moonslav59

sp.com has him on the bench in AAA.

I think we will look to Harrison and Crawford to help the pen by taking bulk innings. A lot of that depends on how healthy the other SP'ers are and can stay. Last year, we looked 11-12 deep and even traded away Priester, thinking we had more than enough depth. We ended up trading for D May, starting Criswell, de Leon and some "opener" starts, as well. Then, we ended up promoting rookies, Tolle & Early and ran short of starters in the playoffs. I see Tolle & Early as the guys we most trust to fill in rotation slots. They might not be the first two tried, but if we begin the year with Harrison & Crawford in the pen, they might be used first. Drohan, Uberstine & Sandlin seem like fringe options, to me, and all may best be used from the pen, but they will start the year in the AAA rotation. The AAA pen looks kinda light compared to 2025, but the winter additions are not complete. If everyone is healthy, Kelly may begin at AAA, as Moran & Watson are out of options or Rule 5. Then, we have Mullins, Samaniento & Song. I'm not sure mentioning Harris, Gamboa & Berrios is worth it. Some AA pitchers might jump over them.

And when you look at how well we've done with comp picks and using the bonus signing money efficiently in recent years, I think it matters a lot to the Sox. I seriously doubt we go past the second line- perhaps never.

With Campbell, I'm thinking it's a FT or near FT role or he stays in AAA. An injury could create that slot. A bad year by someone else could, too. A lot depends on whether an OF'er gets traded, this winter and or, if Duran is significantly used at DH.

Thanks for this. Very encouraging.

Still very sweet!

He does not count. He was healthy when we signed him. He was reversed.

Aren't we due getting one of these rehab pitcher right, for once?

He's like Hendriks, and Sandoval is like Paxton.

We signed a sweet FA, today.

I'm not sure it's a big worry: Career splits: Whitlock: .648 v L/ .668 v R Slaten: .542 v L/ .606 v R Weissert .711 v L/ .665 v R, but .606 v L in '25/.673 v R

Good point. He did have 3+ months with him, last year, though.

OPS+ since 2023 127 Contreras 123 Duran 119 Casas 118 Abreu 111 Yoshida 108 Romy (123 w BOS) 95 Story 89 Rafaela

That's easy... with the man without a position: Kristian Campbell. Second choice: Casas. Third choice: Romy/Narvaez when Wong or Contreras catch.

He'll trade Duran for a RP'er and prospect for the $7M savings that keeps us under line 2.

I've agreed tat we could and should spend more. I'm not sure wat else to say. My beef is hearing people say we aren't spending, but we are. We are spending way more than the previous 3-4 years, and we are doing some things, like locking up our young talent longterm way more than we did, even in the glory years from 2004 to 2018. It's not all bad. We have a nice core of young players, some obtained because we tanked- kinda like the Astors did before their run of glory. I don't want us to waste this window, and if we do things right, maybe we can keep the window open wide for many years to come. We need one more major piece, or maybe 2 really good ones, and spending on one makes the most sense, but spending on one and trading for another would be fine with me. Just do it. No more talk of full throttle and wanting to be competitive- let's see some action and results.

Our farm is not very deep with ML ready everyday players, so maybe Romero sticks around another season.

Could Rivera possibly make a jump to the bigs by AUG-SEP?

It does happen, sometimes that pitchers regain their form after surgery. Sometimes it takes longer than our short term deals cover, and we miss out. Sometimes, they don't ever get back to even close to previous levels. That may happen with Sandoval and Crawford. Let's see. I'm glad we have Harrison, Tolle & Early in case they don't.

Hicks will get a look. I'm not expecting anything beyond a DFA.

Posters used to bitch how we let all our top young players go. Now, we lock them up long term, but are being asked to ignore the future spending we committed to. It doesn't really count. It is obvious to anyone paying attention, the team spending philosophy has changed dramatically since the Devers extension was signed almost exactly 3 years ago. While adjusting for inflation, we have not returned to 2018-2019 levels, and we could & should be spending more, there has been some very marked changes in our spending habits. Still no large and long FA deals, but the amount of veteran and rookie extensions has sky-rocketed. Our yearly budget, tax budget and new spending has jumped noticeably since the end of 2024. Again, dumping Devers undid much of that trend upwards, and it remains to be seen where we go from here, but JH & Brez have spent more than Bloom ever dreamed of. I haven't checked, but my guess is 2 years of Brez has outspent 4 years of Bloom on new player contracts + extensions. That's not saying a lot, but it is a major uptick, so when I hear JH IS cheap, he's not been, recently. It's just not true.

I want the Sox to go to the playoffs more than the random rate suggests- way more. Of course, I do. We've spent way more than half the teams since 2019, and in many of those years more than 2/3, 3/4 and even more in 2019. We should win more by spending more. Many other teams do- some don't. Our revenue is much higher, so spending more makes sense. Winning more makes sense, too. I'm not defending JH. I'm just not going to lie and say "We aren't spending," which is in the present tense, when we are currently top 8, and only 6 teams paid more in Lux tax, in 2025. Can and should we spend more? YES! I just don't see the need to misrepresent what is going on now to make the point. I agree with the point being made that we can and should spend more.

If BTV is a guide, these guys are likely worth this much: $5M x 2 Yoshida ($10M value/ 2yrs - $36M salary= -$26M) $2M x 2 Hicks ($4M value/ 2 yrs- $22M salary= -$18M) To trade these guys for zero in return, w'ed have to include $26M for Masa and $18M for Hicks. If we got two teams to do this, we'd save $7M x 2 and $7M off the tax line.

1. Easier said than done on trading Hicks and half his salary. (Same with Yoshida.) 2. We have 4 OF'ers and playing Duran at DH is not getting full value. (He's worth more to another team as an OF'er than to us as a DH.) That's 2 big reasons why.

Not sure. 1.5 years from AUG '25 surgery is FEB '27. Knowing our luck, JUN '27 might be pushing it.