A Realistic Look at the 2026 Red Sox: Part I

[moonslav59]

50 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

I could bet on them.  They could probably be a little low-end by playoff caliber teams, but I don't think they'd be black holes.  If I had a straight choice between those three, or a Story/Mayer combo, right now I would choose those three.

If we got a big bat at Catcher (or even LF/DH) I'd be okay rolling the dice with 7 middle infielders filling two slots.

[moonslav59]

It's interesting how we have almost all the same everyday players on the 40, except Jones, but how many starters have changed:

C: Narvaez (Wong 1 in 5 starts)  to Wong 2-3/Narvaez 2-3

2B: Mayer > a mix> Seigler (Sogard-Romy)

SS: Story> a mix> Monasterio (Sogard)

LF: Duran to Duran/Jones

DH: Anthony to Yoshida/Romy

[UtahSox]

Adley Rutschman!

[UtahSox]

C-Rutschman

1b- Contreras

2b- Monasterrio or Mead

SS- Arias or story😕

3b- Durbin

LF- Anthony or Duran

CF- Rafaela

RF- Abreu

DH- Mead or Duran or Anthony

[moonslav59]

Does Wong or Narvaez have enough trade value to a package to make another significant deal?

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Does Wong or Narvaez have enough trade value to a package to make another significant deal?

Probably not.  But I think both offer more value to us as injury insurance than they would be as trade bait.  I like Rutschman, but he's had injuries.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

Probably not.  But I think both offer more value to us as injury insurance than they would be as trade bait.  I like Rutschman, but he's had injuries.

Some reports have Narvaez as part ot the Rut trade.

[Maxbialystock]

5 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

If we got a big bat at Catcher (or even LF/DH) I'd be okay rolling the dice with 7 middle infielders filling two slots.

Exactly what I was thinking.  Outfield, 1b, and 3b are covered, especially when/if Anthony returns.  SS/2b have a ton of options.  Only problem with your brand new All-Star catcher is he is on the IL along with Crochet, Anthony, Story, and that other new big bat Mead he had 2 at bats before going down for what looks like the season.  

[moonslav59]

We have an all star team on the IL and still have the best record for the last 5 weeks.

[UtahSox]

4 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

We have an all star team on the IL and still have the best record for the last 5 weeks.

Get crochet, Anthony, Mead and AR15. This could be our year. 

[moonslav59]

Uberstine for Ely White RH'd OF (.623 career OPS.)

[moonslav59]

The Cubs are going all in:

+ Gausman

+ Holmes & T Taylor

+B Garrett

+ Zeferjahn

No Detmers, as previously reported

[Hitch]

https://x.com/i/status/2084388043776229458

 

Mayer going 

[moonslav59]

38 minutes ago, Hitch said:

https://x.com/i/status/2084388043776229458

 

Mayer going 

For a lefty RP'er with a high BB/9 rate.

How his stock did fall!

Times up!

Do we still have Duran?

Did we get a SP'er?

[moonslav59]

Yanks ended up getting Heliot Ramos, so they did pull a Bloom.

[moonslav59]

I'll get started on the Part II thread soon.

We sure have a bunch of new faces in key slots than we had on opening day.

Hell, the IL has...

C Rutschman

1B Casas

2B Mead

SS Story

3B Mayer... ooops... not anymore... IKF

OF Anthony

SP Crochet, Houck, Crawford, Oviedo

RP Kelly

[moonslav59]

On paper:

Replaced worst batter Narvaez at 53 OPS+) with a 115 OPS+ career and 2026 batter (Rutschman.)

We replaced Uberstine with Erik Miller.

We added some RHB OF depth in Ely White.

We kept Duran, Bello & Arias.

We kept Gonzales, Primera, Delzine, Valera, Soto & Godbout.

We even kept some Rule 5 guys, but most will not be selected: Jo Garcia, Wehunt, Paez, Ward, Song, Mullins & more.

We lost... (besides our worst batter)

Mayer (formerly a top 3 prospect)

Eyanson #2 prospect

Witherspoon #3

Azocar #6

We are a better team now, We may not be in 2028 and beyond, as a result of these deals.

[Duran Is The Man]

29 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

On paper:

Replaced worst batter Narvaez at 53 OPS+) with a 115 OPS+ career and 2026 batter (Rutschman.)

We replaced Uberstine with Erik Miller.

We added some RHB OF depth in Ely White.

We kept Duran, Bello & Arias.

We kept Gonzales, Primera, Delzine, Valera, Soto & Godbout.

We even kept some Rule 5 guys, but most will not be selected: Jo Garcia, Wehunt, Paez, Ward, Song, Mullins & more.

We lost... (besides our worst batter)

Mayer (formerly a top 3 prospect)

Eyanson #2 prospect

Witherspoon #3

Azocar #6

We are a better team now, We may not be in 2028 and beyond, as a result of these deals.

now that he has "decimated the farm", can we now start trashing Brez the way everyone trashed DD??? for, you know, "decimating the farm".

[vegasbob]

Can't wait for Part II as we see how the Sox hold up over the final 51, starting post TDL at 9 over .500 , 4 up in the WC.

To me, the season rests on the ability to continue with the current crew holding pace ( not 25-4, but maybe 15-10 in August) until at least one of the IL players ( Anthony, Mead, IKF, plus Rutschman) return and actually contribute.  Counting on Contreras and Rafaela to still hit well, Abreu to pick it back up and Duran to improve would help a lot.  Wong just needs to show up every day, anything more is a plus.

The pitching is really vulnerable with Bennett and Tolle set to hit 110 IP and 125 IP respectively by end of August.   Bello needs to be able to go 3-4 innings 2x per week to fill it out.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, Duran Is The Man said:

now that he has "decimated the farm", can we now start trashing Brez the way everyone trashed DD??? for, you know, "decimating the farm".

Good one. In many ways, Brez has trades as many top 5, 10 and 20 prospects as DD but in shorter time.

Note: we traded 4-5-8-18 for more control years of Crochet than 2-3-6 for Rut.

Ranks at time of trade:

2 Eyanson

3 Witherspoon

4 Teel

4 Perales

5 Monty

6 Azocar

6 Jh Garcia

7 Tibbs

8 Meidroth

8 Clarke

10 Fajardo

12 Sandlin

*12 Fitts (not a prospect when traded)

18 Wikelman

19 Jordan

19 Uberstine

20 Travieso

[moonslav59]

Yanks lost!

[Duran Is The Man]

10 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Good one. In many ways, Brez has trades as many top 5, 10 and 20 prospects as DD but in shorter time.

Note: we traded 4-5-8-18 for more control years of Crochet than 2-3-6 for Rut.

Ranks at time of trade:

2 Eyanson

3 Witherspoon

4 Teel

4 Perales

5 Monty

6 Azocar

6 Jh Garcia

7 Tibbs

8 Meidroth

8 Clarke

10 Fajardo

12 Sandlin

*12 Fitts (not a prospect when traded)

18 Wikelman

19 Jordan

19 Uberstine

20 Travieso

don't get me wrong. except for one trade (Beeks), i wasn't upset with DD trades. winning AL East titles and world series makes top prospect trades easier to digest. and i'm ok with Brez doing it. as long as we win.

[moonslav59]

5 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

don't get me wrong. except for one trade (Beeks), i wasn't upset with DD trades. winning AL East titles and world series makes top prospect trades easier to digest. and i'm ok with Brez doing it. as long as we win.

I never had a beef with DD. I also did not sugar coat the fact that all the trades would eventually create a system whereby it would be very hard to win, unless JH became the Dodgers. (I won't say the "C" word.)

Almost every major trade worked well. The ones that didn't, the  guys we traded rarely did well or very well. When trading Travis Shaw was your biggest trade blunder, you did okay.

DD was fine in my book.

BTW, I never said he "emptied the farm" or used the word "decimated," but he did take a big chunk out of it. Lucky or not, he kept the right ones, Devers, Houck, Duran, Crawford and okay... Casas & Dalbec too.

I'm not sure this farm purge is going to end up like 2020 or 2022-2024. We don't have big stars about to make big money or bolt or retire. We have a nice young core of players controlled for 3-6 years, plus a bunch for 2 years. We did not really have that many in 2018 and 2019. That was a great run, and I have no regrets for anything DD did.

[JoeBrady]

15 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

The Cubs are going all in:

+ Gausman

+ Holmes & T Taylor

+B Garrett

+ Zeferjahn

No Detmers, as previously reported

The Cubs had a very good day, imo.  I'm not sure what happened to Detmers, but if you add those three to Civale and Peterson, they replaced their entire rotation in about one month, with mostly #3 types, but they should continue to rack up the wins.

The Zeferjahn trade looked reachy.  I like Ballesteros.

[notin]

20 hours ago, UtahSox said:

C-Rutschman

1b- Contreras

2b- Monasterrio or Mead

SS- Arias or story😕

3b- Durbin

LF- Anthony or Duran

CF- Rafaela

RF- Abreu

DH- Mead or Duran or Anthony

No Yoshida?  Dude has a .915 OPS during the streak…

[moonslav59]

Sox are now 2 GB the NYY and only 1 in the loss column.

I'm a little worried about having 1-2 more games to play than most teams and 2 starters who need to see their innings reduced or managed.

I'm not pessimistic. This team is looking solid, focused and confident.

[moonslav59]

Just now, notin said:

No Yoshida?  Dude has a .915 OPS during the streak…

THis was the main reason I chose Catcher as a priority over LF/DH.

[Old Red]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Sox are now 2 GB the NYY and only 1 in the loss column.

I'm a little worried about having 1-2 more games to play than most teams and 2 starters who need to see their innings reduced or managed.

I'm not pessimistic. This team is looking solid, focused and confident.

Big 4 game series in NY the end of the month with a DH to boot. Hope both teams are pretty much healthy, and their should be an old time buzz going on.

[notin]

6 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

The Cubs had a very good day, imo.  I'm not sure what happened to Detmers, but if you add those three to Civale and Peterson, they replaced their entire rotation in about one month, with mostly #3 types, but they should continue to rack up the wins.

The Zeferjahn trade looked reachy.  I like Ballesteros.

Ballesteros can hit and throw.  But he can’t field or run…

[Michigan Adam2]

We can dream about the roster if all the IL players were back...it probably won't happen, but mead, Anthony, and crochet and at least 1 other starter would be pretty amazing to have back...