How is Pablo's full salary on the list for 2017, then?
I get the distinction, and you have to have criteria for this type of thing.
Do they have a seperate list for lost salary for injuries lasting a whole season or 90%+ of one?
At least Bloom is not afraid to cut loose someone he extended at decent money. Some GMs cling to 'their own guys" out of fear they will be second guessed to death. I guess Bloom knows that's going to happen in Boston, no matter what he does.
I mentioned B Crawford, because of his salary. We'd have to give more than just Barnes to get him, but Barnes + $8-9M might do it, or Barnes + Verdugo or Duran +$4M.
DeJong might be the best fit from my list, but I doubt any GM values Barnes all that much.
If they can work out an arrangement where they are never on the IL, at the same time, that would be very helpful.
Is that too much to ask for?
Last year, Story was out from July 13 to Aug 26th, and Arroyo missed a couple weeks in June and another couple in July.
Add to this, Kike was out from June 8- Aug 15, so we ended up seeing Sanchez, Downs and others play 2B for too long.
I can't see Bello, Kluber or Pivetta moving to the pen. I hope they don't jerk Whitlock around, again, so I'd keep him at SP'er. Who knows if Bloom/Cora agree?
If Sale and Paxton are healthy, Paxton goes to the pen.
2024 is the 5th year of the 5 year plan. If you want to just throw out 2020, then 2025 would be "the year."
We can have the same pitching staff in 2024 as 2023, but by 2025, some major changes will have to be made.
Verdugo is gone in 2025, but the 2024 line-up looks promising:
C McGuire/Wong
1B Casas/Dalbec/Kavadas/Jordan
2B Story/Yorke/Valdez
SS Mayer (Story)
3B Devers/Lugo
LF Yoshida
CF Rafaela
RF Abreu
DH Turner
With the booting of Barnes off the 40, Verdugo now is listed as 5th in 40 man roster seniority! Pivetta is 6th.
While several players were in the Sox system and added after Verdugo and Pivetta, this is now clearly Bloom's team.
Mata is 9th in seniority. Whitlock 11th. Even Refsnyder, Schreiber, Paxton & Story are top 20. Story was added 10 months ago and is 18th.
I guess this is an example of us fans thinking our players are better than they are.
I know Barnes' salary is too high, but I can't believe nobody wanted him, if we pay part or most of his salary or take back a salary dump in return.
BTV is not the bible on player value, but they still have him with $3.1M value ($-6.7 after applying his $9.8M contract hit.) In theory, we could pay someone $7M to take him for nothing in return and save $2.8M on our budget. That's bare minimum.
If some GM really wanted him, you'd think they take him and $4-6M. I'm sure we floated his name out there, and I guess we got no replies, unless there is already a deal in place.
What I don't get is did something happen, recently? Why did we keep his on the 40 and let Ward go, if we knew he sucked at the end of the '22 season.
I can't believe no team in need of pen help and has someone making $4-8M at another position they could part with wouldn't want Barnes.
Maybe he has just "lost it" and his nice end of year ERA hid that fact.
They certainly weigh players with options vs players without options when making decisions like this in January. That is about 26 man roster flexibility, and it matters.
One can wonder why Brasier with no options was kept over Barnes with no options, but keeping Ort, Mills and players with options might be the only reason they are still here.
Options are about the 26 and 40.
SS defense is very important. While improving our defense there will not come close to offsetting the loss on offense without Bogey, it can be one part of the whole picture of improvements that offset the losses and then some.
No doubt, we had a ton of ifs to start with. Adding a star from Japan and aging or oft-injured promising players at other slots only added to the list of questions. I will say, not all questions get answered in the negative, and we don't need even 75-80% answered positively to be a better team.
We just need the non-questionable players to play to their norms and maybe just a clear majority of the bigger questions to come out well.
3 out of 4 would be nice:
Yoshida
Sale
Kike
Casas
3 out of 5 might be needed:
Whitlock
Houck
Paxton
McGuire
Duvall
Maybe 3-4 out of 7:
Arroyo/Mondesi/EValdez (Mayer/Story?)
Turner
Wong/Alfaro
Dugo
Tapia/Rafaela
Jansen/Martin/Schreiber
Rodriguez/Mills/Brasier/Crawford/Wink/Kelly/German/Ort/Mata/Walter/Murphy
We should see better to much better OBPs at 1B (.302 in 2022), 3B (.349), LF (.307), CF (.300), RF (.295)and maybe C (.313), 2B (.313) & DH (.331).
Yes, big step down on SS offense, but there are 8 other batting slots and 9 slots to try and improve on D. SS D should be better. 1B D will be better. The rest is up in the air.
No MLB team would take Barnes on their 26 man roster at min wage?
I find that very hard to fathom, un less he's hurt and won't pass any physical.
Ort has options. Mills has options.
This makes no sense, unless he's pretty much traded, already or hurt or about to be charged with a crime.