Why sign Houck and Casas?

[Hugh2]

8 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

IMHO, there will always be a GM willing to bet that he can turn any player around.  And I'd bet that more GMs will be worried about his injury than his performance.  There is a very good chance he will be a good to very-good hitter.

I don’t disagree with that at all, but we’d still be selling him at a low, I wouldn’t expect much in return.  I think the chance he gets right with Boston has much more value.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

I don’t disagree with that at all, but we’d still be selling him at a low, I wouldn’t expect much in return.  I think the chance he gets right with Boston has much more value.

Agreed. The only downside is that we have a 1Bman and 3 DHs.

[Hugh2]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Agreed. The only downside is that we have a 1Bman and 3 DHs.

And how many of those guys have higher upside AND options?

I get your concern, but I’m assuming he’s starting the year in AAA.  
 

if he hits it works itself out, if he doesn’t you’re in the same position you’re in now.

[moonslav59]

9 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

And how many of those guys have higher upside AND options?

I get your concern, but I’m assuming he’s starting the year in AAA.  
 

if he hits it works itself out, if he doesn’t you’re in the same position you’re in now.

I'm 100% for not trading Casas. I'm a fan of his.

I think he'll win the DH role.

[Randy Red Sox]

10 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm 100% for not trading Casas. I'm a fan of his.

I think he'll win the DH role.

Breslow's next job is to somehow dump Yoshida for nothing even if he has to retain half -75% of his salary.

[FredLynn]

10 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Thus spoke Zarapessimitra.

And now Bregman is off the table. Just signed with the Cubs. 
This Flops franchise is totally disgusting. They are wasting their window because Henry is a cheap SOB. The fans deserve better.

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

Breslow's next job is to somehow dump Yoshida for nothing even if he has to retain half -75% of his salary.

BTV says he's worth about $5M a year, so pay all but $4M a year and move on.

[moonslav59]

4 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

And now Bregman is off the table. Just signed with the Cubs. 
This Flops franchise is totally disgusting. They are wasting their window because Henry is a cheap SOB. The fans deserve better.

Maybe this would be a good time for you to become a Dodgers fan.

[FredLynn]

2 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Maybe this would be a good time for you to become a Dodgers fan.

Nah

I’ll just stay here and provide my exceptional insight into the many ongoing failures of the Flops franchise. 
We will never win another ring with the current cheapskate owners in charge. They make me sick.

[Randy Red Sox]

19 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

And now Bregman is off the table. Just signed with the Cubs. 
This Flops franchise is totally disgusting. They are wasting their window because Henry is a cheap SOB. The fans deserve better.

Dont call JH cheap. Sox still have the 8th highest payroll.

[FredLynn]

1 minute ago, Randy Red Sox said:

Dont call JH cheap. Sox still have the 8th highest payroll.

I’d like to see proof of that. Even if it’s true he still is failing to sign quality players that would allow us to be competitive. We will likely be even worse than we were last year as things now stand. 

[moonslav59]

It's not too late to sign Suarez and trade for a #2 SP'er and look like a winner.

[FredLynn]

18 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It's not too late to sign Suarez and trade for a #2 SP'er and look like a winner.

Do you honestly think that will happen?

[FredLynn]

1 hour ago, Randy Red Sox said:

Dont call JH cheap. Sox still have the 8th highest payroll.

Just checked. You’re right: we are 8th. You know what else? Both the Jays and the Yankees are spending more and the results in the standings reflect that. We aren’t even at the LT threshold. So yeah, Henry is.cheap. He’s not spending enough WISELY to give his team a chance to compete.

[moonslav59]

45 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Do you honestly think that will happen?

I have no idea.

I doubt we do nothing.

Do you think we should have offer Breggie $180M/5?

[Randy Red Sox]

1 hour ago, FredLynn said:

I’d like to see proof of that. Even if it’s true he still is failing to sign quality players that would allow us to be competitive. We will likely be even worse than we were last year as things now stand. 

Joe Brady told us we were 8th in payroll

[moonslav59]

16 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

Joe Brady told us we were 8th in payroll

Spotrac.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/tax

[FredLynn]

9 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I have no idea.

I doubt we do nothing.

Do you think we should have offer Breggie $180M/5?

Well since the failed to sign any of the better FAs they had to sign Bregman. But they failed at that too. 
I doubt they do nothing too. There is still more time to dive deeper into the dumpster.

[FredLynn]

9 hours ago, Randy Red Sox said:

Joe Brady told us we were 8th in payroll

Brady is usually wrong but this time he is right. I addressed this in a post above.

[Old Red]

11 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Maybe this would be a good time for you to become a Dodgers fan.

Maybe you should stop telling other fans to go, and be fans of someone else which you have done before just, because they don’t like what the Red Sox are doing. You are a Johnny come lately fan yourself. Yes other posters can call Henry cheap if they want to too. You can also sit there with a straight face like you always do and say you are not apologizing, or defending JH, which you always are. 👋

[vjcsmoke]

On 1/9/2026 at 4:25 PM, moonslav59 said:

Houck is cheaper than Hendriks, Sandoval, Paxton and all the other IL pitchers we dream of returning to glory we signed. It makes total sense they view that $4M as a good gamble.

Casas is worth the tiny money spent on him. That $1.6M is just $800K over a min wage guy we'd have in his place if we non tendered him. The guy was an.800+ batter for a long time. He may even play in 2026!

Translation: They are CHEAP. Makes sense from a financial point of view even if they never play another game for the Red Sox, the insurance will pick up most of it. This is peanuts salary for what they must view as back of the roster players.

Casas has some upside but I don't believe he ever returns to pre-injury form. 1.6m is still cheap to have him sit on the bench collecting splinters. 

The Red Sox will just collect insurance money if neither player ever returns healthy.

We might not like it but we need to accept the reality that the Red Sox ownership vision is still to become the AL East version of the Rays. As long as they profit from being cheap there is zero incentive to change their mandate to the front office.

The fans might get salty but the seats aren't going empty at Fenway any time soon.

[FredLynn]

26 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Maybe you should stop telling other fans to go, and be fans of someone else which you have done before just, because they don’t like what the Red Sox are doing. You are a Johnny come lately fan yourself. Yes other posters can call Henry cheap if they want to too.

It’s all in good fun. Moon is fine telling me to find a different team. He knows it’s never gonna happen. I don’t take it personally. 

[JoeBrady]

11 hours ago, FredLynn said:

I’ll just stay here and provide my exceptional insight into the many ongoing failures of the Flops franchise. 

You also provided that exceptional insight in 2007, 2013, and 2018.  Probably also in 2004.

[JoeBrady]

9 hours ago, Randy Red Sox said:

Joe Brady told us we were 8th in payroll

Actually, that was yesterday.  Today we are 9th.

[FredLynn]

2 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

You also provided that exceptional insight in 2007, 2013, and 2018.  Probably also in 2004.

Why should I stop now? I’m on a roll! I’m usually spot on. 

[JoeBrady]

32 minutes ago, Old Red said:

You are a Johnny come lately fan yourself. Yes other posters can call Henry cheap if they want to too.

I have no problem with calling JH cheap, if he doesn't add any more talent.

But my recollection is that you became a RS fan in 2004.  Life has not taught you the virtue of patience.

[FredLynn]

25 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Actually, that was yesterday.  Today we are 9th.

And as I pointed out two of our competitors in the ALE are outspending us and we haven’t even reached the LE tax threshold yet. It’s obvious that its profits over winning for the owner but hey- Henry’s family has to eat, right?

Heres an interesting fact: the Flops rank 23rd in terms of the percent of revenue actually being spent on payroll. They only spend about 42% of the profits on payroll. The rest goes to Henry’s family relief fund. So yeah: Henry is cheap:

https://twinstrivia.com/2025/04/05/mlb-teams-revenue-versus-payroll/

The teams that are more consistently competitive are at the top. The less competitive teams are towards the bottom, for the most part. Gosh......I wonder if there is a correlation there somehow.

[JoeBrady]

3 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Why should I stop now? I’m on a roll! I’m usually spot on. 

Getting a WS prediction wrong in 4 out of 22 years is virtually impossible.

[FredLynn]

28 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Getting a WS prediction wrong in 4 out of 22 years is virtually impossible.

Actually I got it right most years the Flops won. Your memory must be failing you again. I correctly predicted we would not win a ring 18 of 22 years, an 82% accuracy rate. Thats remarkable. And some of the years they DID win I got right too. Like I said, I am usually spot on.

[Old Red]

53 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

I have no problem with calling JH cheap, if he doesn't add any more talent.

But my recollection is that you became a RS fan in 2004.  Life has not taught you the virtue of patience.

Try 1960.