3 non-tendered players the Red Sox need to consider signing
There are 63 non-tendered players the Boston Red Sox could pick up for the baseball equivalent of pennies. Here are they should consider signing this offseason.
Baseball can be a heartbreaking enterprise, not just for its fans but for its players. We mostly hear about the ones who sign the biggest contracts and create the biggest moments, and less about the ones who have quiet that end with a near-silent fizzle or are quietly altered without a bat of an eye. The latter include the 63 players who were non-tendered by their teams on Nov. 17, who are suddenly without a team and without a guaranteed paycheck, and are left to scramble to sell themselves to other teams.
But every year there are players who are non-tendered or designated for assignment who are able to find new life with new teams. The Boston Red Sox are in need of some depth options in 2024, and now there are 63 players with different skillsets and various levels of experience, who the club could pick up for the baseball equivalent of pennies (so, hundreds of thousands of dollars) and give them another chance in the majors. Here are three the Red Sox should consider signing this offseason.
Nick Senzel
If the Red Sox are still stumped on who to put at second base for the majority of the 2024 season, might they consider Nick Senzel to add to their rotating cast of middle infielders? Senzel is a former second-overall draft pick for the Reds who hasn't quite lived up to expectations during his five years in the major leagues. An injury cut his 2021 season off at the knees, and he's never been quite an everyday player since then. 2023 was his best year since 2019, his rookie year — he hit .236/.297/.399 with 13 home runs and 42 RBI — but clearly, it wasn't enough for the Reds, who made a surprise move in non-tendering him instead of trying to use him as a trade chip.
Senzel is a utility man; the Reds used him at every position except first base, shortstop, and catcher during the 2023 season. This versatility is the thing thing that will give him the best shot to get onto a new roster next season. It wouldn't be ideal, by any means, for the Red Sox to continue to shuffle utility players and prospects at second base, but Senzel could make himself a more regular option there for Boston while also spending some time in the outfield. The Red Sox are expecting to lose Alex Verdugo to a trade and Wilyer Abreu, who FanGraphs predicts will spend a lot of time in the outfield next year, is still largely untested.
While it's true that Senzel was not the draft pick that the league expected him to be, he's still young and could have a lot of faculty as a floating depth option.
Mike Ford
The conversation that's followed Mike Ford's non-tendering by the Mariners has mostly been colored by mild surprise and disappointment, as Ford managed to do serviceable work for Seattle this year. He hit .228/.323/.475 with 16 home runs and 32 RBI in only 83 games so, especially power-wise, he was doing his job. Ford has been a journeyman ever since he left the Yankees in 2019 (he played for five teams and their Triple-A affiliates in 2022 alone), but once he settled in Seattle for the second half of the year, he had his best season since his first one in New York.
At the moment, Boston's options for designated hitters are Trevor Story and Masataka Yoshida. Barring anymore injuries, Story should spend most, if not all, of his time at shortstop next year and Yoshida should split his time between left field and DH, like he did this year. That leaves plenty of games where the Red Sox will be in need of another DH option, which is where Ford could come in.
Although he's clearly a player who has his peaks and valleys, non-tendered players are guaranteed to come at affordable prices for clubs who are looking to add depth and simply want have options available to them throughout a long season. The Red Sox could probably get Ford at league minimum, a drop in the bucket for a $150 million team that could keep alive the career of a veteran who is still capable to coming through for a team.
Kyle Lewis
Another big draft pick that hasn't lived up to expectations is Kyle Lewis, who was chosen by the Mariners with the 11th overall pick in 2016 and was non-tendered by the Diamondbacks this year. In Lewis' rookie year with the Mariners, he hit .259/.363/.438 with 11 home runs and 28 RBI in 57 games, which led to him winning Rookie of the Year with a unanimous 30 first place votes. (Alright, it was the COVID year, but that doesn't mean he didn't perform exceptionally with the time he had). After suffering two separate injuries, he only played in 54 games in 2021 and 2022 and was subsequently traded to the Diamondbacks.
With Lewis, the issue may be that he hasn't had enough of a chance to return to the form of his Rookie of the Year campaign. He batted .157/.204/.255 in 2023 for the Diamondbacks, but he only played played in 16 games as a DH. With the Red Sox, he could be another outfield depth option, which would give him the opportunity to increase his overall value through defense. In 2020, he was ranked in the 91st percentile in OAA and had an overall fielding run value in the 89th percentile. He could also be used in a pinch running capacity for a team that was in the lower half of stolen bases in 2023.
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