Red Sox 2025 Season Review/Offseason Preview Thread

[Hitch]

15 hours ago, Old Red said:

It’s nice you reference ESPN, but like I said it’s nothing new, and was all covered in real time on NESN. Nothing new? If there was a chance that Raffy might be needed later on I don’t think it was a good idea to tell Raffy to put his glove away. Sounds like another bad move by Cora.

Do you think you might be taking this 'put your glove away' a bit too literally? If Bregman blew out his knee in April, Raffy would have been back as the starting 3rd baseman.

[mvp 78]

41 minutes ago, Hitch said:

If Bregman blew out his knee in April

🌞

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, Hitch said:

Do you think you might be taking this 'put your glove away' a bit too literally? If Bregman blew out his knee in April, Raffy would have been back as the starting 3rd baseman.

Nope. They locked up Devers' glove and chiseled DH ONLY on his statue.

[Kimmi]

On 2/2/2026 at 3:55 PM, mvp 78 said:

Unlikely! 

Ha.  We'll be happy going into camp.  The happiness might not last long, but it'll be there to start!  Or not.

[Kimmi]

On 2/2/2026 at 3:58 PM, Old Red said:

Oh how the mighty have fallen. It was so many times on here it was Devers Forevers.

I never wanted him signed for a 10-year deal.  But I was very happy to have him remain on the Red Sox.  Despite his poor defense, I would have kept him at 3rd base to keep him happy and put Bregman at 2nd base.  But once you behave the way that he behaved, you have to go.

[Kimmi]

23 hours ago, FredLynn said:

Brendan Donovan to the Mariners. Cross him off the dwindling list. 

Breslow is going to have to get creative.  I'm still confident that he'll add an infielder.  As I posted elsewhere, it might not be as big an upgrade as we are hoping for, but it will be something.

[Old Red]

10 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

I never wanted him signed for a 10-year deal.  But I was very happy to have him remain on the Red Sox.  Despite his poor defense, I would have kept him at 3rd base to keep him happy and put Bregman at 2nd base.  But once you behave the way that he behaved, you have to go.

As always I agree on the 10-year deal. I also would have kept Raffy at 3B, and put Bregman at 2nd, which I think Cora wanted to do too, and especially when Bregman wasn’t guaranteed to stick around more than a year.

[Kimmi]

22 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

I knew that once I complimented Fred on his medical expertise, that this thread was going to go to heck.  Anyone else want to agree with Fred?  Let's get it over with before the whole site crashes.

You have opened Pandora's box.  I'm not sure if Fred can handle all the praise.  LOL

[moonslav59]

15 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

You have opened Pandora's box.  I'm not sure if Fred can handle all the praise.  LOL

There is talk about changing the name from "Pandora's Box" to Fred's Box.

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, Kimmi said:

Breslow is going to have to get creative.  I'm still confident that he'll add an infielder.  As I posted elsewhere, it might not be as big an upgrade as we are hoping for, but it will be something.

Without a big upgrade he is wasting a window to compete for a ring. 

[FredLynn]

37 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

There is talk about changing the name from "Pandora's Box" to Fred's Box.

“Fred’s Box”…..I like it! 
Welcome to Fred’s Box! Has a ring to it……so to speak.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, FredLynn said:

“Fred’s Box”…..I like it! 
Welcome to Fred’s Box! Has a ring to it……so to speak.

It's just street corner talk- pay it no mind.

[harmony]

23 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I'd have been okay with Donovan- just not for Tolle or Early or one of our 4 OF'ers.

I still hope we can do better, and if we don't I'll count this one as "one that got away." (Along with a few others.)

With a Seattle bias, Jurrangelo Cijntje could be compared with Kyson Witherspoon (No. 15 overall picks in consecutive MLB drafts) and Ben Williamson could be compared with Marcelo Mayer (post-prospects who have similar projections for the 2026 season).

The Red Sox would be unlikely to trade Witherspoon and Mayer for Brendan Donovan, much less adding a middling prospect and a comp draft pick.

The Cardinals spread their risk across five incoming assets while the Mariner risk falls on one player who may or may not outproduce Cole Young and Colt Emerson this season.

In the deal Seattle acted like a contending team.

[moonslav59]

22 minutes ago, harmony said:

With a Seattle bias, Jurrangelo Cijntje could be compared with Kyson Witherspoon (No. 15 overall picks in consecutive MLB drafts) and Ben Williamson could be compared with Marcelo Mayer (post-prospects who have similar projections for the 2026 season).

The Red Sox would be unlikely to trade Witherspoon and Mayer for Brendan Donovan, much less adding a middling prospect and a comp draft pick.

The Cardinals spread their risk across five incoming assets while the Mariner risk falls on one player who may or may not outproduce Cole Young and Colt Emerson this season.

In the deal Seattle acted like a contending team.

You must not agree with BTV:

7.8 Williamson<<< Mayer 50.9

12.7 Cijntje <<< Bello 27.1

I can't take this post seriously.

 

[notin]

8 hours ago, Hitch said:

Do you think you might be taking this 'put your glove away' a bit too literally? If Bregman blew out his knee in April, Raffy would have been back as the starting 3rd baseman.

Bregman got hurt May 23rd, 3 weeks before Devers was traded.  And Devers didn’t see any time at 3b.

So, yeah, they sold his glove on eBay…

[notin]

1 hour ago, harmony said:

With a Seattle bias, Jurrangelo Cijntje could be compared with Kyson Witherspoon (No. 15 overall picks in consecutive MLB drafts) and Ben Williamson could be compared with Marcelo Mayer (post-prospects who have similar projections for the 2026 season).

The Red Sox would be unlikely to trade Witherspoon and Mayer for Brendan Donovan, much less adding a middling prospect and a comp draft pick.

The Cardinals spread their risk across five incoming assets while the Mariner risk falls on one player who may or may not outproduce Cole Young and Colt Emerson this season.

In the deal Seattle acted like a contending team.

They could definitely be compared to Witherspoon and Mayer.  As in “Jurrangelo Cijntje and Ben Williamson are nowhere near as good as Kyson Witherspoon and Marcelo Mayer.”

Or did you mean compared favorably? If so, then no, they cannot be…

[Duran Is The Man]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

You must not agree with BTV:

7.8 Williamson<<< Mayer 50.9

12.7 Cijntje <<< Bello 27.1

I can't take this post seriously.

 

yeah, i'm a big fan of "Willy" and hope he does well in Tampa, but no way you compare them. 

[Randy Red Sox]

5 hours ago, Kimmi said:

Breslow is going to have to get creative.  I'm still confident that he'll add an infielder.  As I posted elsewhere, it might not be as big an upgrade as we are hoping for, but it will be something.

there are numerous options to pick up on M/L deals

[harmony]

1 hour ago, notin said:

They could definitely be compared to Witherspoon and Mayer.  As in “Jurrangelo Cijntje and Ben Williamson are nowhere near as good as Kyson Witherspoon and Marcelo Mayer.”

Or did you mean compared favorably? If so, then no, they cannot be…

Thank you for the Red Sox bias.

MLB.com ranks Kyson Witherspoon and Jurrangelo Cijntje No. 84 and No. 91 on its current list after ranking Witherspoon and Cijntje No. 90 and No. 89 on its previous list.

FanGraphs projects Marcelo Mayer with 1,5 WAR and a wRC+ of 90 in 125 games and Ben Williamson with a 0.5 WAR and wRC+ of 86 in 45 games. ZiPS projects Mayer with a wRC+ of 84 and Williamson with a wRC+ of 87.

Mayer's prospect sheen has worn off.

 

[harmony]

3 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

You must not agree with BTV:

7.8 Williamson<<< Mayer 50.9

12.7 Cijntje <<< Bello 27.1

I can't take this post seriously.

 

How did Brayan Bello enter this discussion?

Baseball Trade Values assigns Kyson Witherspoon a surplus value of $17.3 million and Jurrangelo Cijntje a surplus value of $12.7 million.

Your doubts about Marcelo Mayer's value are shared.

ZiPS projects Mayer with a 2026 WAR of 1.0 in 88 games and Ben Williamson with a 2026 WAR of 2.0 in 134 games.

[moonslav59]

25 minutes ago, harmony said:

How did Brayan Bello enter this discussion?

 

Ooops.

Witherspoon has more value, too- just not as much.

[moonslav59]

32 minutes ago, harmony said:

Thank you for the Red Sox bias.

MLB.com ranks Kyson Witherspoon and Jurrangelo Cijntje No. 84 and No. 91 on its current list after ranking Witherspoon and Cijntje No. 90 and No. 89 on its previous list.

Mayer's prospect sheen has worn off.

Too funny.

Where was Mayer on "their previous lists?"

You can't go previous with your guys and not ours! LOL

Now that's some bi-ASS

[harmony]

45 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Too funny.

Where was Mayer on "their previous lists?"

You can't go previous with your guys and not ours! LOL

Now that's some bi-ASS

The current difference between No. 84 and No. 91 on a Top 100 prospect list is not significant.

Marcelo Mayer and Ben Williamson offer difficult comparisons as Mayer was a No. 4 overall pick out of high school in 2021 while Williamson was a second-round, No. 57 overall pick in 2023 as a rare four-year college player. In 55 games his senior year at William & Mary, Williamson posted a .390/.513/.662/1.175 line (57 R, 12 HR, 49 RBI, 14 SB, 40 BB, 22 K). 

Williamson was rushed to the majors 20 months after the draft with only 150 minor league games under his belt. Mayer debuted 39 days later after 315 games over five seasons in the minors.

Last season Mayer posted 0.2 bWAR (0.4 fWAR) and a wRC+ of 85 in 44 games while Williamson posted 1.3 bWAR (0.4 fWAR) and a wRC+ of 76 in 85 games. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

A lot of blather about prospect value, which as we all know is total conjecture (ya, the reason most sports message boards exist).

But if I could pick moments when "Seattle acted like a contending team" it would be when they acquired Josh Naylor at the trade deadline, and then immediately signed him longterm as soon as the free agent season opened.

[mvp 78]

13 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

It's just street corner talk- pay it no mind.

Talking about Fred's box on the street corner would get you arrested. Please stop. 

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

A lot of blather about prospect value, which as we all know is total conjecture (ya, the reason most sports message boards exist).

But if I could pick moments when "Seattle acted like a contending team" it would be when they acquired Josh Naylor at the trade deadline, and then immediately signed him longterm as soon as the free agent season opened.

Red Sox would never! 

[moonslav59]

Jays talking to Framber.

[moonslav59]

44 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Talking about Fred's box on the street corner would get you arrested. Please stop. 

It wasn't me. I just overheard it as I walked by.

[harmony]

13 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Too funny.

Where was Mayer on "their previous lists?"

You can't go previous with your guys and not ours! LOL

Now that's some bi-ASS

Contrasting opinions are always welcome. Opinions supported by data are especially welcome.

Prospect rankings offer subjective evaluations.

A biased Seattle fan might cite the CBS Sportsline Top 100 prospect list, which ranks Jurrangelo Cijntje No. 44 and Kyson Witherspoon No. 77:

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/ranking-top-100-mlb-prospects-kevin-mcgonigle-jesus-made-konnor-griffin-sebastian-walcott-colt-emerson/

A biased Red Sox fan might cite Keith Law's prospect list, which ranks Witherspoon No. 62 and omits Cijntje from the Top 100:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6985939/2026/01/26/top-mlb-prospects-2026-keith-law-konnor-griffin/

An objective fan might cite MLB.com's Top 100 prospect list, which ranks Witherspoon No. 84 and Cijntje No. 91:

https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects

[drewski6]

3 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

It wasn't me. 

Okay, shaggy