The Red Sox and Kansas City Royals are exchanging promising gamers who missed most or all the 2022 season.
First reported by MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, the Sox will obtain infielder Adalberto Mondesí, who missed all however 15 video games final yr resulting from a torn ACL, and a participant to be named later or money issues in change for left-handed reliever Josh Taylor, who hasn’t pitched within the majors since 2021 resulting from again points. The Red Sox have confirmed the commerce.
Ahead of Red Sox Winter Weekend final Friday, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom made it clear that fortifying the center infield was a prime precedence. Now, the Sox are giving up a strong bullpen piece for a costlier participant with fewer years of membership management so as to take action. Taylor is about to earn $1.03M this yr and gained’t attain free company till 2026, whereas the Royals averted arbitration with Mondesí by agreeing to a $3.045M wage; he’s on observe without cost company after the upcoming season.
The Sox are giving up a pitcher who excels at limiting lefties; over 107 profession video games to this point, Taylor has held lefty batters to a .174/.249/.230 line. Prior to lacking your entire 2022 season with a again damage, he’d had been one among Boston’s most dependable relievers since his 2019 debut. In 2021, the southpaw, who will flip 30 in March, posted a 3.40 ERA throughout 47 2/3 innings.
Taylor is is stingy with residence runs (profession price of two.1%) and properly above-average with strikeouts (29.4%). In 2021, he ranked within the 92nd percentile in Whiff% and 83rd in Okay%. However, walks have been a difficulty (profession 10%) and he’s struggled to restrict arduous contact.
Who’s the brand new man? Son of Raúl Mondesí, a 13-year MLB veteran who gained 1994 NL Rookie of the Year and two Gold Gloves, Adalberto’s big-league profession started in a novel and historic method. As a 20-year-old prime prospect in 2015, he grew to become the primary participant in major-league historical past to make their debut throughout the World Series. James “Bug” Holliday debuted with the Chicago White Stockings (now the Cubs) within the 1885 World’s Championship between the National League and the American Association of Base Ball Clubs.
Mondesí is a profession .244/.280/.408 hitter, however brings much-needed defensive depth to a weak center infield that will probably be with out Xander Bogaerts for the primary time in a decade and with out Trevor Story for at the very least a number of months of the season. Kiké Hernández is slated to be the on a regular basis shortstop, whereas Christian Arroyo will deal with second base. Rob Refsnyder and Niko Goodrum, signed to a minor-league contract, supply infield depth as properly.
Primarily a shortstop (241 begins), Mondesí has additionally made 64 profession begins at second and 20 at third in his seven big-league seasons. Partially because of the Royals having extra on a regular basis infield choices, he’s solely performed greater than 60 video games as soon as in his profession, when he performed 102 video games in 2019. Of course, nobody performed greater than 60 video games in 2020.
Mondesí can also be one of many quickest runners within the sport. Between 2016-21, he’s been between the eighty fifth and one hundredth percentile in velocity every season. Cumulatively, his 29.9 ft/sec dash velocity over these six seasons was the eighth-fastest amongst all certified gamers (min. 10 alternatives). Over that very same span, he averaged 21 stolen bases per season, together with a career-high 43 in 2019. During the shortened 2020 season, he led MLB with 24 stolen bases. Though he solely performed 15 video games final yr, he nonetheless stole 5 bases, which might have tied Christian Arroyo for fourth-most on the ’22 Red Sox.
The commerce is promising, however carries important damage threat. Mondesí’s monumental potential has been hampered by frequent accidents; together with lacking virtually all of final season, he’s been on the injured checklist seven instances since 2018. The laundry checklist contains indirect, hamstring, groin, and each shoulders, together with surgical procedure for a left-shoulder subluxation. He’ll match proper in with a roster filled with “if he stays healthy” guys.
Mondesí additionally obtained an 80-game suspension in May 2016 for violating the league’s performance-enhancing substance ban, however the suspension was diminished to 50 video games when he was in a position to show that the banned substance, clenbuterol, had been an ingredient in his chilly drugs.
Source: www.bostonherald.com
