A big payout to anybody jeopardizes keeping other players. There are only so many slices in the pie. We're lucky that with the Red Sox it's a pretty big pie.
Sometimes managers just flat out mess up. They make mistakes. They're human just like the players. They have an error rate. Sometimes they will even admit later they made a mistake. It's understandable. There are a lot of details to keep track of especially now with all the information being disseminated.
It's a very strange time to be bashing Holt. He has a .920 OPS and he had some big hits the last few games before going on the DL.
He has an fWAR of 0.5 in 16 games, so he has already earned $4 million on FanGraphs dollars and is making about $2 million this year.
Red Sox postseason history would suggest that a great closer was a difference-maker. Foulke in 04, Papelbon in 07, Koji in 13. Vs. Schiraldi in 86, and the Committee that Grady didn't trust in 03.
It's not really that complicated. Kimbrel is a special talent, but he's also a specialist. He plays about 65 innings a year.
Everyone would love to have him back. The question is how much are you willing to pay? Chapman got 5/86, so Kimbrel's agent is probably thinking at least 5/95.
Correct. If they bring him up at all the cat is truly out of the bag and can't be put back in. Castillo would be on the Sox payroll for tax purposes until his contract expires at the end of 2020.
But Kimmi, this all implies that there is no such thing as a good decision or a bad decision by a manager. He might as well literally flip a coin every time he needs to make a decision in a game.