Wanted to see what the board thought about these extensions at the moment.
I do not think Rafaela is major league ready. They brought him up too soon. IMO. Bello likewise it is too early to say.
I like the idea of wrapping up young players early. Rafaela looks a bit worse because he’s a glove-first player playing out of position most of the time. But it’s good to see the Sox doing this for once. And it helps that neither of these deals are so crazy that the player cannot be dealt.
Next they need to extend Crawford and Houck…
It's obviously still early but Rafaela has been awful and currently a negative .3 WAR
I voted good for the sake of optimism, but if there was an "I have no freaking idea" option I probably would have chosen that.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.
I’m optimistic that they have started to extend young guys, but it feels like an overpay out of desperation at the same time.
I said all offseason and spring training that Rafaela needed more seasoning, mostly in dead ears. People just can’t seem to figure out spring training stats are largely useless.
I still really like Rafaela, I think him and Bello will be worth the money, but you sign guys this early you expect to get steep discounts.
i think in general both are good. it is obviously the strategy now to try and lock up our younger players on team friendly deals.
When we have limited data, the debate is about the logic of these two extensions and not the results.
I can see an argument that Rafaela was probably not the right candidate. Big extensions for players based on defense are rare, and the only other one that leaps to mind (Seattle’s Evan White) was a massive flop at a much lower cost.
Bello’s $9mill AAV is high leverage reliever/backend starter money. So it’s not a big deal if that’s actually the role he settles into IMO.
And now lock up Houck and Crawford. Casas is being difficult so let him wait and think about how much value injury-prone first basemen with limited defense really have. Even the ones who can hit in April…
He struggled in April last year and this year. Granted, limited data points.
Clearly the Sox are going to struggle to extend Casas because they differ widely on how much he is worth. If that’s going to be the case, I’d prefer the Sox move on for now. There’s actually much more of a rush to extend Houck than Casas…
Casas's comments on his extension negotiations didn't bother me. He said what they offered wasn't anything "enticing". He then went on to acknowledge that he needed to become a better all-around player and so on, kind of explaining why the offer wasn't that high. He seems like a pretty open and honest type to me.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.