I agree, I'm just saying there's no excuse not to get that high. The penalties are meaningless. They'll be close enough to the CBT that they could reset next season.
No excuses for the Sox and the CBT. They were under last year. They can go over this year. The tax penalties are less than what they paid Sale to play elsewhere.
Oh, I don't think the majority of us want player opt outs in a Soto contract. Player opt outs only serve players that are underperforming the contract. I'd rather they just pay him until he's 40 with no opt outs. If there's a way to defer money and reduce the AAV, tremendous.
https://www.fangraphs.com/players/seby-zavala/18887/stats?position=C
Decent defensive profile. Most likely a AAA/emergency callup guy. I don't know if they have a backup catcher yet.
Brandon Workman only pitched 21 MLB innings after leaving the Sox. He came back to pitch 20 more and then retire after '21.
Hembree pitched until '23, but amassed -0.9 bWAR and was shuttled to 6 different locations.
Rays have extended SOME players in the past (Wander, Longoria). They don't tend to sign FA's like Gio, Story, etc. The Red Sox are certainly not following any TBR trajectory. They are midmarket, not small market.