Red Sox Pre-Offseason Mega Thread

[notin]

1 hour ago, Old Red said:

ONE year rental.

Forty million for that one year.  With two equally-priced options…

[Hugh2]

On 10/22/2026 at 9:29 AM, drewski6 said:

My uncle in SF named his cat Freddy Sanchez.

My is named Theo : ) 

[drewski6]

18 hours ago, Old Red said:

And yet it took a magic carpet ride, which included a once in a lifetime 15 game winning streak to win less games than the year before scoring 97 less runs, and hitting 23 less homes, and concluded with a shorter cameo appearance in the postseason than the year before. WOW!🤔

yup

[mvp 78]

Brewers are going to lose tonight because of the Selig stink!

[moonslav59]

4 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

November 2003 to November 2004:

Schilling, Foulke, Timlin, Bellhorn, Reese, AROD (briefly), Cabrera, Mientkiewicz, Roberts...

Theo Epstein did better, because the Red Sox won the AL pennant and World Series championship.

That was really good, but in terms of total production (not rings) Brez's is better.

It wasn't guy on the addition list that let the team down, except for maybe just Mead & Oviedo.

Some of the single most productive players were Schilling before 2004, Beckett before 2007, Lackey before 2013, and Sale before 2028- who all led to rings. JD was big. Manny was big, but years before 2004. Papi was a huge add. Victorino for that one year.

[JoeBrady]

13 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Keeping Duran was IMO a hedge against Anthony failing or getting hurt, and it turned out we needed a good back-up for Roman. Just too bad Duran couldn't even decline to .725 w 25 Hrs.

I go back to that all the time.  I wouldn't have cared much if they had traded Duran, and I offered several suggestions.  But the idea of keeping him was perfectly logical.

Except for the half of the fans that knew he'd go from a 4.9 bWAR to a 0.4.

[JoeBrady]

10 hours ago, Randy Red Sox said:

we paid Bregman 40 million for 1 year.  do you call that stealing him.

No one will admit it, but between his salary and the draft pick, imho, it was an overpay.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

10 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

No one will admit it, but between his salary and the draft pick, imho, it was an overpay.

No one will admit it, but paying Bregman $40 mil to get out of Devers' contract of $300 mil was worth it to the front office.

[Hugh2]

4 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

My is named Theo : ) 

My SON!, my son is named Theo. 

[Old Red]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

That was really good, but in terms of total production (not rings) Brez's is better.

It wasn't guy on the addition list that let the team down, except for maybe just Mead & Oviedo.

Some of the single most productive players were Schilling before 2004, Beckett before 2007, Lackey before 2013, and Sale before 2028- who all led to rings. JD was big. Manny was big, but years before 2004. Papi was a huge add. Victorino for that one year.

What Brez did was good , but he FAILED in filling the BIGGEST need.

[Hugh2]

38 minutes ago, Old Red said:

What Brez did was good , but he FAILED in filling the BIGGEST need.

I don't disagree, not one bit.  The number 1 Glaring weak spot on this team right now is a big HR middle of the order bat.  That's pretty much an objective truth at this point. 

Just a thought experiment here but what if we Did sign someone like Pete Alonso in the offseason and we ended the season with one more win and the same playoff outcome.  What would our main complain about this team be?

[drewski6]

7 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

I don't disagree, not one bit.  The number 1 Glaring weak spot on this team right now is a big HR middle of the order bat.  That's pretty much an objective truth at this point. 

Just a thought experiment here but what if we Did sign someone like Pete Alonso in the offseason and we ended the season with one more win and the same playoff outcome.  What would our main complain about this team be?

Probably Tracy pulling starters.  Because it would have mattered.  Ultimately , it didnt matter because double guessing Tracy is just crying that we should have lost 3-1 when we lost 9-1.  

[Old Red]

6 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

I don't disagree, not one bit.  The number 1 Glaring weak spot on this team right now is a big HR middle of the order bat.  That's pretty much an objective truth at this point. 

Just a thought experiment here but what if we Did sign someone like Pete Alonso in the offseason and we ended the season with one more win and the same playoff outcome.  What would our main complain about this team be?

It would all depend on the reason why. 23 less HR, and 97 less runs from one season to the next is glaring, and that was with the Con Man contribution. Cro Man was out most of the year, and the Red Sox still had a better rotation than the year before. Run production was the downfall this past year.

[Old Red]

7 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Probably Tracy pulling starters.  Because it would have mattered.  Ultimately , it didnt matter because double guessing Tracy is just crying that we should have lost 3-1 when we lost 9-1.  

That’s what I heard, but the game might have played out different if it had stayed a one run ballgame, and might have turned out different, but dick Tracy took that possibility away not once, but twice.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

I go back to that all the time.  I wouldn't have cared much if they had traded Duran, and I offered several suggestions.  But the idea of keeping him was perfectly logical.

Except for the half of the fans that knew he'd go from a 4.9 bWAR to a 0.4.

I expected a further decline, but wasn't sure of it, and I certainly did not expect 4.5 drop.

Not many expected the 4.1 drop from 2024 to 2025, either.

Other than by injury, how many MLB have seen 2 drops like that in back-to-back season?

We might have been able to absorb that drop by istelf, but we also saw...

4.1>0.2 Story

2.8>-0.3 Narvaez (-0.9 BOS+BAL)

These combined hurt, but the kicker was...

6.0> -0.5 Crochet

[Larry Cook]

18 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I expected a further decline, but wasn't sure of it, and I certainly did not expect 4.5 drop.

Not many expected the 4.1 drop from 2024 to 2025, either.

Other than by injury, how many MLB have seen 2 drops like that in back-to-back season?

We might have been able to absorb that drop by istelf, but we also saw...

4.1>0.2 Story

2.8>-0.3 Narvaez (-0.9 BOS+BAL)

These combined hurt, but the kicker was...

6.0> -0.5 Crochet

Every team has injuries. That’s the nature of the sport. 
and while bres-slow did a fantastic job of building pitching depth, and allowing us to overcome a vast multitude of pitching injuries to make the playoffs, there is much more work to be done on offensive depth. 
 

The biggest obstacle to building offensive depth is the situation with Anthony!
and that encompasses 2 aspects!
1.) and what is the deal with Roman Anthony and his finger injury. Not seen anything quite like this.
2.) and then what is the leftover residue is there from the navarez girlfriend/wife and Anthony???  Very weird to see management being sex police and sending a player to Florida to rehab!!!    And does Anthony’s involvement in that whole messy affair, which essentially fractured the clubhouse last season, have any significance next season or whenever baseball resumes. 

[Deja Doh]

So much for that idea.

23 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Brewers are going to lose tonight because of the Selig stink!

 

[NHNative]

21 minutes ago, Deja Doh said:

So much for that idea.

 

It was a great game, too.

[mvp 78]

50 minutes ago, Deja Doh said:

So much for that idea.

 

The stink almost got to them!

[Randy Red Sox]

38 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The stink almost got to them!

Having 2 low cost payrolls in the WS does does not bode well for the Sox going forward as JH is sure to look at this and say "see we CAN do this and keep the payroll down"

[UtahSox]

On 10/22/2026 at 1:24 PM, moonslav59 said:

Even counting what we gave up for Contreras, he was a better add than Alonso & Schwarber, due to his $18M budget hit.

Suarez was a plus, just not for the offense. I still think his money spent is better than signing Bregman, and Bregman cost more- so did Alonso.

In your scenario, signing Bregman meant no Durbin AND no Suarez, but we still could have traded Durbin for Paredes (2B) and had a much better offense. (Then, we keep early and dont get Mead, but Early never returns from his injury, so no gain or loss there.)

This is the bull crap that JH has got us on…. The Boston Red Sox have more revenue than 26 baseball teams and yeah we’re looking/analyzing stats taking defensive analytics into account to try and justify paying somebody 18 million, versus a guy who posts and hits 40 home runs every year. It was a layup. It was right in front of our faces and we could’ve done it. When we won championships, we went out and got the best player at every position we could, sometimes we missed but we were in the running on every best player. Not anymore. 
 

Here’s what last year should’ve look like to me. 1st off you stop worrying about getting value in 2032 and let Young players in pre-arb and Arb n go through the process……. I believe the three of those players Rafaela, Anthony, Campbell would have cost you $5 million last year. AAV on those players was $30 million so it took a $25 million hit to AAV to sign them to deals to hopefully get value in 2032 …..stop doing that…. . End of story.

sign Pete Alonso— 5 yr 155

sign Bregman— 5yr 175 (also he seems to be the guy who got the most out of Roman o bible

sign Suarez—— 5yr 125 ( the exact amount you would have had if you didn’t do those idiotic extensions) 

trade Early and Mayer for Ketel Marte. 
 

Bregman/ Alonso/ Marte going into October would look a hell of a lot better than what we just rolled out last year..

 

Fenway hasn’t seen a postseason baseball game since 2021 that will be a six year gap just can’t happen…..

 

 

[Old Red]

39 minutes ago, UtahSox said:

This is the bull crap that JH has got us on…. The Boston Red Sox have more revenue than 26 baseball teams and yeah we’re looking/analyzing stats taking defensive analytics into account to try and justify paying somebody 18 million, versus a guy who posts and hits 40 home runs every year. It was a layup. It was right in front of our faces and we could’ve done it. When we won championships, we went out and got the best player at every position we could, sometimes we missed but we were in the running on every best player. Not anymore. 
 

Here’s what last year should’ve look like to me. 1st off you stop worrying about getting value in 2032 and let Young players in pre-arb and Arb n go through the process……. I believe the three of those players Rafaela, Anthony, Campbell would have cost you $5 million last year. AAV on those players was $30 million so it took a $25 million hit to AAV to sign them to deals to hopefully get value in 2032 …..stop doing that…. . End of story.

sign Pete Alonso— 5 yr 155

sign Bregman— 5yr 175 (also he seems to be the guy who got the most out of Roman o bible

sign Suarez—— 5yr 125 ( the exact amount you would have had if you didn’t do those idiotic extensions) 

trade Early and Mayer for Ketel Marte. 
 

Bregman/ Alonso/ Marte going into October would look a hell of a lot better than what we just rolled out last year..

 

Fenway hasn’t seen a postseason baseball game since 2021 that will be a six year gap just can’t happen…..

 

 

Spot on about the bull crap, and especially the first paragraph. Alonso has been one of the top run producers I baseball the past five years, and he was there for the taking, but the Red Sox went the cheaper route instead. They didn’t get Alonso, and they didn’t get Bergman.🤔

[NHNative]

1 hour ago, Old Red said:

Spot on about the bull crap, and especially the first paragraph. Alonso has been one of the top run producers I baseball the past five years, and he was there for the taking, but the Red Sox went the cheaper route instead. They didn’t get Alonso, and they didn’t get Bergman.🤔

These things seem so obvious to us fans, so what the heck.

Again--who has Brez's cell number?

[Randy Red Sox]

2 hours ago, Old Red said:

Spot on about the bull crap, and especially the first paragraph. Alonso has been one of the top run producers I baseball the past five years, and he was there for the taking, but the Red Sox went the cheaper route instead. They didn’t get Alonso, and they didn’t get Bergman.🤔

They did get Contras

[Old Red]

5 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

They did get Contras

Yes he was the cheaper option, but they didn’t even land Bergman, which was the main plan all along. Bregman with the Con Man would have been better than what they ended up with, and Alonso would have been even better. Bottom line bresLOW did not do enough. He took the cheaper option.

[moonslav59]

56 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

They did get Contras

+ Contreras

+ Gray

+ Suarez

+ Bennett

+ Mead

+ Rutschman

+ Durbin

+ Gasper, Seigler, Monasterio, Jones, White and others.

[Old Red]

16 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

+ Contreras

+ Gray

+ Suarez

+ Bennett

+ Mead

+ Rutschman

+ Durbin

+ Gasper, Seigler, Monasterio, Jones, White and others.

Yes we all know who they got, and that was good, but it’s who they didn’t get that’s the BIGGER news. The team won two less games. Hit 23 less HR. Scored 97 less runs than the year before, and couldn’t even win 1 game in the postseason. They still needed more, and bresLow took the cheaper way out when there was more out there that was available.

[JimEd]

5 hours ago, UtahSox said:

This is the bull crap that JH has got us on…. The Boston Red Sox have more revenue than 26 baseball teams and yeah we’re looking/analyzing stats taking defensive analytics into account to try and justify paying somebody 18 million, versus a guy who posts and hits 40 home runs every year. It was a layup. It was right in front of our faces and we could’ve done it. When we won championships, we went out and got the best player at every position we could, sometimes we missed but we were in the running on every best player. Not anymore. 
 

Here’s what last year should’ve look like to me. 1st off you stop worrying about getting value in 2032 and let Young players in pre-arb and Arb n go through the process……. I believe the three of those players Rafaela, Anthony, Campbell would have cost you $5 million last year. AAV on those players was $30 million so it took a $25 million hit to AAV to sign them to deals to hopefully get value in 2032 …..stop doing that…. . End of story.

sign Pete Alonso— 5 yr 155

sign Bregman— 5yr 175 (also he seems to be the guy who got the most out of Roman o bible

sign Suarez—— 5yr 125 ( the exact amount you would have had if you didn’t do those idiotic extensions) 

trade Early and Mayer for Ketel Marte. 
 

Bregman/ Alonso/ Marte going into October would look a hell of a lot better than what we just rolled out last year..

 

Fenway hasn’t seen a postseason baseball game since 2021 that will be a six year gap just can’t happen…..

 

 

spot on. it just kills me when people defend JH giving out these idiotic prearb contracts and all his defenders -in chorus, btw- repeat the party line: everybody is doing it. f***ing makes me sick. sure it's a gamble but i'd sure as hell rather gamble with a player that has proved himself. Anthony and Campbell hadn't proved s***. when they do prove themselves.....then pay them.

[Old Red]

14 minutes ago, JimEd said:

spot on. it just kills me when people defend JH giving out these idiotic prearb contracts and all his defenders -in chorus, btw- repeat the party line: everybody is doing it. f***ing makes me sick. sure it's a gamble but i'd sure as hell rather gamble with a player that has proved himself. Anthony and Campbell hadn't proved s***. when they do prove themselves.....then pay them.

Agree, and the party line does get toed a lot on here.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, JimEd said:

spot on. it just kills me when people defend JH ...

You must be very much alive.

Nobody is defending JH.

Few are defending Brez.