Article: Red Sox Increase Their Pursuit of Juan Soto, Ask for Personal Meeting With Soto Himself

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

15 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Good point. I forgot how young Vladdy is.

I do think Casas is a damn good hitter, and Vladdy is no whiz on D, but better than Casas.

OPS+ 2022-2024

138 Vladdy

125 Casas

 

OPS+ 2023-2024

141 Vladdy

126 Casas

 

Ages 23-24:

126 Casas (just 745 PAs)

125 Vladdy

Btw, MOON, good to talk to you again.

The other plus with Vlad is he's a RH hitter. Devers followed by Vlad in the line-up may not be Ortiz and Manny, but it would still be damned impressive.

[Bellhorn04]

Vlad is only under contract for 2025, so any trade would have to be followed up with a hefty extension offer if you want the man long-term.

[Tedballgame]

On 12/6/2024 at 10:31 AM, moonslav59 said:

I really feel the taxes and Cost of Living might cancel out that $50M.

Massachusetts has high taxes and Boston is expensive to live in also. It comes down to the highest bidder. Boras always takes the money.

[Bellhorn04]

It's unspendable money whichever offer he takes now.  I think it has to come down to where Soto really wants to play and live the next dozen years or so.

[moonslav59]

42 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

Massachusetts has high taxes and Boston is expensive to live in also. It comes down to the highest bidder. Boras always takes the money.

Property taxes are 1.14% in BOS vs 1.4% in NYC, but maybe Soto will rent. Cost of living is significantly lower in Boston. One site says NYV is 60% higher.

By state:

Sales Tax: 6.25% MA and 4% NY

Income Tax: 

MA 5% (increases to 9% on income over $1M)

NY 10.9%

CNN Money article that lists Tax Dollars state by state. It lists New York as the #1 state for total taxes per $1,000. This is compared to Massachusetts which they had ranked as #40. To be fair, this is because of the low sales and excise tax rankings. When you are just looking at personal income, then New York is number 1 with Massachusetts coming in at number 8. 

 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

20 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Vlad is one year older than Casas. I seriously doubt that Casas will outhit Vlad over the next 5 years. 

On a more realistic path I certainly hope the SOX can pick up either Fried, Burnes or Crochett.

Assuming Soto stays somewhere in NY, if the Red Sox don't get one of those three to top the rotation, the offseason will be a failure.

Signing more #3 or #4 starters, and another infielder won't be enough to win the AL East -- which is the goal Team President Sam Kennedy clearly stated for 2025.

I am intrigued by Vlad Jr. as the righty bat to protect Raffy, but he's a bad first baseman. Still young enough to improve -- but so is Casas, who won't cost prospects in trade, or a presumed Devers' contract to extend (like Vlad). 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

58 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Vlad is only under contract for 2025, so any trade would have to be followed up with a hefty extension offer if you want the man long-term.

It won't be near as hefty as what they'd have to pay Soto.

[notin]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Normally, I'd say it could have just been a fluke, but we hit .651  in Sept 2023, so it may be more than an outlier.

The Devers injury was big (.496 in SEP w 7th most PAs.)

The big bomb was Duran leading the team in SEPT PAs and also having a .596 OPS. Yoshida hit .633, Rafaela .512 and Abreu .517- all were top 9 in PAs

Ref had only 19 PAs in Sept (1.186,) and nobody had over 30 PAs and an OPS over Tristan's .790 mark. That suggests a total team meltdown.

Our hitting is a big concern, but IMO, our ace and closer slots are far bigger concerns. We also have help on the way, from the farm, on offense (and defense.) We don't have much, in terms of pitching, except a pretty large amount of pitchers that are decent AAAA type depth guys.

We need top quality pitchers, and just two is likely not going to be enough.

I think that unless we have a very large winter budget, there will not be enough to spend on bats. Much depends on our willingness to pull off a major trade or two, as well.

 

They’re not adding two starting pitchers, barring two scenarios:

 

1.  A trade involving one of the current SPs, most likely Crawford

2. You’re counting Giolito as one of the two.

 

Beyond that, there’s no reason to believe Houck, Bello, Crawford and Giolito won’t all be in the rotation come April, assuming all are healthy…

[notin]

1 hour ago, Tedballgame said:

Massachusetts has high taxes and Boston is expensive to live in also. It comes down to the highest bidder. Boras always takes the money.

It’s all about the money and only the money.  I’ve even joked about the costs and expenses of living in NY.

 

But we are talking about over half a BILLION dollars here.  Soto could realistically just give his car away instead of parking it, and then buy a new one.  Every day.  
 

He’s not going to pick Boston because he figures to save on groceries…

[moonslav59]

32 minutes ago, notin said:

They’re not adding two starting pitchers, barring two scenarios:

 

1.  A trade involving one of the current SPs, most likely Crawford

2. You’re counting Giolito as one of the two.

 

Beyond that, there’s no reason to believe Houck, Bello, Crawford and Giolito won’t all be in the rotation come April, assuming all are healthy…

Yes, adding one SP'er like Fried, would give us Fried, Houck, Bello, Giolito & Crawford. That's not bad. We'd also have Criswell, Priester, Fitts and Dobbins as AAA depth, and maybe Wink as a spot starter.

If we sign Fried and trade for someone like Pablo Lopez, we could improve the pen by moving Crawford there, or include him in that trade or another one that brings us a RHB or good RP+a one year catcher.

[Randy Red Sox]

2 hours ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Vlad is one year older than Casas. I seriously doubt that Casas will outhit Vlad over the next 5 years. 

On a more realistic path I certainly hope the SOX can pick up either Fried, Burnes or Crochett.

the thing that concerns me with Fried is why aren't the Braves seeming interested in re-signing him ?

[moonslav59]

14 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

the thing that concerns me with Fried is why aren't the Braves seeming interested in re-signing him ?

Same as anyone: he'll be 31 and wants a 6-7 year deal.

They rarely sign over 30 SP'ers to longer term deals. Their longest SP deals now are ...

$75M/6 Strider (pre-arb deal)

$38M/2 Sale

$30M/3 R Lopez (signed at 29-30 yrs old)

Before that

$20M/1 Morton 110 yrs old

$32M/6 Teheran (signed at age 23)

I can't remember them signing a big name FA pitcher to a long term deal.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Soto just offered 730 mil from Mets. Willy Adames signs with Giants.

OK, SOX time to go after some players, but not from Goodwill. We've had enough of that.

Burnes should be the SOX big target. He'll be a bargain compared to Soto.

Try not to be the 'interested' SOX again.

[moonslav59]

33 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Soto just offered 730 mil from Mets. Willy Adames signs with Giants.

OK, SOX time to go after some players, but not from Goodwill. We've had enough of that.

Burnes should be the SOX big target. He'll be a bargain compared to Soto.

Try not to be the 'interested' SOX again.

I like Fried more than Burnes. I'm not sure why.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

13 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I like Fried more than Burnes. I'm not sure why.

Either would be fine by me.

BTW, MOON, Suzuki is available for trade by the Cubs. How do feel about the SOX trading for him?

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Either would be fine by me.

BTW, MOON, Suzuki is available for trade by the Cubs. How do feel about the SOX trading for him?

He is a RHB, and we could play Anthony in CF with Duran in LF, but I'd rather trade for a SP or RP+C.