Future First base

[Brittdad]

The minors seem to hold no definitive first baseman as of today and there has been talk of moving multiple players into the position. what does the future hold for the Sox and first base. Acquisition? 

[notin]

Casas? Campbell?

Most first basemen do come up playing other positions.  Possible we see blocked prospects like Password grab a new mitt…

[moonslav59]

I think we will, once again, not add a known 1Bman, this winter.

We will roll the dice with Casas-Romy or Campbell (with Romy platooning at 2B or DH.)

[mvp 78]

18 hours ago, notin said:

Casas? Campbell?

Most first basemen do come up playing other positions.  Possible we see blocked prospects like Password grab a new mitt…

They had talked about Garcia getting a mitt last week. I'm sure they'll find somebody, but they haven't spent a draft pick on a 1b in a while. Justin Gonzales had played a little 1b, but seems to be spending more time in OF this year. 

[moonslav59]

I think Garcia is a plus defender, so I'm not sure it's such a good idea putting Password at 1B, but then again, Rafaela, Abreu and Anthony are plus or plus-plus on D, too. (Duran is not bad, either.)

I still think we trade an OF'er, this winter, so Garcia might be needed in the OF, either as depth or a RF platoon with Abreu.

[mvp 78]

Just now, moonslav59 said:

I think Garcia is a plus defender, so I'm not sure it's such a good idea putting Password at 1B, but then again, Rafaela, Abreu and Anthony are plus or plus-plus on D, too. (Duran is not bad, either.)

I still think we trade an OF'er, this winter, so Garcia might be needed in the OF, either as depth or a RF platoon with Abreu.

It's a roster crunch that pushes him to part time 1b. 🫠

[Hitch]

It'll be an internal player one way or another I'm pretty sure. Unless Campbell's D is really picking up, I would guess he would be the main candidate if the offence continues to improve as it has done recently. 

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, Hitch said:

It'll be an internal player one way or another I'm pretty sure. Unless Campbell's D is really picking up, I would guess he would be the main candidate if the offence continues to improve as it has done recently. 

His 2b defense is still pretty rough, so... No matter what, he needs to spend a ton of time this offseason on his right side of the IF defense. 

[moonslav59]

5 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

It's a roster crunch that pushes him to part time 1b. 🫠

Garcia may play RF v L and 1B v R, if Casas sucks or is hurt, again. (Romy plays 1B v L, if not needed at 2B)

[mvp 78]

17 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Garcia may play RF v L and 1B v R, if Casas sucks or is hurt, again. (Romy plays 1B v L, if not needed at 2B)

As long as it's not hurting his overall defense, I don't have a problem with adding versatility. We just have seen with a certain other young players how forcing versatility has hurt the overall defensive package. 

[Hitch]

5 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

His 2b defense is still pretty rough, so... No matter what, he needs to spend a ton of time this offseason on his right side of the IF defense. 

I haven't really been following his defensive improvements - that's not entirely surprising to hear. 

I really feel they need to put him at one position and leave him there. He's looking unlikely to be good enough to play multiple. 

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

As long as it's not hurting his overall defense, I don't have a problem with adding versatility. We just have seen with a certain other young players how forcing versatility has hurt the overall defensive package. 

If he can fix the 1B problem, I'm all for it.

If we trade an OF'er, he could play 1B and be a 4th OF option, too.

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, Hitch said:

I haven't really been following his defensive improvements - that's not entirely surprising to hear. 

I really feel they need to put him at one position and leave him there. He's looking unlikely to be good enough to play multiple. 

They need to do that with everybody

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

If he can fix the 1B problem, I'm all for it.

If we trade an OF'er, he could play 1B and be a 4th OF option, too.

Tell ‘em Wash!

[Kimmi]

On 8/5/2025 at 2:06 PM, moonslav59 said:

Garcia may play RF v L and 1B v R, if Casas sucks or is hurt, again. (Romy plays 1B v L, if not needed at 2B)

I haven't given up on Casas yet, but regardless of who the Sox have penciled in to play 1B, they need to have a better back up plan than they had this year.  

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Speaking of 1st baseman, Bobby Dee has severed ties with the Brewers and is now a  FA. It appears most likely that Bobby will be playing professional ball overseas.

Good luck to Bobby. I always thought he gave his best and he seemed like a good guy.

[Kimmi]

2 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Speaking of 1st baseman, Bobby Dee has severed ties with the Brewers and is now a  FA. It appears most likely that Bobby will be playing professional ball overseas.

Good luck to Bobby. I always thought he gave his best and he seemed like a good guy.

I was always a Bobby D fan.  I was disappointed that he didn't work out for the Sox.  Best of luck to him wherever he goes.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, Kimmi said:

I haven't given up on Casas yet, but regardless of who the Sox have penciled in to play 1B, they need to have a better back up plan than they had this year.  

Does Campbell count?

[mvp 78]

13 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Does Campbell count?

Maybe? He needs more time there to show he can actually field the position. Right now, he's a DH.

[moonslav59]

49 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Maybe? He needs more time there to show he can actually field the position. Right now, he's a DH.

It would be great if KC could play decent 1B defense and find his groove at the plate. He is probably blocked from OF play, and 2B looks like a long ride to get to just decent.

[mvp 78]

19 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It would be great if KC could play decent 1B defense and find his groove at the plate. He is probably blocked from OF play, and 2B looks like a long ride to get to just decent.

Needs to really spend a lot of time this season working on his defense. We knew the defense was a work in progress to begin with, but once the bat took a step back it was a lot to overcome. 

[Maxbialystock]

On 8/4/2025 at 7:12 PM, moonslav59 said:

I think we will, once again, not add a known 1Bman, this winter.

We will roll the dice with Casas-Romy or Campbell (with Romy platooning at 2B or DH.)

Exactly.  1b is almost ideal for entertaining all manner of defenders.  Job 1 at 1b is to hit the dang ball, and right now Gonzalez is that guy.  If Campbell turns out to be able to MLB pitching, Gonzalez could take over 2b.  

[moonslav59]

1B is one of the easiest position to backfill.

[notin]

21 hours ago, Kimmi said:

I haven't given up on Casas yet, but regardless of who the Sox have penciled in to play 1B, they need to have a better back up plan than they had this year.  

Toro’s success was brief, as it is every year.  But Romy has been a revelation…

[Nick]

On 8/5/2025 at 8:56 AM, moonslav59 said:

I think Garcia is a plus defender, so I'm not sure it's such a good idea putting Password at 1B, but then again, Rafaela, Abreu and Anthony are plus or plus-plus on D, too. (Duran is not bad, either.)

I still think we trade an OF'er, this winter, so Garcia might be needed in the OF, either as depth or a RF platoon with Abreu.

If you truly think Abreu is a permanent platoon player, then we were an idiot for not packaging to the Minnesota for Joe Ryan.

[mvp 78]

10 minutes ago, Nick said:

If you truly think Abreu is a permanent platoon player, then we were an idiot for not packaging to the Minnesota for Joe Ryan.

MN didn't want Duran or Abreu. They didn't seriously consider trading Ryan to begin with.

[moonslav59]

40 minutes ago, Nick said:

If you truly think Abreu is a permanent platoon player, then we were an idiot for not packaging to the Minnesota for Joe Ryan.

I was fine with giving up him or Duran plus a decent couple prospects (not Tolle or Campbell) for Ryan.

I'm not sure if Abreu is a permanent platoon. Duran started out with worse numbers than he has after this amount of PAs. (Duran is not great vs LHPs, and looks worse this year than last, but he's good enough.)

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Toro’s success was brief, as it is every year.  But Romy has been a revelation…

It was like 15-16 games. He's literally sucked the whole rest of hius career.

[mvp 78]

6 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It was like 15-16 games. He's literally sucked the whole rest of hius career.

Lucky to get a good 2 weeks! 

[notin]

28 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

 

I'm not sure if Abreu is a permanent platoon. Duran started out with worse numbers than he has after this amount of PAs. (Duran is not great vs LHPs, and looks worse this year than last, but he's good enough.)

As long as we have Cora, Abreu will be platooned.  Cora has some religious convictions about letting left-handed hitters face left-handed pitchers if it can be avoided.

If Cora had managed the Sox in the 1940s, I truly believe he would have platooned Ted Williams in LF with Pete Fox…