2:04pm: The groups have introduced the strikes.
1:48pm: The Purple Sox have a deal in place to accumulate catcher/outfielder Blake Sabol from the Giants, as first reported by Hunter Noll of Past the Monster. Boston will ship worldwide bonus pool house again to the Giants. Proper-hander Chase Shugart is being designated for project with a purpose to open a spot on the Sox’ 40-man roster, Noll provides. San Francisco designated Sabol for project final week.
Sabol, 27, was the Giants’ Rule 5 pick of the Pirates system previous to the 2023 season. He caught on San Francisco’s roster all yr, posting a .235/.301/.394 batting line (91 wRC+) with 13 residence runs however an unsightly 34% strikeout charge. Sabol’s Rule 5 choice got here on the heels of a stout .284/.363/.497 slash between Double-A and Triple-A in 2022. With that large efficiency and a decent rookie exhibiting within the large leagues, he appeared as if he may have a job on the Giants for a number of years to return.
That, nevertheless, was to not be. Sabol spent almost your entire 2024 season in Triple-A and struggled significantly. He slashed .246/.340/.388 there — about 15% worse than league-average manufacturing. He went 10-for-32 in a tiny cup of massive league espresso, bringing his profession charge stats to .243/.313/.392 in 382 plate appearances. That wasn’t sufficient to avoid wasting his spot on the roster following a regime change within the Giants’ baseball operations workers that has seen former NL MVP Buster Posey take over because the division’s president.
Sabol has caught 458 innings within the majors and performed 271 innings of left subject. He didn’t grade as a plus defender in both spot, although each positions include a reasonably small pattern of enjoying time. The Giants added a little bit of first base to Sabol’s defensive repertoire in 2024. He’s now caught 1843 innings, performed 943 innings throughout all three outfield spots and performed 172 innings at first base since being chosen by Pittsburgh within the seventh spherical of the 2019 draft. Sabol has a pair of minor league choice years and 5 seasons of membership management remaining.
With the Purple Sox, Sabol will compete with Carlos Narvaez — and any further catching depth introduced in by the Sox — to see who’ll function the backup to beginning catcher Connor Wong in 2025.
For the Giants, including some additional pool house is notable. San Francisco punted on a mixed $1MM of pool house final offseason after they signed Matt Chapman and Blake Snell after they rejected qualifying gives. That left them tied with the archrival Dodgers for the smallest worldwide bonus pool within the recreation, at $5.146MM. Between this swap and the commerce of righty Will Kempner to the Marlins, they’ve added to that pool by no less than $500K, as worldwide allotments have to be traded in increments of $250K. The Giants spent $3MM — greater than 58% of their preliminary pool — on prime worldwide signing Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez earlier at this time, so the additional {dollars} will assist to offset a few of that weighty bonus.
Turning to the 28-year-old Shugart, he made his large league debut with the Sox this previous season, yielding 4 runs on eight hits and three walks with eight strikeouts in 8 1/3 innings of reduction. He spent the majority of the 2024 season in Triple-A Worcester, the place he logged a 4.46 earned run common, 25.6% strikeout charge and 10.2% stroll charge in 70 2/3 innings, largely out of the bullpen.
Shugart was initially chosen by the Purple Sox within the twelfth spherical of the 2018 draft. He usually posted stable numbers up by way of the Double-A stage earlier than struggling mightily in his first two seasons of Triple-A ball in 2022-23. This previous yr was the primary by which he’s posted stable numbers on the prime minor league stage. Throughout his temporary large league look, he confirmed a five-pitch combine — four-seamer, cutter, sinker, slider, changeup — and sat 96.1 mph together with his heater. He didn’t induce many swings and misses within the large leagues however turned in a stable 11.7% swinging-strike charge in Worcester.
The Purple Sox can have 5 days to commerce Shugart. If not traded by then, he’ll have to be positioned on waivers, which is a 48-hour course of itself. If he goes unclaimed on waivers, the Purple Sox can retain him as non-roster depth in Triple-A and invite him to large league camp this spring. Inside the subsequent week, he’ll have some type of decision on his present DFA standing.
