moonslav59

Well, $140M is pretty close to $155M. If it's 4 years, the AAV and tax hit would be higher.

Paez taken with second pick by CWS. No other Sox player drafted. Sox drafted nobody.

Paez taken second by CWS, and nobody else. No M & M. (Mullins & Monegro) No Song. No Dance.

The same position but an older Bregman who will take up a ton of budget space for many years to come. We need better than Bregman (Marte?) or Bregman plus another big bat. No, that big bat should not be counting on Casas or 300 more PAs from Anthony.

Bregman will cost close to what Alonso got, so I'm not so sure your first sentence lines up with the Breggie call.

Oh, just a couple letters off. LOL. (Just jivin' yah!)

We might settle on... Bregman and Hoskins Marte and Suarez Polanco and Paredes We're probably done with a search for a solid #2, although Brez refused to sat Gray was one.

You make some good points, but isn't the important thing to know is how many 30-32 year olds who are still FT'ers go on to play 2, 3, 4 or more productive seasons? I'm not sure comparing them to all those who never made it to 30 matters much. Age decline is real and very common. It's the norm not the exception. It's not always easy to judge who will age well. If someone could do that...

We also had a 35 point Home-Away OPS differential, so the offense was not really as good as the OPS showed. (We did score runs on the road more than we probably should have.) We also went from .759 to .724 first half>second half. I do think our offense will be near top 10 just brining back Bregman, but we need to strive for top 5 or 6, minimum.

Looks like another Plan U, V, X winter.

Indeed, and needing to ask why is a head-scratcher. (Yes, I used that term again- last one was over the JBJ trade.)

Wonder if $168M/6 was even thought of.

Bringing Bregman back is fine, but we get no better than 2025 with just him coming back.

No, once again you are wrong. I said, if the offers were even, "I THINK" he'd prefer BOS. Big difference.

Okay, FIP and fWAR say hell yes, but Gray is a year older and Oviedo is a promise, of which we have 10 of them already. I'm not pulling stats out of the air. I like ERA- and OPS Against. ERA- 78 Bello ________________ 80 Giolito (145 IP) .685 OPSA 104 Gray (181 IP) .726 OPSA 115 Buehler (126 IP).795 OPSA 83 Oviedo (40 IP) .626 OPSA Looks pretty close, to me.

Agreed. I'm kinda surprised we even asked about him.

It's beyond obvious.

You may disagree, but you honestly need me to tell you why I think they will pay something? He'll be 32 in April. He makes $31M x 6 years. He's played about 2 season's worth of games in the last 3 years. Do the math for yourself. Sure, he might get $31M x 6 as a free agent, but TEX wants something back for him, right? I know how much you love BTV, but my guess is they have him at negative value and if they want something good back for him, they will either pay some cash of take on someone like Hicks. Maybe the Dodger trade a bag of balls for him- straight up... okay.

Damn!

What's the difference between TEX giving the team $20M or taking back Hicks?

That's what I am most afraid of, and why I want the best possible first bat, now.

They may not, but they will.

I disagree. Count KMarte as making up for the 850 PAs by Devers and Bregman, which is a rosy view, but then we have Mayer/Romy instead of DHam/Romy on offense and Casas, instead of Casas, some bums and then Lowe. Some more PAs by Anthony and no major injuries, and maybe we get to even. We weren't a top contender in 2025 and were at or near a top 10 offense. We should set our sights on staying even? I'm not sure Gray and Oviedo make up for Gio & Buehler, but let's call that even. No Wilson, Bernardino and others. Let's stretch again and cal that even. When is staying even a winning strategy? In a general sense, we can look at the roster and say, "Hey this team is pretty young and we should see some noticeable progressions. We can see more PAs from Anthony, Abreu and maybe Masa, but we know someone will get hurt. We should expect it and plan for it. We were not one big player away from a ring in 2025, and now we are supposed to strive for brining back the same or in kind players? Then, what if Duran drops even more from his '24 season? What of Story gets hurt or declines? What of 2025 was Rafaela's peak offensive season? What if Narvaez, Anthony and others have a "sophomore slump?" What if Casas is the next Dalbec? Are any of these wonderings way off base? We need to plan on major improvements with an emphasis on the plural. We need bold no status quo.

I agree on Marte, and if Duran or Campbell are part of the trade, the net AAV add is only about $12M. (Rafaela, instead, bring it to $13M or so.) This is probably the only way we get two big bats without going way over the tax line. Marte and 2 big FA bats would likely put us over the second tax line, even if it's Polanco, Suarez & KMarte. (Who plays 3B, if Suarez is at 1B?)

That's how I see it: open a slot for Mayer or mayer/Romy at 2B or 3B or trade him.