Bellhorn04

I get the Chapman idea, absolutely. Our defense was atrocious. Chapman has been a 3.5-4 WAR player and is super-durable. Needless to say, Chapman is only in the picture if Henry decides to spend big this offseason.

There were signs of rampant inflation prior to the Devers signing, though, capped by the insane contract Bogaerts got.

I'm guessing he's a smart guy and saw the future of the franchise wouldn't be so rosy. Or maybe he didn't like Washington. But it sure was one heck of a pile of dough to turn down.

And here I am trying to get on board with a minimum wage guy.

Devers nails it. The way the Red Sox approached Devers is the way they should have approached Betts. Not only did they offer Devers true market value, the whole gang including Cora went and visited Devers at his home in the D.R. First class all the way. For some reason not the approach they took with Betts.

Devers - there you go - notin was wrong!

Reyes actually played quite decently this year in all areas. He might be the best of the stopgap options.

Soto seems like a no-doubter case of "don't want to spend my whole career here".

Chapman at third, make it 60 HR and 600 strikeouts and wicked good infield defense. Have some fun!

Players of Betts's caliber and age make up a pretty small set.

Here are some quotes from Betts's interview with Rob Bradford which took place in 2022. No actual dollar amounts were mentioned. Note that this was clearly about negotiations that took place after Bloom took over. "They had things they needed to take care of," Betts told WEEI's Rob Bradford. "They were in a situation where they had to do what's best for them. You can't really be mad at somebody for having to do what's best for them, especially when you have to do what's best for you. There's definitely no hatred there. Chaim (Bloom) did a great job kind of talking and being upfront and honest and made the whole process smooth. It sucks, but that's part of it." Betts added: "There was an offer that was put out there, and we just declined, and we felt, I just wanted to get my value, man. That's all. Just like any person that lives, they want to get their value, what they're worth. That's pretty much all that that it was. Just the numbers didn't align, which is normal. It's all normal things. We just had to go our separate ways. Just like anything else, there was a lot of talk where I didn't want to stay, or this, that, and the other. That's false. It's just business. It is what it is. There's nothing you can do about it now, though."

Not sure what you mean. There was the story about him turning down the $200 million offer after discussing it with his mother...

“I don’t regret turning down that,” is the actual quote. It's unclear what the exact question was, though.

But Betts also said "if you want to know all the details, talk to Chaim." To me, those are the words of a man who isn't afraid of the truth coming out.

Found this in the Comments section of the article where Peter Abraham talked about Betts and the denial of the $300 million offer: But as Chaim , Sam Kennedy and John Henry would tell you , Chaim would not have been able to do the wonderous things he has done to build a consistently competitive team if they had spent the money on Mookie.

Lou Merloni works for NESN now, so that might explain why he's been crickets about what Betts said.

If the Red Sox did in fact tell Betts their absolute ceiling was $300 million, you could call it a legitimate offer, but you can't say they were being what we usually call "aggressive".

Actually in one of those stories you linked the phrasing was that the Red Sox "expressed a willingness to go as high as $300 million", which was something you suggested.

And when Betts was in town with the Dodgers he said 2 things: 1) No $300 million offer was made. 2) If you want to know more about the negotiations, talk to Chaim. It's been crickets from the Red Sox ever since, right?

That must not have been updated for a while.

No. His trade value is surely negative.

If ever there was an offseason that Henry and Co. need to put their money where their mouth is, this is it.

Let's give Mondesi the boot, then.

Only if Cot's is wrong by more than 3 mill or so.

I'm not hung up on Walker. The context was Bloom - Dombrowski moves in the 2023 offseason.