moonslav59

We are going to need better than projected OBP and HRs, IMO.

We did add some interesting pieces to our AAA team. It could be fun watching Casas find his stride, assuming he does. KC could be a force.

Some contend the M's always underperform. 2025 Run Differential +110 Red Sox (5th hardest schedule) +72 M's (20th hardest schedule) Best of luck- you're gonna need it--again!!!

Yes, and us winning 3-2 games while they lose 8-7.

Yes, my whole point was even splits.

Not even close. Promotion is more likely.

We had our share of SP'er injuries, and the Casas injury was no surprise, but other teams had a lot, too. I think we led the league in IL placements and were second in days on the IL, so I guess you are right. Losing Crawford for the full season hurt. Houck was probably hurt to start the year or even to end 2024, and his loss hurt, too. Casas and Sandoval's were known or somewhat expected. Losing Bregman, who never really seemed to return to form and Anthony hurt, badly. Shorter term injuries to Abreu, Narvaez, Slaten and others didn't help. Going into 2025, I only see 3 key guys as significant injury risk players: Casas, Story and Mayer. (Sandoval, too, but I'm not sure how "key" he is.) The Yanks have Cole, Rodon and Schmidt beginning the season on the IL and a bunch of aging players who might be due.

If DHam was on the 26, Cora would have felt obligated to play him, too much.

The trading season is all but over, but here is one last gasp... Story & Crawford for Sean Murphy Mayer & Tolle for KMarte and Comp Rd A pick Arias, Duran & Witherspoon for Neto ______________________________ 1. L Antony LF 2. S K Marte 2B 3. R Contreras 1B 4. R Neto SS 5. L Abreu RF 6. R Murphy DH/C- L Casas DH 7. R Durbin 3B 8. R Narvaez/ L Masa DH 9. R Rafaela CF

Do you see the Sox having more key injuries than the Yanks, Jays and Tigers?

That doesn't make DHam a better 3Bman or SS.

No need for a 2nd ace. Just a big bat, and yes, it's not coming.

Listened to the soxprospects.com's podcast on the Hicks/Sandlin trade. They spoke about how Sandlin had the tools to be a good MLB pitcher, but never seemed to get the good results. It was a salary dump and maybe we had "redundancies" for Sandlin. He was on the 40 and was behind other in AAA not on the 40. That as basically the reason he was expendable, in their opinion. The added slot to the 40 was worth it. The return (Ziehl) needs to add power to become good and he looks like a developmental kind of guy. Good control. Every pitch, except his change-up is in the K zone. They are not sure if he begins the season in AA or A+.

You wonder what MIL is thinking with talk of playing DHam off 2B. The guy only has two skills: 2B ONLY defense Speed

I'm glad Castellanos is playing elsewhere.

One aspect of our roster construction that may not have gotten much talk is that beyond the LHB unbalanced nature of our roster, our RHBs have surprisingly even or reverse splits. That is nice, when we face RHPs, but we lack the big bats vs LHPs, especially with Ref moving on. RHB splits (v R/vL) in 2025 (and career) .767/.863 Contreras (.791/.871) significant splits but pretty good v R .743/.734 Story (.778/.930) Career show significant splits. .720/.679 Rafaela (.701/.642) Significant reverse splits .723/.732 Narvaez (.724/.712) Career reverse splits .722/.717 Durbin - Minor reverse splits

Gallen has a shot at improving his value, and next winter, there will be no QO penalty.

I'm not sure he ever becomes a decent pen arm- maybe not even at AAA. I think others have a better shot at making the majors before he does.

He just signed a MLB deal with SDP at min wage.

Inserting a RHB like Romy or Durbin into the top 4 could solve this problem, but the issue is having 2 RHBs in the top 4 per Cora's wishes vs RHPs, too. If he could live with just 1, and have a RHB up 5th, the issue could also be solved. (Story has historically, pretty even splits.) Numbers vs RHPs in 2025: ('24-'25) .903 Anthony L .852 Duran L (.882) .808 Abreu L (.817) These 3 should be in the top 4 v RH'd SP'ers. .797 Eaton L .767 Contreras R (.794) Maybe the only RHB deserving of top 4. .743 Story R (.751) .751 is not horrible but not good for top 4. .739 Mayer L .732 Masa L (.796) Maybe he could earn a top 4 slot. .723 Narvaez R .722 Durbin R .720 Rafaela R (.703) .718 Romy R (.651) .658 Campbell R .477 Casas L (.693) If he ever comes around, he could be a top 4 bat vs RHPs by mid-season.

I fully recognize the hole we left wide open, this winter.

We hear a lot about our targeted increased focus on pitching, from the lowest levels of the minors to the top of the rotation at the big league level, and no doubt, that's for real, but we also have heard about not moving enough resources, both financial and via trade capital towards our everyday roster- from the top to the bottom of the system. It's hard to disagree, and I am also highly skeptical of this winter's approach that left us one big bat short of even their own stated goal, let alone most of ours. (I wanted two big bats and 1 big arm, and IMP we got 2 big arms and one 3/4 big bat in Contreras.) There is some context to be added. Having a weaker everyday roster on the farm is not ideal, but when you look at the ages and years of team control of our top 15-18 MLB or MLB ready/near ready players, it's easier to feel a little more secure about the here and now and the near & extended future. The OF: I think most baseball people see our OF as one of the best in MLB. We have 4 starting OF'ers that project to be top 5 on the team in fWAR: 3.5 Anthony. 3.2 Rafaela & 2.4 Abreu & Duran. It remains to be seen how K Campbell looks in LF, but he rates to be a more-than-decent #5 OF'er and is a RHB. I know many never want to see Masa in LF, again, but he does offer some emergency depth. Now, the best part: the years of control- 9 yrs Anthony, 6 Rafaela, 4 Abreu & 3 Duran. KC has 9 years, too! Catcher: Narvaez was a rookie and has already shown he is more than fine on defense. His hit tool still needs to be proven, but he got off to a very nice start. He had a decent minor league OBP and about 20 HR/650 PA pop. He's 26 and can still improve. Wong has been up and down, but was playing hurt in 2025. Narvaez has 5 years of control, and Wong has 3. Again, no need for farm infusion for 3 more years. The Infield: Here is where we may need help and was where many of us hoped we'd add some thump to the line-up, this winter, but we did add much better depth and improved the overall defense. Kiner-Falefa gives us great defensive depth at all non 1B infield slots. Durbin looks plus at 3B and 2B, and Mayer looks fine at 2B or 3B. Rodgers & Monasterio were a nice depth adds, too. Contreras at 1B offers us the stability we have been seeking there for many years. He looked okay on defense in 2025- his first season at 1B. While he's getting older, he could be better on D in 2026. The years of control are also pretty high, except for the one year from I K-F. Story & Contreras have 2 years with an option afterwards. Story may be at 2B by next season. All the others have 4+ years. So, basically every position is locked up for 3 years. We cans till improve on one of two over the next few years, but we could get by with next to zero farm infusion on the everyday side of the 26 and 40 man rosters. The DH has 2 years of Yoshida, but 3 years of Casas & Romy and 9 years of Campbell. We could also use Duran (3 yrs) at DH. The minor league depth is not all that exciting, some are far away from the majors: C: Thaiss/Seigler/Delay (Jh Garcia, Guzman/Heyman/Primera/J Rod/G Rod) 1B: Hickey, Llyod (Brannon. Ogando) 2B: Rodgers, McDonogh (Godbout, Ferguson, White) 3B: Romero, Capra (Alcanatar, Nunez) SS: Cheng, Sogard (Arias, Soto, Ramos) OF: Campbell, Ward, Eaton, Frazier/Sykes (Gonzales, YRod, Taylor, Azocar, M Martin, Rivas, Jackson, Silverio, Bleis, Castro, Fermin)

Hard to argue with this general approach. Assuming we can start Crochet, Suarez & Gray games 1-2-3 of every playoff series, I'd like our chances.

So brave!

Why wouldn't you want a top 5 batter in MLB batting higher up in the order? (No, not 4th, but maybe 2nd or 3rd.) Only 4 batters had a higher OPS and more PAs vs LHPs than Romy (.978) in 2025. It was likely not a fluke, as he hit over .850 in 2024. 2024-2025 v LHPs: (250+ PAs) 1.259 Judge .994 KMarte .986 Ramirez .951 Vladdy .949 Refsnyder .933 Schwarber .931 Romy Vs LHPs, I'd be fine with this... 1. L Anthony 2. R Romy 3. R Contreras (Maybe Durbin?) 4. L Abreu (Maybe Contreras?) 5. R Story (Abreu?) 6. R Durbin (Story?) 7. L Duran 8. R Narvaez 9. R Rafaela