Brentz, Jerez added to roster + other moves

I'm getting increasingly worried that the answer to this question is "because they're kind of dumb."

The Red Sox seem to be turning increasingly into the 2005-ish era Yankees, who had a great core that they wasted by making consistently dumb decisions at the periphery of the roster.

· The club exercised its 2018 contract options on right-handed pitcher Craig Kimbrel and left-handed pitcher Chris Sale.

· Infielder Marco Hernandez and right-handed pitchers Tyler Thornburg and Steven Wright were reinstated from the 60-day disabled list.

Additionally, left-handed pitcher Robbie Ross Jr. and infielder Josh Rutledge were reinstated from the 60-day disabled list and outrighted from the major league roster. They have both elected free agency.

Outfielder Bryce Brentz and left-handed pitcher Williams Jerez were selected to the major league roster from Triple-A Pawtucket.

Yeah, I don't think this necessarily means they're not interested in Ross, but it made sense to do this given the arbitration situation.

Press release has 40-man at 37. That's Young, Abad, Moreland, Boyer, Fister, Nunez, Davis, Reed off (40-8=32), plus Hernandez, Wright, Thornburg (35), plus Brentz and Jerez (37).

So does this add to the speculation that indeed Farrell was the one who didn't want to utilize Brentz I imagine?

Dombrowski clearly wants him here for his value alone.

Velo was up this year to mid-upper 90s with a solid secondary pitch. Its an interesting profile from the left side, worth keeping him around another year as one of the top LH relief options in AAA. It didn't necessarily show in his stat line, but he was solid down the stretch. Had a disastrous appearance (8 ER in 1.1 IP) in early June that skewed his numbers overall.

The reason Jerez was added now is that otherwise he would have been a minor league free agent in four days. They may well end up DFAing him sometime this offseason once they start protecting Rule 5 candidates and signing free agents, but there's a good chance that they would have lost him in free agency anyways.

Hah! If so then I take back most of the bad things I said about him. Can you imagine though? "Yeah.... did you forget to call up Brentz? Well, that wasn't a great move, but you should probably do that now because he'll be a free agent Monday."

In all seriousness, Brentz *does* seem like a guy who would've done well under LaRussa. His best skill as a manager (other than continuing to employ Dave Duncan) was getting the most out of flawed players by putting them in positions to succeed.

Dan, I think the point those who thought Brentz should be called up would make is that there absolutely WERE opportunities to get playing time. The team needed someone to hit LHP and needed pop. Those were the two things Brentz could have absolutely provided at little-to-no cost.

At the time, he also said there wasn't room on the 40-man, but that's if you think it was worth having Ben Taylor make three inconsequential appearances in Pawtucket, rather than going on the 60-day DL, is worth more than adding Brentz to the roster.

What's the downside to adding him to the roster if he's not going to play though? He's not going to complain about it - the alternative is his NOT being added to the roster.

Yes, there were opportunities for playing time in many people's opinion. But not in the managers opinion. In the managers opinion, Chris Young was the player who would provide pop and hit LHP, because he was a veteran who 'always' had.

If that's what Farrel is going to do - what is DD's best move? Give his manager as many useful options that he'll actually use or add a piece he doesn't want to...make a point? Prove to Sox prospects it's John and not him? Create a distraction?

When DD came out in his press conference today and said 'there weren't opportunities AVAILABLE for playing time', that is him telling us Farrell wasn't going to play him. No matter what DD, you, I or anyone else thinks Brentz' role could have been, only one opinion mattered. And that opinion disagreed.

In the end DD fired the manager who wouldn't use Brentz, hired someone who would and brought him up. People should be praising that, based on their previous views of the situation, but they'd rather rationalize the decision as a way to reinforce the opinion they formed two years ago...

I laid out what I thought was the reason Brentz was not on the team in September, more than once, in probably too much detail, and correctly predicted that they weren't dumb enough to let him go for nothing. If John Farrell told them that Brentz would get little or no PT if selected, then not selecting him was the proper, smart move. No one has ever come up with a different first clause for that "if-then" statement. And JF telling them that is, furthermore, 100% consistent with his being fired because of unspecified larger, older, deeper issues than losing in the playoffs. JF's consistent weakness was his favoring the desires of his players over the best interests of both themselves and the team. I'm not saying that favoring Young over Brentz was a big part of that -- his letting Sale go after his 300th K in defiance of an apparent team decision to go easy on his usage was probably bigger. But it's part of the pattern.

Brentz has a chance to fill the Chris Young role but be much better and at MLB minimum. I think he gets a crack at that in many or most roster scenarios.

Meanwhile, adding Jerez is interesting. One correct take has already been discussed -- adding him now before he hits mlfa is smart, and you can DFA him later if needed. But it's worth playing with thee roster math to see what it tells us. They had 36 without him, with Beeks and a new 1B as the only sure additions. But I also think that Hembree is likely to be moved -- someone with less relief depth will want him because he's precisely the sort of guy who can blossom and become a set-up guy, but for us he's behind Barnes, Workman, and Maddox who only have two roster spots between them when everyone is healthy.

So that leaves 3 roster spots for the following:

-- Maybe a second hitter, as in my Martinez / Stanton + Bour scenarios, or re-signing Nunez as some have suggested.
-- Maybe a LHR who can pitch in the 7th.
-- One or more relievers.

Jerez has filled one of those spots. If they protect Shepherd but not Buttrey (or vice versa), then Jerez survives unless they add both the second hitter and LHR without dealing anyone off the 40-man.

My points are pretty clear (and essentially spoken by DD today) - unless you just don't want to get them. Brentz was NOT going to be played by Farrell. So in the stretch run DD gave his manager what he wanted and felt he needed to succeed. You would rather he grandstanded on a fourth OF and bat off the bench? That's definitely a successful approach to management and a turn on to future managers!

When the time came - he fired the manager, added the player and got a better suited leader for the team.

You refuse to accept that because you want to hate DD for not valuing 20 year olds the way you do. Now you still don't want to give him credit so you attribute it to the new manager who was coaching his old team in the playoffs and consuming his free time trying to put a staff together. This is not Cora telling DD to add Brentz. Give me a break...