Boston Red Sox Looking To Add Right-Handed Bat

[notin]

8 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Was DD a genius because our farm was over-rated? Hardly anyone did well.

No, he was genius because almost every big signing worked, almost every trade worked, and the prospects he kept were largely unknowns who ended up being better than many highly ranked prospects he dealt.

No, comparing Brez and DD is pointless.

All I’m saying is after a handful of of PA and IP, guys like Buttrey, Moncada, Kopech, Beeks all looked good, too.   But over time a lot of luster wore off most of them.  Maybe the same happens to Jordan…

[Hugh2]

12 hours ago, a700hitter said:

He was hitting 400 foot homers when he was 14.  He might be legit.  We will have to wait and see.  What we got from Matz was very limited and it is over.  Jordan could be around for a while.

And Bobby Dalbec can hit them 500 feet too. Power is useless if you don't have the hit tool to tap into it. 

If Jordan becomes a regular MLBer I'll be happy for him, it's  a nice story.  But he can't hit velocity and he can't hit righties, he was ranked low and still only 25th in STLC system. 

That's about on par with what you give up for a middle reliever. 

Jordan has hit righties better this year, in AAA who knows what he becomes but he's very far down on the list of guys I wish we'd have back. 

[Hugh2]

I'm not trying to knock Dave D, his record speaks for itself but his affinity of trading away prospects that don't hit is pure luck.  That's certainly how we see it through the lens of a Sox fan.....it's easy to forget that he worked elsewhere before Boston and traded away top prospects who turned into. 

Randy Johnson

Trevor Hoffman

Mike Piazza

Johan Santana and others.  

When you trade heavy in volume you're going to have good names go in and out.  Sox caught a good run in him for a brief period of time.  He didn't truly know who was going to pan out and who wasn't, he just had the balls to pull off big trades and won them. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

The reason Breslow's trades are often condemned isn't just because ex-Sox are playing well elsewhere. It's because a lot of the guys he got in return aren't good in Boston. 

Dombrowski's deals won a ring. Beeks for Eovaldi... and no one cared that Espinal made the All-Star team for Toronto after Steve Pearce was MVP of the World Series. That's a swap every Sox fan would make forever.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

The reason Breslow's trades are often condemned isn't just because ex-Sox are playing well elsewhere. It's because a lot of the guys he got in return aren't good in Boston. 

Dombrowski's deals won a ring. Beeks for Eovaldi... and no one cared that Espinal made the All-Star team for Toronto after Steve Pearce was MVP of the World Series. That's a swap every Sox fan would make forever.

If anybody takes back that Pearce trade, they're an idiot. 

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

I'm not trying to knock Dave D, his record speaks for itself but his affinity of trading away prospects that don't hit is pure luck.  That's certainly how we see it through the lens of a Sox fan.....it's easy to forget that he worked elsewhere before Boston and traded away top prospects who turned into. 

Randy Johnson

Trevor Hoffman

Mike Piazza

Johan Santana and others.  

When you trade heavy in volume you're going to have good names go in and out.  Sox caught a good run in him for a brief period of time.  He didn't truly know who was going to pan out and who wasn't, he just had the balls to pull off big trades and won them. 

I don't care about his non-Red Sox trades TBH. 

[Hugh2]

4 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

The reason Breslow's trades are often condemned isn't just because ex-Sox are playing well elsewhere. It's because a lot of the guys he got in return aren't good in Boston. 

Dombrowski's deals won a ring. Beeks for Eovaldi... and no one cared that Espinal made the All-Star team for Toronto after Steve Pearce was MVP of the World Series. That's a swap every Sox fan would make forever.

You can't go out and pitch for them.  Dustin May, Walker Buehler, and Sean Newcomb have all been a TON better this year than they were last year in Boston.  If they had pitched like that last year, those trades look a ton better.  Just realizing Sean Newcomb was not a trade. 

[Hugh2]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I don't care about his non-Red Sox trades TBH. 

That's fair, but it's still a part of him and tells a story.  He's not some magic man with a crystal ball who will never trade away good prospects.  He made some ballsy trades and the guys from Bostons system didn't pan out. 

[mvp 78]

Just now, Hugh2 said:

That's fair, but it's still a part of him and tells a story.  He's not some magic man with a crystal ball who will never trade away good prospects.  He made some ballsy trades and the guys from Bostons system didn't pan out. 

In general, his moves worked out well here. Sure, there were the Tyler Thornburg trades, but none of them really came back to bite him. His problem was that ownership decided to tighten the purse strings after they signed the Sale and Eovaldi extensions and didn't want to put money towards their franchise player. Ownership went in a direction that was the antithesis of how DD was running the team. 

[a700hitter]

2 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

And Bobby Dalbec can hit them 500 feet too. Power is useless if you don't have the hit tool to tap into it.

Jordan doesn’t have the K problem that Dalbec had.

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, a700hitter said:

Jordan doesn’t have the K problem that Dalbec had.

Blaze's problem hasn't been his hit tool. His BA has been 275-300 the majority of his MiLB career. His issue was tapping into his power. He just may settle in as a 15-20 HR guy and maybe even a platoon guy. His defense isn't a calling card either. 

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Exactly! The Sox won 4 WS since 2000. I know many people said they would die happy if they could live to just see one, but how's that helped the Red Sox this year? 

It doesn't at all. It didn't help for over the 3 decades up to 2004 that the Sox won several rings 50 years earlier. either.

In theory, winning 1 ring every 30 years is average. You'd like to see way less last place finishes than  we've seen, recently, and starting in 1967, we did not finish last, too often, until 2012.

1 last place from 1967 to 2011 (1992.) We did finish 6th out of 7 teams in 1983, Since 2012 (14 seasons) we've finished 5th out of 5 teams SIX TIMES! We are on pace for 7 in 15 seasons! Looking at these 15 seasons: 2 rings and 4 other playoff chances still beats any 15 year periods before 2004 and after 1918.

It still sucks that we've only made the playoffs twice since 2018. However, 2 in 7 years is about the same as 1967 to 2003: nine times in 37 years, but the playoffs were much more restrictive in numbers those years.

This is not fun for any of us.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, notin said:

All I’m saying is after a handful of of PA and IP, guys like Buttrey, Moncada, Kopech, Beeks all looked good, too.   But over time a lot of luster wore off most of them.  Maybe the same happens to Jordan…

Yes, I understood and agreed with your point. (Add Springs and a few others to your list.)

Maybe Priester, Harrison and or Jordan go on to greatness. Maybe someone as yet to be mentioned does. It happens.

Much of the criticism of Brez has been his failure to make in season moves that make a difference, but when he does, we hear about how we let someone like these guys get away. 

Nobody talked up these three before the trades. Hardly anyone mentioned they hated giving them up, at the time of the trade. (Maybe Priester had some posts expressing minimal worry.)

I guess it's natural to second guess. We all do it.

It's fine to point out how a trade is looking at the start of the after trade period, but I feel we should qualify these criticisms with the words "so far," instead of sounding like the we have already lost the trade based on 31 PAs, a half season or even a full season.

[notin]

41 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Blaze's problem hasn't been his hit tool. His BA has been 275-300 the majority of his MiLB career. His issue was tapping into his power. He just may settle in as a 15-20 HR guy and maybe even a platoon guy. His defense isn't a calling card either. 

If he settles in hitting .275-.300 with 15-20 HRs and questionable defense, he probably winds up being a lesser player than Durbin…

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

I'm not trying to knock Dave D, his record speaks for itself but his affinity of trading away prospects that don't hit is pure luck.  That's certainly how we see it through the lens of a Sox fan.....it's easy to forget that he worked elsewhere before Boston and traded away top prospects who turned into. 

Randy Johnson

Trevor Hoffman

Mike Piazza

Johan Santana and others.  

When you trade heavy in volume you're going to have good names go in and out.  Sox caught a good run in him for a brief period of time.  He didn't truly know who was going to pan out and who wasn't, he just had the balls to pull off big trades and won them. 

Great post, Hugh.

I counted the DD trades once and found he traded over 20 prospects that were once ranked in the top 20 on soxprospects,com. That's not meant to be a knock on him, and I always pushed back on statements like, "He emptied the farm" or "left the farm barren." He did trade away many highly ranked/rated prospects who mostly did squat after the trades. That was "lucky" but one can also view that as him thinking they were not worth what other thought they were.

The ones he kept did much better, but they were mostly unknowns or low-ranked during his era. The highest ranked prospects he kept were:

end of 2019 sps.com's rankings

1. Casas

2. Mata

3. Groome

4. Jimenez

5. Dalbec

6. Duran

7. Houck

8. Song

Others: 10 Ward, 12 A Ramirez (Bloom traded for Schwarber) 13 Chris Murphy, 17 Bello, 19 Rafaela

Pre-2019 prospects not traded (ranking when DD took over listed): 2 Devers, 8 Brian Johnson, 11 Chavis

Notable others from 2016-2018: 1 Beni, 8 Scherff, 9 Feltman & 17 TBall

DD did very well in trades and signings.

 

[notin]

51 minutes ago, a700hitter said:

Jordan doesn’t have the K problem that Dalbec had.

True, but Dalbec also debuted with a .959 OPS in 2020 after only 92 PAs.  It didn’t last, obviously…

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

If anybody takes back that Pearce trade, they're an idiot. 

YUP!

Had we advanced in the 2025 playoffs, the Matz trade would not be criticized, unless he melted down and cost us a playoff game.

[mvp 78]

17 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It doesn't at all. It didn't help for over the 3 decades up to 2004 that the Sox won several rings 50 years earlier. either.

In theory, winning 1 ring every 30 years is average. You'd like to see way less last place finishes than  we've seen, recently, and starting in 1967, we did not finish last, too often, until 2012.

1 last place from 1967 to 2011 (1992.) We did finish 6th out of 7 teams in 1983, Since 2012 (14 seasons) we've finished 5th out of 5 teams SIX TIMES! We are on pace for 7 in 15 seasons! Looking at these 15 seasons: 2 rings and 4 other playoff chances still beats any 15 year periods before 2004 and after 1918.

It still sucks that we've only made the playoffs twice since 2018. However, 2 in 7 years is about the same as 1967 to 2003: nine times in 37 years, but the playoffs were much more restrictive in numbers those years.

This is not fun for any of us.

I don't know what this argument is. The Sox bring in the 3rd most revenue in MLB. To say that the fans should expect the average results from that rings hollow. For a big market team like the Sox to be a last place team is completely pathetic. In '92, they had Boggs, Clemens, Brunansky, Viola and Reardon. How do you let a team like that get to last place? It's embarrassing. It's equally embarrassing for what they've done with this year's squad.

2018 was 8 years ago! We can't cling to that anymore. They shipped Betts, Bogey, Raffy, Sale, Eovaldi, Price and everyone else from that team out of town. The ownership of this team simply doesn't give a crap about fan experience AND no longer knows how to run a successful organization. 

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, notin said:

True, but Dalbec also debuted with a .959 OPS in 2020 after only 92 PAs.  It didn’t last, obviously…

Michael Chavis first 123 PA:

10 HR, 283 BA, 967 OPS

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, notin said:

True, but Dalbec also debuted with a .959 OPS in 2020 after only 92 PAs.  It didn’t last, obviously…

Actually, it lasted a bit longer. He hit a decent .792 in 2021 (453 PAs) but did poorly in those playoff games.

He was still at .821 after 558 MLB PAs- a much larger sample size than Jordan. By 581 PAs, he was under .800 and never got any better.

[mvp 78]

21 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Nobody talked up these three before the trades. Hardly anyone mentioned they hated giving them up, at the time of the trade. (Maybe Priester had some posts expressing minimal worry.)

That doesn't matter. Breslow is the one making the moves. He's the one getting scored here. It's his job on the line. 

[notin]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

In general, his moves worked out well here. Sure, there were the Tyler Thornburg trades, but none of them really came back to bite him. His problem was that ownership decided to tighten the purse strings after they signed the Sale and Eovaldi extensions and didn't want to put money towards their franchise player. Ownership went in a direction that was the antithesis of how DD was running the team. 

The Tyler Thornburg trade is eerily reminiscent of Breslow’s recent trades.  Send a guy to Milwaukee (Travis Shaw) and watch him excel while the player you got back contributes very little…

[mvp 78]

10 minutes ago, notin said:

If he settles in hitting .275-.300 with 15-20 HRs and questionable defense, he probably winds up being a lesser player than Durbin…

It depends on what Durbin does going forward. Extended cold stretches don't help my faith in the guy. 

[Old Red]

7 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

That doesn't matter. Breslow is the one making the moves. He's the one getting scored here. It's his job on the line. 

Or at least should be.

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I don't know what this argument is. The Sox bring in the 3rd most revenue in MLB. To say that the fans should expect the average results from that rings hollow. For a big market team like the Sox to be a last place team is completely pathetic. In '92, they had Boggs, Clemens, Brunansky, Viola and Reardon. How do you let a team like that get to last place? It's embarrassing. It's equally embarrassing for what they've done with this year's squad.

2018 was 8 years ago! We can't cling to that anymore. They shipped Betts, Bogey, Raffy, Sale, Eovaldi, Price and everyone else from that team out of town. The ownership of this team simply doesn't give a crap about fan experience AND no longer knows how to run a successful organization. 

Who said we should expect average results? I expect a ring more than 1 in 30 years. I expect the playoffs more than 2 in 7 years or 9 in 37 years. I think we all do. For a team spending 6th in AAV and 9th in payroll, we should make the playoffs half the time. We should spend more and make the playoffs maybe more than 2 in 3 years, IMO. 

When have I ever even hinted at the idea that we should not spend more? 

Last place sucks, and it's more embarrassing when we finish last while spending 8th to 15th most, depending on what budget you use.

I place a big chunk of the blame on ownership's lack of spending. They have spent more recently, post Devers extension, but it hasn't been enough. Contracts like Buehler, Sandoval, Hendriks and even Giolito creates a situation where the GM shares part of the blame, too.

The players not improving as they near their prime years deserves some blame, too.

[moonslav59]

8 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

That doesn't matter. Breslow is the one making the moves. He's the one getting scored here. It's his job on the line. 

I'm not sure JH & Co. agree, but yes, GMs are judged by results and not paper wins on trades and signings.

[moonslav59]

10 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Michael Chavis first 123 PA:

10 HR, 283 BA, 967 OPS

Another horrible trade!

LOL

[southpaw777]

On 6/20/2026 at 6:40 PM, Duran Is The Man said:

you mean the 21 innings we got out of Matz for him wasn't enough? LOL.

Jordan only made sense to trade if you were going to resign Bregman. We had nothing besides Jordan who ready for his shot. Breslows trades can make sense on one level but be a complete head scratcher on another. He traded a lot our pitching depth before the Harrison deal, which we wouldnt have had to make if Jordan was there. 

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Or at least should be.

Eventually!

[moonslav59]

6 minutes ago, southpaw777 said:

Jordan only made sense to trade if you were going to resign Bregman. We had nothing besides Jordan who ready for his shot. Breslows trades can make sense on one level but be a complete head scratcher on another. He traded a lot our pitching depth before the Harrison deal, which we wouldnt have had to make if Jordan was there. 

Jordan was not the next 3B/1B/DH call-up in our system, when we traded him. I doubt he was even 2nd or 3rd on the farm to MLB depth charts.