Chaim Bloom Has Been Busy, Lands Kiké Hernandez And Garrett Richards In 24 Hours
Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres. Getty Images.It may have taken three months, but the Red Sox have finally found their way out of the Interest Zone.
If you're a Major League Baseball player who filed for free agency at the start of this offseason, the Red Sox have either been "interested" in you, or runner-up to sign said player once they ended up elsewhere. And sure, the Red Sox have inked some deals with some players like Hunter Renfroe, Matt Andriese, and Martin Perez, but these two signings felt like a little bit of a step up from what had previously been coming across Boston's dashboard.
On Friday night, after a few weeks of speculation that he'd end up in Boston, Kiké Hernandez snagged a two-year, $14 million deal from the Red Sox. This coming just hours after it was reported that the Red Sox had been "trying hard" to sign Jurickson Profar, who went back to the Padres on a three-year, $21 million deal. Profar is entering his age-28 season, whereas Hernandez is entering his age-29 season, hence the extra year on Profar's deal.
Let's talk Kiké for a second. After Brock Holt's days in Boston ended following the 2019 season, the Red Sox tried to fill that role by signing Jose Peraza. Admittedly, I thought Peraza was going to work out here. Everything you heard about the guy during spring training 2.0 was that the dude was a stud and that he might even force his way into the lineup every day at second base. He stunk and that was that. Now the Red Sox will be turning to Hernandez to fill the super utility role in 2021.
The 2020 World Series champ has played every defensive position on the diamond at the big league level except for catcher throughout his career. In 2018, Kiké produced 3.3 WAR, which was his career high. That came down to 2.2 WAR in 2019 and then you had the 60-game season last year where a counting stat isn't really useful in this discussion. Offensively, 2020 was not Kiké's best. He hit .230 with a .680 OPS in 148 plate appearances. Not a huge sample, but the year prior he hit .237 with a .715 OPS so that's a .235 clip with a .707 OPS over his last 608 plate appearances.
The Red Sox aren't bringing Kiké in here to be an All Star all over the diamond; they're bringing him in to play multiple positions and give starters a breather on their days off. But in addition to that, he's being asked to bring his trademark energy to the clubhouse. I know the baseball nerds out there roll their eyes at intangibles, and I don't always think they're applicable, but teams need guys like Kiké to keep things loose. I remember when we interviewed Eduardo Nunez in 2018, he talked about coming over to Boston in 2017 and saying that the clubhouse felt like they were in last place. They were in first place. And then they got eliminated in the first round of the postseason. That culture changed in 2018 and they won the World Series.
No, I'm not saying that signing Kiké Hernandez means the Red Sox are winning the World Series, but I am saying that adding a guy like him to shift the vibes in the clubhouse is conducive to winning.
Almost immediately after the Hernandez signing broke last night, a report came out that the Red Sox were hot and heavy with right-hander Garrett Richards and that a deal could get done by the end of the weekend. How about the next day? Cool, cool.
I'll say the same thing about Richards that I said about the Yankees signing Corey Kluber to an $11 million deal. Richards got $10 million from Boston, by the way. If you can afford to spend that kind of money on a roll of the dice-type pitcher, God bless ya. Kluber has two Cy Youngs on his shelf. Richards has zero Cy Youngs but a handful of pretty damn good seasons under his belt. What can be said for both pitchers is that we are pretty far removed from those glory days from a baseball perspective. Kluber's last good season in the big leagues was in 2018. Same for Richards, who turns 33 in May.
Richards underwent Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2018, threw just 8.2 innings in 2019 and had a 4.03 ERA and 1.25 WHIP with 46 strikeouts in 51.1 innings last year. I mean, all things considered, those numbers are pretty decent given all the circumstances -- coming off Tommy John surgery, hadn't pitched in over a year, Covid season, etc. We're talking ten starts and four relief appearances, though. Kudos to him for taking a small sample and turning it into ten million bucks.
So, how do I feel about the signing? Take one look at Twitter following the news breaking and you'll see nothing but praise about Richards. Health has always been an issue, but when he's right, he's disgusting. I just am starting to look around and notice that there are a lot of guys who fit that description in the Red Sox rotation. Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi and now Garrett Richards. Shit, you can even throw Eduardo Rodriguez in there, too. When they're healthy, that's a pretty damn good foursome. The problem is…well, health. Health is the problem.