Checking In On Old Friends: April Edition

This looks weird, right?

This is the first in a series of pieces looking back at the month that just was.

Some players pass through Boston without making much of an impact, but some guys, whether drafted by the team or not, stick with us. When those guys move on it leaves a small hole in our hearts, so I wanted to spend a few moments looking at how some of our old friends have got on in their new digs. This is Checking In On Old Friends: April Edition.

Mookie Betts

In case you don’t follow me on twitter, read the newsletter, or listen to the Sox Outsider Podcast, let me be clear: I will never ever ever ever [a billion “evers” later] ever get over the Mookie trade. But this isn’t about that. Mookie is a *gulp* Dodger now and a two-time World Series champ. This season he’s not heated up yet though, hitting an unMookified .250/.364/.405 through 20 April games. His defense is still stellar, as is his smile, but the power and average haven’t showed up so far. Nothing to worry about of course. He’s Mookie Frigg’n Betts. He’s gonna crush. He just hasn’t quite yet.

Jackie Bradley

The Saga of JBJ was well worn territory here at Sox Outsider this past off-season. Would they bring him back? No, as it turns out. Jackie signed a two year, $24 million deal with Milwaukee. In his first 23 games as a Brewer, he’s slashed .200/.261/.318 with one homer and two triples. The Brewers have needed him more than I thought when the signing happened though because, despite a crowded outfield on paper, Christian Yelich has missed all but nine games of the season. Bradley’s bat hasn’t come around yet, but he’s a notoriously streaky hitter, and there’s no real reason to think that won’t be the case in Milwaukee just as it was in Boston. It’s still early in the season, after all, and Bradley will have one of his torrid three week stretches where he plays absolutely out of his damn mind and his numbers will be back to where they usually are.

He’s played mostly center with the Brewers but he has also played a few games in each of the outfield corners because, being a prince of a human being, JBJ will help out the team in any way he can.

Andrew Benintendi

This was one of the most interesting trades the Red Sox have made non-Mookie division in a while. The Red Sox sent Benny to Kansas City for Franchy Cordero, minor league pitcher Josh Winckowksi, and two minor leaguers to be named later. That we don’t know the identities of half the return makes evaluating the deal difficult, but as for Benintendi himself, he’s on the JBJ train right now, meaning he’s struggled most of April. He’s hitting .232/.322/.325 with one homer in 21 games. It’s not the 2020 Benintendi, so that’s good, but it’s not the dynamic player we all saw in 2018 either. There’s still time for Benny (and Franchy) to make things happen as it’s just April, but the early returns aren’t what was hoped for.

Brandon Workman

Speaking of DFA candidates: Brandon Workman. After being traded to Philadelphia along with Heath Hembree for Nick Pivetta and pitching prospect Connor Seabold at the 2020 trading deadline, Workman quickly assimilated to the Phillies style of relief pitching by getting absolutely and repeatedly crushed. That put a crimp in his free agency plans, and he wound up signing with the Cubs for one year, $1 million. Sadly it was the Phillies version of Workman that showed up in Chicago, and the Cubs, not being the Phillies, decided a month of that was more than enough and DFA’d Workman yesterday. He’ll catch on with another organization, likely on a minor league deal, and hopefully can get back to his particularly unique style of success. More on that next month, hopefully!

David Price

Part of the reason the Red Sox traded Mookie was to unload David Price’s mega-contract, something they only sort of succeeded in doing as the Red Sox are still paying half of his deal, or $16 million a year through next season. Purely by the numbers that looks like a good decision (the Price part, not the Mookie part), as Price was pitching out of the bullpen for the massively loaded Dodgers and not doing all that well in his new role, putting up a 5.59 ERA in 9.2 innings before hitting the 10 day IL with a hamstring pull a few days ago. Still having Price as an option to step into the rotation at some point should that become necessary is an expensive luxury item, but one that the Dodgers can afford, especially if it got them one of the best players in baseball, which it did.

Mitch Moreland

Mitchy Two Bags! Moreland had somewhat of a Workman-like time (as opposed to a workman-like time) after leaving Boston. After posting a 1.177 OPS for the Red Sox in 22 games in early 2020, he was dealt to San Diego where he put up a .609 OPS. The Padres didn’t re-sign him and after a lot longer on the free agent market than he probably would’ve liked, he signed a one year deal with Oakland on February 23rd. The early returns are, well, early, but not wholly bad. Moreland has a .716 OPS with two homers and just two doubles. Another streaky hitter, Moreland is probably waiting for the Yankees to come to Oakland before unleashing 5 homers in four games or something like that.

Brock Holt

The Brockstar found a new forever home with the Texas Rangers after spending time with Milwaukee and the Washington Nationals in 2020. He’s mostly played third base with Texas with one game at DH. The numbers aren’t great, a .626 OPS through 13 games, so hopefully the Rangers don’t have the quick trigger finger that the Cubs did with Brandon Workman.

Incidentally, the Rangers and Red Sox are in the midst of a four game series, and on the latest episode of the Sox Outsider Podcast I spoke with Levi Weaver of The Athletic about the Rangers, so definitely check that out and subscribe if you haven’t already.