A Realistic View of the 2025 Red Sox: Part I

[Duran Is The Man]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

What do you think he's worth?

Apparently, they turned down our offer of an oft-injured s***** defensive 1Bman.

now you know why i said what i did. if they turned down Casas, they really are that stupid and value Castillo far more than what he's worth at the salary he's making.  i thought Abreu was more than enough for him.

the Sox sucked last year, mainly due to their lack of pitching and horrible defense. i think Crochet is a good start but they still have work to do. so far, the Mariners have done exactly nothing to address their piss-poor offense. they've shown "interest" in Walker, Goldschmidt and Alonso, but have little money to spend. 

[moonslav59]

19 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

Kind of strange that we would weaken our bullpen depth, which is not very deep, to add a pitcher that likely will not contribute until 2026?

Booser may not have played, anyway. I had him about 13th to 15th out of our 17 pen guys in MLB and AAA.

[harmony]

On 12/18/2024 at 6:21 AM, Hugh2 said:

Destroyed the farm? The Sox have 3 prospects in the top 50 and he kept all three and acquired a TOTRS.

I suspect the farm to take a steep step back in next years rankings....but it will be because 2 to 3 of Mayer/Anthony/Campbell have graduated. 

On Friday USA Today ranked the Red Sox farm system fourth in MLB:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2024/12/20/2024-mlb-farm-system-rankings/77076639007/

[Larry Cook]

12 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Booser may not have played, anyway. I had him about 13th to 15th out of our 17 pen guys in MLB and AAA.

But the last two years have shown that we need depth in the bullpen over the course of the 162 game season 

[moonslav59]

30 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

But the last two years have shown that we need depth in the bullpen over the course of the 162 game season 

I get that, but I do not see Booser as being any better than anyone from our #9-16 pen guys in AAA, plus I think we add at least one more pitcher, this winter, which would knowck everyone down one more notch.

We also have SP'ers who could be used in the pen in 2025:

Let's assume this is the opening day 13 man staff:

Crochet, Houck, Bello, Giolito & Crawford

Hendriks, Chapman, ______, Slaten, Whitlock, Wickowski, Wilson, Guerrero.

Is Booser better than any of the next 8?

Criswell (SP,) Penrod, Bernardino, Kelly, Weissert, Fitts (SP,) Priester (SP,) Dobbins (SP)

The next 10 might be: Fulmer, Gambrell (SP,) Shugart, Mata, I Campbell, Drohan (SP,) Sandlin, Mills, Adames, Hoppe or Troye

IMO, we have plus depth. We are just weak in the quality of our top 2-3 RP'ers. We need a solid closer or a great set-up man. If we add a solid SP'er and a solid set-up man, plus push Crawford to the pen, everyone below number 9 on staff gets bumped down one notch. We go from 8 nice depth choices in AAA to 11. The number 17-26 pitchers become our number 20-29 pitchers.

I'm not downplaying depth, but Booser is easily replaceable, and we now have 3-4 lefties better than he is. We are also adding Whitlock to the pen, and he does better vs LHBs than RHBs.

[oldtimer]

I just noticed we got Arenado.That's a big get if true. The Sox are really making a bid after the recent inactive years. At 84, I am happy we might be getting back to competitiveness. Anyone guess on what that means for the sstarting team?

[Hugh2]

6 hours ago, harmony said:

On Friday USA Today ranked the Red Sox farm system fourth in MLB:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2024/12/20/2024-mlb-farm-system-rankings/77076639007/

I suspect If Anthony/Mayer/Campbell all graduate they will take a big step back. They have to keep drafting good. 

[harmony]

38 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

I suspect If Anthony/Mayer/Campbell all graduate they will take a big step back. They have to keep drafting good. 

That was mentioned in this hour-long podcast that speculates about possible trades between the Red Sox and Seattle Mariners:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH9GM0upOx8

 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

It appears now that Breslow is kicking the tires on Randall Grichuk of Arizona. 

Breslow's kicking while other teams are picking.

[Duran Is The Man]

Just now, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

It appears now that Breslow is kicking the tires on Randall Grichuk of Arizona. 

Breslow's kicking while other teams are picking.

he's the very definition of a window shopper.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

5 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

he's the very definition of a window shopper.

JH sent Breslow shopping, but only gave him enough money for food and an Uber ride.

Thank goodness Crochet wasn't a FA, because the SOX wouldn't have gotten him either.

[Duran Is The Man]

13 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

JH sent Breslow shopping, but only gave him enough money for food and an Uber ride.

Thank goodness Crochet wasn't a FA, because the SOX wouldn't have gotten him either.

yep, but they would have been "interested" for sure.

[Randy Red Sox]

20 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

he's the very definition of a window shopper.

he is just following the directives given by Mr Henry--KEEP THE PAYROLL DOWN!!!!!!

[Randy Red Sox]

24 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

It appears now that Breslow is kicking the tires on Randall Grichuk of Arizona. 

Breslow's kicking while other teams are picking.

Grichuk will save the 2025 season

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Here's a new slant that won't happen, but I think it would be a wonderful trade.

Send Devers to Toronto for Vlad and then buy Bregman.

I think the SOX would agree to that trade, but I doubt Toronto would.

[Duran Is The Man]

11 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Here's a new slant that won't happen, but I think it would be a wonderful trade.

Send Devers to Toronto for Vlad and then buy Bregman.

I think the SOX would agree to that trade, but I doubt Toronto would.

i know i would.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

33 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

he is just following the directives given by Mr Henry--KEEP THE PAYROLL DOWN!!!!!!

 

17 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

i know i would.

JH is employing the art of NO-MONEY BALL

[moonslav59]

7 hours ago, oldtimer said:

I just noticed we got Arenado.That's a big get if true. The Sox are really making a bid after the recent inactive years. At 84, I am happy we might be getting back to competitiveness. Anyone guess on what that means for the sstarting team?

Knowing these clowns they will play Arenado at 1B and DH or trade Casas, instead of playing him at 3B, where he belongs.

Word is, we gave up Fitts. Not sure about the money.

[moonslav59]

Arenado has over 600 PAs in 9 of 10 seasons, with the Covid season being the only one without. He had 10 straight GG awards up to 2022.. He turns 34, soon and is no longer a GG'er or Sliver Slugger (5 time winner,) but he would be a major upgrade to our 3B defense, if we play him there.

He bats RH'd, but his power has slipped. Even his doubles have decline with the home runs. Still, a .325 OBP and 16 HRs is not bad. We gotta hope he doesn't keep dropping off.

Last 3 years OPS+: 151>108>101.

He had reverse splits, this year and last, so maybe he's not the big helper vs LHPs we are seeking, but his career splits are decent: .834 v RHPs and .928 v LHPs.

With previous rumors of Casas being traded, I wonder if those talks will be renewed. I'd rather keep Casas in the line-up by sharing 1B & DH duties with Devers, but that would mean benching Yoshida, or eeek!, playing him in LF.

This isn't a bad line-up:

1. Duran LF v R/ CF v L

2. Campbell 2B

3. Casas DH/1B

4. Devers 1B/DH

5.  Abreu RF v R/ Refsnyder LF v L

7. Anthony CF v R/ RF v L

8.  Arenado 3B 

9. Wong & Narvaez C

We could maybe trade Abreu for pitching or just sign one.

[mvp 78]

15 hours ago, oldtimer said:

I just noticed we got Arenado.That's a big get if true. The Sox are really making a bid after the recent inactive years. At 84, I am happy we might be getting back to competitiveness. Anyone guess on what that means for the sstarting team?

Nope. They got Austin Adams though.

[Bellhorn04]

So going into Christmas, our biggest contract given to a healthy player is Chapman at 10.75 million.  Our biggest contract period was given to a rehabber.

 

 

 

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

So going into Christmas, our biggest contract given to a healthy player is Chapman at 10.75 million.  Our biggest contract period was given to a rehabber.

We've all earned some coal in our stockings for not rooting hard enough apparently. 

[Bellhorn04]

After falling short on Soto and Fried, Henry might have decided to flip the Punt switch again.  Sure looks that way. 

[Old Red]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

We've all earned some coal in our stockings for not rooting hard enough apparently. 

JH, and Sam are the coal. The gift that keeps on giving All year long. 

[mvp 78]

10 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

After falling short on Soto and Fried, Henry might have decided to flip the Punt switch again.  Sure looks that way. 

You think the switch actually needed to be flipped? 

[notin]

18 hours ago, oldtimer said:

I just noticed we got Arenado.That's a big get if true. The Sox are really making a bid after the recent inactive years. At 84, I am happy we might be getting back to competitiveness. Anyone guess on what that means for the sstarting team?

We got Arenado?

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, notin said:

We got Arenado?

Austin Adams. Sounds just like Arenado.

[notin]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Austin Adams. Sounds just like Arenado.

And they’re both fringey RHP, except for Arenado..

[mvp 78]

8 minutes ago, notin said:

And they’re both fringey RHP, except for Arenado..

There's a lot to Arenado's game that is fringy at the moment. 

[moonslav59]

Plan Z materialized: Buehler and Sandoval for the rotation. The hope is that Buehler can stay healthy, until Sandoval is ready. Sound familiar?

Actually, this was likely plan A, all along.