Red Sox: Off Season 2024-2025

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Congratulations! You found a room below the sub-basement…

I'm not sure whether to call it a hidey-hole or hermitage. 

[vjcsmoke]

First the Red Sox lose out on Soto to the Mets.

Now they lose out on Max Fried to the Yankees.

It makes you wonder if all the previous intent to spend was just posturing and we are going to again conveniently just 'miss out' on all the top tier free agents because they want too much money.

As Mr Henry said, running a baseball team is expensive, you couldn't possibly expect them to spend a lot of money to improve.

[FredLynn]

3 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

They have had "moments" of moderate spending since the Bloom hire, and gave that massive Devers extension, recently, but we are being passed by more and more teams with more "willing" ownership groups.

I don't think the "lied" when they said they felt we could remain competitive as they scaled back spending. We did have some payrolls that were top 5 to 10 for most of the last 6 seasons, but we did not spend very wisely, as we kept losing key player after key player, with the Betts loss as the major kick in the balls, way back in 2020.

Yes, they have been lying to us, and more than just the "full throttle" obvious lie. I feel like all these reports of being interested in the top FAs is all lies, too. If it's not a lie, it's almost worse, since it shows they have no clue about what the market is.

I have no doubt that they were “interested” in the top FAs-but only at the kind of rock bottom prices that would never get the job done. Last season they were at #12 in payroll in MLB. Given the fact that they have turned into a s*** franchise, if they are honest about wanting to turn it around the purse strings must be loosened and the decisions have to greatly improve. 
I see no evidence of that happening. So I expect at best mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

[moonslav59]

11 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

I have no doubt that they were “interested” in the top FAs-but only at the kind of rock bottom prices that would never get the job done. Last season they were at #12 in payroll in MLB. Given the fact that they have turned into a s*** franchise, if they are honest about wanting to turn it around the purse strings must be loosened and the decisions have to greatly improve. 
I see no evidence of that happening. So I expect at best mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

Thinking you can get a top FA at "rock bottom prices" shows naiveté or just plain ole stupidity.

I don't think it's that.

I think it's all one long con game aimed at convincing enough fans that they are making a serious effort to improve the team, and coming up just short makes them look better than not "trying" at all. 

In the past, I wasn't sure if they actually believed Paxton, Kluber and Richards would lead them to respectability, but that was different than going after all the top fish, publically. Even then, they did not pretend to go for the best of the best like now. Back then, it was Eflin, Nate and the like- not Soto, Fried and Burnes.

[Larry Cook]

Hello crochet 

[moonslav59]

Good bye, Teel. 

We hardly knew ya.

I hope we don't stop here.

[moonslav59]

According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the full deal sends Teel, outfield prospect Braden Montgomery, infield prospect Chase Meidroth and right-hander starting pitching prospect Wikelman Gonzalez to the White Sox.

[Larry Cook]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the full deal sends Teel, outfield prospect Braden Montgomery, infield prospect Chase Meidroth and right-hander starting pitching prospect Wikelman Gonzalez to the White Sox.

Great haul for Chicago! 

[Larry Cook]

Stevenson of unc and Irish of auburn are the two best catchers in the 2025 draft in case we want to replace teel 

[Larry Cook]

We need to sign Carson Kelly and trade yoshida to Arizona for Montgomery and this offseason will be sweet! 

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

We need to sign Carson Kelly and trade yoshida to Arizona for Montgomery and this offseason will be sweet! 

Kelly has signed elsewhere.

[Larry Cook]

12 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Kelly has signed elsewhere.

Sad!! I must have missed that 

[mvp 78]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Kwiatkowski and Bryan Gonzalez in the MiLB portion. 

 

Both were selected from the Sox in the MiLB portion (and Eduardo Lopez and Miguel Ugeuto). 

Angel Bastardo was taken in the MLB portion. 

[vjcsmoke]

The Red Sox lack of urgency in Free Agency is disturbing to say the least. If they strike out on the remaining premier players, that just reinforces the idea that the Soto pursuit was a farce all along. They just wanted to put up a brave front and say, Alas we were outbid, knowing they'd never beat out the Mets.

That's gonna be really sad if it turns out to be true.

"This outcome was always a possibility for the Red Sox, but what is truly shocking is the lack of urgency and effort from the Boston front office. Since the beginning of the offseason, the Red Sox have been linked to Fried (and Blake Snell) much more than Corbin Burnes. Now Burnes is the only top-end starter that remains on the free agent market."

Article: https://www.newsweek.com/sports/mlb/red-sox-readying-offer-free-agent-ace-after-max-fried-picks-yankees-1998883

[Bellhorn04]

2 minutes ago, vjcsmoke said:

The Red Sox lack of urgency in Free Agency is disturbing to say the least. If they strike out on the remaining premier players, that just reinforces the idea that the Soto pursuit was a farce all along. They just wanted to put up a brave front and say, Alas we were outbid, knowing they'd never beat out the Mets.

That's gonna be really sad if it turns out to be true.

"This outcome was always a possibility for the Red Sox, but what is truly shocking is the lack of urgency and effort from the Boston front office. Since the beginning of the offseason, the Red Sox have been linked to Fried (and Blake Snell) much more than Corbin Burnes. Now Burnes is the only top-end starter that remains on the free agent market."

Article: https://www.newsweek.com/sports/mlb/red-sox-readying-offer-free-agent-ace-after-max-fried-picks-yankees-1998883

The perspective has changed with the trade for Crochet.

[vjcsmoke]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the full deal sends Teel, outfield prospect Braden Montgomery, infield prospect Chase Meidroth and right-hander starting pitching prospect Wikelman Gonzalez to the White Sox.

If Crochett turns into an innings eating top 3 of the rotation pitcher the deal is worth. Otherwise this will be seen as folly since catcher is one of our needs at the ML level and Teel was a good catching prospect.

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, vjcsmoke said:

If Crochett turns into an innings eating top 3 of the rotation pitcher the deal is worth. Otherwise this will be seen as folly since catcher is one of our needs at the ML level and Teel was a good catching prospect.

That also assumes Teel will be a plus catcher.

[FredLynn]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Good bye, Teel. 

We hardly knew ya.

I hope we don't stop here.

I was hoping we could hang onto Teel. But to get a top flight proven pitcher it was never going to be cheap. Do we have anyone decent to replace Wong? Or are we stuck with him. 
if we had gone all in on Fried we could have kept Teel. They’re still trying to do it on the cheap. And we still need a good RH bat like Hernandez and another good SP.

[vjcsmoke]

31 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

That also assumes Teel will be a plus catcher.

Correct. Teel was ranked as one of the top 3 catching prospects in the 2020 draft. And the 25th overall prospect according to MLB.com rankings today. So he is projected to turn into a plus position player.

Like I said how well Crochet pans out will be the measuring stick for the deal. If he's a top 3 rotation pitcher, nobody will bat an eyelash at the loss of Teel.

Top 100 MLB.com rankings today: 

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

The perspective has changed with the trade for Crochet.

It really hasn’t. The team hasn’t opened up their wallets for any significant FAs. They’re still trying to do it on the cheap.

[Randy Red Sox]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

The perspective has changed with the trade for Crochet.

the Sox are very likely done now with the rotation and the CHEAP S...O..B OWNER SHOULD BE happy since Crochet will cost only 3 million next year and after 2 years he will be gone.

[Bellhorn04]

41 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

It really hasn’t. The team hasn’t opened up their wallets for any significant FAs. They’re still trying to do it on the cheap.

Well, to me it's a hopeful sign that they're actually trying to improve the 2025 team.  YMMV.

[Duran Is The Man]

46 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

the Sox are very likely done now with the rotation and the CHEAP S...O..B OWNER SHOULD BE happy since Crochet will cost only 3 million next year and after 2 years he will be gone.

like i said, Crochet not costing any money was the best part for Henry.

[mvp 78]

17 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Kelly has signed elsewhere.

No, he hasn't.

[mvp 78]

15 hours ago, vjcsmoke said:

Correct. Teel was ranked as one of the top 3 catching prospects in the 2020 draft. And the 25th overall prospect according to MLB.com rankings today. So he is projected to turn into a plus position player.

Like I said how well Crochet pans out will be the measuring stick for the deal. If he's a top 3 rotation pitcher, nobody will bat an eyelash at the loss of Teel.

Top 100 MLB.com rankings today: 

He needs to be a TOTR guy for the trade to be a success IMO. Being only a #3 would make this a terrible trade even if Teel and Montgomery don't entirely pan out. 

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

He needs to be a TOTR guy for the trade to be a success IMO. Being only a #3 would make this a terrible trade even if Teel and Montgomery don't entirely pan out. 

Just needing to be better than Bello, Giolito and Crawford is not a high bar to set.

If he's good, he's our #1. If he's pretty good, he's our #2, behind Houck.

Now, if we sign Burnes, he might have to try.

[Larry Cook]

6 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

He needs to be a TOTR guy for the trade to be a success IMO. Being only a #3 would make this a terrible trade even if Teel and Montgomery don't entirely pan out. 

His stuff is definitively top of the rotation stuff. The bigger issue the the arm drag and how pitchers with arm drag end up needing ucl replacement surgery 

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, Larry Cook said:

His stuff is definitively top of the rotation stuff. The bigger issue the the arm drag and how pitchers with arm drag end up needing ucl replacement surgery 

He already had a UCL tear, so he may be good for 1,000 innings or so. 

[Thunder]

Yeah, losing Teel sucks. I really liked him too, especially since we lack catcher depth. But, the White Sox wanted Anthony, so the fact we talked them off that ledge and still got Crochet is a win in my book, as long as Crochet doesn't turn out to be a bust

[vjcsmoke]

1 hour ago, Thunder said:

Yeah, losing Teel sucks. I really liked him too, especially since we lack catcher depth. But, the White Sox wanted Anthony, so the fact we talked them off that ledge and still got Crochet is a win in my book, as long as Crochet doesn't turn out to be a bust

True Losing Anthony would have been a much harder hit to the farm system. We're still hoping he will pan out and become a top of line up, top 4 batter by this time next year.