moonslav59

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.

Yes- bigtime. Even if I talked myself into the idea that Bichette will hit over .800 and hit 25+ HRs, he'd fall way short of what we need. Did you miss the part about being "THE ONLY GUY WE SIGN?" You honestly think we'd be all set with Bichette and nothing more for opening day? 1. L Anthony LF 2. R Bichette 2B 3. L Duran DH 4. R Story SS 5. L Abreu RF 6. L Casas 1B 7. L Mayer 3B/ R Romy 3B 8. R Narvaez C 9. R Rafaela CF SP: Crochet, Gray, Bello, Sandoval, Crawford/Dobbins/Harrison/Tolle/Early RP: Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Weissert, Hicks, Kelly, Watson, converted SP We'd need near perfect health to maybe be close to equal to last year's team and results.

The thing is, we can build a solid team with just 1-2 year free agents. We'd be a lot better had we signed Polanco and Merrill Kelly to their $20M x 2 year deals each. I'm not saying that's all we needed, but we'll see others sign for 1-2 year deals by the start of 2026. That being said, this is the time to make a large and long deal. I just hope it's not Bichette or Bregman.

I'm pissed at JH & Co, too, but we did sign Bregman to a record AAV, last winter, while increasing spending by near $25M. We undid much of that with the Devers trade, and now Bregman and Gio are off the books (among others.) I'm not expecting big spending this winter, but the spending did uptick, last winter. (This is in no way intended to be a support JH post.)

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

Not really. We had just saw the Devers extension as well as Bello and Ceddanne extended plus the Gio signing was the largest FA SPee signing in a long time the year before then when the recent trend indicated a pull back was likely we ended up spending more. buehlers $21M was twice the Kluber and Richard’s deals. Sandoval was a rare two year deal. Chapman was not cheap. bregman shattered the record AAV contract by the Sox. The Crichet trade was one thing. The extension was a sign of a change. Then we extended Anthony sand KC. Last winter was much more than just Crochet. The issue became the big undoing: the Devers trade and bolting by Bregman and Gio. that needs to be addressed and then improved upon.

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.

Some of the headlines say the trade was made

Is it me or does there seem to be about ten times the trade and signing rumors than last year? Most are from newly formed clickbait sites I never heard of but still!

We did extend Devers to 10 years, but traded him before he hit 30. We did extend Crochet. Does this mean Bichette is the only guy we might sign? That would be ugleeEEEEEE.

Not really. $21M Buehler > $21M Gray $18M Gio> $16M Anthony $35M+ Bregman> $12M Hicks. ... Ummmm $30M Devers....>>>.... triple Ummmmmm

Well, last winter looked like they realized a window was opening and did more than before.

Ane Oviedo! LMAO!

I’m not happy with this winters moves and non moves. im not optimistic at all. this does not make me rewrite history.

If we end up striking out, this winter, I will look back at this signing as an example of us not even being able to add plan B options that are clearly affordable under the no large and long limitations apparently imposed on Brez.

I went over three decades being a frustrated Sox fan almost totally void of any hopes for a ring. I fully believe that JH was an essential part of the beginning and continuation of the 4 ring era. I'll never erase that history or gloss it over in any way, but since 2019, there has been a marked difference in approach, and eventually the results we have seen on the field since then and the Betts trade. It's been 7 years, now. The hopes that the spending would cycle back up, as it did in the past has not materialized, despite a couple blips on the timeline. With the Devers extension being followed by some increased spending on deals like Bregman, Buehler, Chapman, Giolito and a major increase in extensions handed out to Crochet and a handful of young pre-arb players, some hope began to arise this would be the turning point. It did not seem to be an accident or a knee-jerk reaction to growing fan discontent, since it aligned with the timing of the 6 year rebuild effort that produced what appears to be a 3-5 year window, where we could have a significant chance at winning a ring, if we spent to fill in a few major gaps. For the past 6 years, it seems like we had too many holes to fill, unless we just went batcrazy on spending. Of course, that never happened, and actually the opposite occurred. We heard all the empty talk and blatant "full throttle" lies, but last winter seemed to hint at a change in direction. I'm not going to say that was all part of the sam plan, because there is still time to make good on this winter, but it looks real bad, to me, right now. REAL BAD. It's hard to sugar coat this, and why should anyone even try to make light of this dark situation unfolding, or continuing, if you don't want to count last winter was anything more than a bine thrown to unhappy Sox fans. I'm pissed at JH & Co, and it is a company for setting up their cash cow and taking their customers for granted. We have an obvious opening in front of us for something special. They better not blow this.

I'd much rather sign a couple big bats. Of course the "reason" is about money and JH & Co. That being said, trade are justifiable when made to clear logjams and fill greater need areas as a result. We should really be doing both.