When it comes to pitchers, there's risk with all of them.
OTOH there's risk in not having enough pitching.
So what are ya gonna do?
That's what Mr. Dombrowski is paid to figure out - with Mr. Henry approving the expenditure.
Of course there's risk. Plenty of it.
I would offer 2 counterpoints:
1) Eovaldi actually pitched pretty well in his abbreviated regular season.
2) If he gets 4 years and 60 million, that's a lot of dough. But it's only about 50% of what Yu Darvish got, 40% of what Lester got, 30% of what Price got.
There's always the luck and randomness factor too. In 1975 the Sox had a 3-0 lead in Game 7 of the World Series. In 1978, they lost a playoff game to the eventual champs.
I don't think anyone knows yet exactly how much the Mariners are kicking in for Cano, and that will be a big factor in the final evaluation of the deal.
I'm sure what the fans think doesn't bother him. I do think he makes a public fool of himself at times, most recently with his outlandish projections of how much J D Martinez would be getting.
Bautista pitched 4.1 innings for the Mets last year with a 12.46 ERA. He had a 5.14 ERA and a 1.71 WHIP in AA/AAA last year. Not much to get excited about there.
You may have already this article, which proposes that with so many clients Boras is in violation of the 'Zero-Sum Conflict'.
https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/the-truth-about-scott-boras/
Why couldn't JDM feel the same way as Kershaw? Kershaw stayed where he was comfortable. Maybe JDM really likes where he is and playing for Cora? I'm just throwing it out there. There's a spectrum of possibilities.
Yeah, I hate to say it, but it might be better if JD has somewhat of an off-year, lessening the appeal of opting out. It's a crazy way to think, but that's what all these opt-outs and other crap do to you.
Timlin has 4 rings, 2 with the Jays and 2 with the Sox. In 1992 he recorded the last out of the Series in Game 6 and got the only save of his post-season career.