3 Red Sox under contract in 2023 who fans are ready to move on from

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When the offseason begins, several Boston Red Sox players will depart in free agency.

Some will be missed, others can’t get going fast enough.

Unfortunately, a few of the players fans are itching to see leave are probably sticking around. They could be non-tendered or traded, but as of yet, they’re on the 2023 roster.

Here are three players under contract or club control that have overstayed their welcome in Red Sox Nation:

Ryan Brasier

Ryan Brasier is having the worst season of his career by far.

Over 60 appearances, he has a 6.05 ERA and 1.382 WHIP. Opposing batters are hitting a combined .292/.325/.498 against him.

Really, Brasier’s best year in Boston was his first. In 2018, he came out of nowhere and posted a 1.60 ERA over 34 appearances. Across the following two seasons, a 4.57 ERA over 87 games made him hard to watch, and then he only threw 12 innings in 2021.

He must have some great blackmail material to hold over the front office, because there’s no other explanation for his continued presence on the roster.

Aside from club control, anyway.

But at a certain point, prioritizing and valuing club control above all else can flip the script; rather than controlling their players, the club is controlled by a need for control. In Brasier’s case, the Sox have no other legitimate reason to keep him, and yet they cannot bring themselves to relinquish an affordable, controlled player.

Brasier is entering his final year of arbitration, and with his poor performance this year, the Sox could easily prove that he’s earned a pay cut, rather than a raise. But much like the duality of club control, no matter how affordable his salary is, it’s actually quite expensive; he’s already cost them a roster spot and winnable games for months.

If the front office is serious about building a better team next year, Brasier won’t be on it. Enough is enough.

BOSTON, MA – MAY 7: Bobby Dalbec #29 of the Boston Red Sox stands at first base as he tosses a baseball during the ninth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park on May 7, 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts. The White Sox won 3-1 in ten innings. (Photo by Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images) /

Franchy Cordero/Bobby Dalbec

Between Bobby Dalbec and Franchy Cordero, the first-base situation was rough for most of 2022.

Cordero isn’t even a first baseman by trade, but the Sox were so desperate that they moved him from the outfield. It didn’t improve the infield situation at all.

They even traded for veteran Gold Glover Eric Hosmer, but he got hurt after a dozen games, prompting them to finally call up Triston Casas.

It looks like Casas will stay for the remainder of the season and begin his own big-league journey, so what does that mean for Dalbec and Cordero?

The Sox should’ve traded Dalbec last offseason, after he finished the year with 25 home runs and 21 doubles. After his struggles this season, the only way they’re getting anything for him is if he’s part of some sort of prospect package.

As for Cordero, the Sox might just non-tender him this winter. He’s beloved in Triple-A, but can’t get it together consistently at the big-league level.

Chris Sale

When the Red Sox gave Chris Sale a contract extension in March 2019, the rosy afterglow of the 2018 World Series still lingered enough to mask some serious concerns with the deal.

For one thing, he’d been hurt during the 2018 season, only making one start between July 27-September 11. It was a game against the Baltimore Orioles, who were so bad that year that manager Alex Cora likened Sale pitching against them to the equivalent of a rehab stint. Harsh, but true; he struck out 12 and walked none over five one-hit innings.

But then, he went back on the sidelines for another month. He still finished that historic 108-win regular season with four fairly solid starts in September, and pitched somewhat well in his postseason starts against the Yankees, Astros, and Dodgers, though he couldn’t shut any of the teams out.

His 9th-inning appearance in Game 5 of the World Series put a stunning varnish on the whole shebang. As Sale entered from the bullpen at Dodger Stadium, the expression on his face gave away the outcome before he even reached the mound. He struck out the side, 1-2-3. His final pitch brought Manny Machado down to his knee. Game over.

Riding high off that moment, extending Sale seemed like one of the most obvious ways to ensure that the dominance of the 2018 team continued for years to come. But less than a week later, he allowed seven earned runs in his Opening Day start. He didn’t have a scoreless game until May 3. As the spring progressed, struggles that were first attributed to a shorter offseason and little spring training work (Cora wanted to give the rotation extra work after the long postseason run) became legitimate concerns. Even though he racked up double-digit strikeouts in nine of eleven starts between the beginning of May and the end of June, he couldn’t keep runs off the board.

By early August, he was done for the year. He should’ve gotten Tommy John surgery then, but they wanted to exhaust all other options before taking that route. When the 2020 season was delayed by the pandemic, he finally has the surgery.

With a recovery timetable of over a year, Sale missed all of 2020 and most of 2021. After returning from Tommy John in August 2021, he fractured his rib in batting practice. When he recovered from that, a comebacker fractured his pinky in his second start of the year. And while rehabbing from the pinky injury, he broke his wrist riding a bicycle. He’s also had COVID at least twice and remains unvaccinated.

At this point, it’s impossible to count on Sale. It’s been years since he’s looked like a formidable beast on the mound, and he’s been hurt more than he’s been healthy. He’s missed so much of the lucrative contract extension signed in the halcyon days of the 2018-19 offseason that at this point, many fans are just ready to move on.

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