A Realistic Look at the 2026 Red Sox: Part I

[drewski6]

7 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

I was stunned.  In what world do you trade a Nomar for a glove-first SS?  Nomar had worn my patience down to a nub, but for a brief period of time, he was better than Jeter and ARod.  But I never got past the game when Jeter dove into the stands and came with the ball and his bleeding, while the cameras were zooming in on Nomar with his nonchalant look in the dugout.

There was also the time when the bench cleared, adn everyone was rushing towards the scrum and NOmar was like nah.  Be mad at ownership, but youre gonna not get your teammates back?  Arent you raging from roids and looking for an excuse to punch someone?

(nomar, not you. i hope you are not roided out and looking to punch someone cuz that someone would prob be me)

[mvp 78]

Whenever Rafaela is moved into the IF, his season tanks. It's not worth it. He seems to not thrive there. Why keep on forcing an issue than hasn't worked the previous two seasons? 

[drewski6]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

Whenever Rafaela is moved into the IF, his season tanks. It's not worth it. He seems to not thrive there. Why keep on forcing an issue than hasn't worked the previous two seasons? 

third times a charm?

[drewski6]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Whenever Rafaela is moved into the IF, his season tanks. It's not worth it. He seems to not thrive there. Why keep on forcing an issue than hasn't worked the previous two seasons? 

another reason is because then we wouldnt trade duran and i could lie to myself that we made a big offensive offseason addition (duran), like i did last year trade deadline.

[drewski6]

Also - third reason to move Cedanne to inf - to annoy joe brady (but i dislike him less today than i did last week)

[moonslav59]

Maybe the best idea would be to trade Rafaela.

I'm a huge fan of defense up the middle, but if we don't get 2 big bats, we can't afford to trade Duran or Abreu, and DH'ing Duran is almost as big a waste as moving Rafaela to the infield so our weakest OF'er doesn't have to DH.

This OF looks pretty good to me:

Duran/Campbell in LF

Anthony/Duran in CF

Abreu/Anthony in RF

(Campbell could DH some vs RHPs and spell the LHB OF'ers when we face lefties.)

If Brez likes Rafaela more than Duran and Abreu, other GMs might, too and give us more in return. His pay is low and his control is long.

Something like Rafaela, Crawford, Mullins & Monegro for KMarte.

Sign Suarez to play 1B and maybe 3B vs LHPs, if Mayer needs to be platooned.

That might keep us near enough to the tax line for JH to go along with.

Another idea might be to trade Mayer for Vientos & Senga... nah....

[mvp 78]

7 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Maybe the best idea would be to trade Rafaela.

If he didn't have the extension attached, many more teams would be calling about him.

[moonslav59]

25 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If he didn't have the extension attached, many more teams would be calling about him.

I don't see that as an issue. The low budget teams can trade him, when hids contract gets to high for him.

He is not overpaid. It's hard to know if he will be worth the money in his last years, but he earned that money in 2025. He makes $11.5M over the next 3 years combined. That's Pittsburgh Pirate money.

26:$2M, 

27:$3.5M, 

28:$5.5M, 

29:$7.5M, 

30:$10.5M, 

31:$13M, 

32:$16M club option ($4M buyout)

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I don't see that as an issue. The low budget teams can trade him, when hids contract gets to high for him.

He is not overpaid. It's hard to know if he will be worth the money in his last years, but he earned that money in 2025. He makes $11.5M over the next 3 years combined. That's Pittsburgh Pirate money.

26:$2M, 

27:$3.5M, 

28:$5.5M, 

29:$7.5M, 

30:$10.5M, 

31:$13M, 

32:$16M club option ($4M buyout)

The further a trade is pushed back, the higher his AAV calculation is adjusted for CBT purposes. 

[moonslav59]

18 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The further a trade is pushed back, the higher his AAV calculation is adjusted for CBT purposes. 

Not a worry for low budget teams at all.

[drewski6]

27 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I don't see that as an issue. The low budget teams can trade him, when hids contract gets to high for him.

He is not overpaid. It's hard to know if he will be worth the money in his last years, but he earned that money in 2025. He makes $11.5M over the next 3 years combined. That's Pittsburgh Pirate money.

26:$2M, 

27:$3.5M, 

28:$5.5M, 

29:$7.5M, 

30:$10.5M, 

31:$13M, 

32:$16M club option ($4M buyout)

This is actually pretty sexy for a team that cries poverty , and now Im not really as into trading him.

That 13m in 6 years is really equiv to 10.5 today (inflation), and thats not really starter money.  That 10.5 in 5 years is really like 8 today (inflation).

Maybe you just rotate around (and yes that would include some infield for Raf) but its not full time infield.

So like Raf plays inf sometimes, sits sometimes, outfield most times
Masa plays sometimes, sits sometimes, DH some time
Duran plays OF most times , DH some times

Positional versatility is depth.  Also, there will be plenty of times when someone isnt available so the juggling will only have to happen some of the time

[mvp 78]

16 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Not a worry for low budget teams at all.

They are only trading him to low budget teams now? He's off the market to over 1/3 of MLB? 

[moonslav59]

16 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

They are only trading him to low budget teams now? He's off the market to over 1/3 of MLB? 

He can be traded to all teams who need an OF'er.

I was responding to the post about his contract being to high for some teams.

[UtahSox]

18 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Whenever Rafaela is moved into the IF, his season tanks. It's not worth it. He seems to not thrive there. Why keep on forcing an issue than hasn't worked the previous two seasons? 

Agree. He needs to stay at CF, but the problem is he had around a 600ish ops the 2nd half of last year. And when you’re getting below RS expectations out of DH, 1B and CF (2nd half of yr)it makes his lack of consistent offense more glaring. So Cora tinkers with lineup to extract everything he can out of it. 

I’d rather trade him (if a team values him more than Duran) because I think Duran even being much worse defensively brings a 750+ OPS and this lineup freaking needs it right now. 

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, UtahSox said:

Agree. He needs to stay at CF, but the problem is he had around a 600ish ops the 2nd half of last year. And when you’re getting below RS expectations out of DH, 1B and CF (2nd half of yr)it makes his lack of consistent offense more glaring. So Cora tinkers with lineup to extract everything he can out of it. 

I’d rather trade him (if a team values him more than Duran) because I think Duran even being much worse defensively brings a 750+ OPS and this lineup freaking needs it right now. 

Rafaela, Abreu and Duran are worth more to other teams than to us, or to us as a DH or infielder.

We have high needs at 2B or 3B, SP2 and maybe 1B. Other teams need an OF'er and would love one or two of our ptchers and or prospects.

[UtahSox]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Rafaela, Abreu and Duran are worth more to other teams than to us, or to us as a DH or infielder.

We have high needs at 2B or 3B, SP2 and maybe 1B. Other teams need an OF'er and would love one or two of our ptchers and or prospects.

Tolle+ Rafaela for Marte? 

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, UtahSox said:

Tolle+ Rafaela for Marte? 

I'd do it. (I like Early more than Tolle, and unless we add a 3Bman, we need Mayer.)

I'd put Anthony in CF- not Duran, but I'm okay flipping them.

Our O is better with Duran over Rafaela, even if JD declines some.

[UtahSox]

6 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I'd do it. (I like Early more than Tolle, and unless we add a 3Bman, we need Mayer.)

I'd put Anthony in CF- not Duran, but I'm okay flipping them.

Our O is better with Duran over Rafaela, even if JD declines some.

Me too….. Then go get 1 of those bats from Japan, and call it a day. Are we better than the sh*t we rolled into Bronx with in October? Yes. (Which will give Beta Breslow a win @ press conference)

are we better than we were opening day 2025? Emphatic NO…..

 

 

[moonslav59]

8 minutes ago, UtahSox said:

Me too….. Then go get 1 of those bats from Japan, and call it a day. Are we better than the sh*t we rolled into Bronx with in October? Yes. (Which will give Beta Breslow a win @ press conference)

are we better than we were opening day 2025? Emphatic NO…..

I'd be fine with ...

Tolle & Rafaela for K Marte

Sign Okamoto (3B if trade Mayer or 1B if no trade)

(Optional: Trade Mayer for a solid #2 SP, but this puts pressure on 1B being figured out.)

[Larry Cook]

1 hour ago, UtahSox said:

Tolle+ Rafaela for Marte? 

And how is this trade helping Arizona?? 

[moonslav59]

48 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

And how is this trade helping Arizona?? 

They dump salary, add two players for one and hope for 12 years of control outweighing 5.

[moonslav59]

Rafaela, Crawford, Phillips and Holobetz for Marte might get it done.

Sign Okamoto for one more year than anyone else, and maybe the xtra year brings down the AAV by $2-3M and to a point JH can accept.

I seriously doubt we do anything more than this, and this is probably a pipedream, too. I'd like a #2, but trading Mayer would mean we need Casas/Romy working ut at 1B. I doubt that happens.

1. L Anthony CF

2. S KMarte 2B

3. L Duran LF

4. R Okamoto 1B

5. L Abreu RF

6. R Story SS

7. L Masa/Casas/ R Campbell  DH

8. R Narvaez C

9. L Mayer 3B/ R Romy 3B

[Larry Cook]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

They dump salary, add two players for one and hope for 12 years of control outweighing 5.

In my experiences, hope is never a good strategy 

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Rafaela, Crawford, Phillips and Holobetz for Marte might get it done.

Casas 

Masa

Bleis

Cespedes

Castro

Johanfran

Wehunt

Ingrassia

Brannon

J Bello

for 

Marte

[Duran Is The Man]

5 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Casas 

Masa

Bleis

Cespedes

Castro

Johanfran

Wehunt

Ingrassia

Brannon

J Bello

for 

Marte

only if we can throw in Hicks too.

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

only if we can throw in Hicks too.

He goes in a deal for a #2! 

[Behindenemylines]

On 12/17/2025 at 3:08 PM, mvp 78 said:

Whenever Rafaela is moved into the IF, his season tanks. It's not worth it. He seems to not thrive there. Why keep on forcing an issue than hasn't worked the previous two seasons? 

Doesn't make much sense to have one of the best center fielders in baseball playing the IF. You weaken your self defensesifly. 

[JoeBrady]

On 12/17/2025 at 3:14 PM, drewski6 said:

Also - third reason to move Cedanne to inf - to annoy joe brady (but i dislike him less today than i did last week)

The week is still early.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Behindenemylines said:

Doesn't make much sense to have one of the best center fielders in baseball playing the IF. You weaken your self defensesifly. 

He'd have more value to another team as a CF'er in a trade.

[JoeBrady]

5 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

And how is this trade helping Arizona?? 

Because Rafaela has more long-term value than Marte.  I wouldn't do that trade straight-up.