- 2 days ago
If the Red Sox become sellers at the trade deadline, Willson Contreras will NOT be traded. He announced today that he will not waive his no-trade clause to be moved and wants to retire in Boston. Rich & Ken discuss how this impacts the team with the trade deadline looming.
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00:00Wilson Contreras has told reporters just moments ago
00:04he will not be willing to waive his no-trade clause.
00:07He wants to finish his career in Boston.
00:10He joked that he got out ahead of potential rumors
00:12by making his stance clear.
00:15So not that this was pressing necessarily now
00:18that they're back in the race
00:19and they're a half game out of the wild card,
00:20but if they do tank, which they have kind of wobbled
00:24in the last couple years,
00:25they've had these hot streaks going into the break,
00:27and then they've wobbled.
00:28There could be pivoting back to selling again,
00:31and he would be a prime candidate,
00:33but take it off the list, he will not do it.
00:35I love this guy.
00:36I mean, he has become the face of your organization,
00:38especially after last night he solidified it.
00:41And to be quite honest,
00:42what he did yesterday was impressive
00:44because if you looked at any of the betting websites,
00:48he was so far down the list.
00:50He was last, obviously,
00:51and was the person with the least amount of chance
00:54to do anything in yesterday's home run derby.
00:56And the fact that they started him off,
00:58it kept me watching
00:59because what a great start.
01:01He got out there and killed it,
01:02and it was great here.
01:03And it embraces the villain role.
01:05I mean, you could see that.
01:06You know, the come on, macho man Randy Savage
01:09behind the ear.
01:09Right, the hand like this,
01:11flipping it over behind the ear.
01:12But he did,
01:13and the Philadelphia crowd hated him,
01:15which is great.
01:17Now, did he really get hit by a pitch,
01:19or was that, did he step in front of it?
01:21No, it was close.
01:21Well, Flores, I mean, buzzed the tower for sure.
01:24Sure.
01:25Kenny Loggins would have done.
01:26I mean, he brought it up high and tight.
01:28It was, but you know what?
01:29But that was great.
01:30And he got out there,
01:31and he pissed off a bunch of people.
01:32And I like the fact that there is somebody on this team
01:35with a little bit of attitude.
01:36Now, I've heard people call him a fake tough guy.
01:38I don't know what a fake tough guy is.
01:39In baseball, nobody actually throws a real punch.
01:41Everybody in baseball is a big, right?
01:43Right, it's like, I hear that all the time.
01:44It's like, look at these fake tough guys.
01:46Except those dudes.
01:47Do you see that clip of the brawl in San Francisco
01:49between the Rockies fans and the Giants fans?
01:52No.
01:53Oh, my God.
01:54In the stands?
01:54Yeah.
01:55Guys and girls, it was like haymakers.
01:58Anyway, it was violent.
01:59Oh, yeah.
01:59It was like last Friday.
02:00The only, like, real baseball fights that you see
02:02is sometimes someone will come out
02:03and, like, cleat someone pretty bad.
02:05And you're like, geez, dude, that sucks.
02:06Nolan Ryan gave, who was it?
02:08Ventura the noogies.
02:09Like, he was giving them, you know,
02:10that was one of the best fights ever.
02:11Oh, yeah.
02:11And then there was what?
02:12Izzy, was it Izzy Alcantara who just, like,
02:14you know, drop kicked the catcher,
02:16which was fantastic.
02:17One of the greatest all-time moves.
02:18But, no, no, no.
02:20I don't like this whole fake tough guy thing
02:22because what is a real fight in baseball?
02:24All I know is that the guy talks his trash.
02:26You know, maybe he needs to rein it in a little bit
02:28and not pick fights with people on social media.
02:31But I like that there's attitude on this team.
02:32And, obviously, I love what he's doing now.
02:35I mean, was it 20 home runs he's got already?
02:37Yeah.
02:37Which is, I mean, he had, let's see.
02:41Also, at Fenway, he's hit 10 and he's hit 311.
02:44So, that's good.
02:45That's a great sign.
02:45You've got a guy who, like, he knows how to handle Fenway
02:48in terms of the crowd.
02:49And he's also, his numbers are surging at Fenway Park.
02:52Yeah.
02:53So, it's like you found the perfect fit.
02:55You have to keep this guy.
02:57And I heard Greg this morning say he would sign him to an extension.
03:00I don't think I'd go that far because he does have two years of control left
03:03and he's 34.
03:04Yeah.
03:04So, I think it's kind of perfect.
03:05You just let him ride it out for another year and a half and see where he is
03:08and then you can pick up the option.
03:09Totally.
03:10And, by the way, Sedan Raffaella said this yesterday.
03:13He was at the All-Star Game.
03:14He said this about Wilson Contreras.
03:16I think he means a lot.
03:19Since we signed him, I shoot him a text right away when we trade him.
03:22I sent him a DM and the first thing I told him is I'm so excited to be around you
03:29and learn because the way he played the game is the way I played.
03:33He played hard every day.
03:34And when I met him, he's even greater as a person.
03:38I think that's something that's helping us right now.
03:43He's been a huge leader in that clubhouse and I think it's what we need right now.
03:49And because of him, you got a Bowser bat going into the Hall of Fame.
03:52Right, right.
03:53That's right.
03:53It was a fantastic bat.
03:55Are you going to call him Bowser?
03:56No, no.
03:57Because he looks nothing like Bowser.
03:58I don't know why he picked that character of all the characters.
04:01He didn't pick it.
04:02People were calling him that.
04:04People were calling him Bowser?
04:06Yes.
04:06He is not built like a Bowser.
04:07I think it's his hair.
04:08I think he's got kind of like a wavy, spiky hair thing going on.
04:11Built more like a Yoshi.
04:12I mean, he's...
04:14Or Luigi.
04:15He is definitely not built like a Bowser.
04:17Like Bowser, I just think of like a Hulk.
04:18He's like the guy who plays Reacher.
04:20Like, that's Bowser.
04:22Maybe even Teddy J.
04:23Like, it's like a big person like that.
04:25That is...
04:26He is not a Bowser at all, but I do like the...
04:28I do like that.
04:29And he was traded...
04:31Breslow traded Hunter Dobbins for him and a couple prospects.
04:34You've got to give him credit for that.
04:36Yeah.
04:36And that's a...
04:37That's one of his finest moves.
04:38And he's made a few nice ones.
04:39So, okay.
04:40One thing that Rob Bradford said to us that was concerning
04:44is because...
04:45First of all, here's what ideally will happen in the second half of the season.
04:49Is that this team continues playing at the level that they've been playing.
04:52Now, I don't know about sweeping three in a row.
04:55That's insane.
04:55But let's say they played at over a 500 level.
04:59That's going to be enough to probably get them into the playoffs.
05:01Right now, the Vegas line is 80 and a half wins.
05:04I mean, which is not a surprise.
05:06That's a couple games under.
05:06Sure.
05:07That's where they are now.
05:07So, Vegas thinks they'll play 500 baseball.
05:10And that's probably not...
05:11As bad as the AL is, that probably is not good enough to get you in, right?
05:14Maybe you'd have to play a little bit better.
05:16I don't know.
05:16The AL stinks.
05:17It's awful.
05:18But let's say they continue playing close to the way they've been playing.
05:21All right.
05:21And let's also say that you are going to get some of these injured players back.
05:27And hopefully, Craig Breslow will make at least one move to get a bat in here.
05:32And if all those three things happen,
05:34then I'll take this team up against anybody in the American League.
05:37There's nobody that really scares me in the American League right now.
05:39Tampa Bay is really good.
05:40If the Yankees get judged back, they seem to be a better team.
05:44I mean, they do.
05:45But they are spiraling, man.
05:46They are without them.
05:47Without them, they're in a bad place.
05:49And it was nice to see Ben Rice finish last night.
05:51I know he's a local guy, but last place Yankees, that's always a nice treat.
05:55Of course.
05:55But the scary thing about all this is,
05:57is one part of that equation was if you get some of these injured players back.
06:01And you asked a great question to Rob Bradford,
06:03and that's like you named four different players.
06:05And you said, give me the order in which you think they're coming back.
06:08It was Trevor Story.
06:09It was Roman Anthony, Crochet, and Marcello Meyer.
06:17And his order was, I believe, Marcello Meyer first.
06:20No, no, Trevor Story first.
06:22Marcello Meyer, Roman Anthony.
06:24And then when he said Garrett Crochet, we followed up and said,
06:26do you think he's going to play this season?
06:28And it didn't seem like he was going to come back.
06:31And that's a big deal.
06:33Like, not getting Garrett Crochet back for the entire season is, like, that's awful.
06:39And you're right.
06:39At that point, you know, Ted said it, where you have to kind of look back and see whether they
06:43mishandled him at the end of last year,
06:46where there was anything this team could have done or the organization could have done to prevent this from happening.
06:50But the Roman Anthony thing's just weird as hell.
06:53Nobody knows what's going on because it seemed like it's been pain tolerance for the last couple of months.
06:57I mean, that's what they've said.
06:58They've flat said that.
06:59It's a pain tolerance issue.
07:00But they say it in a nice way where it doesn't sound like they're ripping him.
07:04You know, like, well, it's just the normal course of pain tolerance.
07:06But when they say that, you're calling a guy soft or at least putting it out there that he could
07:10play through it if he could tolerate said pain.
07:12And there seems to be no advanced movement.
07:14Like, he doesn't seem to be getting better at all.
07:16Dry swings.
07:17Yeah, dry swings.
07:19Dry swings are what douchebags do in the office when it's like the golf guy.
07:22Oh, the golf guy.
07:23There's always a golf guy in the office who does this air swing.
07:27And you're like, avoid that guy at all costs.
07:32It's like, if a mime, if like sign language for I'm a douchebag, that's it.
07:37It's the guy who does the air golf swing in the office.
07:40What about falsetto guy who goes down the office and sings like the high-pitched song?
07:44Who is that?
07:45We got a guy here.
07:46There's a guy here who sings in a high-pitched like he does like, mama mia, mama mia.
07:51Really?
07:51Who is it?
07:52I can't say.
07:54This is a weird-ass place.
07:55That was kind of personal for me, but go ahead.
07:57All right.
07:58You can't do that, Ken.
07:59Come on.
07:59I'm sure I can.
08:00You know what's going to happen, Ken, is I'm going to be like here on like two months
08:03from now.
08:04I'll just be walking to the hall, and I'll hear someone in the corner.
08:06You'll hear it, yes.
08:08I know Billy Lanny has the voice of an angel when he sings.
08:11No, it's not Billy Lanny.
08:12All right.
08:13Now you got me thinking who that could be.
08:15So when I think of Bowser, I think of Sean Anah.
08:17That's what it was.
08:18It was Bowser from Sean Anah that's on the mat.
08:19He was a big 50s doo-wop guy, Wilson Contreras.
08:22You can tell by looking at him.
08:24But that scares me that Garrett Cochet made it come out.
08:27The Roman Anthony thing is so effing weird, and the fact that they send him down to Florida,
08:32just like get away.
08:33And I do believe that's a Chad Tracy move.
08:35And I think Chad Tracy did the right thing.
08:37I think having him around is depressing for the team.
08:39I think they're seeing a guy who's out on the field before every game.
08:43He's doing his workouts, and everyone's going up to him and saying, hey, man, how are you feeling?
08:47He's like, no better today.
08:50He's like the Eeyore of the team.
08:51And I don't blame him.
08:52I'd be depressed, too, if I wasn't getting any better.
08:55He doesn't seem like a downer, though.
08:56He seems like he's just chill.
08:59It doesn't seem like he would be pissing people off, just his presence.
09:02No.
09:03But it's more just what could be.
09:05Yeah.
09:05And I don't even think it's pissing people off.
09:07And I also think, you know, for his sake, on his side, it's got to be depressing.
09:11Because how would you feel?
09:12Let's say that you believe everything that Roman Anthony is saying and that it is purely,
09:17I can't believe my hand isn't getting better.
09:20Every day having to answer people or basically to even think,
09:24I wonder if my teammates think I'm just not, I don't want to come back.
09:27He gave Bradford that interview, and he said something to that effect.
09:30Like, it's mind-boggling to me that it's my finger, and this is what we're talking about.
09:33Like, I think he gets it.
09:34He understands why people are saying this kind of stuff about him.
09:38But then I wonder if it's just worth him, like, why don't you just play through it
09:43and just start swinging, you know?
09:45Dude, I can't.
09:46Now, that I can't speak of.
09:48Because I don't know.
09:48I mean, it could be the sharpest pain out there.
09:50You know what I mean?
09:51It could be, like, a super sharp pain that we just don't mind.
09:53Dude, he's doing dry swings.
09:54He hasn't even picked up a bat yet.
09:56It's weird.
09:57It's weird.
09:58I've never heard of anything like this before.
10:00Like, especially when it's an injury.
10:02Like, hang on.
10:02How did that happen?
10:03And then, you know, there were all these reports that it was getting better,
10:06and now it wasn't getting better, and it still doesn't seem to be getting any better at all
10:09to the point where they're just like, get out of here.
10:11Just go down to Florida.
10:12You know, call us when your hand works.
10:16It's a really strange situation.
10:18Who do you want to see them trade for, by the way?
10:19I know you go get a bat.
10:21Mike Trout's name is on the text line, top of line.
10:25Okay, then that's my answer.
10:26Mike Trout.
10:28That's who I want.
10:29He's kind of boring, but he's a good baseball player.
10:31Go get Mike Trout.
10:34Listen, I just would love it if those three things happened.
10:37If this team continued to play at that level, like the level that they've been playing,
10:41and Chad Tracy keeps them buying in, and then Craig Breslow gets one big bat, all righty,
10:48and then you end up having some of these guys return.
10:50Like Trevor Story would be great to have him back.
10:53You know, then I'd put this team up against almost anybody in the American League.
10:58And it totally changes the mood of the summer, because we've had the World Cup get us through.
11:02Thanks to the Tartan Army, they got us this far.
11:04Yeah.
11:05Patriots camp starts soon, but you don't really start, I mean, until September, that kicks in.
11:09If you can get Red Sox pennant race for the next month and a half, it's just huge for the
11:14region.
11:14This team deserves your attention now.
11:16And I didn't say that until they won that White Sox series.
11:19That's when you're like, I don't know how you can't take this team seriously now.
11:23And you should look at Chad Tracy and watch what he's doing
11:28and realize that you may be looking at your next manager, your next full-time manager.
11:31Because if he continues this, what he has done, where he completely got thrown into the fire
11:37and is able to keep these guys believing and not turning against each other
11:41and not completely checking out when they had every excuse to,
11:45that is what a good manager does.
11:47And I like the fact that you could have this dude who seems like a good guy
11:52by all stretches of the imagination, and that you're not going to have to go searching around.
11:56And you've got a guy that's familiar with the young players and seems to connect with them.
11:59You're already ahead of the eight ball.
12:01Was that what it's called?
12:02Ahead of the eight ball.
12:02You're already in front of things just by keeping him around if things end up working out.
12:07And I believe that if they make the playoffs, if they make the playoffs, that's almost a miracle.
12:13It's a miracle seeing the way that they started when Alex Cora was fired.
12:17It kind of statistically is.
12:18I mean, I don't think there was a point where it was like no team has ever come out of
12:22this
12:22to make the postseason.
12:23I think now things are different.
12:24A lot of teams make the playoffs.
12:25So a lot of that baseball history is skewed.
12:27But do you think anybody could motivate the owners or Breslow?
12:31Like, could Wilson Contreras go into Breslow's office and say, we need help?
12:35Because I don't think Tracy gives you that, unfortunately.
12:38No.
12:38I mean, not that Cora really got action done in the last two trade deadlines either.
12:41But you don't have a guy there that's going to be able to go in with a hammer.
12:44No one's got that power.
12:45No one's got that power.
12:46It's just on Bres to get it done.
12:47It's on Craig Breslow, and I love the fact that, well, I like to think that he's fighting
12:52for his job.
12:53Because what you do is you make desperate moves, and you should make a desperate move.
12:56You should get a bat.
12:57You should absolutely do it.
12:59Even not desperate, but just uncomfortable.
13:01Somewhere, you know.
13:02As I said, put them clankers on the table, man.
13:05Go all in.
13:06Chips all in.
13:07Nuts all flopping.
13:09Let's go.
13:09Let's get this thing rolling.
13:11Because I'm telling you, this team has earned it.
13:14Those guys, Wilson Contreras and the rest of those guys have earned Craig Breslow going
13:18out there and getting them some help.
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