moonslav59

Is this the 26 man roster, assuming no additions? Rotation: Eovaldi, Pivetta, Hill, Wacha, Houck or Whitlock Pen: Whitlock or Houck, Barnes, Taylor, Diekman, Brasier, Strahm, Davis, Sawamura C: Vazquez, Plawecki 1B: Dalbec, Shaw 2B: Arroyo, Arauz 3B: Devers SS: Bogaerts LF: Verdugo, Duran CF: Hernandez RF: Bradley DK Martinez IL: Sale & Paxton Key minor leaguers: Seabold, Winckowski, Crawford, Keller, Bello DHern, Robles, Holland, Bazardo, Valdez Wong, R Hernandez Casas Y Sanchez Fitzgerald Downs Cordero Refsnyder Stewart/Mieses

Going into 2021: Barnes Ottavino Sawamura DHern Taylor Andriese Whitlock Brice Valdez (Brasier on IL) Bazardo was the first guy called up, I think.

Bumpier than '21.

We did go most of the season without Schwarber, Iggy and Shaw, but losing Renfroe will be a full season loss. Losing Marwin, Santana, Chavis and others will not be missed. Here's the scoop: 2021 PAs Player OPS 572 Renfroe .816 271 Marwin .567 168 Schwarber .957 136 Cordero .497 (still in system) 127 Santana .597 82 Chavis .549 75 Arauz .643 (still in system) 64 Iggy .915 16 Lopez .522 11 Munoz .182 7 Motter 1.262 718 PAs from players under .645 811 PAs from players over .815 Who takes up the slack of the mix and matched 1500 PAs? Assuming good health: 450 JBJ 225 Casas 300 more from Arroyo (181>481) 250 more from Duran (112>362) 100 more from Dalbec (453>553) 75 more from Kike (585>660) 50 more from Bogey (603>653) 50 more from Shaw (48>98)

JD is going to have to take longer detours.

Word is Conforto turned down $100-120M from the Mets prior to 2021. Soler signed for $36M/3 with the Marlins.

After his first 4 games with the Sox, Robles put up these numbers in his last 23 outings of 2021: 21.2 IP 13 H 12 BB 28 K 2.08 ERA (3.59 FIP) .575 OPS Against Inherited Runners Scored: 29% Playoffs: 5.1 IP in 6 outings 7 H 1 BB 5 K 5.29 ERA

No need. We have Kike, Verdugo, JBJ, Duran, JD and now Dalbec ahead of Franchy.

A no-trade clause does not mean no trade. If the idea is to play him at 2B, then it may be him asking for the trade. I agree on pitching. I just did not see any "wow" pitchers to overpay on. (maybe ERod)

So, we move a disgruntled Bogey to 2B for a year. Yes, we are better, but at what cost? We had better fitting chances with other free agents already signed elsewhere. Of course, we are a better team with Correa than without, and it moves Kike to the OF- improving it on O and D.

Exactly, and that is likely all it was. Bloom did nothing to refute the reports, but then again, why should he?

Like I said, I didn't see anybody, this winter. While $21M is not bank-breaking, the 5 years is a big risk for a guy with just a 106 ERA+ since 2017. Okay, 111 since 2018 is pretty darn good, but not really something where I say, this is "the guy" we should break the pattern with and go large and long on. Plus, he's 31. Gun to me head, the best SP'er contracts I saw this winter were: $15.4M x 5 ERod $14M x 4 Jon Gray $20M/1 Morton (not "long") But, even these look scary.

So, maybe he signs Conforto and saves the rest for the deadline, like he did when we were able to add Schwarber and others in 2021. The interesting thing will be, if we are out of contention at the deadline or hanging close to being on the outside, with little hope of advancing in the playoffs, if we squeak in. Will we see a fire sale that would surely add to our promising longer term outlook? Trade Bogey, Eovaldi, JD, Vaz and Kike- maybe even guys like Barnes (assuming he's doing well). (I won't talk about trading Devers, because it would sicken me.)

Agreed, but Robles will likely be our 8th RP'er.

The one year opt out would not solve the problem the Sox have, and with Bogey balking at playing 2B or 3B, it wouldn't make sense, unless we traded Bogey to a team who lost out on Story & Correa. $32M/yr also puts us over the tax line by about $16M, and for some reason, that still seems like a high priority to avoid doing that.

To me, it's more about roster space (and other more pressing needs) than the money it would take to add Pham to a Conforto signing.

Suzuki and Baez, who was fine with playing 2B, despite being a better defensive SS than Bogey, made the most sense to me. Of course, signing a better pitcher made the most sense, but I really didn't see a "wow" name out there to go large and long on, so I give Bloom a pass there- for this winter only.

One question remains for me. Is this a result of strict guidelines from Henry, or is this who Bloom is? I think next winter will answer that question.

True, and maybe Bloom did make some calls to these agents but hung up once he heard the asking price without ever even vocalizing a ball park figure.

I'm not sure I've even read that the Sox made an offer, even with no money mentioned.

I'm getting the feeling some of us are becoming like Swihart's Ghost- just looking to the next shiniest piece available, even if the fit seems convoluted. I'm not pessimistic about our chances in 2022. We have a solid base and some promising players who can add to what we did in 2021, but I'm not going to lie and say I'm happy with this winter's moves. I'm also not optimistic about us doing anything serious in the next few days. True, I've put out some hopeful suggested trades or signings, but I fully realize the odds they happen are slim to none. Maybe we make the playoffs, this year and surprise a few rounds, but if nothing serious happens, next year, I'm going to be voicing a lot more displeasure- not necessarily at Bloom, but at team ownership for shutting off the spigot.

There is only so far you can go on spending large amounts of money by spreading it as thin as you can. There are only 40 roster spots, but your point is well-taken. I never expected the '19-'20 winter to be the "next winter," and I was disappointed with the '20-'21 winter, despite how well it ended up working out. I did think there was a good chance we'd make 1-2 bigger moves, this winter- maybe not breaking the bank, but solid moves that helped us for 2022 and beyond. When the Lux tax line was raised, I had some renewed hopes, but those have been dashed, so far, and this whole Story signing idea perplexes me, unless the idea is to trade Bogey, which seems rather extreme, after we just lost Betts & ERod. I felt we had less holes to fill, this winter, as many of are departing players looked more like additions by subtractions than serious holes to fill. I get the fact that replacing the innings from Richards and Perez would not be cheap, but I was hoping we'd spend the $45-55M on 4-6 slots and not 7-8, like we have. Since many of this winter's signings are also 1 year deals, it's hard to really call this serious long term building up of team 40 man roster depth. Yes, the building up of the farm will eventually spill into the 40 man roster, at a low cost (although Binales & Hamilton cost us a pretty penny.) What moves have we made that improved our outlook for 2023 and beyond, except maybe the JBJ & Prospects deal? Paxton (1-3 yrs)? Diekman (2 yrs)? Maybe the whole 40man roster depth rebuild is just a mirage, and it's really just about building the farm up.

Conforto or Pham may be a pipedream. Both are impossible.

Like Lester redux. Make a final offer you know will not be taken.

I do wonder, if it's all been a smoke screen to feign seriousness about improving to the Sox fans and media. Throw a tid-bit here and there, but in reality, I think it just frustrated the more interested and attentive fans. How many big to somewhat big names were we seriously linked to? (And I'm not even sure how "serious" they really got.) Baez Suzuki Story Steven Matz Maybe false links? Semien Freeman Chris Taylor Schwarber I would not be surprised to find out we never came close, in our final offers, to any of these, and likely did not even make actual offers to some or most of these guys.