moonslav59

Fangraphs has Paredes projected for 2.3 FWAR (.798 OPS.) I think he does much better and maybe even bust-out better. I'm not sure why BTV has his value at 11.6, and Crawford nearly double that. I'd trade Crawford straight up, yesterday! They have Abreu at 27.4, but he does have 4 years of control to 2 by Paredes. I might offer Abreu for Paredes and Brian King. (BTV accepts that trade along with catching prospect Janek worth 7!) I'd trade Crawford for Paredes and Sousa.

I don't get why we'd trade Duran for that either. Maybe I like Narvaez too much?

I think if we told team's they can have Yoshida for $4-5M a year (their cost) we might get a couple calls. $3M, maybe a half dozen calls or more.

I think Dave really wants to keep Painter. How about Harrison & YRod for Bohm?

I'd rather have Mayer/Romy/Eaton at 3B and Romy/DHam/Sogard at 2B than a no-cost Arenado. Correction: I'd prefer a min wage Arenado over DHam, Sogard or Eaton.

Arenado's AAV is $3M less than what Breggie got. It's hard to take this idea seriously, unless they take Yoshida & Hicks. Even then, the trade would put us almost over the tax line.

No, the weird part is we think our top 3 starters all gave us 26+ GS and 145+ IP, but two were not really our top 3.

Arenado is already at Yoshida dump level, except he can play defense. His OPS will be 100-150 below Masa's. Masa for Arenado, okay. I'd still want Paredes, too.

To me, we've needed a #2 all long, even after the Gray signing. The big bat is still #1 in my mind.

I'm fine with an overpay, when needed, and $165M/5 was a major overpay. I'd have given $5M more than BAL for Alonso, so I'm not against overpays- just gross ones. I'd have been okay with $165M/5, but that was already past what I'd have paid by a year and $3M AAV, so what is the limit? Had he signed with us for $170M/5 or even $175M/5, I'd be glad we kept him, but I also think JH will probably be stingy, going forward, and the signing would be prohibitive on future adds, It sucks he's gone, but if we trade Phillips and Sandlin for Paredes, I'll be happier than Bregman at $180M/5.

To me, Paredes is the guy to go after, since KMarte is too expensive. He's got 2 years of control. BTV accepts Campbell for Paredes and Sousa, but I'd probably do one for one, or add Mullins for the two. (Maybe upgrade from Sousa to King?)

I'd trade two Phillips for Paredes! Okay, how about Phillips & Eyanson or Phillps & Sandlin or Mullins. My call is Campbell for Paredes. HOU needs an OF'er. It's not a dump. but KC's AAV is $7.5M, so maybe that can be used to add a pitcher.

I'm okay with Yoshida at DH- more okay than most, but I want to make room for Casas/Campbell/Romy. (If Duran is not traded, his slot is FT DH.)

I think, until maybe now, it's been lowballing on numbers and years and not the no-trade clause that has kept us from signing big-splash FAs. These are our largest FA signings from 2025 working backwards: All one year deals, unless noted. (extensions only listed to FAs) 2025: $40M Bregman ($120M/3 w opt-outs) $21M Buehler $10.8M Chapman (extended mid season to 1 year + option) $2.3M J Wilson 2024: $38.5M/2 Giolito $10M/2 Hendriks 2023: $32M/2 Jansen $21.7/2 Turner (turned down player option- was $11M/1) $10M Kluber $7M Duvall $2M Joely R 2022: $17.5M/2 Chris Martin $10M Paxton w option $8M/2 Diekman (traded mid season year 1) $7M Wacha $5M Rich Hill 2021: $14M/2 Kike (later extended for 3rd year at $10M) $10M Richards $5M Martin Perez $3M Marwin G (traded mid season) 2020: $6M Martin Perez $3M Moreland (traded at deadline) Largest deals from 2015-2019: $10M+++ only (not all that many and none between $18M and $68M! $217M/7 Price 2016 (traded after 2019) $110M/5 JD 2018 $95M/5 Pablito 2015 (DFAd) $88M/4 HRam 2015 (DFA'd) $68M/4 Nate 2019 (more like an extension) $18M/1 Uehara 2015 $13M/2 Moreland 2018 and Chris Young 2016

I'd mention Contreras and cout him and Gray as more than "bit parts," but certainly not big splashes.

Looks that way. I'm not sure just the refusal of the no-trade clause was the deal-breaker.

I think $165M/5 was an overpay, and guessing what JH's future budgets might be, I think we'd see much less additions had we outbid the Cubs, so I'm not torn up over this. It's still a major loss from the 2025 team that needs to be addressed. I'm still waiting for the Devers loss to be addressed, too, but I guess one could argue Contreras & Hicks come close to covering it for 2 more years, anyway. Gray's $21M = Buehler's loss, financially and Gio's loss in production, but we need a big bat. We need a 3Bman or possibly a 2Bman. One player might fit both needs. I still would like a #2SP'er, but I think that's a pipedream. Maybe we add a 3Bman (Paredes or Viento?) and a RP'er. That might get us close to a slight improvement over 2025. That would be very sad.

The winter is not over. It's hard to be encouraged knowing we offered a major overpay on a 5 year deal, just as we saw the money offered to Soto not spent elsewhere. I do NOT think we are done making additions- yes plural. As of now, I agree we do not look "improved" from 2025, unless we start speculation on several young players busting out or most of them improving, all at once. That seems more like a hope than a fact-based projection. I'm not happy with the "end product," if this is it.

If we do nothing more, it's a close call, but I'd probably say I agree. The hope it that returning players improve and stay healthier than 2025. With a mostly young team, that's not a stretch, but it's hard to project improvement from the same players.

I remember hearing that Ben preferred to try and show he could win without spending. (I never believed it.)

It sure looks that way. Is this the first time it's been stated by the media or anyone that it is a team policy?

We lost very few batters who stunk at hitting: 284 PAs Toro 83 OPS+ 18 PAs Sabol -1 OPS+ 9 PAs Jh Garcia 76 OPS+ That might be a record for least amount of bad hitters lost over an off season. (311 PAs at about an 80 OPS+) We also lost about 1150 PAs of good to very good batters from the 2025 team: 495 Bregman 128 OPS+ 334 Devers 151 OPS+ 209 Refsnyder 131 OPS+ 119 N Lowe 121 OPS+ That's a combined OPS+ of over 130, which is better than any returning player did, last year, except Anthony at 140 in 303 PAs. These are the 2025 OPS for Sox players: 140 Anthony 303 PAs 128 Romy 341 *** 123 Contreras 563 w STL *** 116 Abreu 417 114 Duran 696 105 Eaton 90 104 Story 654 100 Narvaez 446 95 Rafaela 587 93 Yoshida 205 86 Campbell 263 85 Sogard 104 85 Mayer 136 63 DHam 194 62 Casas 112 42 Wong 188 Certainly some reason for serious concern.

More years, yes.

Are the 2025 and 2026 roster and system better than 2022-2024? If you agree, then isn't saying "improvements have been made" also correct? I agree, mistakes have been made. Coming up short on just about every FA "of interest" sucks, bigtime. Keeping an overly tight budget when it's clear as day we have a great opportunity to get to glory is ludicrous. One reason we feel like there is a great opportunity, right now, is because we have IMPROVED! As for "improvement" from 2025 to 2026, that remains to be seen. I think we are close to being the same, right now.

I thought Cora wanted Bregman to play 2B and not move Devers to DH (or 1B.)