Podcast Ep. #236: Let me introduce to you, the one and only Alex Speier

That's right, Alex Speier's on the Podcast! Our man with the Boston Globe, fresh off of submitting his top 30 prospects for the Baseball America Prospect Handbook, joined us to talk about all things at Fenway and Down on the Farm. We've even got a bit of a throwback for the Sox farm OGs!

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Fall/Winter League Roundup: Castellanos gets hot, Cordero provides heroics

The playoffs are coming up for a few of the winter leagues, though a COVID-19 outbreak put a pause on games in Puerto Rico. For the full list of Red Sox prospects participating in these leagues, check out our Fall & Winter Leagues page, which will be updated continuously throughout December and January. This week's roundup covers the week of December 13 through 19.

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Dominican Professional Baseball League

The regular season came to a close last week, but the two teams featuring Red Sox minor leaguers started some play-in action on Sunday evening. With the LIDOM season shorter than usual, if the teams in fourth-place (Aguilas Cibaeñas) and fifth-place (Leones del Escogido) finished within two games of each other (they did), they were to have a play-in in which the fourth-place team needs to win once, the fifth-place team twice, to move on to the round-robin among the top four teams. On Sunday night, Victor Santos threw 1 2/3 scoreless in Escogido's 12-9 victory, forcing a deciding play-in game Monday night.

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Fall/Winter League Roundup: Panama starts up and Santos adds to his scoreless streak

It was another light week for Sox prospects, but this week welcomed the start of the Panama Professional Baseball League, which began on Thursday. For the full list of Red Sox prospects participating in these leagues, check out our Fall & Winter Leagues page, which will be updated continuously throughout December and January. This week's roundup covers the week of December 6 through 12.

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Dominican Professional Baseball League

Escogido has two Sox prospects in its ranks in Franchy Cordero and Victor Santos (pictured, right). Cordero has been playing full-time and did so again this week, going 4 for 19. His best performance came on Friday when he went 2 for 4 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout, and his worst performance came Tuesday, going 0 for 6 with four strikeouts. On the mound, Santos had a busy week, pitching in three games. On Tuesday, he got the win with a perfect scoreless inning with two strikeouts, on Thursday he allowed one hit and struck out one in 2/3 of an inning, and Sunday he threw his third scoreless outing of the week, allowing only a walk. Santos has now strung together six consecutive scoreless outings.

Joan Martinez had two very different appearances pitching for Aguilas this week. On Wednesday, he threw two scoreless innings, working around two walks while striking out one, and on Saturday he threw only 2/3 of an inning and allowed a home run.

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Scouting Report Updates: Alex Binelas and David Hamilton

Less than an hour before MLB's owners locked out the players, the Red Sox announced they had acquired outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr., third baseman Alex Binelas and shortstop David Hamilton for outfielder Hunter Renfroe. 

The deal brings a reunion with Bradley after he left in free agency following the 2020 season. Bradley was the Red Sox' 2011 first-round pick out of South Carolina and was a key contributor during his eight years on the team, making one All-Star Team and winning one Gold Glove. Bradley really struggled at the plate with Milwaukee in 2021, hitting .163/.236/.261, but did play his usual standout defense. Bradley is due $9.5 million in 2022 and has a substantial buyout of $8 million in 2023 if his $12 million mutual option isn't picked up. Given his performance, the Bradley deal is an overpay, so in return for taking it on, as well as sending back Renfroe, the Red Sox received two prospects. 

Alex Binelas was the Brewers' third-round pick in this year's draft out of Louisville. Binelas had an up-and-down spring with Louisville, hitting .256/.344/.621 with 19 home runs and 51 strikeouts to 21 walks, and saw his draft stock fall after once being seen as a potential first-round pick. Breaking his season down further, he hit .145/.247/.274 in 62 at-bats in the first 16 games of the season, then hit .308/.395/.782 with 18 home runs in his final 133 at-bats of the season. After signing with the Brewers, Binelas was very impressive in Low-A after a brief stint in the Arizona Complex League. With the Carolina Mudcats, Binelas hit .314/.379/.636 with 9 home runs in 132 plate appearances.  

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Podcast Ep. #235: The storm before the calm

Well, that was certainly a couple of interesting weeks! The Red Sox headed into the lockout with a flurry of activity, with three pitcher signings and the trade that brought JBJ back and a couple of new prospects into the Top 30. Chris and Ian dished on the transactions, the lockout, and even mixed in some season-end rankings talk and as always, your emails!

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Fall/Winter League Roundup: Martinez throws well; Dominican league enters final stretch

It was a relatively light week for Sox prospects, as the Arizona Fall League is now over and the Dominican Professional Baseball League pushes toward the postseason. However, the Panama Professional Baseball League begins on Thursday, which will feature Eduardo Vaughan and may feature Jonathan Araúz (he was previously announced for the league, but was absent from the Aguilas Metropolitanas roster released last week that does feature Vaughan)*. For the full list of Red Sox prospects participating in these leagues, check out our Fall & Winter Leagues page, which will be updated continuously throughout December and January. This week's roundup covers the week of November 29 through December 5.

*Dec. 7 Update: Araúz will instead play for Federales de Chiriqui, as announced later in the day on Monday.

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Dominican Professional Baseball League

Escogido has two Sox prospects in its ranks in Franchy Cordero and Victor Santos. Cordero has been playing full-time for his team, hitting 3 for 15 on the week with a walk and a pair of RBI. The runs he drove in were his seventh and eighth on the season, as Escogido is floating around .500 this year. On the mound, Santos surrendered two hits in 2/3 of an inning on Friday, but neither of the runners came around to score. 

 

Joan Martinez (pictured) appeared on Thursday for Aguilas and had a clean 1 2/3-inning appearance with a strikeout, while Phillips Valdez did not appear for Estrellas.

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