jung

The chance that they are going to outbid other suiters for Mookie Betts is pretty slim with or without keeping him this year. I suggested keeping him would make sense because at least the Sox could make the case for potential greatness this year. That is it. That is all they get. But every year you can do that if you are the Red Sox matters. I suspect the Sox are telling us they are going to build a different team than the JD/Mookie/Sale/Price/Beni/JBJ/X team. They will absolutely, positively keep X and Rafi, probably keep Vaz and build around them. They will keep Sale because they have to. If they don't think 2019 Erod is for real, they might off him as well. Verdugo might have a short stay here and go out the door also. Probably keep JD and keep him out of the outfield but they won't be all that protective of JD either. Would not be surprised to see JD not make it past some future trade deadline. The Sox are certainly 1 year past their optimal Championship chances for now especially without Mookie. 4 championships in the 21st Century is a heck of an accomplishment. But we tend to view potential greatness as it relates to Championship chances now. That is a heck of a turnaround from where we were in the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's.

And all of those moves still won't yield a team that would generate speculation about potential greatness in the 2020 edition. The Sox are now stuck in the middle. You can build a team like the 2013 Sox, a tough gritty veteran team with enough young talent for the vets to bring along and with a little luck you can really surprise some people including your own fan base. You can even overcome Bozo Farrell with a team like that. Or You could be a team with legitimate claim to potential greatness in a given year. This team will be neither and might be neither for more than 2020. Heck at this point we don't really even know what the league is going to do with us. You have to wonder how much that is an issue for the Brass. I do like the relief pitcher we got. Frankly, I like the relief pitcher more than I like Verdugo.

I have watched all but about maybe 20 innings of Sox Baseball the last 4 seasons either at the park or on TV. I know the game threads get awfully lonesome when the Sox are not truly competing. "Interesting" to most Red Sox fans with the exception of the die hards is competing. The die hards don't make a market. We just don't.

That would not surprise me either though I am not convinced we even have the staff for Bloom ball.

You still need pitchers to play this game. What do we really have past a Sale we must protect and ERod. This looks like a staff that can compete to you? Does not look like it to me.

Or even trading Price at the deadline if he did perform but the team isn't...also quite the possibility at this point.

You mean for 2020? One key element of the Sox Marketing effort is generating speculation about the potential greatness of a particular edition of the Sox. The other primary elements of their marketing are: - Fenway Park itself - their charitable activities in all their various forms - NESN - their minor league enterprises Speculation over the potential greatness of the 2020 edition is very much in question at this point. We have no manager, no farm. No real 2nd basemen other than one that really can't field and one that really can't hit and we just lost the most dynamic player on the team by far. We just created a hole in the rotation and are left with Sale who we must protect, Eovaldi who we won't protect but can't get through a season, a guy we are hoping will be 2019 Porcello and Erod for whom we will be lighting candles all year long. Again, the surprise to me is that the Sox Brass is confident that marketing Fenway, their charities, their minor league assets and NESN will carry them through 2020 and maybe beyond without really being able to generate speculation about the potential greatness of the 2020 edition. That is going to be a chore given what the 40 man looks like going into the season. Also surprised the Sox are paying so much of the Price contract.

I am shocked if the reporting is accurate. The Sox paying more than half of the Price contract. I would have rather taken the risk that Price would perform and then trade him at the deadline if he didn't as opposed to sucking on more than half the value of his contract. What the hell is going on over there at Fenway.

The Dodgers are risk takers who's perspective on where they want to go has not changed though their ownership has changed somewhat. That is why I said the deal would be Dodgers from the start of the Mookie trade buzz. Easy for the Dodgers to talk themselves into a year of Mookie plus the Price contract as long as they could get the Sox to pay some of the Price contract. The Sox are certainly at this stage more risk averse than the Dodgers are. I think the Sox are still wondering about their risk exposure on Sale at this point. Current reporting is that the Sox are paying MORE THAN HALF of the Price contract. Geezus H Christ!

Yea I am inclined to think Mookie will go where he will be paid the most for the longest term and I am inclined to think that will not end up being us.

MLB is a business and Henry is the boss of the Red Sox. Have no problem with Bloom functioning to the Henry mandate. Just don't believe signing Betts our of FA is in the cards because there will simply be too much competition for his services from franchises that AS BUSINESSES will assign more value to Betts than the Sox will assign to Betts.

I suspect we keep Sale. We have sort of sealed our fate on that one I think.

As a FA there are far too many teams for whom Mookie represents a better investment than he will represent to the Sox. We won't have to worry about just being outbid by the Yankees this time. The best shot they had of keeping Mookie long term was to keep him now and counter his stated contract preference. Not convinced Mookie would have taken it. But that is the best shot the Sox had at signing Mookie long term. Mookie's actual value at least to me would be about 10/$333 which likely means 10/$360. Anything past that is highway robbery. We need to give up this idea that Mookie is the second coming of Trout. He is not and he is not going to be Trout. That said, Mookie is a tremendously dynamic player and worthy of being on the cover of some team's media guide for 10 years. That is simply not how the Sox market individual players. In fact its not the way they market the Red Sox generally. Somebody is going to pay Mookie to put him on the cover of their media guide for 10 years or more and that simply won't be the Sox IMO. The teams that might do that are far more plentiful than the teams that won't do that. The Sox, Cubs, Yankees, Dodgers and maybe the Giants simply don't market that way. Mookie is a candidate to sign with virtually everybody else other than the true poor relations of baseball, like the Rays.

You are right. Trying to bury it DIDN'T WORK

Betts is not a $400M player and he is certainly not worth that to this franchise. Frankly I think resigning him as FA is a pipe dream.

By the way...Could the Sox brass have done a better job of burying this trade? - night of State of the Union - right in the middle of Impeachment - right in the middle of the Iowa caucus mess - in the dark of night Don't seem too proud of their trade if you ask me

I am a little surprised if only because speculation about the potential greatness of a particular edition of the Sox team is one of their cornerstone marketing tools. The Sox really don't engage in long term marketing of specific ballplayers the way other teams do. So I understand that Mookie has less value to the Sox than he will have to other teams one of which will ultimately plan on having Mookie on the cover of their media guide for 10 years. I don't even know today what argument the Sox make for the potential greatness of the 2020 edition. Told you guys they would insist on offing either Price or Evo as part of this deal. Still waiting for the shoe to drop from MLB on the cheating scandal and still remain unconvinced that the Sox will escape Scott Free.

But unlikely, IMO

lol.....very funny MVP

Is it time for a manager yet?

The Sox will let the Front Office geek squad run the team for awhile.

Are the Cards ever in this "lets sign a guy for a year" stuff or aren't they most often on the "lets see who we can fleece by offing a guy in his last year" side of things?

Well my comments are not about what teams are in on a trade. Whoever trades for Mookie is trading for one year of Mookie. The Dodgers could certainly trade for one year of Mookie. I just don't see them looking to sign him to a long term deal. A long term deal could come from any of the teams that do build their marketing around a player. So that would be anybody other than the Red Sox, the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Cubs and maybe the Giants. I could not really add anybody else to that list though others might be able to do so. Any other MLB team IMO could well envision having Mookie on the cover of their publicity guide for ten years running.

Problem is, Mookie is apparently not looking for 4 or 5 or a 6 year deal. He is apparently looking for 10-12 years. The teams that are going to be willing to give him that sort of deal are the teams that would look to make him the entire focus of their marketing campaigns over that span of time. That leaves teams like the Red Sox and the Dodgers out. The Red Sox stopped long term marketing of ballplayers ages ago. They Market Fenway Park, Speculation regarding the potential greatness of a particular edition of the team, its charities and NESN. Thats it. They don't need Mookie for that.

This is just a rash guess on my part. But having to guess at this point, my guess is no deal gets done and Mookie plays out his contract here in Boston possibly traded at the deadline.