Brock Beauchamp

I agree on both counts.

Sorry, there was an error in the previous piece and the only way to fix it was to delete the old post. Sorry for the loss of comments.

You can now embed Bluesky posts just like you do Twitter:

I'm still unconvinced Adames is a good fit in Boston but I'm willing to wait it out and see what happens. Breslow is obviously a smart guy, I'm curious where he goes with all of this.

If the Red Sox are willing to take on $7m or more of Vazquez, I think the prospect capital required to get him away from the Twins will be almost nothing.

That's fair, it just seems like an incredibly dumb and unnecessary thing to say if you're not even going to try to meet the goal. All it does is give the media and fans extra ammunition.

It's good to hear the Sox are exploring so many high-end free agents but this one makes no sense to me. I'm already skeptical of pursuing Adames and he's a much better fit than Bregman IMO.

Welcome to the site! And while I normally agree that skepticism is warranted, the mere suggestion that the Red Sox are ready to go over the CBT again makes me think they're not just blowing smoke. Because if you say you're willing to go over the CBT and you don't even come close to doing so, the backlash is going to be enormous. There's no reason to hang yourself out there like that unless you plan to actually do it. Kennedy would have lost nothing by keeping his mouth shut.

Ah right, he was part of the Vazquez deal already. So yes, this absolutely needs to happen IMO.

Because some teams are just more popular with larger, more dedicated markets. I think there needs to be more balance but pure, 100% balance isn't the answer. Why should a team like the Diamondbacks - a team that generally underperforms both in television and attendance - receive the same amount as the Cubs, who have an enormous, dedicated fanbase?

Vazquez's $10m contract isn't a good value, which is why I think the Sox should explore acquiring him. They should be able to get him for very little prospect capital if they're willing to take on some extra money. And considering how vastly superior Vazquez's defense is to Wong, it could improve many aspects of the 2025 Sox. Basically, use the Sox's large wallet to take advantage of the Twins' financial straits.

It's going to be a REALLY ugly negotiating period for the next CBA. For the first time in awhile, there is going to be dissension in the owners' ranks. And I have no idea where that will lead. For the good of the game, television revenue disparity is going to have to be addressed. I don't think an NFL-style pool is the answer but we can't have the Dodgers making $250m a season while the Padres are making $12m a season and playing in the same division. Some kind of balance will need to be struck and I have almost no faith in MLB owners doing something that doesn't serve their immediate, here-and-now interests.

It would take almost nothing to get Vazquez from the Twins. Forget about top prospects, just offer them a low minors arm and they'd probably jump at the chance.

Given the position Kyle Teel is in right now, I think it makes sense for the Sox to pursue a Christian Vazquez reunion. The Twins are likely desperate to be rid of his contract and the Red Sox can easily absorb most of his one-year, $10m deal.

I find watching him pitch to be agonizing. But damn, he's good.

This is from our very own Davy Andrews and it's bloody brilliant. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/introducing-the-we-tried-tracker/

As a Brewers fan, I've paid a lot of attention to Adames and his defensive drop-off is baffling. You expect a guy to lose a step, some twitch, etc. and it's entirely possible that happened to Adames in 2024... but what tanked his defensive metrics is kicking the ball around the diamond. And that doesn't seem like a loss of skill or a new standard going forward, that sounds like a defensive slump. So while his defensive metrics are concerning, I'm not entirely convinced it's permanent.

This one doesn't really make any sense to me, honestly.

I believe that's his average contract value (for CBT purposes) but this year, his actual pay is $1.25m.

Testing comments from front page.

If the White Sox are truly interested in Abreu headlining a deal for Crochet, I do that all day.

Every offseason, we offer our You’re The GM! tool (formerly the Payroll Blueprint) to build your ideal Red Sox roster. This year, we’ve updated and streamlined the tool a bit to improve the experience. The idea behind this feature is to give fans a chance to play the role of General Manager (or CBO or PoBO… you get the idea) for their favorite team, the Boston Red Sox. It’s meant to give fans the opportunity to discuss (and, let’s be honest, argue) how they would approach the long, dark MLB offseason. This tool is intended to be informal and fun, so we’ve left it as open as possible. There is a payroll “budget” that loosely resembles the Red Sox's 2024 payroll, but there is no penalty for going over that number. It’s a guideline, nothing more. Second, you can submit as many blueprints as you like throughout the offseason. As the offseason landscape changes, users often return multiple times over the winter and create new blueprints. Before we get into the breakdown of the tool, you can save your blueprint and come back to it at any time. The only restriction is that you must register an account on the site to create a blueprint (so we can save a draft for you and also post the blueprint for others to discuss). Let’s get into the tool itself. It has four quadrants that work best if addressed in a counter-clockwise order (this tool works much better on desktops due to its complexity but will work on mobile devices if need be). Top Left: The 26-man Roster We have created a rough guideline of what the Red Sox 26-man roster looks like today. The roster is flexible; any player can be added or removed as you see fit. We’ve also included either guaranteed salaries or, in the case of arbitration and contract options, the recommendations of MLB Trade Rumors. This section is where you build your roster and make changes based on the following two sections. As you make changes to players and salaries, the total payroll number (right side of the screen) will change, allowing you to track your budget on the fly. The bottom field in both columns is for any dead money you assume during the course of your offseason. Acquiring dead money should be rather uncommon but we want to present users the opportunity to take on dead salary if it suits their purposes. Bottom Left: Arbitration & Trade Decisions Here, you will find a selection of arbitration options and internal options (usually from the 40-man roster or minor leagues) to assist in building your offseason roster. On the right-hand side of this column, you will see Trade Candidates, a list of the 35 players most likely to be traded this offseason, per MLB Trade Rumors. To help you get up to speed with these candidates, we offer a direct link to the MLBTR write-up on trade candidates. Bottom Right: Free Agents Here, you will find the top 50 free agents, again per MLB Trade Rumors. These are sorted by position to facilitate quickly finding your desired free agent and include the recommended salary for that player. Because this is a blueprint for a single year, we only include their projected salary for the coming season, not the number of years or anything else. To help you get up to speed with these free agents, we offer a direct link to the MLBTR write-up on the best 50 free agents available this winter. Top Right: Dead Money, Your Total Payroll, & Commentary The only unalterable field on the page is Dead Money; it is players to which the team has committed money but has no reasonable way to get out of the contract. Below that, you will see the recommended budget, your current total, and the percentage you are over or under that budget. Again, keep in mind the budget is only a guideline, and you can go above it as much as you like… But defend your choices, coward! The following field is Title, which gives other users an idea of what to expect with your blueprint (e.g. Sign Juan Soto, Damn the Consequences). When your blueprint posts for other users, it will read “Your Username’s 2025 Payroll Blueprint: Sign Juan Soto, Damn the Consequences”. The following field is Your Comments & Explanation, a long-form field meant to type out the rationale behind your decisions. Here is the place to fully explain your trades (including which players are leaving the Red Sox to bring in new players), why you targeted specific free agents, and, any promotions from the minors you advocate or any options you declined to extend to a specific player. This is often multiple paragraphs, you can write up as much detail as you desire. That’s it, you’re done! At this point, you can either publish your blueprint to the forums or save it for later if you feel it’s incomplete. Thank you for joining us at Talk Sox. I hope you enjoy playing the role of general manager, at least for a moment! Start Your Payroll Blueprint Now

Okay, I made these changes, thanks!

What do you consider the default eight-man bullpen to be on OD?

To be clear, ignore my payroll point if you can make a case for it! Really, we just use that number as an outline so people can reference the previous year’s payroll.