Rumor: Are The Red Sox Planning To Trade Masataka Yoshida This Offseason?

[notin]

29 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

He's had some good runs. His hit tool hasn't been consistent enough though. 

Some is adjustment.  Some is health/durability.  People talk about him like the Sox put some Vince Papale type garbage man out there…

[moonslav59]

27 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Rebuilding the farm is only the part of the answer. You need those prospects to develop into fulltime starters OR flip them. Sox have a good system right now, but it needs to start bearing fruit next season. 

Indeed, and I am all for flipping 1 or 2 to get us over the hump, especially if JH won't up the budget enough to get us there.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, notin said:

Some is adjustment.  Some is health/durability.  People talk about him like the Sox put some Vince Papale type garbage man out there…

He's not garbage, he's just mediocre and the Sox seem to have better options going forward. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

23 hours ago, notin said:

Wouldn’t that mean they also had to overbid on his teammates?

No way -- pitchers like Roki Sasaki will be so pumped to reunite with Masa, they'll take a discount to sign in Boston.

In fiction, Roki already said with Yoshi playing in front of the Monster, any line drives he gives up will be lights out! 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

22 hours ago, Duran Is The Man said:

if this is the case, then i would look at not only replacing Masa, but also replacing those scouts.

Brez consulted the firing firm that did an audit on the organization, but since they're from from New York, they said keep everyone in place and promote them all to Assistant Vice Presidents asap.

This was right before the playoffs called them the other night about a missed play at second base. Ruling: "Wait -- Jazz is a Yankee? HE'S SAFE!"

[Duran Is The Man]

15 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

No way -- pitchers like Roki Sasaki will be so pumped to reunite with Masa, they'll take a discount to sign in Boston.

In fiction, Roki already said with Yoshi playing in front of the Monster, any line drives he gives up will be lights out! 

Mets, Dodgers, Dbacks and Sox all appeared to be interested in him, but i think we all know he'll end up in LA.

[Larry Cook]

6 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

He's had some good runs. His hit tool hasn't been consistent enough though. 

He apparently had had a bad shoulder and thumb. Those would affect his swing 

[Bellhorn04]

20 hours ago, notin said:

Yoshida played 7 years in NPB with a career .960 OPS and 133 HRs.  His numbers there were fairly comparable to Seiya Suzuki.  It’s not like he was putting up Nick Punto numbers overseas.  He just hasn’t hit as well as Suzuki so far…

But after the signing the consensus was that the Sox paid much more than Yoshida was worth.  And that has proven to be accurate.

[moonslav59]

20 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

He's not garbage, he's just mediocre and the Sox seem to have better options going forward. 

Agreed. If he were a FA, what sort of contract would he be looking at? $15M/3? $16M/4?

If my numbers are close, we'd have to pay a sizeable chunk of is deal to trade him for basically nothing but salary relief.

If that salary relief is applied to the winter spending budget, say from $30M to $35M AAV, that could make a difference.

[win red sox]

Since 6/24 (10 days after coming back from thumb injury) Yoshida hada wRC+ of 132, which lead the team. If he's platooned correctly with Refsnyder then your getting pretty good production out of the DH spot.  The numbers are actually pretty impressive considering it sounds like he's going to have shoulder injury this offseason. 

[notin]

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

But after the signing the consensus was that the Sox paid much more than Yoshida was worth.  And that has proven to be accurate.

Sure, he’s overpaid, but to call the scouting of him a failure?

Seiya Suzuki received a slightly lower deal a year earlier at 2 years younger.  Suzuki has adjusted better and is a better fielder, but both players were similar with the bat in Japan.

So maybe Yoshida should have gotten 4 yrs/$64mill instead of 5/$90.

Overpaid? Somewhat, but the overreactions are a little overboard, to put it mildly…

[Bellhorn04]

22 minutes ago, notin said:

Sure, he’s overpaid, but to call the scouting of him a failure?

Seiya Suzuki received a slightly lower deal a year earlier at 2 years younger.  Suzuki has adjusted better and is a better fielder, but both players were similar with the bat in Japan.

So maybe Yoshida should have gotten 4 yrs/$64mill instead of 5/$90.

Overpaid? Somewhat, but the overreactions are a little overboard, to put it mildly…

Well, he's a highly paid DH, and expectations of highly paid DHs are, well...high.

We had the best with Ortiz, and then we had another excellent one with JDM, and JDM was starting to catch his fair share of abuse in his latter seasons...

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

47 minutes ago, notin said:

Sure, he’s overpaid, but to call the scouting of him a failure?

Seiya Suzuki received a slightly lower deal a year earlier at 2 years younger.  Suzuki has adjusted better and is a better fielder, but both players were similar with the bat in Japan.

So maybe Yoshida should have gotten 4 yrs/$64mill instead of 5/$90.

Overpaid? Somewhat, but the overreactions are a little overboard, to put it mildly…

Fenway fans overpaid to see the Red Sox in person the last three years.

I know Tom Warner said they had special discounts for student tickets, but I no longer attend institutes of higher learning. 

Though even at my ripe old (average MLB fan) age, I'm still a student of the game -- so where's my bargain, Warner Brother?

[Old Red]

50 minutes ago, notin said:

Sure, he’s overpaid, but to call the scouting of him a failure?

Seiya Suzuki received a slightly lower deal a year earlier at 2 years younger.  Suzuki has adjusted better and is a better fielder, but both players were similar with the bat in Japan.

So maybe Yoshida should have gotten 4 yrs/$64mill instead of 5/$90.

Overpaid? Somewhat, but the overreactions are a little overboard, to put it mildly…

Did the scouts see him as a good to adequate OF? Did the scouts see him as a DH? It seems everyone wants to get rid of him now, so I don’t see that as any overreacting. He’s taken up space, and for a hefty price at that.

[moonslav59]

We could always just keep Yoshida and hope he hits better the rest of the way, take the hit on his contract, while not paying for him to play somewhere else.

That likely means keeping casas at 1B and devers at 3B for 3 years, or trade Casas for pitching.

[notin]

41 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Well, he's a highly paid DH, and expectations of highly paid DHs are, well...high.

We had the best with Ortiz, and then we had another excellent one with JDM, and JDM was starting to catch his fair share of abuse in his latter seasons...

Even I got a little impatient with  JD.  But in hindsight, 2020 was his only bad year, and it’s an excusable one…

[notin]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

We could always just keep Yoshida and hope he hits better the rest of the way, take the hit on his contract, while not paying for him to play somewhere else.

That likely means keeping casas at 1B and devers at 3B for 3 years, or trade Casas for pitching.

At this point, Yoshida/Casas/Devers all starting in the status quo is the most likely scenario…

[Old Red]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

We could always just keep Yoshida and hope he hits better the rest of the way, take the hit on his contract, while not paying for him to play somewhere else.

That likely means keeping casas at 1B and devers at 3B for 3 years, or trade Casas for pitching.

Oh no! Keeping Casas at 1B, and Raffy at 3B. I know it bugs the crap out of you, but what you still don’t comprehend is that the Red Sox aren’t bothered enough to make all these changes that you want IMO.

[moonslav59]

Just now, notin said:

At this point, Yoshida/Casas/Devers all starting in the status quo is the most likely scenario…

Of course. I'd say 99% for 2025, it's 3B Devers, 1B Casas and DH Yoshida/Ref.

2026, maybe it's 95%, but things might change.

Even if Yoshida is off-loaded, I'd still doubt we move Devers or Casas to DH. They may "rest" some days, there some days, but not as a FT option or 2 man share. (Maybe we see an EValdez-Ref DH platoon in 2025, if we trade Yoshida.)

 

[moonslav59]

There is a lot of talk about trading the LHB Abreu, but maybe we trade Rafaela and go with Anthony in CF and Abreu in RF.

[notin]

30 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

There is a lot of talk about trading the LHB Abreu, but maybe we trade Rafaela and go with Anthony in CF and Abreu in RF.

If anyone other than Rafaela is in CF, it’s most likely Duran…

[notin]

32 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Of course. I'd say 99% for 2025, it's 3B Devers, 1B Casas and DH Yoshida/Ref.

2026, maybe it's 95%, but things might change.

Even if Yoshida is off-loaded, I'd still doubt we move Devers or Casas to DH. They may "rest" some days, there some days, but not as a FT option or 2 man share. (Maybe we see an EValdez-Ref DH platoon in 2025, if we trade Yoshida.)

 

 Cora doesn’t “rest” players at DH.  To him, a day off is a day off..

[moonslav59]

46 minutes ago, notin said:

If anyone other than Rafaela is in CF, it’s most likely Duran…

Good point. Abreu-Ref would be LF and Anthony RF.

[moonslav59]

26 minutes ago, notin said:

 Cora doesn’t “rest” players at DH.  To him, a day off is a day off..

Well, with a FT DH, it's hard to do.

Also, we saw him change his resting strategy from 2023 to 2024.

To me, I'd rather have Devers DH 10 games than sit 5 games. Same with Casas.

[Larry Cook]

The 2025 outfield should be 

LF - Duran 

CF - Rafeala

RF - Anthony 

reserve - refsynder 

Yoshida and abreau are trading chips. 

[mvp 78]

I’m not sure Rafaela is an everyday player. Should Duran just be the CF for the next 4 years?

[Old Red]

16 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I’m not sure Rafaela is an everyday player. Should Duran just be the CF for the next 4 years?

Kind of early to judge that on the RAF Man IMO. Remember a couple of years ago Duran didn’t even look like a ML player at all.

[mvp 78]

13 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Kind of early to judge that on the RAF Man IMO. Remember a couple of years ago Duran didn’t even look like a ML player at all.

I’m just saying that I’m not sure he is now, not that he’ll never be one. He can always change my mind. 

[Old Red]

8 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I’m just saying that I’m not sure he is now, not that he’ll never be one. He can always change my mind. 

I know what you meant, and I know you wasn’t impressed with the contract they gave the RAF Man. Time will tell on that.

[notin]

9 hours ago, Old Red said:

Oh no! Keeping Casas at 1B, and Raffy at 3B. I know it bugs the crap out of you, but what you still don’t comprehend is that the Red Sox aren’t bothered enough to make all these changes that you want IMO.

My comeback might be more difficult if the Sox were not 12 games under .500 over the past 3 years..