Boston » Chase d’Arnaud

The 2017 Roster Recap Compendium

Brett Cowett — Tue, 13 Mar 2018 13:00:33 +0000

During the offseason, we here at BP Boston run a series called Roster Recaps, in which we detail the year that was for every player that graced the major league roster in 2017. Some you might vividly remember (Chris Sale!), while others you’ll struggle to recall what they did (Ben Taylor… ?). For the players in the latter category, we’ve got you covered. If you feel like looking back on some good times, we’ll accommodate you too.

Presenting the full list 2017 Roster Recaps, listed with the authors that wrote them. An asterisk denotes a player who has, as of March 13th, dearly departed the Red Sox. We’ll miss them all terribly.

Catchers

Sandy Leon (Cam Ellis)
Blake Swihart (Jake Devereaux)
Christian Vazquez (Brett Cowett)

Header photo by Winslow Townson — USA TODAY Sports

Roster Recap: A Guy Named Chase d’Arnaud

Matthew Kory — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 14:00:52 +0000

What does it say about a player when pinch-hitter is listed second on a three item list of his defensive positions? What does it say about the same player who appeared in two games, and despite said list of defensive positions, never played the field? What does it say about a player when he was a member of three different organizations within the same calendar year, the least time of which came with the Boston Red Sox? What kind of impact can a player like that — we’ll call him “Chase d’Arnaud” — have? In this case, more impact than anyone could ever imagine, assuming nobody anywhere in New England possesses a functioning imagination.

“Imagine a…”

“Let me stop you right there.”

The Red Sox snagged d’Arnaud off waivers from the Atlanta Braves in the dead of night during a late April injury blizzard. Dustin Pedroia was having trouble with his knees, as was Pablo Sandoval who, it turned out, was also terrible. Brock Holt’s vertigo prevented him from helping out and Josh Rutledge was still in Triple-A recovering from a hamstring strain sustained while participating in ham-on-a-string exercises (unrelated) during Spring Training. All of a sudden, the Red Sox had no middle infielders they could play after Xander Bogaerts but, more importantly, they had no middle infielders they could not play. The Red Sox were all of a sudden a baseball team without this most important of commodities. Who was going to sit in the dugout, chat to nobody about things, and chew sunflower seeds?

Of course, the answer to their injury epidemic is obvious in retrospect: surgically remove the legs of every infielder on the roster and auction off the severed limbs for charity. Just think how one of Brock Holt’s legs would look in a plastic case adorned with a Red Sox logo up on your mantle? It’d be magnificent, and the Jimmy Fund would make a fortune. Strangely, that most clear of answers seemed to elude everyone, so, in lieu of that, the Red Sox went waiver wire dumpster diving to solve their problems. They came across some pretty sweet cardboard boxes, a few dead fish, Chase d’Arnaud, and bag of half-eaten cat crunchies.

You might not expect much of anyone acquired in such a manner, and certainly d’Arnaud was no different from those low expectations, but boy howdy he delivered on each and every low expectation. The Red Sox called on d’Arnaud during an early May game against the Twins. The Red Sox entered the ninth inning leading Minnesota 7-6, but the Red Sox quickly gained a small and precarious lead by scoring eight runs. After an infield single by Dustin Pedroia, manager John Farrell, looking down the barrel of a gun, turned to his best player.

“Get in there, d’Arnaud!” he probably didn’t ever shout.

“You got it, skip!” replied the ever-ready part-time pinch-hitter.

d’Arnaud took his place at first base and immediately began dancing dangerously off the bag. Twins pitcher Justin Haley threw over to first once, twice, three times, desperate to preserve the eight-run deficit for what he felt would be the Twins inevitable comeback during the bottom of the inning. But d’Arnaud’s wild dancing frustrated him. He threw over again and again and again and again, but each time d’Arnaud dove back just ahead of the tag. After Haley’s last throw, Twins first baseman Joe Mauer trotted over to Haley. “The kid’s just too good,” said Mauer. “Focus on the batter.”

“I can’t,” replied Haley. “I’m just too flummoxed. I’m going to have to throw a really bad pitch.”

“Well, uh, okay,” said Mauer, and handed Haley the ball. Haley’s next pitch was a meatball. Xander Bogaerts hit it for a triple, scoring Mookie Betts and d’Arnaud all the way from first, and extending the Red Sox lead to a comfortable 10 runs. The Red Sox were just able to hold on in the bottom of the inning. They won 17-6, all thanks to Chase d’Arnaud.

You might think that after such a performance the Red Sox might have started d’Arnaud, but they did not. Asked about it by reporters, manager John Farrell winked and grinned. “I like to keep my secret weapons where I can use them when I need them,” he said. Later that day against the Brewers, Farrell needed his secret once more. Trailing 6-1 in the top of the fifth inning, Farrell tried something radical. “This isn’t working,” he reportedly whispered to himself. “Think, John. Dammit, you’ve got to think!” With one out and the pitcher due up, it suddenly hit Farrell like a ton of bricks: d’Arnaud!

“Get in there, d’Arnaud!” he definitely didn’t ever say.

“You got it, skip!” replied the ever-ready part-time pinch-runner.

With d’Arnaud running up the steps, Farrell stopped him. “You’re going to need this,” he said, handing him a broom. “Was that supposed to be a bat?” d’Arnaud asked? “You guessed it,” chuckled Farrell. “I’m really not very good at this managing thing.” Thus inspired d’Arnaud stepped to the plate against possibly the best pitcher in the history of baseball, Wily Peralta.

Peralta’s first pitch was a 110 mph fastball on the corner. “Strike one!” shouted the umpire. His second pitch was a 120 mph fastball on the inside corner. “Strike two!” shouted the umpire. d’Arnaud stepped out of the box. He realized what he was up against. He knew how nobody had ever faced a more perilous situation in baseball, but he was determined. He cocked his bat and stood there watching as a 99 mph curveball draped itself around the plate. “Ball one,” said the umpire. Now d’Arnaud was ready. He stared out at Peralta who stared back, both knowing what was at stake, perhaps the most important fifth inning at-bat by non-rivals from different leagues in early May in baseball history.

Peralta reared back and fired. d’Arnaud took a mighty swing and hit a weak grounder up the middle. The second baseman fielded the ball, but his heart was heavy when he did, because he knew he could never catch d’Arnaud. Crossing the first base bag, d’Arnaud slowed and stopped before the enormity, the sheer gravity of what he’d done struck him. As his team mates raced from the dugout to mob him and the loudspeakers blared the theme to The Natural, d’Arnaud knelt gently in the grass, a single tear falling from his face. Somewhere, Robert Redford muttered, “No, that’s perfect,” as d’Arnaud was lifted and carried around the field by his teammates.

The next inning they took him out for Fernando Abad. That would be the last time d’Arnaud stepped on a playing field for the Boston Red Sox. Asked about his decision to release d’Arnaud, Team President Dave Dombrowski said, “When you love something, set it free.”

But I digress. On to his season recap!

What Went Right

He got an infield single in his only Red Sox at-bat.

What Went Wrong

Whatever.

What To Expect

Nothing.

Thanks for reading.

Photo by Jeff Hanisch — USA TODAY Sports

Hell At The Hot Corner

Matthew Kory — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 13:00:28 +0000

Let’s start off happy! Last season the Red Sox led baseball in runs scored. See? This isn’t a sad article, it’s a happy fun one! In 2015 they were fourth. Still good! 2014 was a down year as they finished 18th, but they were coming off a 2013 season that saw them finish first, and something something World Series win, so perhaps we could forgive them. Point is, the Red Sox of recent vintage haven’t been shy about scoring runs, which is both a wonderful thing and what makes the following information so odd. Over that same stretch, the Red Sox have one of the worst third base situations in baseball. I almost made it a full paragraph. I’m so sorry.

Perhaps I should be more specific though. Because, if we’re really going to get into this pig filth, we have to jump in and wallow in it. From the start of the 2013 through 2014, ’15, ’16 and up to the very minute you are reading this sentence — and before you finish reading it, I urge you to please swallow that milk you are drinking lest it end up sprayed spit-take style on your computer screen — the Boston Red Sox have received the worst production from third base of any team in baseball.

The Red Sox third base situation has been sub-putrid. It’s like when you open the fridge and see something in there you should have thrown away weeks ago, but now it’s so bad you’re actively afraid to touch it.

[drinks milk]

[spits it on screen]

I had to.

Further, they are the only team to, in FanGraphs’ estimation, achieve below replacement level production in total over the past four plus seasons. Every other team in baseball has been better, and when you consider the money and organizational effort spent on third base, well, maybe you shouldn’t. Let’s go right to summarizing. The Red Sox third base situation has been sub-putrid. It’s like when you open the fridge and see something in there you should have thrown away weeks ago, but now it’s so bad you’re actively afraid to touch it, so you just leave in there to get worse. And, really, who wants to open a refrigerator and see Pedro Ciriaco staring back at them?

I thought about posting the entire list of players who have attempted to man the hot corner for Boston since 2013, and let me assure you, it is quite the list, but instead, to save time and agita, let’s put it this way: the fifth most valuable third baseman of the 19 (!) who inhabit this list is Carlos Rivero. Not “Rivera,” no, it’s “Rivero.” And to answer your next question, no, I have no idea who he is, and I follow this team almost professionally. But! I can tell you this, in the four games Rivero played (eight PAs), he was more valuable than 14 of the 19 players on the list.

Okay, okay, Matt, we get it. The Red Sox have been bad at third base, but now Pablo Sandoval is back and he’s lost weight so we’re all good, right? Well, yes and no. Sandoval is back and yes he did lose weight, and he’s hit for some power this season, so those are good things, but no, Sandoval’s return isn’t necessarily the answer to Boston’s third base problems. Back to that list one more time because we’re four paragraphs in now and there’s no reason to hide what a jerk I am anymore. Of the 19 different third baseman Boston has played since 2013, Sandoval is last. 19th. Partly that’s a function of playing time, and that’s true, but mostly it’s a function of him being horrendous. Like bad at hitting, bad at fielding, and bad at running the bases. But that’s all in the past, so let’s go back to the here and now.

Here’s the here and now: Sandoval is injured. Also, his work this season against left handed pitchers, admittedly in a small sample of 17 PAs, is befitting his placement on the above list. But it’s not just his hitting against lefties, his defense has also been suspect. That could be because of the time he’s missed over the past few seasons, or because of the surgery he’s likely still recovering from, so maybe it’ll improve over time. His range was never the strong part of his defensive abilities, and it still isn’t, but he’s moved around fine at third so far this year from what I’ve seen. It’s been his throws that have been the problem. Errors aren’t the best way to evaluate one’s defense but he’s already made four errors in 16 games, which puts him on a pace for –

[does math]

– waaaaay too many errors this season.

So, sure, maybe Sandoval comes back off the DL and the hitting improves and he stops making bad throws and hooray happiness. There’s probably more than a bit of wishful thinking there, but after looking at his batted ball data, I’m optimistic Sandoval can hit fine, even well, on the longer half of a platoon. Problem is, he’s not shown any ability to hit left handed pitching. Maybe he will, and I wouldn’t doubt John Farrell will give him some more shots at it when he gets healthy because it’s in the Red Sox best interest that Sandoval play more often than not. The reason it’s in the Red Sox best interest is also the problem with platooning Sandoval, namely the Red Sox don’t have much depth at third base. Their two primary depth options at third, Brock Holt and Marco Hernandez, are also left handed, not to mention neither one is really a third baseman. You can see how that would be problematic. Josh Rutledge is a organizational guy, a stop-gap, but not someone you want to run out to third base more than a few times over the course of a season. Same goes for Chase d’Arnaud who Boston just picked up off waivers from the Braves. Fine guy, I’m sure, but not someone you want to count on for any long period of time.

With those guys as the only options we’re left with hoping Sandoval gets healthy soon or … what? I don’t know and honestly I don’t think the Red Sox know either. There’s nobody in Triple-A Pawtucket you’d want taking regular time at third in Boston. Like really, nobody. The only potential in-house solution is Rafael Devers, and while he’s going to be a monster (really) and projects as a guy who can stay at third long term, right now he’s 20 years old with 50 at-bats above Single-A. Team President Dave Dombrowski has shown he’s not afraid to promote guys straight from Double-A as he did with both Andrew Benintendi and Yoan Moncada last season, so perhaps that’s a possibility later on in the year. That said, sometimes that approach works (Benintendi) and sometimes it really doesn’t (Moncada), so as good as Devers may be by 2019 or even 2018, he’s no guarantee to help the Sox in 2017.

If the Red Sox are going to fix third base this year, it’s either Pablo Sandoval improves beyond what we can reasonably expect, or more likely, we’re looking at finding a right-handed platoon partner for a healthy Sandoval. The alternative is going big and landing someone who can man the position long term, and that’s going to be expensive and costly and other words that mean expensive and costly. For example, if the Blue Jays continue to flounder perhaps Josh Donaldson becomes available. He’d fit in perfectly, but he’d cost a pretty penny (start with Devers) and I’m not sure the Jays would be willing to trade him within the division. More realistically the Red Sox are looking at someone like David Freese from the Pirates, or Mike Moustakas from the Royals (though he’s left handed also).

Looking back on the off-season, it’s a shame the Red Sox weren’t able to bring in anyone good enough to platoon with Sandoval, and competent enough to replace him when he was out of the lineup, as he figured to be at least occasionally. But they didn’t. Instead they traded from their third base depth to acquire another reliever, who, like relievers do, promptly got injured. None of this is helping the Red Sox move up a spot or two on the list, but it seems right now Dave Dombrowski has pinned Boston’s hopes on a full recovery from Sandoval or a prospect supernova turn from Devers. Beyond those (remote) possibilities, we’re looking at another season of sub-par production from third base for the Red Sox.