moonslav59

I agree. For all we know Anthony, Mayer and Casas could outshine most of the big bats signed this winter, and I'm talking just for 2026. Going forward, they might be the wiser bet to do better, but I still think Schwarber and Alonso have 2-3 big years in them and feel their 2-3 year numbers will eclipse lesser FAs signed and any in system players on the Sox, except maybe Anthony. We already got 300+ good PAs from Anthony, so if he gives us 650+ in 2026, it's a nice boost, but it's not a total boost. Signing Bichette would replace Bregman and maybe Ref's total PAs, and may not even match their combined production. I do like depth, especially with pitching, but trading Duran still leaves Campbell as depth and I know Brez & Co still see Masa as a LF option. (I'd prefer he stay an emergency option, but...) Masa in LF would have allowed Casas to DH, had we signed Alonso. Or, Casas at 1B and Schwarber at DH. In both cases, Duran was available to trade for a solid #2 (Ryan, Lodolo, Ragans, ___?) or a 2Bman (KMarte, BLowe + Y Diaz?) I'm not thrilled with the idea, but I think we'd have enough depth with Romy onboard, and if we wanted to, we could sign Ref for one more season. He loves Boston, and Boston loves him!

Of course, but that value is much more speculative. How many 23 year olds who have made it to the bigs last to 28. Then, how many of those do well. As a percentage of total players in those age groups, I wonder how the results look. Also, the thing about Polanco was the 2 year contract.

A healthy Ragans is worth 2 Durans, but...

Chances are we will have some injuries next year, so we can’t be counting on returning players as our saviors or to replace departing players. Yes, it’s just mid December but with reports about budget limits and no long term deals, it sure feels like another sham winter, to me. It can change but my hopes are low

Recent history was Crochet, Bregman, Chapman and a $21M and $18M/2 pitcher who failed.

Getting Greene would lessen the need for offense, maybe from 2 big bats to one. we both want the team to improve, and there are more than one way to do that

getting green would be huge! the two others combined would make us top 3 in the ALE.

No way just Gray and Bichette make us better than 2025. fine if anyone disagrees but acting like my position is absurd is kinda strange to me

I think that’s true, and some won’t be happy no matter what

maybe top 3 in ALE

I guess I'm a greedy and entitled brat. To me, one major addition might get us back to even with 2025, which was not a highly competitive team. If we do just one big add, I'll think we have a shot- maybe a long one or one pinned on the hopes for next to no injuries and or major jumps by our younger players, but a hope nonetheless. We need two to be a top 3-5 contender. Does anybody think we would be a top 5 team with just a Bregman or Bichette signing before opening day?

Fred, can you please stop with the last 5 years line. Last winter was not dumpster diving, and it wasn't even close. I share your concerns and doubts. I don't share in your surety based on a falsehood. You'd do better trying to make your points without repeating the same misinformation over and over. We trade for and extended a top 5 MLB pitcher. Nothing close to that has happened since 2018 or before. That was so far from a dumpster dive, that this move alone breaks your point into shreds. We shattered the Devers team record AAV by signing Bregman- not a dumpster dive. We signed Buehler to the highest AAV for a FA pitcher since Price. We signed Sandoval to the second largest FA contract (to Gio) since Eovaldi in 2019, and one could view that as an extension or non upgrade signing. We signed Chapman to $11M, which was a lower AAV than Jansen, but still significant, The AAV spent on Crochet, Buehler and Sandoval topped $50M. Add Chapman and Wilson, and we spent over $65M on pitching, alone. That number might come close to 2020-2024 combined, if not for the Gio signing. The Bregman signing on the heels of the Devers extension was not a continuation of the 4-5 years before 2025. No way. No how. Please stop passing over the 2025 spending and trend-breaker. If we return to the previous trend, I'll be joining you in the condemnation and negative feedback, but let's not rewrite history to make our points.

I'm a Casas supporter, but I feel it's a big presumption that he will fix the 1B offensive numbers. I think Brez & Co are making that choice. YES! Fix 2B. I'd love to get Marte. My own personal choice is to pass on a large and long deal with Bichette. We haven't had a L & L deal for a FA in a long time. He would not be my choice, but assuming he's okay playing 2B, it would be a big help. My fear is that his contract will restrict our spending for too many years to come. My other fear is that we would be just flipping the big need from 2B to 3B by signing Bichette and not Bragman or Suarez. Either way, Mayer will be expected to fill the "other" need, and coupling that expectation with the Casas one is just too much to ask, in my view. IMO, we needed and still need two big bats to replace Bregman, Devers, Ref and Lowe. That's over 1150 PAs lost. Bichette, alone, might knock that down to 500. The great hope would come down to Mayer, Casas and then some more PAs from Anthony, along with assuming very minimal injuries to key batter. It also assumes we don't lose Duran/Abreu's bat, and we DH Duran and sit the $18M DH who should be able to hit .775ish (about what Duran might hit.) IMO, Gray did not fill the need for a solid #2 SP, but he might be good enough. We need two power bats, and have watched the best two go elsewhere. Bregman or Bichette would be a move that just barely keeps us even with the 2025 season that was not great to begin with. Counting on players returning from injury and prospects to shine has been our plan for many years, now. Forgive me for not wanting that same plan continued at a point in this team's development that is screaming for throwing the window wide open with just 2 key & significant moves to be made. Not one.

Of course this is about opinions on players, but also the amount of spending. IMO, we spent enough, last winter, and I've said that many times. I viewed last winter as a possible sign the trend was changing or "the cycle" of upward spending had begun, but then we traded Devers and basically undid those signs. The oprouts given to Gio and Bregman added more pressure to either continue the trend or cycle or not. I've pointed out the much higher AAVs given to Bregman and Buehler. Breggie worked out, but not Buehler. That's on Brez not JH. I see the Gray trade and cost as cancelling out the Gio loss- money and maybe productionwise. I'm not confident we replace Devers, Bregman, Ref & Lowe in kind, and when I hear a poster saying I'm entitled when I expect more than just Gray and maybe Bichette, I'm gonna counter by saying that is simply and categorically false. Is $260M enough? At this point, that doesnt even pay for Bichette, unless we dump some other salary, so I'm not sure why and how you came up with that number.

I'm not convinced. The team is not crap. If it was, I wouldn't be so pissed about the possibility of the window closing. I went 30+ years seeing a crap team and owner. We don't win one ring without JH & Co taking over. There are 29 other teams trying to win. Again, no excuses, the last few years have been a sham, despite building up a top farm team along the way. JH has a chance to go all in for this window. Let's see what he does. I know pessimism rules in your mind, but it's not over until Yogi says it is.

I agree. I'd rather have Suarez than those three- maybe even Imai. King is a big Q mark, but maybe better than Valdez. No way on Gallen.

Plus, I don't see Bichette as the second best FA on the market, even if he could fill a big need at 2B. I'd go... 1. Tucker 2. Schwarber 3. Alonso 4. Bregman 5-7. Cease, Valdez, R Suarez 8-10. Murakami, Bichette, Imai

To PHI: Duran ($7.7M) and Crawford ($2.8M) To MIN: Painter & Sandlin To BOS: Joe Ryan ($6.1M) Sox "save" $4.5M AAV _________________________________ To AZ: Mayer, Mullins and Hicks ($12M x 2) To BOS: KMarte ($18M x 5) Sox add about $8M AAV ________________________________ Sign: Okamoto $16.5M x 4 _______________________________ That's just adding $20M AAV total Is this doable?

I'm not expecting much, either. I think the avoidance of large and long deals is the reality. That severely hampers our chances at getting the best of the best, but I do think there are ways we can still get enough talent to make us a better team than 2025 without long term deals. We just saw Polanco and M Kelly sign 2 year deals, and I'm pretty sure other will agree to 1 or 2 year deals, but the pickings are small, and of course not are at the level of Alonso & Schwarber and probably not at the next tier either- Bregman, Bichette, Suarez or a trade for Marte. I'm not thrilled with the M King talk, and word is he's getting $80M/4 ish, so I'm not sure we'll be the winner on that one. There are ways to add some top talent without JH saying the cost is too high. I'm thinking we can afford trading $7.7M Duran for $19.2M K Marte and then maybe sign Suarez to a 2-3 year deal. I'm not sure that's enough. We'd really need Gray to do better than Gio and way less injuries to expect a significant improvement over 2025.

Fred, it's not "a fact he's too cheap to get anyone of significance this off season" based on missing out on the two guys we both felt were the best options. I'm not sure we do or don't but it's not a fact, yet. We did spend $35+M on Bregman, last winter- the highest AAV in Sox history, while also paying a pitcher the highest FA AAV since the Price FA signing. The $21M spent on Buehler was in addition to $30M spent on Sandoval and Chapman. Just because Buehler and Sandoval gave us nothing does not mean JH did not allow spending bigly on pitching. That's over $50M spent on pitching without counting the Crochet extension. I agree with you on this more than I disagree. Our avoidance of large and long deals severely kneecaps us, but the winter is far from over, and if JH allows close to the spending of last winter, we may salvage a winter result.

Be serious. This is not about entitlement. We lost Gio, Wilson, Bernardino and some bad pitchers and added Gray and Oviedo. You laughed when I said maybe call that even. Let's see, Adding nobody more but Bichette means we lost over 1100 PAs from Bregman .821, Devers .905, Refsnyder .838 and N Lowe .790. Okay, we lost a few PAs from some bad result players, but we lost way more plus OPS PAs than minus ones- way more. (Like 1150 to 30.) Bichette hit .840 in 2025, .755 from '24-'25 and .778 since 2023. Sure, that's a big plus over our 2Bmen of '25, but with that logic, just playing Romy (.826) FT would fix 2B. I see the 2026 as one of our peak window seasons. This is the time to spend- maybe to the second tax line. If our budget is as tight as many think it is, I do not see paying Gray $21M as the best way to go. I like his addition, but I'm not sure he does much better than Gio did in '25. Projected fWAR is nice, as is FIP and some other metrics that show he did very well, last year, but the guy is old and did not do well with ERA+ and ERA- or OPS Against. (This is not reaching for stats to bring the guy down, those are the stats I trust the most with all pitchers.) Calling my position entitlement is a big stretch. I could select some choice words for fans buying into the sham and thinking Bichette, Gray and Oviedo is all we needed to help us get better than we were in 2025. It's not entitlement to push for improvement, not even close.

soxprospects updated their rankings list based on a few moves: Traded away: 4. Perales 6. Jh Garcia 8. B Clarke 20. J Travieso Lost to Rule 5: 21. J Paez Other than jumps due to lost players, these are the new top prospects: ??? Bennett (for Perales) 22. Ryan Watson (for Riemer) 30. Samaniego (w Oviedo & Guzman for Garcia & Travieso) 32. A, Guzman (see trade above) 33. L Heyman (obtained in Hoppe trade) Was ranked 34th before 50. I Jackson (Obtained in Grissom trade) No doubt our farm got worse since the end of 2025. When you look at the 2025 grads, our farm ranking will take a tumble: Anthony & Mayer Campbell, Dobbins & Narvaez

Where is the 100% agreement? I've always said be careful what you wish for. Our next owner could be a Pittsburgh Pirate owner clone. We were still a top 3 spender into 2021, according to some sources. No doubt, something changed after 2018. We refused to replace Kimbrel and Kelly and almost traded Betts mid season 2019. I kept hoping for a cycle up in spending for a long time. I thought 2025 looked like the start of a spending trend, but then we traded Devers. Now Bregman and Gio are free agents, so we seem to be at a point where JH needs to prove 2025 was not just a blip or some sort of bone thrown to irate fans.

It's the idea that a shorter term deal is possible that moves the Sox up on the list of final runner ups to who he eventually will sign with. I thought we might go after Merrill Kelly and his 2 year deal, but he doesn't check enough boxes for them. Polanco's deal was just 2 years, but Jorge's question marks were likely too worrisome for Brez & Co.

How many posters think signing just one from Bregman or Bichette is "enough" to make us top competitors for 2026? To me, even Bregman/Bichette plus Suarez/M King is barely getting us to even or slightly plus. Maybe Marte and Bregman, but then Duran DHs, unless we trade him for a solid #2, and that's two major trades that would open new holes.