sk7326

This team is solidly in the playoffs - and almost definitionally that means they can win the title. A mere 3 years ago we saw two sub 91 win teams in the World Series. Even last year the Mighty, Impregnable Dodgers needed a series of miracles to win it all. If you believe that Arias is their best answer at shortstop - which I am skeptical, but Story sure aint it - you take the swing.

This is so completely ahistorical and antithetical to the history of baseball.

The big question is whether Boston adds Arias to the 40-man. There are the lockout concerns and the impact on development ... but he has checked every single box to deserve a look in September.

I am not sure you can plan too much for that. It's baseball - the Blue Jays take a slightly larger lead from third base and they win the world series.

Bryan Bello with his appearance today saw his ERA skyrocket to 0.68 in games where he does not pitch in the first inning.

The Major League Baseball Stat of the Season (Split Edition) Brayan Bello now has 8 starts, 8 relief appearances Start: 1-6, 10.45 ERA, 36.2 IP, 58 H, 21 BB, 22 K, 10 HR Relief: 2-0, 1 Save, 0.84 ERA, 42.1 IP, 38 H, 5 BB, 37 K, 1 HR

heck, the actual 2026 Red Sox' best player is 5'8". And the Red Sox last MVP pre-Betts? Also tiny fwiw.

He could help them - but I don't know if it will be over this stretch run considering his inability to throw strikes.

The only thing with Eyanson was that the velocity uptick he showed has receded ... and that could change the outcome from like a 4th starter sort to a #2. That said, he looks like a big leaguer and minor leaguers aren't hitting his slider at all. But yeah - this was a definite overpay, especially with Rutschman's recent medical history. That said, Rutschman - despite only playing 67 games, is 5th in WAR among all catchers. When healthy (big if), he's very good.

This was a pretty indefensible trade. If you were going to just get a rando reliever who likely was not going to help this 2026 team - just keep him and see if you can extract some improvement or whatever. The Giants are getting basically a free look at a 23 year old. Someone might have to teach him how to hande offspeed stuff or not shatter into a thousand pieces ... but even a 10% chance of him hitting was more than sufficient for the Giants to do this for that price.

One of the funny things is the Sox dumped a 23 year old SS who never played 100 games in a season in his career for a rando reliever. Then Breslow spent 3 of his top 5 prospects for a guy who has had trouble staying healthy. Adley is good - but the Sox sent a huge haul. The only mitigating factor is that Eyanson is the only sure-ish thing of the pile.

Bottom line, guys his age doing what he doing at that level - those are the guys you bet on.

in 2026 - hell yeah, the data does back that up

Arias was still a Top 100 prospect before he exploded this season. More than anything I suspect he is semi-blocked since the team is still paying Trevor Story and hasn't given up on Mayer. But the way he has progressed, he is probably going to make keeping Mayer or Story at the position look very silly. Are there the same sort of pressures I suspect from the FO to deliver a "win" which incentivized the super aggressive promotions? I don't know. We'll see if he forgets how to drive the ball like Anthony did when he got to the show.

What is funny is that the stuff I expected to go well has ... the defense is very good and the run prevention in general has been solid. Heck, with the recent stretch of usefulness by Durbin - for the most part Breslow's offseason moves have all shown something. Gray, Suarez and Contreras have been everything you could dream and Bennett's recent form has been more than that. Honestly, this team being 46-48 with a positive run differential despite getting effectively nothing from what was projected as their two best players entering the season actually deserves some plaudits.