Which is why it is reasonable to project how Montas will pitch in the playoffs. When you carry a double-digit division lead into August, you’re allowed to look ahead to October. The Yankees acquired Frankie Montas to do something he has only done once before. 296/.340/.439 in 30 games (albeit with a wholly unsustainable BABIP) and reliable pitch-framing, won the backup job to make McGuire expendable. But a return to Diekman’s form from the first half will be needed for him to contribute reliably in high-leverage outside of situational matchups.īoth McGuire and Seby Zavala were out of options, and while the White Sox had been carrying both on the major league roster for the past week, Yasmani Grandal's return from injury was going to force a decision eventually. With Reynaldo López on the injured list, and the Sox currently wary of using Liam Hendriks, Joe Kelly or Kendall Graveman on back-to-back days, their offensive struggles are leading to a lot of close games. The Sox specifically needed a lefty reliever, but also could really just use another setup man, period. While control has never been Diekman’s forte, his current 17.5 percent walk rate is among the worst of his career to date, and has contributed to vulnerability against right-handed hitters. 188/.316/.250 from a low three-quarters slot that is tough for left-handers to pick up. Diekman, 35 and under contract through next season with a club option for 2024, immediately addresses the Sox’ paucity of southpaws in the bullpen due to injuries for Aaron Bummer and Garrett Crochet, and their love of avoiding pure rentals for what they view as a multi-year contention window. It could be the perfect fit but the guy can be an asshole and change the morale of this clubhouse.”Ī day later, the Sox acquired Hendriks’ old Oakland A’s teammate in Diekman, who has a 4.23 ERA in 38 1/3 innings this season, with big strikeout numbers, as well as big walk totals contributing to a rough month of July (6.57 ERA with 10 walks in 12 1/3 innings). “They ask guys, ‘How is this guy in the clubhouse? How is this guy as a person? (How is) this guy on the field?’ It’s bouncing around guys. “That’s what I love about the front office here,” Hendriks said. Afterward, his closer praised how the front office vets the clubhouse presence of potential trade acquisitions with current players before making moves. White Sox general manager Rick Hahn spent some time after Sunday's game speaking with Liam Hendriks. It’s the final season of a four-year, $20.3-million extension, and Vázquez was worth every penny, respected and even beloved in the Red Sox clubhouse, a player who’d come into the organization as a ninth-round teenager and was leaving as a proven big league veteran. 282 with the Red Sox’s fourth-best OPS in 2022. 632 OPS his first four years in the majors but a. Long considered a glove-first player, Vázquez had a. He reached the big leagues in 2014 and underwent Tommy John surgery soon after, but he returned to become a valuable role player and eventually catch the final out of the 2018 World Series, before reinventing himself that offseason to become one of the better, more durable all-around catchers in the game.
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Vázquez had been a member of the Red Sox organization for nearly a decade and a half. Because the Red Sox were in Houston as the Vázquez deal was coming together, media from both markets - more than two dozen reporters and cameramen - swarmed batting practice to document Vázquez’s final swings with the team that drafted him out of Puerto Rico in 2008.