A Realistic Look at the 2026 Red Sox: Part I

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Everyone should speak the native language of their country. So all English speakers that live in the U.S. should learn how to speak Algonquian... but wait, didn't their ancestors once enter the continent across the mythical land bridge to Alaska?

That does it, anyone east of the  Mississippi needs to speak brook trout -- not rainbow trout or brown trout, because those were imported -- but brookie: the one true indigenous freshwater species.

I do speak fluent Perch. Does that count?

[UtahSox]

39 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

So, you know Devers is not making an effort to learn or speak English? Maybe he tried hard and gave up. It is not and should not be mandatory.

Sure, it's nice and comfy for Sox fans who refuse to learn the language of the player who is "the face of the franchise" to hear him talk in flawless English, but holding it against him is not anything I would do.

The fact that Ohtani is "getting better and better" does not matter.

As a matter of my own personal perspective, I teach English as a Second Language. I took beginning French 3 times in my life (MS, HS & college.) I had to drop French after one semester, our of fear of failing Sem 2, and I took Sem 1 Latin to meet my graduation requirement. I took Spanish lessons before moving to Mexico to like for almost 4 years. While there, I took 6 levels of Spanish at a university and then hired a personal tutor to help me with conversational Spanish. After all that, my Spanish might be as good as Devers' English. The point? It's just not easy for some people. I might even say near impossible once you get past a certain age, where some your brain paths have shut down in some areas.

I do admire Bregman for learning Spanish, so he could relate to his teammates.

Here we go again, taking one little line creating an entire message about it… no, I do not personally know the efforts he made, I didn’t sit next to him, and follow him around all winter, nor have I quit my job and just stalked Raffy. That is what I was told via somebody from the front office adjacent of the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox were disappointed in his effort.

I totally get the language thing, growing up as a Mormon in Utah at the age of 19 you “volunteer” (with considerable pressure from your generalized other) to serve a mission, and they send you anywhere in the world they want. It’s supposed to be an act of faith…. They actually have a hymn entitled “I’ll go where you want me to go dear lord” I happened to be sent to a Spanish-speaking country, so I was forced to learn Spanish. At any given time there were 200 gringos in my mission, forcing our twisted Anglo-Saxon, traditional beliefs upon others. None of us chose to be where we were, so I saw various levels of competence and commitment to learning language. I get it the Vogue thing to say is “well everybody learns differently,” which is true, and I fully witnessed that.

But this individual, I sat next to expressed that there was some level of frustration at Devers commitment to his body and I quote “learning English”. And let me get out in front of this. This is not me body shaming Devers. I don’t care…… I didn’t document what he ate on Friday nights, or if he got up and lifted weights on Saturday morning,…..just simply what was relayed to me in early August 2025. 

 

[Old Red]

12 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I suggested it might be a reason. Unlike you I did not pretend to be all-knowing.

Of course, Cora might think Devers would have sucked at 1B. Afterall, he did suck at 3B, it's not a big leap. Sucking at 1B, as in dropping clean throws could be worse than having him at 3B.

Not knowing doesn't mean I have to pick a lane, assign it as truth and base everything on an assumption.

You don’t have to pick a lane, but I did, and I will stick with that lane until some fact, or facts prove otherwise.

[Old Red]

2 minutes ago, UtahSox said:

Here we go again, taking one little line creating an entire message about it… no, I do not personally know the efforts he made, I didn’t sit next to him, and follow him around all winter, nor have I quit my job and just stalked Raffy. That is what I was told via somebody from the front office adjacent of the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox were disappointed in his effort.

I totally get the language thing, growing up as a Mormon in Utah at the age of 19 you “volunteer” (with considerable pressure from your generalized other) to serve a mission, and they send you anywhere in the world they want. It’s supposed to be an act of faith…. They actually have a hymn entitled “I’ll go where you want me to go dear lord” I happened to be sent to a Spanish-speaking country, so I was forced to learn Spanish. At any given time there were 200 gringos in my mission, forcing our twisted Anglo-Saxon, traditional beliefs upon others. None of us chose to be where we were, so I saw various levels of competence and commitment to learning language. I get it the Vogue thing to say is “well everybody learns differently,” which is true, and I fully witnessed that.

But this individual, I sat next to expressed that there was some level of frustration at Devers commitment to his body and I quote “learning English”. And let me get out in front of this. This is not me body shaming Devers. I don’t care…… I didn’t document what he ate on Friday nights, or if he got up and lifted weights on Saturday morning,…..just simply what was relayed to me in early August 2025. 

 

I think Raffy knew a lot more English than he let on according to reports.

[UtahSox]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

I really want to avoid giving up top talent for one year players. The Sonny Gray trade gave up good talent, but not really top talent, and we didn't know Suarez was going to be added, later.

Shaw interests me more, but I'm afraid of a Grissom repeat. He hit .690 in his rookie year. His value is almost all speculative. I guess it depends on who they want, but I'm not giving up one of our 4 OF'er for him. I'd hesitate to give Bello, but I view the step down from Bello to the mix below him as relatively minor compared to the step up in hope on Shaw vs hopes on DHam/Sogard & Co.

I think someone like Baty is more of a sure thing. I may be too hung up on the need for a RHB, but I think I'd prefer the LHB Baty over the RHB Shaw. Close call, I guess.

Of course, my first choice was KMarte, and I'd prefer Paredes, despite just 2 years vs 4+ on those other two guys.

If we don’t make any trades, and the Red Sox are unwilling to spend money. That Sonny gray trade looks really bad now, huh? We obviously don’t know what the future holds with injuries, etc., but it for sure limited what we could accomplish in terms of improving the lineup. 

[moonslav59]

Just now, Old Red said:

Didn’t you say the BIGGEST mistake made was waiting until May 2 for wanting Raffy to put a 1B glove on. Who’s mistake was that, and how is that misstated ?

I did not assign the "mistake" on Cora, Brez, Bloom, JH or any one person. I mentioned it went back years.

I don't know why nobody tried. (Maybe they did.) I think they should have tried, if they didn't. I don't know if they tried or not. Maybe they never even talked about it, but I find that ahrd to believe.

I have my opinions on what should be done. I readily admit I do not have all the information and facts that GMs and managers have, so I don't assign blame based on just assumptions and my own personal opinions. I do not know why that is so hard to comprehend. I could venture a guess that it is the way you think, so you assume everyone thinks like you do. Everything is black and white and blame needs to be fully assigned in neat little boxes with all but 0.5% given to the idea that maybe my opinion is wrong or bases on faulty assumptions.

I know I have faulty assumptions. Maybe that's what's you can't conceive. I'm about to give up even trying to debate this or anything else with you.

I think not at least having Devers try a 1Bman's mitt over several years was a mistake. I just won't call it Bloom's mistake, Cora's mistake, Brez's mistake (although we do know he tried.) or whoever. Maybe it's 33% to all three. I don't really care, but I'm not putting 99.5% blame on the one guy who actually tried to get Devers to play where he was needed- Mr. 12%.

[moonslav59]

8 minutes ago, Old Red said:

You don’t have to pick a lane, but I did, and I will stick with that lane until some fact, or facts prove otherwise.

Thank you for admitting that serious flaw in your logic.

[Old Red]

2 minutes ago, UtahSox said:

If we don’t make any trades, and the Red Sox are unwilling to spend money. That’s Sonny gray trade looks really bad now, huh? We obviously don’t know what the future holds with injuries, etc., but it for sure limited what we could accomplish in terms of improving the lineup. 

You may be right, but Gray was added, because the plan was bringing Bregman back, and if Bregman had come back then the Ranger signing wouldn’t have happened. Gray on gets this $11M this year.

[Old Red]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I did not assign the "mistake" on Cora, Brez, Bloom, JH or any one person. I mentioned it went back years.

I don't know why nobody tried. (Maybe they did.) I think they should have tried, if they didn't. I don't know if they tried or not. Maybe they never even talked about it, but I find that ahrd to believe.

I have my opinions on what should be done. I readily admit I do not have all the information and facts that GMs and managers have, so I don't assign blame based on just assumptions and my own personal opinions. I do not know why that is so hard to comprehend. I could venture a guess that it is the way you think, so you assume everyone thinks like you do. Everything is black and white and blame needs to be fully assigned in neat little boxes with all but 0.5% given to the idea that maybe my opinion is wrong or bases on faulty assumptions.

I know I have faulty assumptions. Maybe that's what's you can't conceive. I'm about to give up even trying to debate this or anything else with you.

I think not at least having Devers try a 1Bman's mitt over several years was a mistake. I just won't call it Bloom's mistake, Cora's mistake, Brez's mistake (although we do know he tried.) or whoever. Maybe it's 33% to all three. I don't really care, but I'm not putting 99.5% blame on the one guy who actually tried to get Devers to play where he was needed- Mr. 12%.

You don’t care, but you can’t stand some putting most of blame on Brez for this, or not for landing Bregman. It’s like me saying i don’t blame Brez for anything at all.🤭

 

 

 

[Old Red]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Thank you for admitting that serious flaw in your logic.

Most people that I’ve heard have picked a lane, so I’m in good company serious so called flaw, or not.

[moonslav59]

5 minutes ago, UtahSox said:

If we don’t make any trades, and the Red Sox are unwilling to spend money. That’s Sonny gray trade looks really bad now, huh? We obviously don’t know what the future holds with injuries, etc., but it for sure limited what we could accomplish in terms of improving the lineup. 

To me, through all the Brez bashing, I'm surprised this is not discussed more.

We heard the FO talk about the need for a #2 SP'er behind Crochet. We know we had that big need along with at least 2 more major needs: a big bat and a 3B/2Bman. Maybe 3 needs if you count 1B, but the big bat need should fill the 1B or 2B/3B need, so it was essentially 3 big needs.

Instead of filling these three needs with one player, he filled one need with 2 players (Suarez & Gray) and maybe half or three-quarters filled another need (Contreras as the "big bat" or 1Bman.) So, at best we added 3 big pieces and filled just 2 of 3 big needs. At worst, we filled 1.5 of 3 big needs while adding 3 significant players.

Now, there is still time a resources (mostly trade capital) to add a 3B/2Bman. The chance to add a big bat is probably too remote to even consider. In theory, adding a significant player to play 3B/2B would fill 2.5 or 3 of the 3 biggest needs with a nice added boost to the rotation, which by attrition could help the pen. (Crawford/Harrison/Sandoval/Oviedo to the pen?)

Instead, I hear Brez blew this and blew that, even from posters who didn't want Breggie at that cost. (And Breggie does not fill the big bat need, anyway, IMO.)

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

You don’t care, but you can’t stand some putting most of blame on Brez for this, or not for landing Bregman. It’s like me saying i don’t blame Brez for anything at all.🤭

Makes no sense, once again.

It's like you are speaking Spanish.

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, Old Red said:

Most people that I’ve heard have picked a lane, so I’m in good company serious so called flaw, or not.

Comfort among the sheep.

[UtahSox]

Since rarely this board stays on topic, and I didn’t know where to ask a question. I’ll just ask it here .

I popped over to the Cubs message board, I wanted to see what their thoughts and feelings were on a trade. Consensus, they really love, Nico Hoerner. And hate their owner way worse than we do. HA

Whilst on that website, I came across a hypothesis or theory about the Boston Red Sox that I haven’t read here. It might exist and I just missed it, so apologies if it’s already been written about ad nauseam. They implied that Craig Breslow has taken a big chance on the ABS system and that it might be part of the reason why we ended up with Suarez and Gray as opposed to any type of bat at all.
Do you guys agree with this? 1. That this was actually part of his thought process. 2. That he consciously chose pitching, and guys who throw strikes over hitting?
what do you think that means for our team offensively? We have an absolute ton of swing and miss in our lineup. And a few guys that are known for chasing. I know it’s not every pitch and only in a challenge situation so I’m wondering how much this will alter the 2026 Landscape. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

22 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I do speak fluent Perch. Does that count?

Sure, but perch are often confused in name with pickerel, which are from the pike family and known as walleye in Canada. As long as they keep all the carp out of our waters, because carp are an invasive species. If only the DEP (Department of Environmental Pollution) could hire a school of masked piranhas to patrol lakes and ponds... though I've never known fish to wear masks before this year.

[Old Red]

9 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Comfort among the sheep.

Sheep? I’ll go with the people on ESPN, and MLB networks who have more knowledge than you do, so I’m in pretty good company.

[moonslav59]

20 minutes ago, UtahSox said:

Since rarely this board stays on topic, and I didn’t know where to ask a question. I’ll just ask it here .

I popped over to the Cubs message board, I wanted to see what their thoughts and feelings were on a trade. Consensus, they really love, Nico Hoerner. And hate their owner way worse than we do. HA

Whilst on that website, I came across a hypothesis or theory about the Boston Red Sox that I haven’t read here. It might exist and I just missed it, so apologies if it’s already been written about ad nauseam. They implied that Craig Breslow has taken a big chance on the ABS system and that it might be part of the reason why we ended up with Suarez and Gray as opposed to any type of bat at all.
Do you guys agree with this? 1. That this was actually part of his thought process. 2. That he consciously chose pitching, and guys who throw strikes over hitting?
what do you think that means for our team offensively? We have an absolute ton of swing and miss in our lineup. And a few guys that are known for chasing. I know it’s not every pitch and only in a challenge situation so I’m wondering how much this will alter the 2026 Landscape. 

All teams have some sort of methodology for assigning value to players. Some are obviously better than others (or luckier.)

I'm hopeful our evaluation system is good. I do think Gray is worth more than the $21M we are paying him. I like the Suarez deal better than the Breggie deal.

Positionally, we are still in a bind, but there is something to the notion that value is value, no matter where it is. If Suarez was replacing a guy with Suarez value as our 5th starter, then I'd be sayin Whoa!

I'm also think we now use our SP'er deoth to add a 3B/2B and fix that need anyway. That would make the Suarez over Breggie choice more sensible. (I think it mase sense, anyway.)

[moonslav59]

19 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Sheep? I’ll go with the people on ESPN, and MLB networks who have more knowledge than you do, so I’m in pretty good company.

If that makes you feel better, good for you. You have a lot of faith in majority opinions or the perception of it.

[moonslav59]

Most of the best remaining FAs are SP'er, which is the last thing we need.

Here is who is left and their ranking on MLBTRs FA list:

6. Framber SP who threw a ball at his catcher in 2025.

15. Gallen SP who struggled badly in 2025.

20. E Suarez 3B/1B/DH maybe in the Sox sights.

24, Bassitt SP about to turn 37.

27. Giolito SP may have health concerns.

33. Nick Martinez SP/RP may go to the Yanks.

35. Littell SP is seeking multi-year deal.

38. Verlander SP turns 43 soon.

48. Scherzer is 41 years old.

Honorable mentions not signed:

M Andujar, Buehler, Hoskins, Kopech, S Marte, Mony, Ozuna, Justin Wilson.

 

[Nick]

 "Days after their 2025 season ended, the Red Sox publicly identified a front-line starter and more pop for their lineup as their primary offseason needs."

Oh, I'm a Sox fan for life, but our front office has lost all credibility with me. When they fail, "we couldn't work it out".

 

 

[moonslav59]

Possible 3B/2B (SS) trade options?

Paredes HOU

Donovan STL

Hoerner or Shaw CHC

Baty or Vientos NYM

Tovar COL

Lewis MN

Chisholm NYY, G Torres DET, K Clemens MN, Muncy LAD, Bohm PHI

Not likely available:

KMarte AZ, Keaschall MN, Stott PHI, Machado SDP, Riley ATL

Am I missing anyone?

 

[FredLynn]

13 minutes ago, Nick said:

 "Days after their 2025 season ended, the Red Sox publicly identified a front-line starter and more pop for their lineup as their primary offseason needs."

Oh, I'm a Sox fan for life, but our front office has lost all credibility with me. When they fail, "we couldn't work it out".

 

 

Exactly! They show a lot of "interest" in good players but rarely sign anyone of consequence. The "more pop in the lineup" simply isn't going to be addressed, at least in the manner that would make us compete for a ring this year. Half assed job at addressing the needs of the team, as usual.

Disgusting franchise.

LIARS!

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, Nick said:

 "Days after their 2025 season ended, the Red Sox publicly identified a front-line starter and more pop for their lineup as their primary offseason needs."

Oh, I'm a Sox fan for life, but our front office has lost all credibility with me. When they fail, "we couldn't work it out".

Hey, we filled one of those identified slots, twice over! That's already better than our trend! LOL.

They probably think Contreras fills the other need and would have argued Gray filled the first need, had we not signed Suarez.

If we can add Paredes, I'll be fine with the winter moves as a whole.

If we add Baty, Shaw, Tovar or better (Donovan is close) instead of Paredes, I'll be okay.

I'm hoping the unexpected gains in the rotation can outweigh the shortcomings in the big bat area need.

Maybe we wait until the deadline to deal from rotation depth, but that is almost always for prospects. Let's do it NOW!

[Hugh2]

Jordan Hicks + David Sandlin traded to the white Sox.  Return is unclear.

 

prediction, Sox probably eating some money, getting back a low a kid and clearing out some roster space

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Exactly! They show a lot of "interest" in good players but rarely sign anyone of consequence. The "more pop in the lineup" simply isn't going to be addressed, at least in the manner that would make us compete for a ring this year. Disgusting franchise.

LIARS!

It's encouraging to see you say "rarely and not "never."

I do think Contreras and Gray are consequential, but you were speaking about signings.

I'm not happy, either, but I do think we improved by a significant amount- maybe just not significant enough.

Add Paredes and we'll be a top 4-5 team- 6th at worst and probably not top 3.

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Jordan Hicks + David Sandlin traded to the white Sox.  Return is unclear.

 

prediction, Sox probably eating some money, getting back a low a kid and clearing out some roster space

Link?

Funny, because I often included Sandlin in my suggested trades, including some with Hicks.

[moonslav59]

BTV has Hicks (-$18M) , Sandlin ($6M) and only $8M to CWS for Gage Ziehl (worth $1M)

-$4M for +$1M

This would save us $6.3M x 2 on the AAV line and $8.3M x 2 in actual salary. That gets us closer to being able to sign E Suarez and stay below line 3, but still not quite there, unless his value falls to about $16M AAV.

[Hugh2]

Sox getting back Gage Ziegler.  A 2024 4th round pick.

fastball up to 94, does not miss bats. Does have a lot of pitches he mixes in with good control. 

[FredLynn]

5 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It's encouraging to see you say "rarely and not "never."

I do think Contreras and Gray are consequential, but you were speaking about signings.

I'm not happy, either, but I do think we improved by a significant amount- maybe just not significant enough.

Add Paredes and we'll be a top 4-5 team- 6th at worst and probably not top 3.

They signed Contreras, Suarez, and Gray (as a lower tier SP, not a #2). I am fine with those moves. If they are done signing talent then I am not happy either. I doubt very much we will get Paredes or anyone like him. I suspect that we will get someone worse followed by another litany of excuses.

[moonslav59]

Just posted on MLBT:

Hicks (+$8M) & Sandlin for minor leaguer Gage Ziehl and PTBNL!

That opens two slots on the 40 including one on the 26