A Realistic Look at the 2026 Red Sox: Part I

[mvp 78]

16 minutes ago, Old Red said:

That was the tidbit that hit Felger’s phone for what it was worth that he talked about last night. Duran, and Bello for Trout.

LOL

[mvp 78]

22 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

This might be the time to trade for Trout.  (Yes, I know it won't actually happen.)

He seems to be heathy again and performing at 85-90% of peak.

The Angels still stink.

His contract runs to the end of 2030.

Big boost for the offense and the fans.

Rafaela, Yoshida, plus a pitching prospect, plus cash to subsidize Yoshida.  Might take more than that. 

Sending money FOR Trout's contract. Crazy. 

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Im going to tag in hugh2 to explain to you why more pitching was not the primary route we should have went.  Our hitters in the playoffs last year were Story, Yoshida (end list). 

BTW , Brez didnt start saying pitching and D until Bregman walked out of the room laughing at Breslow with Breslow screaming "you dont have an offer from the cubs"  ANd breg was like "sure bud"
 

But agree on everything else.

You don't need to explain to me. I was just stating what Brez was probably thinking. He clearly thought just running it back with one bat addition would be good enough. 

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

ALso, I believe in the butterfly effect. So just because he isnt hitting in Chitown isnt a guarantee to me he wouldnt hit well here.

Reminder: we lost bregman because of breslows inability to not talk down to people. Nothing to do with drawing a line in the sand on value as much as some people wished that was the case.

Good post though, good post.

The line in the sand was the not trade clause. If Brez sucks it up and adds the no trade clause, Breggie comes back regardless of how he handled the negotiations prior to that point. 

[drewski6]

3 hours ago, notin said:

Cincinnati ranks one place ahead of Boston in runs scored, but is 22-20 while playing in a division where every team is over .500.

When watching teams like this, it’s easy to pretend a potent offense is at least more fun to watch.  It isn’t.  Watching an 11-9 loss is just as frustrating.  The Sox SP has been excellent lately and no one is talking about it.

The offense isn’t working, but it wasn’t ignored.   The changes either didn’t work or have had minimal impact.  

The bullpen?  That was ignored.  Making changes that don’t work is understandable and going to happen.  Status quo?  Rarely acceptable. Stand still?  You’re road kill…

Again, why do we all pretend that the offense that we have is the offense that we intended to have or have by design.

Our whole offseason plan for offense revolved around bringing Bregman back and Breslow couldnt help but spit in his face.  I told you last year, yes, you need to need to be able to communicate respectfully to be a good CBO.  

And you got weird because you dont consider yourself a good communicator/ talker/ showman /salesman /chick getter and you want to believe that youd be a good CBO despite these self-perceived shortcomings if given the opportunity.

And Im here to tell you, as your fan, that you are half right about this belief.  Ill let you decide which half Im implying is wrong.  Whether I am disagreeing with how you view yourself or whether or not youd make a good cbo.  But heres a hint: how is ur team doing on ur MLB GM simulator game? I would wager: well.

[Old Red]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

You don't need to explain to me. I was just stating what Brez was probably thinking. He clearly thought just running it back with one bat addition would be good enough. 

And that bat was Alonso whom they offered a contract to first, and then pivoted to Con Man.

[drewski6]

10 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Sending money FOR Trout's contract. Crazy. 

I just realized that Trout and Salmon played for the same team.  Cant break that up. Very similar fishes.

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, Old Red said:

And that bat was Alonso whom they offered a contract to first, and then pivoted to Con Man.

I like Contreras more than Alonso FWIW. I don't have a problem with what they did at 1b. 3b is a problem. OF/DH is a problem. SS is a problem.  

[drewski6]

10 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

You don't need to explain to me. I was just stating what Brez was probably thinking. He clearly thought just running it back with one bat addition would be good enough. 

For the record, I agree with you that it might have been had we brought Bregman back.  At least enough to not be here in the pit.  Maybe still not enough to get by the yanks tho.  But gotta gain on someone in a race before you can pass em, right? (proud of self cuz i jsut made that up)

drewski, drewski, drewski (the fans go wild)

[drewski6]

11 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The line in the sand was the not trade clause. If Brez sucks it up and adds the no trade clause, Breggie comes back regardless of how he handled the negotiations prior to that point. 

Instead, he tried negging him.  

[drewski6]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I like Contreras more than Alonso FWIW. I don't have a problem with what they did at 1b. 3b is a problem. OF/DH is a problem. SS is a problem.  

I think they went Contreras because that was a contract they thought they could fit alongside Bregman + a pitcher.  I think if they went hard at Alonso that would have been instead of Breg.

I agree that Contreras + Breg > Alonso + Durbin

[Bellhorn04]

15 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Sending money FOR Trout's contract. Crazy. 

Only if Yoshida is in the package, that is.

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

For the record, I agree with you that it might have been had we brought Bregman back.  At least enough to not be here in the pit.  Maybe still not enough to get by the yanks tho.  But gotta gain on someone in a race before you can pass em, right? (proud of self cuz i jsut made that up)

drewski, drewski, drewski (the fans go wild)

I think the hope was that the younger players improve and provide lift to the lineup. That clearly hasn't happened. Also, younger players have a wide variance in their performance early on in their careers. It should have been anticipated that everything would be smooth. 

[Old Red]

17 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Sending money FOR Trout's contract. Crazy. 

I don’t see the Red Sox taking on Trout’s contract let alone chipping in some money to take Masa.

[moonslav59]

53 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

One could place Story outside of Fenway with a free sign around his neck and he would still be there the next day.

LOL.

Last year was the best time to trade Story (or over this past winter,) but we'd have had to pay a large chunk of his remaining contract- not quite as much of a percentage as Yoshida, but a lot.

[Bellhorn04]

1 minute ago, Old Red said:

I don’t see the Red Sox taking on Trout’s contract let alone chipping in some money to take Masa.

Let's face it, we don't see the Sox doing much of anything more this year.

[Old Red]

2 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Only if Yoshida is in the package, that is.

Why would the Angels want Masa to begin with? The fact that Masa is still with the Red Sox says more that they can’t get anyone to take him than they want to keep him.

[moonslav59]

5 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I think they went Contreras because that was a contract they thought they could fit alongside Bregman + a pitcher.  I think if they went hard at Alonso that would have been instead of Breg.

I agree that Contreras + Breg > Alonso + Durbin

In hindsight: Contreras + BLowe> Alonso + Bregman, and the money would be way less.

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Let's face it, we don't see the Sox doing much of anything more this year.

Except maybe be sellers: Gray & Chapman.

Maybe Duran, Whitlock and other shorter term guys, if they have value in July.

[Old Red]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

LOL.

Last year was the best time to trade Story (or over this past winter,) but we'd have had to pay a large chunk of his remaining contract- not quite as much of a percentage as Yoshida, but a lot.

You’re always trying to get the Red Sox to pay off other teams to take someone off their hands.🤭

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Only if Yoshida is in the package, that is.

Even then, why? Trout's money is HUGE. Masa is only paid through the end of '27. Most teams wouldn't want to take on the end of Trout's deal as we're getting close to a lot of dead money as he ages. He's paid $35M+ annually and he's only been worth that in a single season since '19 (one season above 3 fWAR). Just because he looks good today doesn't mean the typical season ending Trout injury isn't popping up tonight or next week. Why are we excited to pay for his age 38 and 39 seasons? 

[Old Red]

3 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Let's face it, we don't see the Sox doing much of anything more this year.

At least not adding payroll.

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Only if Yoshida is in the package, that is.

Even then it's crazy. 

[drewski6]

4 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

In hindsight: Contreras + BLowe> Alonso + Bregman, and the money would be way less.

I dont care.

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Except maybe be sellers: Gray & Chapman.

Maybe Duran, Whitlock and other shorter term guys, if they have value in July.

If they trade Chapman AND Whitlock, that bullpen is going be really, really bad next season. The end of this year would be tank city. 

[JoeBrady]

54 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

They're typically one in the same, one typically follows the other.  Wood isn't a "star" now but if this is who he is he will be considered a star by seasons end. 

"If".  I had him last year on a couple of roto teams.  He was laughably good, and I thought he had one of the best swings in BB.  Then he went 233 ABs with 3 HRs and 107 Ks.  I still like him, but I'd still take RA over him.

[JoeBrady]

8 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

In hindsight: Contreras + BLowe> Alonso + Bregman, and the money would be way less.

Sure, but my hindsight guesses are incredibly accurate.

[moonslav59]

4 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Sure, but my hindsight guesses are incredibly accurate.

Indeed, but at least this is a better combo.

Some are still complaining about us not getting some players that are off to bad starts- like it wouldn't have helped anyway, right?

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

I don't care about the years already under control (arb years). The only years that matter during the extension are really the years after initial control ends! 

The cash doesn't matter. Only AAV matters. If they go any higher this year, they'll get draft pick penalized. Yuck! 

You don't want to get rid of him TODAY. TOMORROW? 

• Years 4-5-6 count also.  And I'd bet serious money that those years are cheaper than they would've been.
• And the TOMORROW comments can go for every player.  Since there is a chance that you won't want Bregman, Alonso or Bichette TOMORROW, then I assume you would want them (or any FA).
• And the chances of me not wanting a 4.0 bWAR player earning $3.75M is about -0-.

[Old Red]

8 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If they trade Chapman AND Whitlock, that bullpen is going be really, really bad next season. The end of this year would be tank city. 

If you traded Chapman, and Whitlock then you would also need to replace them next year.