jacksonianmarch

Not really interested in Noah. He’s gonna cost a fortune and is injury prone. We need an ace. There are two shutdown aces available for just money and some draft pick comp. Get one of them. We don’t need another “reliable” back end or even mid rotation guy. We need an ace who can show this rotation the ropes and take all the pressure off them

Don’t forget about the Astros

I'd be perfectly happy to take a risk on Lamb for any ball club, but not at an estimated $5 mil and not for a club trying to eek below the LT. Consider this. If you are going to spend ANY extra dough in 2020, you need to be absolutely certain that the extra money is gonna work. If this is a mandate, then every penny spent is potentially the last penny you have

Didn't Mookie gun down many people at 3b?

You got a warm body for Leon, something I am pretty sure most of you didn't expect to get

Garcia is a good hitter, minus to average defender who can play RF and shift Mookie to CF. He’s also expected to cost about half as much as Bradley and he outperformed him last year in a smaller sample size

Exactly

The other thing that Bloom has a history with and something the Sox fans are gonna need to get used to is that there are no untouchables. Nobody was sacred in TB. If the Sox get a huge offer for Devers, peace Raffy. I’d wish more teams acted like that. Every team seems to have their sacred cow that they won’t move.

If hiring Bloom got you two World Series trips in 3 years, you take your chances you’d win one. Heck, if the Astros didn’t cheat, maybe they would have

A major reason for that has been the continued overdelivering farm system. You create a sustainable farm and a lot of your ills either in expenditure or depth are mitigated. Bloom and Friedman are very big on depth. The Rays and Dodgers were two of the three deepest teams in baseball last year. It seems the Dodgers bring up player after player who perform off the rip and end up successful major leaguers

Where Bloom has made his hay over the past few seasons has been on his “other” signings and trades. His pickups like Ji Man as a non notable deal. Bloom has signed under the radar players or made deals for PTNBL or cash for guys who then played a key role for TB. He has also been in favor of proximity instead of star potential in his deals. You don’t see him dealing off a big league asset for a top 100 guy in A ball. He’d get a few guys who may not be nationally recognized who are in AAA or already on a big league roster. His philosophy seems to be spreading the wealth rather than focusing on a single long distance prospect. If he got 3 guys who contributed on a big league roster than that’s better than hoping for one guy to hit it big. As I’ve said before, when/if he deals Betts, you guys are gonna hate the return the moment the deal is made, but you’ll likely enjoy the result

The Phils are looking at Betances and a Romine. Both players we can replace internally. Philly is a weird spot for Romine with the Phils already having Realmuto and a ready top prospect behind him. Betances can make sense for anyone. I have always held out hope that Betances came back to us, but after his infighting with management over his contract and after a frustrating 2019, I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted a clean break and a bigger role. I do wonder if Betances ends up in Chicago with the White Sox. The south siders are throwing around money thus far and really need a lock down reliever with Herrera on the fritz. We can also replace him internally. We won 103 games without his presence and have a young kid looking pretty similar to Betances in terms of stuff and current direction. Dellin was drafted all the way back in 06 and was a failed starter. Loaisiga was signed 8 years ago and has had issues with consistency and injury as a starter. I do think Loaisiga ends up as a pretty premium relief arm. As for Romine, we don’t have the finances to allocate a good contract to him and with the dearth of good catching options out there and the fact that Higashioka is out of options, there’s no real place for Romine in the Bronx. If Romine plays his cards right, he can sign a nice contract (3 yrs $21-$24 mil) somewhere to be a starter, he just might need to do that on a team with limited post season chances

Not sure how you can love the trade for 2020, but it got you a title and that flag will fly forever. It was a win win for both sides

Btw, this “Hot Stove” has been a f***in snooze fest thus far

No, you heard the name Andujar. Yanks wanted to deal Adams, Frazier and another pitcher. The Pirates required Andujar or Torres then they picked a shitbag package from the Pirates, lol. Adams turned into a dud due to injuries. Frazier hasn’t gotten the chance

I’m sure Bloom would love to keep the entirety of his offense and move on from 4/5 of his rotation, but contract cost is a bitch. If the “get under the line” comment is actually a mandate, then dealing Betts is an absolute must. No point in keeping him for a costly season while you’re shedding talent from an 85 win club. Might as well get what you can and if you really want him when you can spend again, go get him on the open market. The best 1b option is Aguilar. Bird hasn’t been healthy in forever. Dalbec is a wild card. Aguilar has a prior history of success and has huge power. Not sure what happened last year, but being in a good lineup and at Fenway cannot hurt

Yanks are in on Treinen. I’d rather look at him after his non tender than guarantee almost $8 mil towards him for 2020

If you make the assumption that every dollar of a Mookie Betts deal is over the LT, then it is pretty easy to see the added baggage associated with the contract. If the sox do not reset in 2020 and re-sign Mookie for $30 mil AAV and the sox finish 2021 $30 mil over the LT, then the added LT is $15 mil (there is also a surcharge for the second level, but that doesn't get increased for repeat offenders) If the sox do reset in 2020 and re-sign Mookie for $30 mil AAV and the sox finish 2021 $30 mil over the LT, then the added LT is $6 mil (also not accounting for the surcharge) Just on basic math, it is a $9 mil difference. That is a $9 mil PER YEAR difference based on a single contract.

There are a lot of players like him who cannot stay healthy as starters and end up handling the smaller, more frequent workload better

I honestly don’t believe much that comes out of Kennedy’s mouth, especially when he’s cleaning up a PR mess before tickets come available

But the mandate is for 2020, right? I know they backed off that a bit, but I am pretty sure the Sox are making a concerted effort to get below the LT in 2020 so as to avoid the 50% overage and reset for later.

A big wild card this time around is going to be Loaisiga. This kid has insane stuff. He just hasn’t stayed healthy as a starter. He’s got the kind of wipeout stuff that he could suffice as the Betances replacement, especially since we got 2/3 of an inning from Dellin all of last year. My bet is we see him beaten out for a rotation spot in the spring and he’s carried as a reliever and he dominates.

I get that, but it doesn't help your Lux Tax situation all that much.

For example, if Stanton opts into his contract after 2020, the Marlins will pay the Yankees $30 mil in 2021. For lux tax purposes, the Yanks are getting a discount of $3 mil per year over the 10 years the yanks took on even though the payout is going to be in a lump sum

That won’t work though. If you’re paying down a contract, then the amount paid counts against the LT as AAV even if the money comes in the final two years of the deal. Let’s say the Sox pay the mariners $6 mil in 2022 and $6 mil in 2022, the lux tax implication will be $4 mil per year AAV