Some MLB teams make trades. This one dealt nearly half its roster
When the standings closed on May 17, the Twins had won 13 consecutive games to sit second in their division. It was the franchise's longest winning streak in 34 years, and the longest in all of MLB since 2022. Minnesota had one of baseball's best staff of relief pitchers and an All-Star outfielder in Byron Buxton. Suddenly, a spring training declaration by the team's top baseball executive, Derek Falvey, that reaching the World Series 'has to be the mission from Day One,' sounded more like a possibility.
By this week's trade deadline, that mission had changed dramatically.
No longer ascending in the standings, the Twins had moved from a buyer looking to bolster its lineup ahead of a playoff run into a seller trying to extract some value from a lost season — the kind of shift in thinking that happens to numerous teams across all professional sports.
Yet the scope of the Twins sell-off Thursday, in the final hours before the deadline, was anything but typical. Many teams out of playoff contention sell off key parts; the Twins, however, took it to an extreme. Over nine trades, they dealt away 11 players from a 26-man roster.
When Falvey sent a signed message to fans late Thursday, he wrote that 'this wasn't about patchwork or small adjustments."
That was an understatement.
'We had been hovering around or under .500 for a period of time and just couldn't quite get things going in the right direction, and we've got to find a new way to do it,' Falvey told reporters.
Falvey framed the roster reset as a baseball decision for the future of a team that had gone from six games above .500 on May 17 to six games under. But along with bringing back a collection of prospects, the trade also accomplished slashing its payroll, and making it less expensive to operate. The trade of the highest-paid Twin, shortstop Carlos Correa, was effectively to ensure that another team, Houston, would foot the bill for more than $70 million of his remaining salary.
The Twins have historically never been among the top-spending teams, and their decline since May had only further disincentivized adding costs to a team whose ownership has been publicly looking to get out of the baseball business since late last year, when the Pohlad family — which has owned the franchise since 1984 — announced it was looking sell the team.
'The sale process continues to be an ongoing reality for our organization and something that we will work through at the right time,' Falvey said.
The intention to sale was announced at a time when labor peace between players and the league, and the attractiveness of owning a franchise in a smaller market, have come under question. Six teams last season had a payroll of $102 million or less, according to Spotrac, less than the amount the Los Angeles Dodgers reportedly paid in taxes alone.
The average MLB team valuation at the season's start was $2.62 billion, per CNBC. Minnesota's $1.6 billion valuation ranked 22nd out of 30 teams.
The few remaining holdovers include pitcher Joe Ryan and Buxton, who only two weeks earlier had noted the security provided by his no-trade clause.
"I'm a Minnesota Twin for the rest of my life," Buxton said at the All-Star game. "So, that's the best feeling in the world."
The Twins woke up to a different feeling Friday. To fill out their roster for their first game after the deadline, the Twins were forced to call up eight players from the minor leagues. Gone are five relievers from a bullpen that had shined during the team's winning streak, including top closer Jhoan Duran. Players on longer contracts, such as Correa, and others expiring at the end of the season were dealt with equal measure.
On Reddit, one user noted that the roster upheaval had turned the Twins' official Instagram account into a series of graphics announcing either a 'trade alert' or a 'thank you' to a departed player.
The extreme teardown took place less than two years after Minnesota won its division and made the postseason for the first time in three years.
'I had some conversations with the front office in Minnesota and we were not moving in the direction that I thought we were after [making] the playoffs [in 2023], and they agreed with me that it was time to move me,' Correa told MLB.com.
And 10 others, too.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
27 minutes ago
- USA Today
Athletics' Nick Kurtz 'shocked' to be MLB rookie sensation a year after college
WASHINGTON — Nick Kurtz's dominance has been so startlingly sudden, so consistent and enduring that it's challenging to pinpoint exactly when the Athletics realized just what they had on their hands. It'd be understandable if that moment came in spring training, when the 6-5, 240-pound Kurtz showed up just seven months after he was drafted fourth overall out of Wake Forest and immediately displayed a mindset beyond his years, and a plate approach more suited to a player a decade into his major league career. It'd be obvious if that ah-ha sequence came July 25, when Kurtz became the first rookie in major league history to hit four home runs in a game, a 6-for-6 night in which he also tied the major league record with 19 total bases. Or perhaps by month's end, when Kurtz had tallied 25 extra-base hits, one shy of Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx's franchise record set in 1932, earning him American League rookie and player of the month honors. For Brent Rooker, though, the jaw dropped for good over two nights in June, when his young teammate's greatest attributes – the gorgeous swing, the inner calm, the prodigious power – came together in a manner that turns bad ballclubs good. The Athletics – housed in Sacramento for the moment – might have been swept in four games by the Houston Astros if not for Kurtz. He hit a pair of walk-off home runs in that four-game series, coming off Astros relief aces Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader, moonshots that sent thousands of fans gleefully into the Yolo County night. 'He was good before that,' Rooker, the A's two-time All-Star outfielder, tells USA TODAY Sports, 'but everybody realized how good he could be. Those were two of the better relievers in the entire league. He had great at-bats against them in crucial situations and hit two home runs to win two games. 'As impressive as he was prior to that, those two nights kind of shined a light on how special he is.' How special? Special enough to debut April 23 yet still post 23 homers by early August, to go along with a .307 average, 1.035 ERA and 61 RBIs, leading all rookies. Special enough to mark that epic four-homer night in Houston (the kid doesn't like the Astros, it seems) not as an apex but rather the midpoint of a 20-game heater in which he batted .480 with nine homers and a 1.575 OPS. And special enough to earn the esteem of a young yet salty clubhouse with his quiet yet significant presence. 'The joy of all of it,' says A's manager Mark Kotsay, 'is the humility that he shows day in and day out.' 'They fly through the minor leagues' It would be easy for Kurtz to carry the traits of an entitled young baseball bro. In short, he's always been elite, even after he left the snowy climes of Lancaster, Pennsylvania in search of greater competition. Kurtz made enough of a splash to earn a spot on Team USA's 12-and-under team in 2015, a squad that won eight of nine games to claim a WBSC World Cup title in Taiwan. Kurtz was a slugger and also the top pitcher on that team, but it was as much networking opportunity as it was youth baseball nirvana. A handful of teammates went on to attend Baylor School, a college prep boarding school and hothouse for baseball development in Tennessee. As Kurtz schlepped through the uncertain weather patterns of Central Pennsylvania in spring, his pals' recruiting efforts finally paid off. 'I was playing in the snow and bad weather in Pennsylvania,' says Kurtz, 'so I decided maybe going south was the best thing for me as a player. It just kind of worked out that way.' And what a squad. Christian Moore went on to star at Tennessee and was chosen four slots behind Kurtz in the 2024 draft; he also made his major league debut this season, for the Los Angeles Angels. Infielder Henry Godbout went on to Virginia, was drafted in the second round in July and signed with the Boston Red Sox. In his junior year, Kurtz said, almost the entire lineup was committed to Atlantic Coast or Southeastern conference schools. Kurtz went to Wake Forest, a school better known for its 'pitching lab,' yet whose rep for churning out sluggers is about to grow significantly. It was there that Kurtz, under associate head coach Bill Cilento and assistant Matthew Wessinger, took both his mechanics and approach to a higher level. 'That's stayed true from my freshman year in college,' says Kurtz, 'to where I am today.' By his junior year, Kurtz's statistics were predictably video game variety – a .531 on-base percentage and 22 homers in 54 games, and the A's snagged Kurtz fourth overall, two picks after teammate Chase Burns, a right-handed pitcher, was selected by Cincinnati. Yet consider this: Barely a year later, Kurtz has already hit one more home run in the big leagues (in just 75 games) than he did his senior season at Wake Forest. How has Kurtz made the game's highest level seem as simple as a weekend series at Duke? He points to the A's most recent draft pick – left-hander Jamie Arnold, chosen 11th overall out of Florida State – as an example of how the college game is, perhaps more than ever, an express lane to prepare young players for the big leagues. 'You see more and more guys getting called up earlier than you've ever seen before,' says Kurtz. 'More kids, very talented guys are going to college, especially with NIL – more guys are getting to school. 'We picked Jamie Arnold this year. I faced him many times and that's as pro-ready an arm I've seen. I think he's one of the best. Every school in the SEC, ACC, they might have a guy or two like that. 'The advancements we've made internally at the school have prepared all of us.' The A's will certainly vouch for that. Kurtz is now the overwhelming favorite to earn AL Rookie of the Year honors, but until he suffered a fractured forearm, A's shortstop Jacob Wilson – drafted in 2023, debuted in 2024, an All-Star in 2025 – was the choice. 'Those guys, it seems like they fly through the minor leagues and are ready to compete at the big league level,' says A's catcher Shea Langeliers, drafted ninth overall out of Baylor by Atlanta in 2019. 'The college game is advancing and those kids are more mature. 'The talent level is getting closer to the minor league level, so you're almost playing minor league baseball in college.' A big week for 'Big Amish' Yet Kurtz, Langeliers says, is different. 'Seeing him for the first time in spring training, being around him, thinking of when I was 22, compared to where he's at at 22, it's just a massive difference,' he says. 'Maturity-wise, how he sees the game, how quickly he's adaptable and adjustable, it's been really impressive.' Kotsay, in his fourth season as A's manager, hints at an extremely high ceiling for Kurtz based on the dispatch with which he adjusts to pitchers. Kurtz's 11.4% walk rate is well above average, but as he matures as a hitter, he should cut into a 29.4% K rate. 'It's really eye-opening to see a young player make adjustments almost pitch-to-pitch in an at-bat, and he's got that ability, which is really special,' says Kotsay. 'When we talk about classifying big league hitters, I always say, guys in the Hall of Fame make adjustments pitch-to-pitch. 'Guys that are All-Stars make adjustments at-bat to at-bat, and guys that are everyday players, it can be a game or a series before the adjustment's made. 'I think he's leaning on that top one - where he's got a knack to make an adjustment pitch-to-pitch.' Kurtz is enjoying a big week in the Mid-Atlantic – he had roughly 40 family and friends roll down from Lancaster to Nationals Park; and no, despite Kurtz's 'Big Amish' nickname teammates bestowed upon him, they did not travel by horse and buggy. A larger throng is expected this weekend at Baltimore's Camden Yards, where Kurtz attended countless games as a kid. Success came quickly then and, somehow, it's coming even faster now. 'I would say I'm a little shocked, surprised,' says Kurtz. 'I knew I was a good hitter, but having a really good rookie year is pretty cool to see.' And there's still two more months for Kurtz to expand what seems to be a limitless horizon.
New York Times
28 minutes ago
- New York Times
How the Milwaukee Brewers (yes, the Brewers) built one of baseball's best teams (again)
On the day after the MLB trade deadline, Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy uncapped a pen and scribbled notes for himself. Quiet, he wrote. Less is more. 'We've been doing the deadline all year,' he said, and so opted against blustering into his clubhouse to cajole or commiserate with the team about the lack of major acquisitions. There was no need to call a meeting with a group that has become, improbably, the owners of the best record in baseball. Instead, he used the same pen to write out his lineup. Advertisement At the top of the order, he inked the name of the day's only active addition, Brandon Lockridge, a 28-year-old outfielder with a little more than 100 big-league plate appearances and one career home run. 'He seems like our kind of player,' Murphy said. What Murphy meant offered insight into how the Brewers view themselves as they chase yet another National League Central title: players who demonstrate skill with their glove, ability on the base paths, and a willingness to sublimate their ego to serve the greater good. 'You have to be hyper-vigilant about who you are,' Murphy said. 'The awareness of who you are and how you impact the game.' When the Brewers host the New York Mets this weekend, it will be a rematch of one of last year's most riveting postseason faceoffs and a potential preview for this coming October. A return to the postseason was expected for the Mets, who spent $750 million on outfielder Juan Soto. It was far less of a given for Milwaukee, whose front office lobbied owner Mark Attanasio not to cut payroll. For the Brewers, last October ended with the heartbreak wrought by Pete Alonso's home run off closer Devin Williams. The offseason was almost as dispiriting. The team traded Williams, a two-time All-Star, just as they traded away former National League Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes the year before. Shortstop Willy Adames departed in free agency. They watched from afar as the Chicago Cubs loaded up to chase them. Yet here the Brewers are, back in first place, confounding skeptics and offering a blueprint for success on a shoestring budget. At this point in the season, outsiders tend to get dispatched to explain how the team — residents of baseball's smallest market, financed by a payroll in the sport's bottom third — are doing it again. The questions amuse those who have heard them before, having made the postseason in six of the past seven seasons. Advertisement 'Same way we do it every year,' said outfielder Christian Yelich, the team's longest-tenured position player and the only Brewer inked to a nine-figure contract. 'We just find ways to win games.' He added, 'We have a standard, like, an identity of how we play. And everyone who comes in here slots into that.' The formula this season reflects the composition of the roster, a team with lackluster power but superlative fundamentals. Murphy and the coaching staff emphasize team-wide execution. No hitter feels burdened with carrying the lineup. The offense places the opponent in a nine-inning pressure cooker; no team has been more valuable on the bases, according to FanGraphs. The development staff has created a pipeline of pitchers who trust the organization's ability to guide them. The players operate without the pressure of the big-city microscope. 'It's like a weird storm of all these different things coming about,' said pitcher Brandon Woodruff. At the center of the storm is Murphy, the 66-year-old former college baseball coach who moved into the manager's office when Craig Counsell decamped for the Chicago Cubs before last season. Murphy applies the same principles of selflessness to his staff through a makeshift, ego-deflating exercise he calls 'the check game,' which is designed to prevent people from puffing themselves up. Murphy devised the system during eight seasons as Counsell's bench coach. He kept tallies on a whiteboard. When former bullpen coach Steve Karsay referred to his Yankees teammate Derek Jeter as 'Jetes,' that was a check. When Counsell brought his glove to the ballpark, that was a check. And then there was the time former hitting coach Andy Haines attempted to solicit insight from former president of baseball operations David Stearns, who left to run the Mets in 2023. Advertisement 'We're all in the coaches' room,' Murphy said. 'So Haines goes to Stearns, 'David, I've been wanting to know the answer to this, and I figured I'd bring it right to the top.' And then Stearns goes, 'Well, what do you got, Andy?' And I'm like, 'Hold on a sec. That's a check, Stearnsy. So you're the top? Mark doesn't own this team?' Murphy maintains the same rigor with the Ivory Tower, the name he has given for members of general manager Matt Arnold's front office. 'An Ivory Tower check is when they come swooping in, like, 'Hey, why don't you —' and give us a suggestion,' Murphy said. 'That's a f—ing check.' So if someone in the scouting department bragged about bird-dogging flame-thrower Jacob Misiorowski, that would be a check. If someone in the analytics department claimed credit for seeing a path to success in first baseman Andrew Vaughn's minor-league batted ball data, that would be a check. And if anyone crowed about the wisdom of trading a competitive-balance draft pick for starter Quinn Priester? Yep, that's a check. The Brewers added all those players weeks before the deadline. The deal for Priester demonstrated the team's ability to utilize its market size to its advantage. The club received two compensatory draft picks last winter, one for losing Adames, who signed a seven-year, $182 million contract with the San Francisco Giants, and another as part of an initiative in the collective bargaining agreement to aid teams that draw the least revenue. In April, Arnold bundled that second pick, which was No. 33 overall, along with two prospects to acquire Priester, a first-round pick in 2019 who had not made Boston's Opening Day roster. 'You have a lot of guys in our clubhouse who have been overlooked for a long time,' Arnold said. Upon arrival, Priester recalled, he received a series of specific but simple instructions. The team wanted him to focus on pounding his 94-mph sinker down and away to generate groundballs. He needed to learn to spot his 92-mph cutter for back-door strikes. A lack of control in the running game was not acceptable. The little things, he was told, count around here. 'Those little things keep the game simple, keep the game fun, keep the game loose,' Priester said. 'And you realize you're only one simple play away from doing something great.' Priester stabilized a starting rotation that has improved as the season progressed. Woodruff returned in July after missing last season following shoulder surgery. Freddy Peralta made his second All-Star team last month. He was joined at the Midsummer Classic by Misiorowski, a 6-foot-7 rookie taken in the second round of the 2022 draft who throws so hard his changeup clocks at 92 mph. Advertisement The team also possesses the depth to protect the group. When Misiorowski took a ball off his shin in late July, the team was able to put him on the injured list rather than risk him damaging his arm while compensating for the discomfort. The Brewers also had a ready-made replacement when first baseman Rhys Hoskins injured his thumb last month. Milwaukee called up Vaughn, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2019 draft, whose career had sputtered with the Chicago White Sox. Vaughn was languishing in the minors in June when Brewers pitcher Aaron Civale, after being moved to the bullpen, asked to be traded. Soon after, Arnold exchanged Civale for Vaughn, who remained in Triple A until Hoskins went down. 'Just getting him in a different environment, with a different level of pressure, we thought would be a good change of scenery for him,' Arnold said. When Vaughn received his promotion, the staff provided marching orders, just as they did for Priester. If he did not swing at strikes, he would not stick around. The message left little room for interpretation, which is one of Murphy's hallmarks. 'It's professional baseball, at the end of the day,' Yelich said. 'I think people lose sight of that sometimes. Like, wanting it to be like, 'Oh, you're doing great and it's OK.' Sometimes, it's not OK. It's the big leagues. There's a league for other s—, and it's not this one.' Vaughn responded to the ultimatum. In his first 20 games as a Brewer, he batted .371 with six home runs and a 1.118 OPS. He is far from the only new face thriving in the lineup. Outfielder Isaac Collins might win National League Rookie of the Year. Caleb Durbin, one of the players acquired from the New York Yankees in exchange for Williams, has emerged as a solid regular at third base. The presence of Vaughn adds more power potential for a lineup that will need it in October. A recent hot streak from slugging catcher William Contreras also provides optimism. The franchise has not won a postseason series since 2018. Yelich believes this group could be different. Advertisement 'Our culture here brings the best out of players,' Yelich said. 'Because you feel comfortable when you don't have to put the team on your back, all by yourself. Just compete your ass off and have fun. Just give it hell. That's all you can do.' The next few months will determine if a team stocked with their kind of player can win it all. (Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Photos: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images, Matthew Grimes / Getty Images, Jess Rapfogel / Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Here in 2025, and after four World Series titles, it's time to name our All-Quarter-Century Red Sox team
Related : As further circumstantial evidence that time seems to be accelerating, the century already is a quarter complete — more than that if you count 2000 rather than 2001 as its start, which we do here, since that's when we celebrated the century's turn while exhaling about Y2K. Advertisement With that it mind, it seemed a fitting time to put together our All-Quarter-Century Red Sox team. A few rules : We used Wins Above Replacement as a major factor, but not always the deciding factor, since sentiment and nostalgia must be at play here. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Also, our roster is 25 players, with everyone in their appropriate role. You'll see what that means. Many of the choices were easy. A couple are worthy of serious debate. One I left up to you. And every player selected won a World Series with the Red Sox. Sure couldn't have said that last century. The squad: Catcher: Jason Varitek Who else? The stoic captain of the 2004 and 2007 champs is the only player ever to catch four no-hitters, and few Red Sox have ever had a higher approval rating. From 2000 until his retirement after the 2011 season, he provided 22.3 Wins Above Replacement, more than three times the Red Sox' second-most productive catcher of this century, Christian Vazquez (6.9 WAR). Also, Varitek is the all-time leader in the wildly undervalued sabermetric stat MARETM — Making A-Rod Eat The Mitt. Advertisement Catcher Jason Varitek had a lot of memorable moments with the Red Sox, but none more memorable than when he got into Yankees star Alex Rodriguez's face. Barry Chin/The Boston Globe First base: Kevin Youkilis A.k.a. the Greek God of Walks, or, more colloquially, YOOOOOOOOOOUK! He spent plenty of time at both infield corners for the Red Sox during his 2004-12 run, playing 464 games at third base and 613 at first. His greatest successes came while playing the less hot of those corners. He won a Gold Glove at first base in 2007, finished third in the American League MVP voting in '08 and sixth in '09, and averaged 5.7 WAR per season from 2007-10. Second base: Dustin Pedroia Dare you to tell him someone else is the pick. Actually, based on sentiment, there is no other choice, and based on analytics, he's the easiest call in this exercise. The 2007 AL Rookie of the Year (and World Series scourge of Jeff Francis) and '08 MVP (when he had 54 doubles, 213 hits, and 118 runs), four-time All-Star, and annual Heart Of It All accounted for 51.8 WAR during his 14 full or partial seasons with the Red Sox. Among players who played at least 40 percent of their games at second base, Mark Bellhorn is a very distant second at 4.1 WAR. Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia was the 2007 AL Rookie of the Year and '08 MVP, and a four-time All-Star. Davis, Jim Globe Staff Shortstop: Xander Bogaerts This might seem a tough call for someone who has spent many words here over the years arguing with great effectiveness that Nomar Was Better Than Jeter*. (*from 1997-2003. Then the world turned cruel). But it's not, you see, because this is a vote for stability over mercurial excellence. Nomar Garciaparra did have spectacular seasons after the turn of the century. He hit .372 to win his second straight batting title in 2000, with 7.4 WAR, and after a wrist injury wiped out his 2001 season, he came back perhaps stronger than we recall in 2002 (6.8 WAR) and '03 (6.1). I trust you know what happened in 2004. Bogaerts, who tallied 34.6 WAR to Garciaparra's 20.8 with the Sox this century, was a picture of poise and professionalism in Boston while contributing to the 2013 World Series victory as a 20-year-old kid and the '18 championship as one of the core stars of the most dominant Red Sox team ever. Advertisement Third base: Gonna leave this one up to you, friendly reader. Welp, the analytics claim the choice is easy: Rafael Devers, whose 24.8 WAR more than doubles runner-up Mike Lowell (10.6). But no one within 100 miles or so of the 617 area code wants to go with Devers after his shenanigans this season, and hey, by the way, here's a fun fact: The Red Sox and Giants with Devers this season: 53 wins, 62 losses. The Red Sox and Giants without Devers this season: 68 wins, 46 losses. Makes you think, right? So if you remain Devers-averse, and I presume you do, take your pick at third base among the steady Lowell (Alex Bregman reminds me of him a lot), Mariano-slayer Bill Mueller, one awesome year of Adrian Beltre, or anyone but Pablo Sandoval, really. Advertisement Chad Finn's all-quarter-century Red Sox lineup, with room for readers to decide on their own third baseman. John Hancock/Globe Staff Left field: Manny Ramirez Seventeen years — yep, it's been that long — after he was traded to the Dodgers, I still miss watching him hit, and I will even beyond the day his 2007 playoff home run off Angels closer Francisco 'K-Rod' Rodriguez finally lands. Center field: Johnny Damon Yeah, yeah, he left to sign with the Yankees after the 2005 season, and helped them win their most recent World Series in '09. (Wow, it's been awhile.) Call him a traitor if you must, but nothing he could have done — or ultimately did — in the Bronx could come close in relevance to his two-homer, seven-RBI all-timer of a clutch performance in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. His time in New York was temporary. His time here is forever. Johnny Damon had two home runs and seven RBIs in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Yankees. Jim Davis/Globe Staff Right field: Mookie Betts Betts's 42.5 WAR is third among Red Sox hitters this century, trailing only David Ortiz (52.5) and Pedroia (51.8). But they were each here for 14 seasons. Betts was here for just six, averaging more than 7 WAR per season, including a staggering 10.7 in his 2018 MVP season, when he hit .346 with 32 homers. Somehow, he's in his sixth season with the Dodgers, and anyone who wants to come out of the woodwork to say his tough 2025 season validates the Sox' foolish decision to trade him can go chew gravel. Designated hitter: David Ortiz 'He is the greatest clutch hitter you, your dad, your granddad, and in all likelihood, your unborn children will ever see. He's Big Papi, larger than life, bigger than the biggest moments.' I wrote that in June 2005, and 20 years, countless highlights, and one Hall of Fame induction later, all I'd change is including your wife, mom, and grandmother, as well. Advertisement Starting pitcher: Pedro Martinez As we said in the '80s: No duh. His 2000 season stands as one of the greatest in baseball history: 18 wins, 6 losses, a 1.74 ERA (in the juiced-hitter era, when the league average was 4.91), 284 strikeouts in 217 innings, and 11.7 WAR, the most by a starting pitcher this century. Following the greatest pitcher I've ever seen in the rotation: Jon Lester (29.9 WAR), Josh Beckett (22.3), Curt Schilling (17.7), and Chris Sale (17.0). Closer: Keith Foulke Jonathan Papelbon actually has the most WAR among Sox closers since 2000, and he closed out the 2007 World Series with style. But Foulke got many of the most tense and toughest outs in Red Sox history during the 2004 postseason. He's the choice. And I'm keeping Koji Uehara on this roster to get it to 25 players, and because he induced the least stress of any closer the Red Sox have ever had. Keith Foulke closed out the Curse-breaking 2004 World Series for the Red Sox. Jim Davis/Globe Staff Others to fill out our 25-man roster: Lefthanded setup man: Hideki Okajima. Righthanded setup man: Mike Timlin. Utilityman: Brock Holt. Player you want fielding the last out of a playoff series: Pokey Reese. Backup outfielder: Gabe Kapler. Pinch runner: Dave Roberts. Stole a base of some magnitude once, I've been told. Designated inspirational speechmaker: Kevin Millar, for the Don't Let Us Win Tonight schtick that proved prescient, and then legendary. Designated series-clinching pitcher and team goof: Derek Lowe. Pitcher who always has his spikes on just in case: Tim Wakefield. Because there's no point in having this team without Wake. Advertisement Chad Finn can be reached at
