mvp 78

I think in many ways, this will be a test year. Figure out what works and use that knowledge for 2022 when they really think they can compete. Things could get kinda weird.

It worked for 2018.

Betts doesn't make the combined salary of Price AND Sale AND Xander.

Sizemore is a fair comp. Pedroia is not.

Lessons? DD doesn't need no stinkin' lessons.

@PeteAbe Franchy Cordero will join the workouts today.

Not worth extending Sale and re-signing Eovaldi.

@jcmccaffrey Cora said he's still debating whether Verdugo will hit first or second. Today's his first game and he's hitting second. Hernandez has been leading off in the first few games. Verdugo was good there last year. Leave him there. Verdugo Xander Devers JD whoever else after

2018: worth it 2019: not worth it

@PeteAbe Bogaerts is back throwing, so moving closer to a game ... Cora plans to use Verdugo in CF and RF in ST. Sounds like he'll get at least some RF during the season. Cora reiterated that there won't be a set OF lineup

It's Alex Speier's middle name too.

Verdugo is not a spare part. Downs seems like he won't be a spare part either. I think the return for Mookie was fine. However, they just shouldn't have traded him in the first place.

@ChrisCotillo Red Sox vs. Rays — 1:05 pm — 7 innings K. Hernández SS, Verdugo CF, Martinez DH, Devers 3B, Renfroe RF, Gonzalez 1B, Vázquez C, Arroyo 2B, Gettys LF Red Sox pitchers today: Eduardo Rodriguez, Kyle Hart, Kevin McCarthy, Thaddeus Ward

Eovaldi and Sale make $47 combined. I just wouldn't have extended them and kept Betts.

The Sox have enough $$$ to work around one contract that goes south. I think Mookie will be productive for 90% of that contract. I've said it all along that he was one of the few guys that were worth that (him and Trout). Soto, Tatis and Acuna are great, but I'd need to see them for two more years before I unloaded onto them. I have a sneaking suspicion that Soto won't hold up. I think Tatis could belong in that group with Betts and Trout. I have Acuna being just behind those guys.

I think Bloom has been fine. My problem is with Henry allowing this organization to get to the point that they felt they had to dump Betts. They had no plans longer than the tip of their nose.

Letting one Mookie go is malfeasance.

And now I'm angry again because I wanted to see what Betts' was before they dealt him.

He was great for the Rays, but doing a 7.7 in your walk year is unbelievable.

Now that is a performance in a contract year.

He did have a .350 OBP the prior year. I feel gross standing up for Mickey Rivers.

He's spending, but not spending in the way I want him to.

Sure!

(x) doubt https://bosoxinjection.com/2020/05/15/red-sox-signed-willie-mays/ As Mays recounts in the book, when he was a teenager playing for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues, the Red Sox had a minor league team that shared a field with them. Multiple teams scouted Mays, including the Red Sox, and former Sox scout George Digby actually had a deal in place to purchase Mays’ contract for $4500 in 1950 before it was scuttled by the front office. “I had Willie Mays bought for $4500,” Digby told me when I interviewed him in 2005. “I called up the Red Sox. I said, ‘I got Willie Mays. He’ll break the color line.'” “The owner of the Black Barons had told us we could have Mays for $4500. I said, ‘I’ll be back to you by tomorrow.’ Glennon had asked me, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘I think he’s a big leaguer.’ We could have had Mays in center and [Ted] Williams in left.” Instead, as Digby recounted, Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey and General Manager Joe Cronin passed on Mays, saying they “already had made up their minds they weren’t going to take any black players.” Indeed, the Red Sox had years earlier passed on signing Jackie Robinson, with then General Manager Eddie Collins and Yawkey passing for the same shameful reason.

@JonHeyman Danny Santana Red Sox deal: $1.75M base, $1M incentives plus 100k bonus if he starts in AAA to finish getting ready. Plus opt out.