz, Porcello, E-Rod
The bullpen would be: Kimbrel, Reed, Workman, Barnes, Kelly, Hembree, Scott
The lineup would be: Nunez-DH, Pedroia-2b, Benintendi-LF, Betts-RF, Devers-3b, Bogaerts-SS, Moreland-1b, Vazquez-C, and Bradley-CF
The bench would be Leon, Ramirez, Holt, Young, and Davis

The assumption would be that Nunez would become the DH and displace Ramirez who would basically platoon with Moreland.

If Price were healthy enough to start then E-Rod would displace Scott as the lefty out of the pen, unless they decided to keep Scott, too and not include Hembree. I don't see Abad having any role whatsoever. If Smith impressed then he would displace Hembree I would think.

I haven't read much on the trade yet. Does anyone know if this trade was already in the works before the JBJ injury?

Regardless, I like the move a lot. It never hurts to have a great speed option off the bench in the postseason. And it sounds like he is a good pinch hit option against lefties. Nice move to round out the postseason roster.