VJCPatriot

Jeter Downs + Wong > risky Gaterol So yes this trade got better with this simple change of prospects. I'm still not thrilled but at least we have three tickets now and they are all healthier bets than Gaterol. We still eat half of Price's contract. Wish we could have negotiated that down to retaining 1/3. Cos Price at $20m per year is actually a reasonable deal in today's market. Price at $15m per year is giving him away. Are we under the Lux Tax yet or do we still need to trade off JBJ's 11m?

Maybe not. But you always ask for more initially so that when they improve their offer you get a better return in the deal than the damaged goods offered aka Graterol. I'm convinced that the Red Sox will be asking for more in return and will get it before this deal gets consummated.

I'd be asking for Dustin May in return instead. The guy looks more ready to step into an immediate major league role and is the #23 prospect in MLB.

The Deal has been held up due to concerns about Brusdal's health. I'm guessing we are now holding out for a sweetner to the deal. Either a better pitching prospect who is still healthy, or an add on. Like we eat less of Price's contract in order to accept damaged goods. But if the guy is damaged goods, I'd want to swap the prospect.

The only saving grace of this trade is that the Red Sox at least did not trade to an in division rival. What compounded the folly of the Babe Ruth trade is that the Red Sox had to compete with them head to head every year and be ushered out thanks to losing the division title each year to the Yankees. There was no wildcard back in those days. Losing Betts still sucks big time, but it stings a little less because we dealt him to LA.

Red Sox blew up the team. Verdugo is an average MLB player. Nowhere close to Betts 6+ WAR and MVP contender status every season. But they do immediately remove 57m from their cap this year. So I'm assuming they are under the luxury cap now. Next step is to trade Jackie Bradley Jr. and insert Verdugo into the CF position. As for RF, we can plug in Benitendi. Good bye Mookie Betts. I hope this doesn't hurt us as much as the Ruth trade did. Didn't win a championship again for how many years, was it?

The latest rumor is that San Diego is offering Wil Myers plus prospects for Mookie Betts. Terrible trade imo. 1. Myers is a career .763 batter so he would be a huge downgrade at either 1B or LF which are the positions that he plays. 2. Myers is earning 20m per season for the next 4 years. So we are locked into a bad contract with a mediocre player for 4 years? How does this help give us salary relief? Bad, bad deal if we have to take back Myers. Please stay away from this Chaim Bloom!

I'm ok with moving on from JBJ. He is making 11m this season and his salary is only going to increase. As for ERod, the guy is only making 2.6m and he's an above average major league pitcher. This is the type of contract you build on, not give away. Trading Erod would be anti-moneyball. Red Sox should instead be trying to move guys like Price, Eovaldi, and even Pedroia.

Add the tainted titles that Arod and Clemens won while Roided up in Yankee pinstripes as well. I’d consider signal-stealing less damning than PEDs that give a physical performance advantage over opponents.

Reality check, we won championships in 2013 and 2018, if you characterize those years as failures, you're swinging way on the opposite side of homerism to straight out blind hate and disregard. The Red Sox is not a 'dynasty' right now, but they do need to make a lot of moves to right the ship. I'd count this year as a rebuilding year. Bloom needs to clear dead weight and put us in a position where we can compete in the future, say starting in 2020 if he can make the right cap clearing moves now and say restock the farm with some talent, I'd say that would be a successful step in the right direction. As for Price, yes 18m value as a capable starting pitcher in today's market seems about right. The question comes down to what makes up for his 12m of extra salary per year. How much of that 12m value would you have to eat to send him away. Say 6m per year to a team that is desperate for solid starting pitching? As for replacements, the only cost effective way is promoting from within. Free agents would eat into the potential cap relief unless you are going for strictly 1 year deals. PS With free agency throwing crazy dollars at people, Price's value actually might be higher than we think, since signing replacement value pitchers is more expensive than ever in today's free agent market.

We will tender him and trade him. JBJ is still an elite defensive outfielder in one of the most impactful defensive positions. We might not get a lot because his bat is so streaky, but I believe he still retains value. We really missed out on trading JBJ after the 2018 WS win though, that was his peak market value and we could have gotten something significant in terms of prospects that would be saving us even more salary today. Now we'll pretty much take what the market gives.

I'm hoping we don't have to contribute more than 5m per year of Price's salary. Thinking 25m sounds reasonable for a top of the rotation pitcher in today's market? But more likely we'll have to kick in 10m per year to move him along.

Benitendi is on a cheap deal, and it's possible you can move him to CF. He's the best insurance in case you lose both Betts and JBJ this offseason. Bloom is going to make some hard choices, but I don't think Beni is going anywhere when the prerogative is to move big salaries out.

Reportedly JD won't opt out so he is locked in for 23.75m this season. Honestly it would have been difficult to find a replacement player for JD Martinez but this also makes things more difficult financially. Where will the salary cuts come from? Bloom has his work cut out for him. In a perfect world we would ship off some other salaries and still keep Betts. But I'm not sure how Bloom will pull that off now. If he can, he'd be in my early running for executive of the year.

Devers is amazing at 3rd base. I don't want to mess with that chemistry right now. If Dalbec comes up, promote him as a 1B. Steady defense at 1B will be nice to have and I have a feeling we move on from Moreland. We need to save as much $$$ as possible in the upcoming 2 seasons as we rebuild into a contender. At minimum the owners have mandated we get below the salary tax cutoff.