A Realistic View at the 2026 Red Sox Part II

[notin]

22 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

 

Well those home runs don’t help his BABIP…

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, notin said:

Well those home runs don’t help his BABIP…

Feel free to go yell at Stats and let me know how that works out for you. 

[notin]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Feel free to go yell at Stats and let me know how that works out for you. 

Sorry for knowing how BABIP works…

[drewski6]

16 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

We may make some kind of winter move for a middle infielder, but I think Brez & Co. will see other areas as higher priorities.

SS: Arias, Story, Monasterio, Sogard, Cheng

2B: Mead, Story, Monasterio, Seigler, Romy, Sogard (Campbell)

While quantity is never a bad thing in baseball, I'm not sure this is top quality.

Brez my address the LF situation, closer and another top set-up man in the pen.

I doubt he looks to replace Gray, Sandoval and Early with a major SP'er add, since Crochet, Houck, Crawford and Oviedo should be in the mix, but he will likely look to add more depth.

 

 

I agree with all of this except Gray.  IF hes interested in returning on a 1 or 2 year deal and ends the year healthy, you bring him back 0 question.

[moonslav59]

49 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I agree with all of this except Gray.  IF hes interested in returning on a 1 or 2 year deal and ends the year healthy, you bring him back 0 question.

I'd take him back, but he'll be a FA, so he does not count as part of the foundation, until he signs.

[drewski6]

19 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I'd take him back, but he'll be a FA, so he does not count as part of the foundation, until he signs.

Right, but I would think resigning Sonny Gray this offseason as a UFA counts as replacing Gray.  But if he finishes the year healthy, he'll of course have quite the market.  I might balk at a third year.

[moonslav59]

6 hours ago, drewski6 said:

Right, but I would think resigning Sonny Gray this offseason as a UFA counts as replacing Gray.  But if he finishes the year healthy, he'll of course have quite the market.  I might balk at a third year.

I did say I thought Brez would add a pitcher, but I added "not a major" one, so that does kinda not count Gray.

I'd think Gray returning sounds about right.

So much for the "wilts under the spotlight" talk.

[moonslav59]

6 hours ago, drewski6 said:

Right, but I would think resigning Sonny Gray this offseason as a UFA counts as replacing Gray.  But if he finishes the year healthy, he'll of course have quite the market.  I might balk at a third year.

So, would bringing Gray back and no other Sp'er add be enough for quality and quantity for 2017?

Crochet, Suarez, Gray, Tolle, Bennett

Bello, Houck, Crawford, Oviedo

Holobetz, Wehunt, Paez, Ziehl, Borgos, Mullins (AAA)

Futrell, Phillips, Brown, Monegro, I Coffey (AA)

 

[notin]

50 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

So, would bringing Gray back and no other Sp'er add be enough for quality and quantity for 2017?

Crochet, Suarez, Gray, Tolle, Bennett

Bello, Houck, Crawford, Oviedo

Holobetz, Wehunt, Paez, Ziehl, Borgos, Mullins (AAA)

Futrell, Phillips, Brown, Monegro, I Coffey (AA)

 

No.

Adrian Morejon is a must add…

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, notin said:

No.

Adrian Morejon is a must add…

Would be nice, but doubtful with Gray as well.

Maybe Brez sticks to the add an extra pitcher strategy.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Had to start here early today, after reading NESN's article about the strengthening case of Ceddanne Rafaela for AL MVP!!!!!! (the reporter notes the main obstacle is Yordan Alvarez in his Triple Crown bid).

That oughtta stoke more debate about our favorite all-world Gold Glover getting thrown out at 3rd trying to take two bases on a wild pitch and getting thrown out at 2nd trying to stretch a single into a double.

But isn't it hard to get mad at a guy who never gets mad?

[notin]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Had to start here early today, after reading NESN's article about the strengthening case of Ceddanne Rafaela for AL MVP!!!!!! (the reporter notes the main obstacle is Yordan Alvarez in his Triple Crown bid).

That oughtta stoke more debate about our favorite all-world Gold Glover getting thrown out at 3rd trying to take two bases on a wild pitch and getting thrown out at 2nd trying to stretch a single into a double.

But isn't it hard to get mad at a guy who never gets mad?

There are a couple other solid candidates as well. 
 

I wonder how many folks realize Dillon Dingler is second in the AL in fWAR and his teammate and slam dunk ROY Kevin McGonagle is 4th.  Sandwiched in between them is Bobby Witt.  Junior Caminero is also a good candidate and is tied with Alvarez for the HR lead.

But I will say I also didn’t realize the dropoff after Alvarez league-leading BA of .322. No other qualified player in the AL is hitting better than .307 (Chandler Simpson) and only 3 players in the AL are hitting over .300. (Yandy Diaz is the other.)

[mvp 78]

I like Rafaela, but no. He's not having an MVP season. 

[JoeBrady]

On 8/12/2026 at 11:49 AM, mvp 78 said:

Not sure what 2025 has to do with this TBH! We're in the here and now where Duran has a 64 wRC+ and has the lowest fWAR for any qualified LFer in MLB! 

You want Grichuk, and Grichuk is not a good player.

[JoeBrady]

On 8/12/2026 at 12:54 PM, notin said:

Not sure what to think about wanting to add Bleday while subtracting the same struggling legacy in Mayer…

It's all 20/20 hindsight.  Bleday had a -.04 bWAR last year, and Grichuk had a -0.8 last year.  There was not a single person in the entire world that would've thought replacing the 4.9 Duran with a -0.8 Grichuk was a good idea.

[mvp 78]

35 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

You want Grichuk, and Grichuk is not a good player.

926 OPS vs LHP and a good Pull AIR %. Yeah, I want Randall Grichuk on a playoff team. 

[mvp 78]

31 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

It's all 20/20 hindsight.  Bleday had a -.04 bWAR last year, and Grichuk had a -0.8 last year.  There was not a single person in the entire world that would've thought replacing the 4.9 Duran with a -0.8 Grichuk was a good idea.

I was replacing Duran with prospects. Anthony was going to be the LFer. You could get a platoon RHB like Grichuk for very cheap TBH. 

[Duran Is The Man]

2 hours ago, notin said:

There are a couple other solid candidates as well. 
 

I wonder how many folks realize Dillon Dingler is second in the AL in fWAR and his teammate and slam dunk ROY Kevin McGonagle is 4th.  Sandwiched in between them is Bobby Witt.  Junior Caminero is also a good candidate and is tied with Alvarez for the HR lead.

But I will say I also didn’t realize the dropoff after Alvarez league-leading BA of .322. No other qualified player in the AL is hitting better than .307 (Chandler Simpson) and only 3 players in the AL are hitting over .300. (Yandy Diaz is the other.)

time to lower the mound and shrink the strike zone again?

[JoeBrady]

4 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I was replacing Duran with prospects. Anthony was going to be the LFer. You could get a platoon RHB like Grichuk for very cheap TBH. 

If you were basing the Grichuk signing on his 2025 results, he had a .703 against lefties.  And most people in here wanted Yoshida cut.  I'd have had no problem trading Duran for prospects, but you'd need to have acquired a better option at DH.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

time to lower the mound and shrink the strike zone again?

Just move the mound back 6'.

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

If you were basing the Grichuk signing on his 2025 results

It was due to his unsustainably low BABIP. 🙂

[notin]

29 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Just move the mound back 6'.

Or ban pitches faster than 96 mph

[drewski6]

16 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

So, would bringing Gray back and no other Sp'er add be enough for quality and quantity for 2017?

Crochet, Suarez, Gray, Tolle, Bennett

Bello, Houck, Crawford, Oviedo

Holobetz, Wehunt, Paez, Ziehl, Borgos, Mullins (AAA)

Futrell, Phillips, Brown, Monegro, I Coffey (AA)

 

I doubt he looks to replace Gray, Sandoval and Early with a major SP'er add, since Crochet, Houck, Crawford and Oviedo should be in the mix, but he will likely look to add more depth.

Just pulling back your initial comment to clarify my position not to accuse you of moving goalposts or anything like that.

The above comment was made in the context of allocating resources towards bullpen and potentially LF.  And I interpreted it as a we wont need a pricey SP to replace Gray, Sandoval, Early beause of Crochet, Houck, Crawford, Oviedo coming back to compliment Ranger, Tolle, Bennet, Bello and others.

And if Gray finishes this year healthy, I think its worth bringing him back, and I think he'll be pricey.  Like maybe like 25m/yr for 2 yrs with incentives that could push it up to 31.5m/yr.  Im hopeful that gets it done.

If its like 30m base x 4 yrs , I get a little balky.

 

[JoeBrady]

24 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Like maybe like 25m/yr for 2 yrs with incentives that could push it up to 31.5m/yr. 

I can support that, but there is no way of telling what Gray going to do or why.

[drewski6]

5 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Had to start here early today, after reading NESN's article about the strengthening case of Ceddanne Rafaela for AL MVP!!!!!! (the reporter notes the main obstacle is Yordan Alvarez in his Triple Crown bid).

That oughtta stoke more debate about our favorite all-world Gold Glover getting thrown out at 3rd trying to take two bases on a wild pitch and getting thrown out at 2nd trying to stretch a single into a double.

But isn't it hard to get mad at a guy who never gets mad?

Yeah, hes a really cool guy.  Goes to like camps and meets kids and stuff.

[drewski6]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

I like Rafaela, but no. He's not having an MVP season. 

How many MVPs did Ortiz win?

[drewski6]

I would love to see Yordan win an MVP and if he does, I just nver ever ever ever want to hear "too much money for a DH"

Yordan is a DH you guys.  And you guys are always saying stuff like "jsut a DH", youll never hear me say it. 

I think you can be too valuable to play the field.

[drewski6]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

926 OPS vs LHP and a good Pull AIR %. Yeah, I want Randall Grichuk on a playoff team. 

Doesnt White and Jones have good splits against LHP?  Im not sure we need three platoon corner outfileders, but I dont hate it. Im a platoon fan.

[drewski6]

If I was a manager and we were allowed to carry 40 men on our active major league roster, I would have 7 platoons.

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

How many MVPs did Ortiz win?

In 05, he came in 2nd. He never was leading the triple crown categories like Yordan.