Article: The First Base Rental Market is Weak, but the Red Sox Can Still Swing a Trade

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

It's crazy to plan on Casas being healthy after witnessing his career up to this point. 

Casas is a non- tender candidate.  If the Sox do drop him, hopefully that action doesn’t injure him further…

[Bellhorn04]

7 minutes ago, Deja Doh said:

I don't think Ryan is going anywhere.  The Twins don't have Lopez or Ober at the moment out with injuries.  They have no other decent starter.

The Dodgers are not going to trade Max Muncy.  Since he's fixed his glasses he can see and hit the ball.  

We need a big right handed bat. 

More of a luxury than a need.  Story and Rafaela have been raking the last month or two, Bregman is back,  Gonzalez has a .945 OPS. 

[mvp 78]

6 minutes ago, notin said:

This accomplishes the same thing.  Odd choice because maybe outside of Rafaela, Yoshida is probably the shortest player in the Sox system above A ball…

Other short kings above A ball:

AA -

Pitcher Jonathan Brand 5'9

UTIL Ahbram Liendo 5'8

OF Caden Rose 5'9

AAA

OF Corey Rosier 5'9

UTIL Tyler McDonough 5'8

[mvp 78]

10 minutes ago, notin said:

Casas is a non- tender candidate.  If the Sox do drop him, hopefully that action doesn’t injure him further…

They aren't non-tendering him. They don't non-tender replacement level guys. Casas still has a ceiling of a 3 WAR guy in him somewhere. I think they'll hold onto him at least to platoon with Romy. He'll be cheap enough anyway. 

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

It's crazy to plan on Casas being healthy after witnessing his career up to this point. 

Agreed, and then trading Meidroth and not getting Devers prepared to play 1B, NOT DH just added to the mistake.

[notin]

27 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

They aren't non-tendering him. They don't non-tender replacement level guys. Casas still has a ceiling of a 3 WAR guy in him somewhere. I think they'll hold onto him at least to platoon with Romy. He'll be cheap enough anyway. 

They might non-tender him simply because he would be a cheaper free agent than arbitration candidate.  They do risk losing him that way.  Not sure how much of a concern that is…

[notin]

32 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Other short kings above A ball:

AA -

Pitcher Jonathan Brand 5'9

UTIL Ahbram Liendo 5'8

OF Caden Rose 5'9

AAA

OF Corey Rosier 5'9

UTIL Tyler McDonough 5'8

I wonder what the actual heights are.  Yoshida is listed at 5’8”.  But when you see him in person, even that looks like a stretch…

[mvp 78]

18 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Agreed, and then trading Meidroth and not getting Devers prepared to play 1B, NOT DH just added to the mistake.

I really thought Meidroth would have fit nicely as a bench piece here. I'm shocked how well he's played SS in Chicago. Wish they would have thrown in another prospect in that trade. 

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, notin said:

I wonder what the actual heights are.  Yoshida is listed at 5’8”.  But when you see him in person, even that looks like a stretch…

They are supposed to be very accurate now because of ABS. 🫠

[moonslav59]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

I really thought Meidroth would have fit nicely as a bench piece here. I'm shocked how well he's played SS in Chicago. Wish they would have thrown in another prospect in that trade. 

It's unlikely he was the breaking point of the trade from the WS perspective. They probably would have gladly taken DHam, Grissom or many other players or prospects.

[mvp 78]

When I saw Brand in ST in '24 I was taken aback to see a pitcher that size. Really weird. He looks even shorter than his listed height as well. Doesn't help when every guy you're standing next to is 5-6"s taller. 

[Bellhorn04]

27 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Agreed, and then trading Meidroth and not getting Devers prepared to play 1B, NOT DH just added to the mistake.

Not really seeing any significant mistakes.  Casas going down was just a bad break.  The Raffy to 1B rabbit hole is now sealed over.

[Bellhorn04]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It's unlikely he was the breaking point of the trade from the WS perspective. They probably would have gladly taken DHam, Grissom or many other players or prospects.

This is really nitpicking when you're trading for Crochet IMHO.

 

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Not really seeing any significant mistakes.  Casas going down was just a bad break.  The Raffy to 1B rabbit hole is now sealed over.

It's not a bad break if the guy is consistently injured. I believe health is a skill set/player tool. Casas doesn't have it. 

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Not really seeing any significant mistakes.  Casas going down was just a bad break.  The Raffy to 1B rabbit hole is now sealed over.

I guess I see it as a mistake, since I've thought Devers should have tried 1B since before Casas was even called up, years ago.

I think it was a systemic mistake relying on Toro & Romy as the only 1B reserves.

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

This is really nitpicking when you're trading for Crochet IMHO.

 

The trade was worth it. We can still say it'd be nice if they kept Meidroth and sent another guy instead. 

[Bellhorn04]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

It's not a bad break if the guy is consistently injured. I believe health is a skill set/player tool. Casas doesn't have it. 

Agree to disagree.  Story got written off as a hopeless injury case and he's doing pretty well now.

[Bellhorn04]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The trade was worth it. We can still say it'd be nice if they kept Meidroth and sent another guy instead. 

Sure, but what's the big deal with Meidroth.  He has a .626 OPS (.293 SLG-horrific) and 0.7 bWAR in half a season's work.

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Sure, but what's the big deal with Meidroth.  He has a .626 OPS (.293 SLG is horrific) and 0.7 bWAR in half a season's work.

There's no "big deal." I just would have rather seen him on the bench than Hamilton. He's a better UTIL guy than what we've put out there. He also has a great offensive approach that could rub off on other players like Schwarber did. These are the types of conversations that you don't care for so...

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Agree to disagree.  Story got written off as a hopeless injury case and he's doing pretty well now.

Story had a long career in COL not being injured. That's completely different than Casas. 

[Bellhorn04]

25 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Story had a long career in COL not being injured. That's completely different than Casas. 

The giving up on injured guys part isn't much different.  

[mvp 78]

Just now, Bellhorn04 said:

The giving up on injured guys part isn't much different.  

It's different enough. Casas has been injured his entire career. I expect that will continue to be the case. Story's issues were untreated arm issue that the Sox knew about when they signed him and freak accident when he landed funny when diving for a ball. I'm more concerned about a long term deal with Breggie and his recurring leg issues if I'm going to be honest. 

[Bellhorn04]

28 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

There's no "big deal." I just would have rather seen him on the bench than Hamilton. He's a better UTIL guy than what we've put out there. He also has a great offensive approach that could rub off on other players like Schwarber did. These are the types of conversations that you don't care for so...

Yeah, a great offensive approach that has yielded a .293 SLG and 11 RBI in half a season.

   

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Yeah, a great offensive approach that has yielded a .293 SLG and 11 RBI in half a season.

   

I'm sorry, maybe you just didn't read all of my posts last year talking about how Meidroth barely hits the ball out of the IF and has well below average EV? He can get on base and plays good defense. Good enough for a 26th man bench player in his first year in the bigs. Next! 

[Bellhorn04]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

It's different enough. Casas has been injured his entire career. I expect that will continue to be the case. Story's issues were untreated arm issue that the Sox knew about when they signed him and freak accident when he landed funny when diving for a ball.

Casas's 2025 injury was kind of in the freak category?

I'm overplaying it a bit here just for fun.

If it wasn't for the fact that Casas is still dirt cheap I probably wouldn't be advocating for him like this.

Where's Dipre?  He was a big Casas guy.

 

[moonslav59]

41 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The trade was worth it. We can still say it'd be nice if they kept Meidroth and sent another guy instead. 

Exactly, and we can assume the trade could have been made subbing someone else.

[Bellhorn04]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

I'm sorry, maybe you just didn't read all of my posts last year talking about how Meidroth barely hits the ball out of the IF and has well below average EV? He can get on base and plays good defense. Good enough for a 26th man bench player in his first year in the bigs. Next! 

Whose spot would Meidroth be taking right now?

[Bellhorn04]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

Exactly, and we can assume the trade could have been made subbing someone else.

You can assume whatever you want.  Anything goes in hypothetical land. 😀

[mvp 78]

Just now, Bellhorn04 said:

Casas's 2025 injury was kind of in the freak category?

I'm overplaying it a bit here just for fun.

If it wasn't for the fact that Casas is still dirt cheap I probably wouldn't be advocating for him like this.

Where's Dipre?  He was a big Casas guy.

It's no longer a freak injury with Casas if it's every year. If Story had freak injuries over and over again going back to 2016, I'd agree with the assumption that he's an injury risk (now he's a bigger injury risk simply due to age, but that's besides the point). 

I'm not advocating for dumping Casas. I just don't believe they can count on him to be a 140 game a year guy the way they have. They need to have depth behind him. The depth at 1b in the system is putrid. It's been that way for a long time. They just don't draft or develop guys at that position. 

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Whose spot would Meidroth be taking right now?

Toro (528 OPS since 6/13)