A $217 million deal is scary for a pitcher no matter who it is. And Price gave us some reasons to be quite worried about him health-wise and otherwise.
I was always just hoping for the best.
You're not putting much stock into the improvements in Eovaldi's numbers and the opinions that he's much better because of adding the cutter to his repertoire.
Kimbrel, of course, is supposedly looking for 6 years.
There's a lot to play out, but based on what Corbin got, the pricing of free agent pitching may be rather inflated this offseason.
Sorry, you said 99. No do-overs.
Also, 101 wins would have meant a neck and neck race with the Yanks to avoid the WC game. It could have had a major impact on Cora's ability to rest guys.
I guarantee Cora was very happy to have that comfortable lead coming down the stretch and that it helped him get the team ready for the postseason.
Here are Eovaldi's total numbers for the regular season and postseason combined:
IP 133.1
ERA 3.44
WHIP 1.076
K/BB 5.09
These numbers are vastly superior to what went before 2018. The guy was simply a much better pitcher.
I think it should be pretty obvious by now that John Henry is not in this business just to make money, he's in it to win it. That is great news for Sox fans.
I will give you that there are some parallels with the recency effect. But Eovaldi will be younger at the end of this deal than Lowell was at the start of his deal. There's a lot of health risk with Eovaldi, no one's going to deny that. Just have to trust that the brass knows what they're doing.
Eovaldi and Porcello are not exactly twins, Nick. Porcello is fantastically durable, a guy who makes every start and normally goes 6 innings. I would not expect Eovaldi to replicate that.
I kind of doubt he trades E-Rod. I think he's still got 10 or 11 mill to invest in a closer type, and maybe he trades some spare parts/prospects for another reliever?
John Henry doesn't seem to be pinching pennies yet, based on the Eovaldi signing.