jacksonianmarch

That was 2 years ago, when Eovaldi found his magic, Porcello didn’t suck then leave, Price’s arm didn’t need an operation, and Sale’s arm was in slightly better shape. You had a closer with a well delineated pen hierarchy and pitchers who did well with their designed roles. Your offense is still dynamite. It’s the pitching that’s the downfall

It's San Diego, they don't draw well in the first place and coming off a 70 win season, they won't draw well even if Betts comes on board. They need pitching, and outside of bringing in Zach Davies, they are lacking in that area

DD went all in and wiped clean the farm. If you have a great production machine, you can rebuild that in 2-3 seasons. The sox also broke their production machine as DD essentially isolated himself from the development team and the disconnect caused almost no organizational progress. The farm system can be reproduced quickly via trade or slowly via draft and IFA. With the sox starting from scratch, it would behoove them to get higher picks and deal off some assets if they are to rebuild.

I bet they are, but Betts' market is limited to what teams are willing to pay. Overpays rarely happen in January unless one party is overly motivated. I always doubted SD's willingness to enter the fray. They have some stupid big contracts on the books and their farm is on the cusp of producing big league pitching. Once they see where their pitching is at, I expect them to start cashing in that farm. But I would expect them to cash in on the pitching side right now. Maybe if Gore and others reach ace status, then they shift to position players

I agree with all of this post The one point I will add is that at this juncture, the idea of dealing off anyone for "best possible return" will fly in the face of being competitive in 2020 as the options on the FA market suck beyond Donaldson and maybe Ozuna. Bloom's best possible return at this point fills the holes left by the players being dealt away

Yes, but you either need to find a huckleberry or a desperate team. Nobody is desperate now and with analytics there are less huckleberries than there used to be. You need to hope for a major OF injury or a massive underperformance to create a desperation market for Betts. Desperation prompts overpays

Last I checked, German is gone for 2 months, not forever, and we gained Severino who was top 10 in CY in 17 and 18. We also have a healthy Montgomery.

Take your chances then. I have been telling you for weeks what I am wishing for. I am hoping against hope that Betts makes it to FA as a Red Sock. That means that the sox cannot cash in on his expiring contract and fill the multitude of other holes on the roster. That means that they will have to accept worse deals on their other guys to get under the LT. That means that they may not be able to sneak under the LT and may not be able to re-sign Betts, or that re-signing Betts will preclude the sox upgrading their pitching. Not dealing Betts is my Red Sox wish #1. If the sox keep him for 2020, barring a miracle, the Yanks will smoke the sox. So don't get my motives wrong here. I want you to hang onto him. I just assume Bloom is smarter than that and will fill holes by dealing him off. Then, if they really want him, they will have the LT situation reset and they can outbid everyone for 2021

I did not say that. I said that the O’s got lucky that Seager blew out his elbow and the Dodgers finally met their asking price. If Seager doesn’t get hurt, the package the O’s got would have been smaller or the O’s would have allowed him to get to FA

Yes, but that is a risk you take by waiting. Sometimes, those team's don't arise. The O's waited and it just so happened that a WS contender's SS blew out his arm

There have been some huckleberry's out there. Like when Kazmir went for Zambrano, lol. Dumb move for sure. But typically top 10ers make their debut with their squad or get dealt for players under far more control than 1 season. Looking at the Dodgers, getting a MLB OFer, a cost controlled MLB SP and a top 40 prospect with absolute smoke in his arm is a good get for one year of a HOF level OFer on a team that is going nowhere

You can trade him AND sign him. Those aren’t mutually exclusive. You can pull a Chapman. We got Gleyber Torres for free! If the Sox were loading up for a 2020 title, then you gotta ride this out, but clearly you’re not. Dealing him makes the most sense. And if Betts is true to his word, don’t be outbid on the open market

Sentimentality gets in the way of reality. You’ve got one year of a hall of fame talent on a team that appears to be going nowhere and has made no measurable improvements due to budgetary constraints. You can deal him and fill multiple holes or you can let him walk for a draft pick after washing out in 2020. What do you want to do? You’re not dealing him for a top 10 prospect, it just ain’t happening

One year of a hall of fame type player who is then going to hit the market and go to the highest bidder. This is the problem when you get sentimental, you forget reality

Is Betts at +50 even with a projected cost of $27 mil?

But the Dodgers haven't been linked to Price at all and I don't see a match there, period. If Price is gonna go, it will be to a team that is dying for pitching and will hope against hope that Price can fight father time. That isn't LA

I would push for it. I think taking Pollock's contract would be a must for the sox and getting Stripling and Gonsolin is the real prize here. But Pollock fills the gap admirably in RF assuming he can stay healthy

Who are you looking to sign right now? The only impact player left is Donaldson, and you've got his position set. Maybe Ozuna or Castellanos? But the former is coming off a subpar year and the latter is a butcher with a glove Listen, if we were in November and nobody had signed yet, I would be on board with you. But right now, you HAVE to fill your holes in these moves. Your current holes include: 1 starting pitcher- nobody is fooled into thinking Martin Perez is anything other than a JAG who is gonna get ripped. Also, nobody is fooled by the lack of durability in or the lack of depth behind your rotation 1 second baseman- now a mix of Dalbec and Chavis may handle it well offensively, but Chavis isn't a 2ber and neither is Dalbec. Maybe Peraza takes half the games there and the sox rotate in good bat and bad D for the rest. This one isn't required 1 high end reliever- the pen was run ragged and while some guys had good seasons, none have a track record beyond Barnes, and he is coming off a horrible season You deal Betts and you add RF to that list Deal off Price and you add another starter to the list. If you deal Betts alone for Gonsolin, Stripling and Pollock, it fills your RF hole that Betts departure leaves, it fills the hole that you needed to fill in your rotation and Stripling pushes Perez to the swing guy/6th man. This allows you to dump Price for peanuts and still have 5 guys with MLB experience in a rotation. Gonsolin becomes the WC. Does he fill the hole in the pen or does he fill a role in the SP. And all of that for one year of Betts. Once you throw in Price, you are adding too much salary for a team that doesn't need him. Price is superfluous for the Dodgers. Kershaw, Buehler, and Maeda are better than Price right now. Dustin May was really good in 14 games for the Dodgers last year. Urias was dominant out of the pen and they plan to transition him to the rotation. Josiah Gray was one of the best pitchers in the minors last year. They are loaded with options and their top 2 are better than most teams. My bet is they don't view Price as much of an upgrade while his health is up in the air and they aren't going to want to pay him for 3 yrs to find out

It all depends on if you want to give up on 2020 or not? The sox aren't keen on publicly showing a lack of interest in 2020. Therefore, they are gonna have to fill some holes. Dumping Price leaves a hole in the rotation. Dealing Betts leaves a hole in the OF. As it stands, the sox #5 starter sucks entirely and the sox rotation isn't exactly full of ironmen. So adding a pitcher, an OFer and then a top prospect who is MLB ready helps fill the roster out and feign competitiveness. Dealing off Price and Betts for nothing leaves the sox with holes that cannot be filled on the open market now and essentially punts an entire year from day 1

I am now reading about how the Yanks intend on keeping Andujar and will probably stash him in AAA to start the year. I think that is a swell idea. Andujar is supposedly healthy and while shoulder injuries are never great, they're far more devastating to pitchers. Also, Miggy is pretty young. The big knock on Miggy is that he cannot field, or at least sucked in his one year of big league experience. Well, pulling him from the bright lights and forcing him to focus on his glove would be great. The other reason is because of Urshela. Gio was amazing last year, but it was FAR and away his best season of his career. Is he likely to replicate it? Not at all. But does he slip to a .270-20-70 guy, which would be perfectly acceptable as a good but not great glove man? Or does he slip to a .230, no power dumpster fire with the stick that he was previously? Nobody knows. Miggy is Urshela insurance. Gio is healthy, has the better glove and hit like Miggy last year. He also has no more MiLB options. Gio gets at least 2 months of rope here. If he reverts to a pile of s***, then Miggy rises and assumes his spot. If Gio continues to smash, then we have a great predicament. Then I would move Miggy all over the diamond as insurance and use him as a COF/CIF hybrid with the intent to get his stick in the lineup

I don't think Bloom is best served tacking on a cash dump to Betts. Betts is his best chance to capably fill multiple holes and build for the future

This would also lead you to dump Price and/or Eovaldi. Dealing off Betts and getting back the package above adds $16.5 mil to the AAV while getting rid of Betts' projected $27 mil price tag. That gives you $10.5 mil back into the coffers. Now, you don't NEED as much back should you dump Price. Per spotrac, you need to dump essentially $24 mil to get under the cap. Doing the above deal brings you down to $13.5 mil. Dumping Bradley and signing a guy like Lagares for $2 mil saves you another $9 mil. That gets you down to a really manageable $4.5 mil. And with Gonsolin and Stripling in your rotation, you can afford to jettison one player and still have a 5 man rotation to start the year. Even if you eat half of Price's contract, you're under by $11.5 mil and have some money to add to the team at the deadline should your squad be in the hunt.

The Dodgers fit is more than just a rumor because the Dodgers can give you prospects plus a major league quality OFer without decimating their team If the Dodgers send over Pollock and his $42 mil over 3 seasons (he also has a player option for $10 mil for a 4th season), then the sox would get a quality OFer whom the Dodgers will not need. Their OF of Pederson, Bellinger, and Betts would be insane with Taylor shifting in to spell Joc against lefties. It keeps their infield intact with Muncy, Seager, Lux, and Turner with a catching tandem of Smith and Barnes with Ruiz coming up the pipe. The Dodgers can afford to deal off Stripling and Gonsolin since their rotation for 2020 would be looking like this: Kershaw, Buehler, May, Urias, Maeda with Gray in the offing. If they don't make it, they'll have enough farm depth to deal at the deadline for a pitcher. The thing is, this dodgers team needs to go for it. They have been on the cusp too many times, and while sitting back pushes off their window, doing so leaves them with the possibility that they don't win anything. For the sox, it gives them 3 yrs of control of an overpaid but useful major league OFer, three years of a reliable starter in Stripling who would shore up the back of the rotation and 6 yrs of a top flight, high octane pitching prospect who profiles as either a mid to upper tier starter or a lockdown closer who is MLB ready now. While this doesn't get you back a Wander Franco or Jo Adell style prospect, it fills some holes on the cheap while also giving you one high upside guy capable of leading a rotation in the future.

Trading Betts can plug multiple holes. If the idea is to get Pollock, Gonsolin and Stripling, you can then go out and deal off Eovaldi and Price for nothing spectacular and you’ve plugged their holes plus replaced Betts with a competent, big league level replacement. Maybe it allows you to eat enough money on Eo or Price’s deal to get a competent 2b prospect or current big leaguer.

My bet is DD already tried that prior to the boot. Mookie thought Trout left money on the table when he signed. He’s positioned himself as a businessman and he’s gonna maximize his return. If he finishes 2020 healthy and with another 6+ WAR season, he’s gonna set a record