Two decades later, Duquette finally gets his due

May 29—In more ways than one, Dan Duquette was a man ahead of his time.

Originally from Dalton, Duquette grew up a Red Sox fan and in 1994 earned the opportunity of a lifetime to take over his childhood team at age 36. In many respects he was a forebear of the young, highly-educated executives who would soon take over the sport, and over his eight-year tenure in Boston Duquette would help build the Red Sox back into a contender while bringing in some of the most important players in club history.

Duquette did not get to see his dream of breaking The Curse through to the finish line, as he was unceremoniously fired when John Henry's ownership group took over the club in 2002. Once the Red Sox started winning championships Duquette's contributions were often overshadowed, and for a time his legacy became that of the guy whose teams were good but not quite good enough.

With the benefit of hindsight, Duquette always deserved better, and now he's rightfully been welcomed back into the fold as an important figure in club history.

This past Thursday Duquette was honored as part of the Red Sox Hall of Fame's Class of 2020, a star-studded group headlined by David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez and also featuring longtime catcher Rich Gedman and early 20th century standout Bill Dinneen.

"I'm humbled and honored to be a part of this great class," Duquette said. "Big Papi and Manny Ramirez, they drove in more runs than anybody else but Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. That was the two-headed monster in the middle of the Red Sox lineup for years. Those guys won MVPs of World Series and playoffs, and they could get hits when it counted. It's great to be included with those guys."

Ortiz and Ramirez were the driving force behind the curse-breaking 2004 World Series championship team, but that club would never have been able to end Boston's long title-drought if not for the foundation Duquette laid years earlier.

Here is a short list of moves Duquette made over the course of his tenure.

* Selected Nomar Garciaparra as his first pick in the 1994 MLB Draft months after arriving in Boston.

* Picked up Tim Wakefield off the scrap heap as a free agent in 1995.

* Traded for franchise cornerstones Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe at the 1997 trade deadline in exchange for journeyman relief pitcher Heathcliff Slocumb.

* Traded for reigning NL Cy Young Award winner and future Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez prior to 1998 season for then-prospects Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr.

* Signed Manny Ramirez to historic eight-year, $160 million deal ahead of 2001 season.

* Signed Johnny Damon for four years, $31 million shortly before 2002 season and his impending dismissal.

All of those players but Damon are now enshrined alongside Duquette in the Red Sox Hall of Fame, and their combined 221 wins above replacement in Boston is more than the career totals of Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski put together. More importantly, they also formed the core of not one, but two future World Series championship teams.

That's something Duquette was always acutely aware of, and when the Red Sox finally broke through in 2004 he acknowledged feeling a great deal of satisfaction.

"I was there with my friends in St. Louis and we celebrated just like everybody else," Duquette said. "I celebrated with three generations of my family who waited for a Red Sox championship, and finally we got it, so I was so proud of the guys."

Now his role in making that moment possible is being given its proper due.

Five years later, who won Sale trade?It's been more than five years since then-Red Sox baseball boss Dave Dombrowski orchestrated the blockbuster trade that brought Chris Sale to Boston, and while few of the players involved were on the field during this week's series against the Chicago White Sox, the impact of that deal still resonates through both franchises to this day.

Prior to the 2017 season the Red Sox acquired Sale from the White Sox in exchange for top prospects Yoán Moncada and Michael Kopech along with two other minor leaguers who did not go on to make a meaningful impact at the big league level.

In five and a third seasons since that deal, Sale has gone 40-24 with a 3.09 ERA, 815 strikeouts and 15.4 wins above replacement over 562.1 innings. His best seasons in Boston by far were his first two, topping 300 strikeouts while finishing as Cy Young runner-up in 2017 before helping lead the Red Sox to the 2018 World Series title. He was an all-star in both of those seasons, but since then he's been plagued by injuries and has only logged 42.2 innings since August of 2019. He hasn't pitched yet this season due to a freak offseason rib injury and is only now finally getting back on the mound in hopes of making his debut sometime in June.

Meanwhile, both Moncada and Kopech have become productive big leaguers, but whether or not the White Sox got the better end of the deal is still up for debate.

Moncada, then regarded as one of the top prospects in baseball, is now in his fifth full season as Chicago's everyday third baseman. While he had an excellent 2019, when he batted .315 with a .915 OPS and earned down-ballot MVP consideration, he has otherwise struggled with his consistency and is currently mired in a tough season at the plate.

Even putting aside the value comparison to Sale, it's obvious now the Red Sox made the right move by choosing to keep Rafael Devers over Moncada. The two had been teammates in the minor leagues, and following the trade Devers became Boston's top third base prospect and quickly blossomed into a big league superstar.

Things get a bit dicier when you look at Kopech, however, and he could prove to be a major coup for the White Sox going forward.

Long renowned for his triple-digit velocity, Kopech took a while to get going but is now emerging as one of the top pitchers in the league. Following the trade Kopech underwent Tommy John surgery and missed all of 2019, and then he also opted out of the 2020 COVID-19 season. He finally joined the White Sox big league club last year and posted a 3.50 ERA out of the bullpen, and this season he made the starting rotation and currently boasts a 1.29 ERA through his first eight starts.

Time will tell if Kopech can sustain that level of production, but five years later it's clear that the Sale trade wound up benefitting both sides. The Red Sox got two years of elite production and a World Series title, and the White Sox got two productive big leaguers, one of whom may be blossoming into an ace in his own right.

Hard to complain about that either way.

How does Duran fit into big league equation?Jarren Duran's cameo with the Red Sox earlier this month was brief, but in one game he provided a tantalizing glimpse of his improvement since last summer's failed stint.

Since then he's continued to impress at the Triple-A level, and at this point it's hard to imagine what more he has to do to prove he deserves another big league opportunity.

Duran deserves another shot, but with the way the big league roster is currently constructed there isn't an obvious place for him either. Duran isn't going to supplant Kiké Hernández in center field, and because he, Alex Verdugo and Jackie Bradley Jr. all bat lefty, a platoon situation wouldn't make much sense.

So how could he still fit?

The simplest solution would be to trade one of the current starting outfielders to clear space for Duran, and Bradley Jr. would be the obvious candidate. The veteran has been every bit the defensive standout he was during his earlier years in Boston, but while he's been hot at the plate recently, he's always been a fairly streaky hitter so over the long run Duran would likely be an upgrade. Bradley Jr. is also a pending free agent, so a deal could allow the club to add another prospect for a player who isn't likely to return in free agency this coming offseason.

Another option is the Red Sox could abandon their current 12-position player, 14-pitcher roster mix and go back to an even 13-13 split. Under that scenario the Red Sox could stick with the status quo and deploy Duran situationally off the bench, or they could plug him in as the starting right fielder and have Bradley become a late-inning defensive specialist.

Alex Cora has indicated recently he likes having 14 pitchers available, so this option isn't as likely in the short term, but as time goes on it could become more appealing. Regardless, there are plenty of possibilities and if Duran keeps on crushing it in the minors it's going to be harder and harder to keep him down.

You can't make this stuff up

Baseball players feuding over some petty grievance is as old as the game itself, but this week's dustup between Cincinnati Reds outfielder Tommy Pham and San Francisco Giants outfielder Joc Pedersen takes the cake.

Prior to Friday's game Pham confronted Pedersen in the outfield during warmups and slapped him in the face. The two parties later confirmed that the issue stemmed from a disagreement over Fantasy Football, and Pham also accused Pedersen of saying disrespectful things about the San Diego Padres, his former team, in a group chat.

Pham was subsequently suspended three games by MLB and will miss the remainder of the Giants series.

The next generationBack in 2004, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Keith Foulke helped lead the Red Sox to the most shocking comeback in baseball history, rallying from down 3-0 to beat Gary Sheffield and the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series before capturing the club's first World Series title in 86 years.

Eighteen years later, the four former big league stars' children will all get to share the field together themselves.

D'Angelo Ortiz, Manny Ramirez Jr., Jaden Sheffield and Kade Foulke are all playing together with the Brockton Rox this summer in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. The Rox season began Thursday and the summer league club is scheduled to play 64 games through the middle of August. Locals interested in catch the big league scions can either make the trip down to Brockton or drive to to Nashua's Holman Stadium whenever the Rox head north to face the Nashua Silver Knights.

Keegan named Golden Spikes semifinalistMethuen's Dom Keegan has delivered another outstanding season for Vanderbilt baseball, and now the former Central Catholic great has been identified as one of the 31 best amateur players in the country.

Keegan was recently named a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, which is given annually by USA Baseball to the nation's top amateur baseball player. The semifinalists include players from across all levels of college baseball, including a Division 3 superstar, and Keegan earned inclusion after leading the Commodores with 12 home runs and 58 RBI while batting .363 with a 1.069 OPS.

Finalists will be announced on June 8 and the winner will be unveiled on ESPN on June 24. The finalists and winner will partially be determined by fan vote, so those who wish to support Keegan or any other candidate can do so by voting at https://www.usabaseball.com/golden-spikes-award/nominees/2022.

Email: mcerullo@northofboston.com. Twitter: @MacCerullo.