Remember when we - okay, me - complained about the Red Sox inactivity? Ha ha that was funny. Yesterday evening, about 24 hours after trading Andrew Benintendi in a three team trade for five players, the Red Sox signed former Astro and Twin Marwin Gonzalez to a one year, $3 million contract.
In the last month the Red Sox signed Martin Perez, Garrett Richards, and Enrique Hernandez, traded CJ Chatham and Andrew Benintendi, and traded for Adam Ottavino and Franchy Cordero. Oh, and three prospects we don’t know yet. And Dustin Pedroia retired.
So, oh yeah, Gonzalez.
He’s fine. I know that’s not inspired commentary, but it’s not wrong. His career wRC+ is 99, almost exactly league average. He’s a switch hitter who has a 100 wRC+ against lefties (from the right side) and a 98 wRC+ against righties (from the left side). He plays everywhere competently. He’s played every outfield position and every infield position for the Twins during the last two seasons, and did the same for the Astros in the seven seasons before that.
He doesn’t get on base all that well (career .315 on-base percentage) nor does he hit for power all that well (career .413 slugging percentage) but he has put together very good individual seasons over his career, and a number of those are still visible in the rear view mirror, even if they are getting a tad bit distant. In 2017 he was a four win player who, due to his versatility, deservedly found himself at the back end of the MVP ballot. That was a one time thing, apparently, but four of the last six seasons have seen him finish as an above average hitter. Of course one of those below average seasons was last season and that was his worst since 2013.
The 2020 season was so short and so strange it’s hard to hold it against any player, and if you look past 2020, Gonzalez offers a ridiculous level of competency, a player who could fill so many roles on a roster at a league average level.
He’s also 32, an age role players typically don’t get too far beyond. But, with his contract length and value, there is almost no downside to the Red Sox, beyond he has another MVP-type season and leaves Boston for a huge contract with the Yankees in 2022. But that’s hardly downside at all. In fact that sounds more like upside disguised as downside. Silly upside, it’s not even Halloween yet!
It’s particularly interesting Boston signed both Gonzalez and fellow new Red Sox Enrique Hernandez as both could almost literally play any position on the field any given night and be fine defensively in that role. Neither is great hitter, but neither will kill you like some backups will. In fact, we should see this in action during the 2021 season, with Hernandez and Gonzalez playing multiple positions all over the field on the same day.
In a weird way this could help the pitching staff, because between Gonzalez, Hernandez, and back up catcher Kevin Plawecki, every position on the diamond is covered, and every position on the diamond except catcher is covered twice. Now, to be clear, you wouldn’t want Gonzalez playing shortstop or, really, center field for any extended length of time, but in a pinch you could get away with it, and that’s all you really need in a backup. Just a few innings here, maybe a few days there, and if there’s a big injury, someone who can buy you enough time to make more long-term plans.
I’ll get into team depth in an article I’ll post probably next week (at this point I have to rewrite it) but the Red Sox roster offers redundancy after redundancy, with Gonzalez, Hernandez, Franchy Cordero, and Alex Verdugo who can play every outfield position, and Renfroe who can play both corners. Alex Cora is going to have his work cut out for him when it comes to preparing lineup cards.
That’s how Gonzalez fits into the roster. He is a high floor of competence everywhere he goes, at the plate and in the field. He is a great backup plan for just about every non-pitching, non-catching player on the roster. He’s a backup plan at second base, for the left side of the infield, and for Bobby Dalbec’s rookie campaign.
So far this has all been about roster flexibility and flexibility is a nice feature to have on a roster. It can paper over some problems, such as guys with sever platoon splits, or injury-prone players, or younger guys who are just getting their feet wet at the major league level, and the Red Sox have all of those types on their roster. That’s all well and good but none of that is an adequate replacement for star power. It’s great that Boston can play three guys in center field, four guys at first base, or nine second basemen simultaneously, but the only reason that is necessary is because none of those positions are manned by, say, Mookie Betts. There aren’t any Mookies around anymore though, so this will have to do, I suppose.
So that’s Marwin Gonzalez. He’ll be a fun addition and I suspect we’ll see him a lot, smiling over his glove, stationed all around Fenway Park. He’ll be our little nightly Where’s Waldo puzzle.
The last thing that occurs to me is wow is the team is going to look different this season. That amazing 2018 team is scattered to the winds. The only remaining members of that team that won the World Series less than three years ago are Xander Bogearts, Nathan Eovaldi, Eduardo Rodriguez, Ryan Brasier, Rafael Devers, JD Martinez, Chris Sale, Matt Barnes, and Christian Vazquez. Nine guys. That’s it.
Lastly, if you haven’t yet, check out the Sox Outsider Podcast. I just concluded an episode with Drew Fairservice of The Athletic where we talked, moments after the Benintendi trade happened, all about the Toronto Blue Jays. It might not be the most timely podcast ever, but it sure was fun and informative. So check it out, give it a listen, put it in your earholes, or whatever semi-clever ism people are saying now.