I actually don't hate this one. Red Sox fans really wanted him called up last year - he adjusted his swing and hit a ton of dingers. I think only Hoskins was a better hitter in the IL last year.
It certainly falls under the whatever crap sticks to the wall, but I think we can sort of extend that kind of thinking to nearly the entire roster, really only mediated by certain expectations and pedigrees. Obviously there's a way of stretching what I'm saying into total bullshit that defends the poor direction and leadership of NH et al, and I don't intend it that way, but basically how I see things is that the team is depending on a ton of players to beat their projections, on top of young talent.
Even the on-paper good players have degrees of question marks around them. I honestly can't really think of an important or supplementary player who doesn't. Probably the least extreme are something like: Rivero - will he be the best RP in baseball or just somewhere around 4-8?; Bell - will his hit tool come back to where it's expected and keep the power?; Taillon - will he have a full, healthy season and take a step forward as the leader of the rotation, or simply be a dependable innings guy?
I'm looking for a deeper dive on Brentz, but it seems like he's struggled with both injuries and translating to the AAA level for the most part, before putting together a very fine season last year. It's the definition of a no risk move, but a handful of no risk moves aren't going to move the needle at all for this team.
