Red Sox Sign Felipe Lopez Off Waivers
by Ben Buchanan on Sep 24, 2010 9:53 PM EDT
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PrintThe Red Sox have claimed Felipe Lopez off waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals, and have signed the infielder to finish out the last few games of the season with the team according to a Sean McAdam tweet.
Between Marco Scutaro, Jed Lowrie, Adrian Beltre, Mike Lowell, Lars Anderson, Victor Martinez, Yamaico Navarro, and even Bill Hall, it's hard to see what role Lopez will play with the team for the rest of the year, but it could be a sign that the team is shutting down one of the players, or possibly an incredibly fast reaction from Theo Epstein after Mike Lowell took a grounder to the head less than an hour ago. Lowell played the rest of the inning before being pulled for Lars Anderson.
Lopez, a career .266/.336/.395 hitter doesn't really fit into any of the team's long-term plans. He is, however, a Type-B free agent, and if the Sox were willing to risk a small bump in Lopez' $1,000,000 salary for a backup infielder, they could offer him arbitration and pick up a free sandwich-round pick for their troubles if he declines.
Just another instance of Epstein and the Sox leaving no stone unturned.
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just a kind of weird decision by Lopez
to go to a non-contender in the AL when the Padres wanted him…
If i'm not mistaken he would have to have been signed by August 31st to be eligible for the post season roster
The only chance he had to play in October was with the Cardinals…and we all know how that turned out.
right, but wouldn't he rather play meaningful baseball anyways? Even if not in the postseason
Plus, the Padres have a more clear need for him and I’d imagine he’d get more playing time there.
maybe
it could be something as simple as he has friends he wanted to visit in boston… who really knows but either way he’s not playing in the postseason. yeah it struck me as odd at first but there could be any number of reasons. maybe he wanted to experience a taste of the yankees red sox rivalry. maybe since he knows he’s not going to play in the postseason he’d rather not have to sit around watching another team he doesn’t even care about play for an extra month and he’d rather get an early start on his vacation instead. maybe it came down to who he’d rather play for next year the sox seemed more appealing. any of these could be reasons, but my choice would be the wants to start his vacation theory.
probably he wants to be with the sox next year
if he wanted to start his vacation early, he could just not re-signed with anyone
this makes no sense
was there a gamethread tonight?
Go Bruins!
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by bestbostonsports on Sep 24, 2010 11:28 PM EDT reply actions
40-odd posts in the outfielders topic.
Our significant bad.
USG
by Ben Buchanan on Sep 25, 2010 12:00 AM EDT up reply actions
I like it I guess
Doesn’t really do anyone any favors. But who knows, he may be a utility infielder next season. He can play third. Worst case we have an inexpenisve bench guy, really couldn’t be less valuable than Mike Lowell this season.
And if he declines arbitration (The Sox wouldn’t have signed him if they didn’t plan on it) then we get a sandwich pick. I call this a win win.
Every Red Sox loss, I like to blame on the Yankees. Every Yankees win, I like to blame the Rays.
Big fan
of this move. Mainly due to the reasons Ben pointed out regarding the draft pick…smart move given this situation at this point in the season.
In 1979, he hit his first career home run...four years before his birth. He once swung at a pitch and missed, just to see how it felt. He is the only player in history to record more hits than plate appearances. He is, the most talented man in baseball.
"I don't always swing, but when I do, I produce lasers."
Dustin Pedroia, 250% strength by volume. Please pitch responsibly.
Lopez as Bill Hall's replacement for next year?
It doesn’t really make sense unless it’s for the potential benefit of a sandwich pick, but I wonder if the Sox signed Lopez to replace Bill Hall. After all, he fits the key word: “versatility” — he’s played 150 games at 3B, 320 at 2B, and 620 at short, and he’s also played a handful of times at 1B and both corner OF positions. Of course, he’s also a lousy fielder at all of them except third, and he’s not exactly a stellar hitter either.
I really hope this signing was just for the potential draft pick.
Well, Bill Hall is going to be gone next year,
and he really isn’t a good replacement player just becuse he “can” play several positions. I think Hall is a much better starter than bench player. It’d be great if we could keep in as depth without taking up a roster spot, but we can’t just keep him in AAA.
"Every night I go to bed thinking about when I’m going to play again. I dream about playing at Fenway."-Ryan Westmoreland
Twitter: @BoldandBrash
by BoldandBrash on Sep 25, 2010 2:59 PM EDT up reply actions
I'd rather not have either
If we keep Beltre, let either Scutaro or Lowrie be the utility infielder. Let both Hall and Lopez depart in free agency.
true and probably they ARe hoping for the draft compensation
I wouldn’t be surprised though, if Lopez accepted arbitration, to see them try to move Scutaro to save some money.
or we could trade Lowrie or Scutaro
preferably Scutaro so we wouldn’t have to pay him 5 mil.
"Every night I go to bed thinking about when I’m going to play again. I dream about playing at Fenway."-Ryan Westmoreland
Twitter: @BoldandBrash
by BoldandBrash on Sep 25, 2010 3:50 PM EDT up reply actions
Definitely needs to be Scutaro that we trade.
Jed has shown he can handle the starting job at SS for us.
I sorta agree.
I think we might be able to get a better return for Lowrie, but how much better, IDK. Lowrie’s value to us may be greater than his market value considering he doesn’t have much of an MLB track record. He’s played like 45 games this year and has been awesome, but how much weight does that hold in the market?
"Every night I go to bed thinking about when I’m going to play again. I dream about playing at Fenway."-Ryan Westmoreland
Twitter: @BoldandBrash
by BoldandBrash on Sep 25, 2010 4:10 PM EDT up reply actions
We'd certainly get a better return for Lowrie, as a cheap, better player
But why not keep the better one? Either way, Scutaro would probably make a great utility infielder. I’d guess Lopez gets offered arbitration, if he accepts, they trade Scutaro to someone (we won’t get much of a return, but someone would take his salary plus maybe a couple of low level, medium ceiling guys)- which would probably save a net of over $5 million. If Lopez declines, probably they’d listen to offers, but would intend to keep him.
In terms of keeping the better one.
I’m fine with trading Lowrie if it can help us somewhere else.
"Every night I go to bed thinking about when I’m going to play again. I dream about playing at Fenway."-Ryan Westmoreland
Twitter: @BoldandBrash
by BoldandBrash on Sep 26, 2010 3:08 PM EDT up reply actions
You won't get anything for Scutaro
And it would be foolish to trade Lowrie now, just when he’s starting to live up to his potential. The return would be depressed because of his missing so much time due to injuries and mono the last couple years anyway.
hence my post above about not really wanting to trade Lowrie.
Plus, we can’t be sure of what we could get for Lowrie. Would you trade Lowrie for Iannetta straight up? That was a proposed deal earlier this year.Gammons made it sound like Colorado only turned it down because they needed Iannetta as 1B insurance. IDK who Colorado has at 2B, but that’s an MLB player for an MLB player that Colorado is reluctant to use. Lowrie and a B or C prospect for Iannetta? And Scutaro is a starting MLB SS, I’m sure we could at least get a half decent pen arm for him at least. If we’re letting Lowrie start, then why pay 5 mil for someone to sit on the bench?
"Every night I go to bed thinking about when I’m going to play again. I dream about playing at Fenway."-Ryan Westmoreland
Twitter: @BoldandBrash
by BoldandBrash on Sep 25, 2010 7:30 PM EDT up reply actions
Earlier this year, that would have been a decent trade
Now that Lowrie is healthy, playing again, and looks like he can be a solid contributor who will probably continue to improve, especially when he’s fully recovered his strength, it’s not great.
But you’re not going to get anything for Scutaro. He’s old, he’s had a less-than-great year, and he has a dead arm. We wouldn’t even get a decent prospect for him.
I don't know...
I think he’s gutted out a season, despite the injury. That has to show other GMs his level of effort, and I think he’ll heal up in the offseason.
I think a bullpen arm is probably going to be what we get for him, but I think – much like Coco and Lowell – if we cannot get what we think they are worth, we’ll hold onto him as insurance. If Lowell had passed his physical, we’d have gotten Salty, but in the end the insurance paid off (and I don’t mind Lowell retiring as a member of the Sox).
Coco, when we got what we wanted, ended up getting dealt. I think the same happens with Scutaro… someone will give us a bullpen arm for a MLB SS, especially when his production this year at the SS position is considered, despite his playing hurt.
He still has value to other teams, but I’d rather see Jed starting for us next season.
We would have gotten Max Ramirez, not Salt.
"Every night I go to bed thinking about when I’m going to play again. I dream about playing at Fenway."-Ryan Westmoreland
Twitter: @BoldandBrash
by BoldandBrash on Sep 26, 2010 12:55 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
GMs don't trade for effort, they trade for results
When you gut out the season with injuries and produce like Pujols, as Pujols has done, you’re valuable in a trade. When you gut out the season with injuries and produce like Scutaro, you have no value in a trade.
This is actually why he has value.
Among SS, he’s ranked 11th in wOBA and 12th in WAR. That right there already has value. So he’s been injured for most of the year and that has most certainly hampered his results. I expect he’ll heal, and he will probably produce better results next year. Other GMs see this.
"Every night I go to bed thinking about when I’m going to play again. I dream about playing at Fenway."-Ryan Westmoreland
Twitter: @BoldandBrash
by BoldandBrash on Sep 26, 2010 9:56 AM EDT up reply actions
Other GMs see a 35 year old player who had a fluky career year last year and has a dead arm
He’s been subpar on defense this year, hitting fewer liners than ever, getting on base at a lower clip than when everyone here complained about how little Ellsbury got on base, has little to no power, and is likely to decline. You can argue that that’s all a product of his injury, and surely it is in part, but his injury is the sort of thing that happens to 35 year old players in decline. Smart GMs don’t give up good prospects for players like that. The best we can realistically hope for is that Scutaro plays out his contract as our utility infielder, with Lowrie replacing him in the starting lineup.
Of course
Nobody said we’d get anything good for him. The point was the we could get something decent and not have to pay 5 mil for him to sit if Lowrie starts. He’s not untradeable. Hell, we got a pretty good prospect for MDC.
"Every night I go to bed thinking about when I’m going to play again. I dream about playing at Fenway."-Ryan Westmoreland
Twitter: @BoldandBrash
by BoldandBrash on Sep 26, 2010 3:07 PM EDT up reply actions
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