vjcsmoke

Well if 600/12 is the current winning offer. I imagine if more term is the issue we'd have to go up to 700/14. But at this point I'm all in on SOTO. Just get this Deal DONE!

I'm a big fan of hitters with high .OBP. They generate value regardless. A guy who gets on with a walk is just as valuable as a baserunner as one who hit a single. It seems tough to find those high OBP leadoff guys though. Durran is coming off his best year yet and his OBP was only .342 but the 54 walks certainly contributed to him scoring 111 runs. Hopefully he can maintain those numbers. If he gets better hitters behind him and maintains plate discipline I can easily see him scoring 110-120 runs for us.

I believe a ground ball pitcher would fare better in Fenway. Anything that gets in the air is liable to go off the wall for a double or if it's a line drive could end up a home run. I've also heard on air talks with Big Papi mention that Max Fried was one of his favorite pitcher targets. Not sure if the Red Sox share the same opinion but I wouldn't be surprised if they are interested. If SOTO joins the mix the Red Sox could field a very good offense and all the pitchers need to do is keep it close and let our bats do the rest.

I think we wait to secure Soto first if the rumors hold true. Then we might go after a guy like Max Fried.

I am reading tweets that say Soto is coming to Boston. Now I don't know the credibility of these sources but it would be an incredible COUP if true. Soto is a franchise player you can build your whole team around. I'm thinking maybe we should thinking of trading some excess players for a right handed bat to put in the first 5 of our starting lineup. Christmas has come early in Boston should this HOLD TRUE! The Tweet: @BeyondAvgMick BREAKING NEWS - The Boston Redsox have signed free agent outfielder Juan Soto. The terms of the deal are still unknown but I’m hearing it’s 12 years with no deferred money. Expect an official announcement to come within the next few days:

So the Red Sox have officially made an offer to Juan Soto as per NESN article: https://nesn.com/2024/11/red-sox-rumors-when-boston-submitted-contract-offer-for-juan-soto/ Fingers crossed that it was a generous and competitive package instead of the usual penny pinching, lowball offers the Red Sox have been giving free agents in previous years. Now we'll have to wait and see how this develops. I'm sure if the bid from the Red Sox was LOW, the news will eventually leak.

If you really want to go there another comp for Soto is Big Papi. They are both from Dominican Republic, they carry big bats, and they aren't afraid to be big time personalities in the clubhouse and in front of the press. I know baseball economics has gone crazy, but you gotta pay what it takes to sign generational players when they become available. This would help a LOT to get over Mookie Betts fiasco. And no, I'm not skipping adding a generational talent to our roster in the hopes that a green kid playing in Worcester might take the step up to the big team in a year or two. Roman Anthony looks nice but he's not a Soto. He could turn somewhere north or south of Ellsbury, Benintendi, or Josh Reddick for all we know.

Absolutely. Only 45m per year? Give him the long term deal and lock him up for life! I was thinking he would want closer to 50m+ per year to be honest.

Soto is a generational player and talent. I would offer 12/630. That's 52.5m a year. That gives him the length he wants and a healthy annual salary. If the Yankees are going to beat us to him at least make them pay through the nose for the privilege. To me Soto has the feel of Alex Rodriguez. Whoever lands him will dominate the division for a decade and win multiple World Series. I don't think our ownership has the balls to put their wallets where their mouths are.

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.