Pablo and Hanley were signed on the same day. Total package of 41 million per year.
Ellsbury is playing very little in the ALDS...he's a part-timer now.
I don't disagree that Moreland is likely to be at least as good as Hanley in 2018.
The only thing is, Hanley is already paid for 2018. And Moreland had a good enough year that he might be able to get a deal for $9-10 million a year now.
Re: September swoons
Just for the sake of keeping facts straight, we were 17-11 in September/October 16, and 19-10 in September/October 17 (regular season only).
I hate it too, but it's an incentive for players to sign with you.
I'm not sure there's any precedent for negotiating with a player to remove one of these things, and the Players Union would probably frown on it to say the least.
I hate to add this but right now if a player is thinking maximum money and maximum chance at contending for rings he's probably thinking Yankees/Dodgers.
Pretty simple really. Cherington & Lucchino took the blame for 2014-2015. Expectations for 2017 were very high - maybe championship high.
Then there's this little line you often hear when a manager or GM gets canned:
"We felt it was time to go in a new direction."
Henry is unquestionably the best owner the Sox have ever had. But the Yankees have done well and are still doing well with the Steinbrenner boys.
We're ahead of the Yankees in titles since Henry took over and that's something to be proud of. The Yankees look pretty strong going forward though.
I'd say probably not, but it depends on all the circumstances. Hinch was in a great position to do this with Keuchel going Game 5 if necessary on regular rest.