vjcsmoke

Op is correct in that Soto would be the perfect piece to propel the Red Sox into contention. However I just find it hard to believe that ownership is willing to spend 600 million even on an elite superstar. They have shown reluctance to spend countless times. They have stated a goal to become the next Tampa Bay Rays, low salary team. i just have a gut feeling the Red Sox interest is just all posturing. They don’t want to be vilified for missing out on Soto so they will just offer a little less than the other suitors and pretend “we really tried guys!”

Why not both if Sasaki is so cheap?

WOW. Don't blow all the budget at once! 1.5m dollars. Henry and FSG are really SPLASHING the cash now! NOT! Want to hear a bad joke? Red Sox rumored to be interested in Juan Soto. article: https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/boston-red-sox/news/mlb-insider-has-red-sox-fourth-most-likely-landing-spot-600-million-dollar-superstar/ec9d94a0fec7d501858dc184 My bet is that the Red Sox pretended to be interested. Heard the asking price was 600m, lowball offered him 350m, then they are going to tell the fans, "We tried but we got outbid." What a freaking JOKE of ownership and GM we have now!

We wasted 40 million and haven't had a single pitch from Giolito. What another terrible free agent mistake. Do they not do their medicals any more?

21 million dollars for a bad to mediocre pitcher in Pivetta. 4.14 ERA, 6-12. If you wonder why we don't have money to sign any good players? We pay big salaries to players who barely scrape by as passable. Unless the Red Sox believe someone will now give up a draft pick to sign Pivetta, this move is a real head scratcher.

The latest rumor has us trading away Marcelo Mayer for a bag of peanuts or the equivalent. Why doesn't it surprise me anymore when the Red Sox talent dump they almost always get an awful deal in return. https://www.si.com/mlb/red-sox/boston-red-sox-news/red-sox-could-trade-mlb-s-no-3-prospect-in-massive-gamble-per-insider-jackson3 Can someone please make the stupid stop? The Red Sox just keep making awful deals! Here's another one coming right up!

And of course Chris Sale goes and have one of his best years after being traded from the Red Sox. Why can't we get players like that? Oh yeah we give away good players and get garbage in return. It was the same story with Mookie Betts who is now on a World Series team. Our front office is infuriatingly bad.

Well the Yankees embarrassed us 8-1. They made all the right moves in the offseason while the Red Sox acted like clowns under clown ownership. We're not talentless but we're clearly outclassed. I don't expect this series to be pretty.

4 losses in a row for the Red Sox. Capped by an embarrassing 7-0 shutout loss to the Angels. Is anybody really surprised?

Another Trevor Story type of signing. The Red Sox are awful at doing their medical homework before handing out contracts.

Realistic view - 70 wins. Optimistic view - 75 wins. It's just more of the same. Red Sox ownership are in a holding pattern because they simply don't want to spend the money to compete in the AL East anymore. They have a wet dream that the Red Sox can magically turn into Tampa North when the reality is that they are operating in a big market city and prices are different to bring players into Boston. Whatever, another wasted year coming right up! It's going to take a lot of empty seats and actual significant loss of revenues before ownership changes their tune.

But don't you know, Breslow is really upbeat about our top prospects on the farm! In three more years we might be competitive again as long as the youngsters grow up big and strong and drink plenty of milk! Breslow told Abraham. "But I think the reality is that it’s going to require a step forward from the young position players. It’s going to require the build-out of a talent pipeline of arms that we can acquire, we draft, and we can develop internally." “And it’s going to require aggressive player development in the minor leagues and the major leagues so guys that we think are the next wave — (Marcelo) Mayer and (Roman) Anthony and (Kyle) Teel, that group — are not just big leaguers but impact big leaguers. The convergence of all those pieces is the fastest path to a World Series team. Article: https://sports.yahoo.com/breslow-shares-disappointing-answer-red-203719936.html

Instead the Red Sox will shop the bargain basement store for 5m to 10m dollar starters and see who sticks. Who needs talent when you can cut down your payroll? Honestly that "full throttle" nonsense statement just gets WORSE over time. If ownership had said, "Well we're trying to rebuild patiently and let our farm guys grow into the big league team. But don't worry we'll be back in contention soon. In the meantime to reward the fans for their patience, we're going to CUT ticket prices and cable sport package prices by 20%!" But of course they would never do that. Ticket prices will be as high as ever, payroll lower than ever, and the competitiveness of the big league team will continue to suffer so that management can "punt" spending money to compete a couple of years down the road if ever.

When even the media pans your chances of signing starting pitchers you know things have gone downhill in Red Sox land. "Red Sox still in contact with pair of frontline starters despite pessimism." Article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/red-sox-still-in-contact-with-pair-of-frontline-starters-despite-pessimism/ar-BB1h2nHy?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W099&cvid=71d13ec790e447e3af6440254d19f106&ei=19 Can you imagine how badly the negotiations are going with free agents right about now? Red Sox: "Uh, so we'd like to sign your guy but we can offer only 2 years and half the total money that you'd normally expect." Player's Agent: "Until you come up with a non-joke offer you can shove that deal where the sun don't shine." Red Sox: "Uh, can we like stay in touch? We need to cut down our payroll a whole lot first and maybe we can come up a little more on our offer." Player's Agent: "Stop wasting my time. Show my client the money or get lost!"

Good catch. Yup it's almost like ownership was saying, ok we won enough to satisfy the fans? Ok, now let's dial it back and rake in some profits, then repeat the cycle again. Almost like a yo-yo. Do enough to reel in the fans, then dump salary and rake in more money the next year. Only now there's no more yo-yo, it's just, we're gonna skimp on spending completely, "until the kids grow up into stars." But you know what happens as soon as those kids deliver wins and deserve bigger salaries? "Well we can't afford to keep them." They will trade them away or let them walk. They did it with Betts and Bogaerts they will continue to do it with whoever else becomes the Red Sox next big star. Back to the yo-yo down of mediocrity! And the vicious cycle just keeps going!

What I hear is a huge amount of backpedaling after Werner was caught lying/hand caught in the cookie jar. There's an interesting correlation between Red Sox spending and the team's competitive record. In general the lower the Red Sox' payroll the worse its record has been. Note that from 2016 to 2018 the Red Sox made the playoffs 3 consecutive years, culminating with a WS championship win but each year our payroll was over 200m. The only outlier to this rule is 2021 the year immediately following the epidemic. I presume the market hadn't caught up to normal yet but the Red Sox had an overall payroll under 160m and made the playoffs. I believe this is ownership's wet dream - to pay less but still get paid for playoff money. Notice that this was also the only year a Bloom run team made the playoffs. After that notice with the reduced payrolls, mandated by ownership, you can see the Red Sox finished back to back sub .500 records and missing the playoffs. Paying the extra for a couple of premium players in the past made the difference competitively yet ownership doesn't care. They envy Tampa Bay's success with lower payroll investments so they want to turn the Red Sox into Tampa North without understanding that we're a big market team and economics just doesn't work that way.

So I just read an article that the Red Sox might trade Jansen away to the Dodgers: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/dodgers-seen-as-possible-trade-partner-for-red-sox-star-in-surprise-move/ar-AA1mV0xp This smells like an obvious salary dump move to get rid of our best closer and one of the top closers in baseball right now. As you mentioned, management might 'justify' the dump as a move to open salary space to sign Snell at first but I bet you they'll just turn around and say later that Snell wanted too much money and they got 'outbid'. Red Sox still haven't spent the money they saved from trading away Sale so I doubt they plan to do any actual significant spending to improve the roster. They're going to wait until they see a serious amount of empty seats before making any moves and by then all the good free agent talent will already be gone and have found teams. It's a vicious cycle - dump talent, dump salary, promise to spend, do nothing, enjoy larger profit margins all while lying to the fans. Meanwhile they enjoy spending 16m less salary from dumping Jansen and just line their pockets with more money.

He got mad that he got booed by the fans and deservedly so. The guy has simply decided to TUNE OUT the fans who care about the team and just focus on counting the money coming in. He also doesn't want to answer 'uncomfortable questions' from the media and wants to dodge responsibility for his cheapness. It's really sad what JWH has become.

Bingo! It's time to boycotty Fenway! The only thing FSG understands is empty seats. They even decided to intentionally AVOID attending Winter Weekend because they knew they were going to get BOOED again. That shows they've already decided to IGNORE the fans! Affecting their cashflow negatively is the only thing these corporate moneybag types will understand. I sincerely wonder what percentage of empty seats they consider acceptable as long as the tv/advertising money keeps flowing in? How little do they really care?

The story on the Red Sox offer to Imanaga has leaked: https://www.si.com/fannation/mlb/fastball/news/boston-red-sox-insider-alex-speier-details-the-offer-shota-imanaga-rejected-before-joining-the-chicago-cubs Predictably they fell well short of the mark again by offering a 2 year deal that 'could' vest into 4 years. Seriously is anybody surprised they keep getting rejected with these types of lowball offers to free agents? Pretty shameful stuff and it seems to reinforce the 'free agents' are shocked by how bad the Red Sox offers have been. Business as usual at Yawkey Way - cheap your way to a lower salary spend. Who needs talent unless it's dirt cheap?!

If the Red Sox sign Snell, I would be cheering for this move. It would go a long way to proving that ownership is serious about putting out a winning product. Count me as skeptical until a signing is officially announced.

I'm not sure what he would tell him. I hope the Red Sox are not going to ship out Yoshida just for salary reasons. Because we know they aren't going to replace with equivalent talent! As it stands if the Red Sox salary dump Yoshida, that gets them to 150m payroll. But to what end? Do they just want to bottom out to a top 3 pick in MLB and spend as little as possible? Even a top 3 MLB draft pick usually takes years to develop and is no sure bet. Feels like they don't care if they get a little EGG on their face as long as they can turn a profit off the innocent fans who paid their hard earned money for a subpar, underfunded product!

Agreed. John Henry's "full throttle" statement looks like an absolute JOKE right now. They have clearly mandated a "no-spend" zone above that 225m. In fact we might drop to 200m in salary for the start of the season at this rate. Actually, how accurate is spotrac? It has the Red Sox at a hair under 170m in projected total payroll right now. Red Sox Salary cap: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/payroll/

Wow if those numbers are true that paints the Red Sox in an even WORSE light for missing out!

Yup John Henry knows that he's gonna get BOOED off the stage after the GOOSE EGG they laid during winter free agency period. The current Red Sox ownership group is just full of misers and cowards!