moonslav59

But many here count success only based on advancing in the playoffs. The Yanks have not done very well at that in the last 8 years. (Yes, advancing one round is better than none, but this is not great playoff success.) 2019: advanced one round only 2020: advanced one round only 2021: bounced in round 1 by BOS 2022: advanced one round only (but made it to ALCS) 2023: No playoffs 2024: advanced two rounds and lost WS 2025: advanced one round only vs BOS 2026: advanced one round only vs BOS Of course this is better than the Sox in the cherry-picked 8 year span, but it's not like they lit the world on fire in the playoffs. They made the WS once and the ALCS twice. The Sox made the ALCS once with no WS shows.

Name a Sox year NOV to NOV where a GM did better with additions than this: Gray Contreras Mead Rutschman Suarez Bennett Durbin Gasper, T Guerrero, IKF, Seagler, Jones, White & Monasterio

Even counting what we gave up for Contreras, he was a better add than Alonso & Schwarber, due to his $18M budget hit. Suarez was a plus, just not for the offense. I still think his money spent is better than signing Bregman, and Bregman cost more- so did Alonso. In your scenario, signing Bregman meant no Durbin AND no Suarez, but we still could have traded Durbin for Paredes (2B) and had a much better offense. (Then, we keep early and dont get Mead, but Early never returns from his injury, so no gain or loss there.)

Yup, and I expected Abreu to improve and his OPS went down a little (His OPS+ did not.) Also, Mayer got worse from a pretty bad 2025. All the pitchers on the IL that never came back hurt, too.

If I could ask Brez one question that he promised to answer fully, it might be "Who was offered in return for Duran?" If it was Paredes 1 for 1, that's a major ding on Brez, even if somewhat hindsight.

I'm fine with people being upset with JH for not spending more, but to me it is very clear that out GM is given budget limits every winter/year. The blaming of GMs for not spending what they do not have to spend does not make sense. These tight budgets are why Brez was forced to make trades for Gray ($21M cost after STL paydown) and Contreras ($18M after STL paydown) rather than sign guys like Alonso and Cease. Within the context of the budget Brez was given, adding Contreras, Gray, Suarez, Bennett, Durbin, IKF and a bunch of infield depth was pretty good. Nobody really failed the trade. Some players we dealt away (Harrison & Drohan and maybe Dobbins) did well- some in limited action, but overall, the moves made improved the team. The Mead and AR trades were the most significant additions made, on paper, during the summer in memory. Sure, the Nate and Pearce deals netted better results, but at the time of the deals, IMO, Mead & AR were expected to be more impactful. Gray Contreras Mead Rutschman Suarez Bennett Durbin Gasper, T Guerrero, IKF, Seagler, Jones, White & Monasterio Of course, we added some players that did poorly or got hurt: Mead, Oviedo, Watson, Kahnle plus Sandoval &Narvaez (added before '25) but IMO, that was one of the best season of additions by a Sox GM since I became a Sox fan in the early 70's. We didn't improve by enough to advance in the 3 game series with NYY, and that is the bottom line for many posters. It's not like I'm okay with this, but this is baseball, and no team should ever be judged solely by a 3 game series. We have some holes going into 2027, and the winter budget limit is largely unknown. I agree with MVP that going over the 2nd threshold is likely the uppermost limit. We are not far from that, now, counting projected arb numbers. There are some ways Brez can trim the budget without creating now holes that need filling, but other than Duran's $11M and maybe KC's $7.5M, most are under $5M (Story & Yoshida after paydowns added.) The amount and quality of players & prospects Brez traded away in the last year has greatly hampered his ability to make more impactful trades, this winter. We have a blue chipper in Arias, but need a SS upgrade now or after Story bolts (depending on how you view Trevor.) We have purple chippers in Gonzalez and Primera, but I doubt we get what we need, and losing their upside potential seems not worth losing one or both. Valera, Godbout and others are not moving the trade needle significantly enough. IMO, we have enough for one big trade involving Arias for a big bat SS. We may have just enough budget space, assuming no Duran and maybe no Story or Yoshida or KC to add one big bat (Suzuki or Sato?) or pitcher (Gray, N Martinez or Morejon?) If that's not enough, I'd be content knowing Brez did his best and JH's greed kept us from adding more.

Probably for what we gave up for Durbin and Contreras, yes, but it's hard to know. I'm not sure we'd be much better with Alonso, Paredes, Lopez, Gray & no Suarez than what we got. Durbin for 5 years vs Paredes for 2 is a consideration, but the offense would have been pretty good for 2 years.

While I agree on Alonso making the difference, I doubt Brez gets Contreras, too. Now, maybe instead of the Contreras & Durbin trades, Brez combines the two for an even better player (2B/3B), but who does better than Contreras and .901 and who plays 2B or 3B- the one we don't trade for?

Seems like an expected and typical signing.

Knowing our luck, we'd catch him on his down year, or he'd get hurt.

True nuff. Still it's the same model. Charge the most you can to a point where you maximize profit. The hardships on the fans is not really considered, except to identify the point where they won't pay and the profit margin would start to decline.

Sounds like me. I sneak my own soda and popcorn into the movies.

Everybody knew he was hurt and questionable. Maybe Kimmi suggested giving KC another shot, but I don't remember it being at 3B over signing a FA. Maybe Mayer at 3B and KC at 2B, but we already knew KC had been moved to the OF.

Of course it can be raise: I'm just not for trying to change his approach or try any major tweaks. Give him advice and let him work it out without messing anything up. I'm not against players getting hard hit singles and doubles their whole careers, either. Low launch angles are not a terrible thing by themselves. I get the high K rate along with it is concerning, but he's hit .803 in his very first 545 PAs in MLB, and is still very young. He should be fine and will earn his contract.

Yes! Add $12M more and we coulda got someone even better for 6 years.

The best place to upgrade on offense for the Sox is SS, and we happen to have a blue chip SS prospect to trade. DLC won't extend with CIN, so maybe they move him. I saw someone say Schwarber is on the market. I doubt it. I'd prefer DLC or Abrams. I think both are 26.

I'm more upset about 12 2Bmen with 100+ innings since Brez took over. (18 with 1+) (It wasnt any better under Bloom. 12 and 25.)

Look at what bands charge for concerts.

Look who Brez wanted to trade for Ryan.

What bothers me about that deal is so many similar deals like that back-to-back that we coulda signed a much better pitcher to to multiple years adding up... $18M Sandoval $21M Buehler $10M Paxton $10M Kluber $10M Richards (Throw in $10M Hendriks) $80M You can add Gio and get to about $120M/5 and replace em all.

I think they set parameters, not cold hard budget limits. Large and long deals need to be approved. Going significantly over the budget guideline, even with several mini moves needs the okay. Not every deal needs approval. Most do not.

He's a better bat than Bregman, but that's not saying much. Suzuki and Gray/NMartinez/Morejon or Suzuki & Sato, yes.

soxprospects.com come out with their winter rankings in November. I'm not expert on how they rank prospects, but here is what I predict they do: (current ranking, if different) 1. Arias 2. Gonzales 3. Primera 4. Godbout (5) 5. Valera (4) 6. Hull (7) 7. Delzine (6) 8. Schaffner 9. Holobetz 10. Mataczynski (11) 11. Shelar (12) 12. Paez (16) 13. Wehunt 14. Gutierrez 15. Winnay (19) 16. Brown (20) 17. Soto 18. Ziehl (21) 19. Bastardo (18) 20. G Rodriguez (26) (stab in the dark)

Many of us were for trading Duran and signing Alonso, and the added cost would have meant no Suarez. IMO, I'm just not convinced JH says yes, if Brez came to him with a top offer for Alonso, but I could be wrong. (No way he says yes to Breggie & Alonso.) Alonso>Duran in 2026 would have been a formidable offensive boost. We'd likely have kept Early in hopes he'd be back and with no Suarez, the need would have been higher.

My wish is two big bats, but I doubt we get one from... DLC Abrams Suzuki Sato Maybe some other big bat could be traded (Yordan, Schwarber, Alonso, Kurtz or Wood) We may not even add these types: BLowe, Arozarena, Harper, Bauers, Pena...