moonslav59

Those are some pretty scary numbers on Shaw. I hate the idea of trading for one year guys, but Hoerner would be a big boost to our 2026 chances. Of course Sandoval would not be the centerpiece to the return package, but he has one year left, too and his contract cost would help pay for Hoerner. I'm not sure who the Cubs want, but we have pitching. Maybe Crawford and Sandoval? (Bello and Sandoval?)

Richards $10M/1 Kike $10M/1 Kluber $10M/1 Buehler $21M/1 All the two year deals given to injured pitchers were more like 1 year deals: Paxton, Hendiks & Sandoval. The Gio deal actually broke that mold, but then he got hurt year one, anyway.

There has been less one year deals than with Bloom, and yes, many have sucked- even the biggest one- Buehler. I may have not mentioned it in the last post, but I have not ignored that trend. I've been highly critical of it. I did mention JH's aversion to large and long deals, which is highlighting a focus on 1-2 year deals. Some have not been "cheap," but you don't get the cream of the crop on 1-2 year deals.

It was 23rd 1-2 years ago. Something like Total revenue/spending. I guess it has some meaning but why the most is beyond me. I doubt it's even 20, now

How about Bello & Early for Shaw, Ben Brown (LHP) and Miguel Amaya (C) ?

How about Valera, Sandoval (money balancer) & DHam for Paredes? Of course, HOU would have to really like Valera to get to a yes.

Thanks for the correction. That does increase his value. (BTV has 5 yrs.)

Maybe we're roughly 23rd or roughly middle of the pack. That point does have merit, but it's not the be-all-end-all point. Yes, I said I wish he would spend more, but that is far from agreeing that he is "cheap." He has gone "cheap" at various times in the 2+ decades under his watch, and the one from about 2019 to the Devers extension was the longest and most extreme, but "is" means now. He's been spending more and more, recently. To me, this winter is more about how we spent, and some of that is on JH- maybe the NTC, demands for deferments and the limit on large and long type deals, but Brez was the one who chose to spend way more on pitching than the big bat and 2B/3Bman most of us thought were part of our top 3 winter needs. Had we signed Bregman and not traded for Gray & signed I K-F, we'd still be under the third tax line. Our roster would be more balanced. Yes, we lost a lot of salary from 2025, including from the mid season trade of Devers, and when you add up all the extensions, re-signings and additions from this winter, the increase in spending seems like it's not enough. I don't disagree. I just wouldn''t call it "being cheap." We are seeing some major shifts in philosophies on spending, extensions and roster building. To me, most look good good or promising. Some are still troubling, but IMO, the team's trajectory is un the upswing. It has been since Brez took over. I think we both wish the upswing would be sharper and more targeted, but it has been and looks to be getting better. We really only have one major under-water contrat on the books, and that's on Bloom. It has 2 years to go. Nobody else looks grossly overpaid, and we have most of our key players locked up for 3-8 more years. That's not easy to do, and it's not common. It took planning and more good choices than bad, but you focus 99% on the bad.

O CAB after 2004: DRS at SS: minus 23 OPS: .691

Kinda hard to carry on a team with 2 players in the same clubhouse. Word I heard was he was hitting on multiple teammates wives. He did not play all that great after that year, and his D declined, too.

The day I heard of the trade, I knew OCab was a plus defender at SS and told my family, the trade was going to win us a ring. They asked who we trade for and I said Orlando Cabrera. They said, "Who?"

Masa, Sandoval & DHam for Gleyber Torres, Javier Baez & $10M.

Sandoval, DHam & Phillips for 1 year Hoerner (Sandoval's contract helps us pay for Hoerner at $12M/1.)

Looking at Rodgers, pre-2025, the guy looks like he might be able to hit over .720 or so, with a little bit of pop. While that is not great, and not what I wanted, it's probably better than we can expect from I K-F/DHam/Sogard/Eaton mix. He hit .798 in 2021 with about 23 HRs and 60 XBHs per 650. From 2022 to 2024, he hit .723 with about 15 HRs and 52 XBHs per 650. While .720 is not great, and it wasn't what I was hoping for, it would almost certainly be better than a I K-F/DHam/Sogard/Eaton mix and maybe better than Mayer overall and Romy vs RHPs. He's only 29, so maybe he can do okay at bat. We know he can play defense.

The DH would be Duran v R and Romy v L, so the only guy benched for defense would Mayer or Story. This line-up is barely worse than the best offensive one we can construct.

He became a FA, so it was up to him, too, although I never heard we made him an offer. One other important factoid: we recieved two comp picks for losing him to free agency: Ellsbury and Lowrie We later traded Lowrie for Melancon and Melancon for Brock Holt. We later got Michael Kopech as a comp pick for losing Elsbury to free agency, and he was a key part of the Sale trade. I think I'm glad it worked out like it did. That being said, I loved that Nomar trade and actually predicted it would lead us to a ring.

Sox 4 GG Winners: Wilyer Abreu RF 2024 & 2025 (Career .791 OPS w 27 HRs per 650) Ceddane Rafaela CF 2025 (Career high .708 OPS in '25) Brendan Rodgers 2B 2022 (He had a .746 OPS from '21 to '24 w 17 HRs per 650) Isiah Kiner-Falefa 3B 2020 (His best OPS seasons were .699 in '20 & .683 in '24) Close calls: Story in 2018 and 2020 at SS. Would this be the best defensive alignment? C Narvaez 1B Contreras 2B Rodgers 3B Story/Mayer SS I K-F LF Anthony CF Rafaela RF Abreu Narvaez was a top 3 finalist at C in his rookie 2025 season.

Top 2025 OBP Splits: v RHPs .424 Anthony .363 Duran .350 Eaton (41 PAs) .333 Contreras (w STL) ,347 career .321 Abreu .318 Masa & Romy .308 Story .306 Rafaela .302 KC .296 Narvaez .294 Mayer .255 Wong v LHPs .378 Romy .375 Contreras (w STL) .366 career .371 Sogard (35 PAs) .365 KC .347 Eaton (49) .337 Anthony .332 Narvaez .306 Story .299 Abreu .265 Rafaela (reverse splits, career too) .260 Duran (.284 career) .250 Masa .185 Mayer (27)

I might try this... 1. L Duran LF v R/ R Romy v L 2B 2. L Anthony CF v R & LF v L 3. R Contreras C 4. L Abreu RF v L/ R Story SS v L 5. R Story SS v L/ L Abreu RF v L 6. L Masa DH v R/ L Duran DH v L 7. R Narvaez C 8. L Mayer 3B 9. R Rafaela 2B v R & CF v L

Duran may or may not be our best hitters, but Anthony and Contreras had the best 2025 OBPs of any returning player on the roster. I would not mind Anthony up 2nd, as he rates to be our best hitter. Contreras may have more power than anyone but Abreu, so 3rd or 4th for him is fine by me. Duran's low OBP was the reason he was removed from leadoff, last season. .332 is not horrible, but for a lead-off guy, it kinda is. (He's .328 career.)

So, what is you generic opening day line-up? The one you think is the most likely used one, assuming no injuries, except Casas. 1. L Anthony LF/CF 2. R Contreras 1B 3. L Duran CF/LF v R & DH vs L 4. L Abreu RF 5. R Story SS 6. L Masa DH v R & R Romy 2B v L 7. R Narvaez C 8. L Mayer 3B 9. R Rafaela 2B/CF This is doable, although I cringe thinking Rafaela plays 2B in over 100 starts.

Masa has a career 109 OPS+, but your point still stands. He turns 33 in July, so there really is no reason to expect he tops 109. His best season was 116 in 2024. That might be a reasonable ceiling on his expectations with his 2025's 93 OPS+ as maybe his rock bottom floor. For a team that needs a DH and not a DH with power, he should have value. He's a negative on LF defense, so I doubt any team would be thinking of a dual role for him, other than maybe 5th OF'er/emergency back-up LF'er while primarily being a DH only guy on the 26. BTV has his "value" as $5.6M for 2 years. That's $2.8M x 2. If some team values him this much AND wants/needs him, we can be expected to pay $15 x 2 years out of the $18M x 2 years owed. That kinda makes me think I'd rather keep him as DH depth than trade him, but he takes up a 26 man slot. As long as Casas is on the IL, I'm okay with that, but if he comes back and looks good, I can't see any need for Casas. The other idea is to add a prospect like we did adding Sandlin with Hicks in a trade for a distant prospect. If we added one or two of these guys to Masa, maybe we save these amounts of money need to pay off Masa: 19.9 Crawford (I really like his bounce back chances, but we are loaded with SP'er depth.) 12.5 Soto 7.6 Oviedo or 4.7 Harrison (see SP'er depth comment) 6.8 Cespedes (I think this is vastly over-valued) 4.5 Sandoval (would dump even more salary and AAV implications) 3.8 DHam (now that we have I K-F, Cheng and Rodgers, he can be taken away from Cora as an infield option.) 3.5 Bleis 2.9 Drohan, 2.3 Zanetello and others near this level. I don't see it happening. Name a team that would significantly improve with Masa as their DH and is willing to pay him $3-5M a year, or more if we add a prospect or two?

2026 Salary (AAV) added from 2025, including '26 extensions and '26 re-signings: $31M ($41M) Gray ($20M paid by STL) $25M ($28M) Crochet (extension) $18M ($21M) Contreras ($4M x 2 paid by STL) $13M ($13M) Chapman (extension w option) $7M ($26M) R Suarez (5 year deal) $6M ($6M) I Kiner-Falefa $3M ($16M) Anthony (8 yr extension) $2M ($8M) Campbell (8 yr extension) That's a total of $105M actual 2026 salary added (-$24M paid by STL= $80M+) That's also an astounding $159M AAV added! (minus $24M paid by STL= $135M added.) You may not like how the money was spent or argue it was spread too thinly. You can argue we still lag behind where we should be on spending vs revenue, and have merit. IMO, you should not say we "are not spending" or "Henry has been cheap over the last 2-3 year.) Since the massive Devers extension, we also extended Bello & Rafaela, signed 2 year deals with Gio & Sandoval, paid the highest AAV to a pitcher (Buehler) since the Sale extension and added a great closer for over $10M. He has spent, Has it been enough? I'm okay with saying no, or saying we need more large and long deals to get the cream of the crop. I'm okay with saying drop the NTC crap. I'd say work the deferral angle for all it's worth, as long as we don't lose our prize target by doing so. I'd say get the team near the middle or top of the pack on spending vs revenue- for sure. But, I would not say JH is "cheap."

The only way I see Masa as a "fit," is if Rafaela plays 2B and Duran plays in the OF. I'm never benching an OF'er for a decent contact hitter with a .775 OPS tops. Who do you bench for Punch & Judy Masa? If Casas comes back to form, who is the next guy you bench? Too bad Masa can't play 2B. I'd gladly bench DHam for his bat.

If Masa would agree to go to AAA, but why would he? He'd be useful as DH depth. If any OF'er gets hurt, Duran moves to OF and Masa could DH, at least vs RHPs only. That does have some value, but not taking up a slot on the 26. He'd be the 5th OF'er behind the same guy, Duran, ahead of him at DH. It would make a ton of sense to try and offload Masa somehow- someway. Exchange for an underwater pitcher or infielder? Throw in a decent prospect (below #12ish?) Or, just pay $12-15M or of his $18M owed each of the next 2 seasons. Our roster would have more flexibility, and with a weak offense, we may need as much of that as possible. If an OF'er gets hurt, maybe Campbell can be given a shot at winning the FT DH slot for the rest of the season. Maybe Casas comes back in time to fill the role. When and if Casas comes back, Masa's role is diminished even more.