Signings! Red Sox Sign Relievers Strahm, Diekman
Also, a ton of other moves by non-Red Sox teams and also welcome back Tom Brady what
Baseball is back, as the kids say, or as Chris Berman says, baseball is BACK BACK BACK!!! Correspondingly, the Red Sox are back as well, and they’re getting stuff done. After a lukewarm start to the hot stove following the ratification of the new CBA and the end of the lockout, things started to heat up yesterday across the league. Nelson Cruz signed with the Nationals, the Yankees traded for Josh Donaldson, and measuring slightly lower on the seismograph, the Red Sox signed two relief pitchers in Matt Strahm and Jake Diekman.
We’ll get to Strahm and Diekman as well as some other notes in a moment, but first let me remind you that this is the Sox Outsider newsletter. I’m Matt Kory, and I write the words around here. You may know me from my time covering the Red Sox for The Athletic, or my work at FanGraphs, Vice Sports, Baseball Prospectus, etc. This is my gig nowadays, so I want to invite you to please come along with me as we surf the waves that are and will be this 2022 Red Sox season. It’s free to subscribe, and if you do you’ll get everything I write delivered to your inbox as soon as it publishes. So please, click the button, enter your email, and join Sox Outsider. Thanks!
The Red Sox didn’t make the biggest move of the day, but they did make the most moves. Is that good? Maybe! Quantity over quality wins occasionally, right? I’ll leave that to you to mull over. In the meantime, the specifics: the Red Sox signed free agent left-handed relievers Matt Strahm and Jake Diekman to major league deals. Neither has been officially announced as of this writing, but it seems Strahm’s contract is a one year deal while Diekman’s is for two years. Which is to say no time like the present to get the I before the E thing down.
Matt Strahm
We’ll start with Strahm, a lefty with flowing locks and a full repertoire of pitches, unusual for a reliever, which Strahm is. If you look at his numbers you’d probably think, hmm, he’s not a big strikeout guy and he’s not a big ground ball guy and he’s been hurt a bunch so what’s the attraction here? And you wouldn’t necessarily be wrong about any of that.
Strahm hasn’t thrown more than 21 innings in a season since 2019, having suffered a knee injury that cut short his 2021 season with San Diego. He’s fully recovered but the injury served to minimize his availability to pitch.
It strikes me that Strahm is a bit like Matt Andriese. Andriese was last year’s swingman type of relief pitcher signed as a free agent from the Angels, a guy who could give you innings out of the pen (and maybe start in a pinch), even if they aren’t necessarily the best innings.
Strahm has more upside than Andriese, in the sense that he’s actually been quite good before. Three times in his six big league seasons he’s posted an ERA more than 60 percent above league average, something Andriese never did. Strahm’s likely role is as a lefty swingman out of the pen, a guy who can come in and pitched the fourth, fifth, and sixth, and keep the game in hand. Because of his four pitch mix, he can face a lineup twice through, as well. And while he is left-handed, he has a reverse platoon split in his career, meaning he’s actually been better against right-handed hitters.
Strahm should give the Red Sox innings and theres a shot those are good innings, so for what he’s being paid, you gotta like the gamble. While the team can’t option him without having to put him through waivers, he’s only on a one year deal at $3 million, so if he needs to leave the roster, there won’t be any long term damage from his absence.
Jake Diekman!
Next, the Red Sox made a more exciting acquisition in Jake Diekman. While Strahm won’t kill you with velocity, Diekman… well, he will kill you with velocity. He’s your prototypical hard throwing reliever. He strikes out a bunch of batters, about a third of those he faces. He throws hard and features a hard slider and a harder fastball that he regularly gets up into the upper 90s.
He’s got the same warts as you might expect from the stereotype, namely walks and homers, except, not really on that last one. Surprisingly Diekman doesn’t usually give up many homers at all. This, combined with his great K numbers, makes him a really valuable reliever, and especially so as a lefty.
So, why is he settling for (what appears to be) a two year contract? Well, he’s 35 years old, so there’s that. Also, those good homer numbers disappeared last season when he gave up 10 homers in 60 innings. To get to 10 homers allowed by Diekman before last season, you’d have to add all the homers he gave up in 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017, and that would still only get you to nine. So giving up 10 in 60 innings was a lot, but for Diekman it was a home run explosion.
If he can keep the homers under control then he’s basically a good version of Matt Barnes. Namely, lots of Ks, probably too many walks, but not very many hits to bring those walks around and no super damaging homers to really create a problem.
Where Does This Leave The Bullpen?
This is a great question, and one I hope to have an answer to soon. Subscribe and, signings permitting, you’ll have the answer in your inbox soon.
Seiya Suzuki… probably not
During the lockout there was a lot of talk about the Red Sox interest in Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki. Suzuki is a power-hitting outfielder who figures to be above average-to-All Star level at just about everything. There’s always some question about how skills will translate when players switch countries to play in MLB, but scouts seem to think highly of Suzuki’s ability to be an impact player in the big leagues. And so, the Red Sox have reportedly been interested in his services as he’s a free agent, and that interest only intensified after Boston dealt Hunter Renfroe to Milwaukee.
Sadly, while the fit is seemingly perfect on the Red Sox end, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.
Suzuki’s decision hasn’t been made yet (according to reports, I don’t know the man so just repeating stuff here) but all signs are leaning towards him signing with a West Coast team. This means, if the Red Sox are going to add an outfielder, they’re going to have to look elsewhere. Other free agent options at the moment are Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos, but there are always options on the trade market as well.
Vaccines and playing in Canada… because of course we’re not done with this topic
Some news came out this weekend that the government of Canada, home of the Toronto Blue Jays, won’t allow players to enter the country to play baseball if they aren’t vaccinated. This makes sense. Why import Covid if you don’t have to?
The problem is that some players on other teams are not vaccinated and thus would not be able to join their teammates when playing in Canada. What’s more, their absence would be noticeable. For example, Xander Bogaerts. Also: Aaron Judge. There are certainly more, as well, on both the Red Sox and Yankees.
The Red Sox are scheduled to play four games against the Blue Jays in Toronto beginning on April 25th. I think Joshua Howsam put it best.
It’s going to be interesting to see which players make which choices, now with their everything seemingly lining up on one side of the equation.
Work To Do
For the Red Sox, there’s still lots more to do following the Strahm and Diekman signings. Chaim Bloom must find a way to plug the hole in right field left by the Renfroe trade, and presumably whatever way they find won’t include starting Jackie Bradley every day. I love Bradley as much as you do, but the man was horrendous last season, as in the absolute worst hitter in baseball by FanGraphs’ measurements. That’s not to say Bradley will repeat that season, but that’s not to say he won’t either. He’s not young and it would be wise for the Red Sox to not repeat the mistake the Brewers made last season in counting on Bradley’s bat.
This is all to say there should be some more deals coming out of Fort Myers in the near future. And in fact, Alex Cora spoke to the media yesterday and confirmed that the team’s front office is hard at work looking for additions to the roster.
All of which is to say expect to hear more from me in the near future.
Tom Brady!
So that was weird.
Cora’s new beard
Adding Strahm and Diekman as well as Bradley and whomever else they pick up to play right field, all of it pales in comparison to the newest thing in Red Sox Nation: Alex Cora’s beard.
I kid, but seriously, it’s not a bad beard! I never looked at Cora and thought, that dude should grow a beard, but now I see that was a failure of imagination on my part. Regardless, congratulations to the newest addition to Red Sox Nation. Perhaps, if the Red Sox get off to a good enough start, Cora’s beard will start to look like David Letterman’s.
Thanks for reading. If you haven’t yet subscribed to Sox Outsider, give it a shot! Stay safe, everybody.