Since the day Mike Trout signed his deal:
Trout 21.7 bWAR
Bregman: 25.7 bWAR
2025 Projections have them producing at about the same level.
In order to justify 40M, he really only has to play like 2022 Bregman.
He's championing it because he has to manage Raffy's emotions. They need to work out this change in his career together. He wasn't going to outright say "Raffy is moving to 1B this year most likely" before they even had a replacement in house.
I heard that he kind of changed his tone, but didn't hear the quote. Interesting. Cora apparently said something similar, which is why they want Yoshida playing LF more.
Buehler got the most AAV for any one year deal. I think the Sox only wanted to go short on this SP crop. They liked Fried to a point and Burnes only had one destination in mind. Eovaldi/Manaea/Severino/Martinez/Kikuchi/Flaherty/Wacha I don't really care about. Aside from the top 2 guys, there wasn't a guy I thought they really needed to jump on since I really don't trust Snell.
Cora went to the DR earlier this offseason. I assume he met with Raffy while he was there. Raffy has been in camp for a while now. Maybe things are happening we don't know about? Maybe they aren't?
I saw a writer say "some say Bregman might play SS" and I just wanted to close my laptop. On the depth chart, I'd put Bregman at SS behind Story, Mayer, Rafaela, Hamilton, Campbell and Romy.