moonslav59

Devers was called up a year younger and had a shortened 2020 season to deal with. Of course, there is always a risk a player never lives up to the projected prime year bell chart curve, as Pablito never did. I'm putting my money of Devers to end up blowing Sandoval's career numbers sky-high.

Maybe a 1 year deal with a buy-out option year like Perez.

I'm not sure we'd even want to spread out his lux hit, even if we could have. Let's bite the bullet and spend away, next winter.

The BTV site would not approve this trade, because they think the Sox would be getting too much for Devers (55.3). It would approve a deal without Riley (19.5) or Muller (12.5). Waters is rated as 37.5. Add Beni (5.3) and Inciarte (-9.4) to the deal, and it is accepted. It's actually not a bad deal. I must admit, I don't know much about Riley, but if the Braves are really looking for a 3Bman, it makes me wonder why his rating is 19.5. I'd also be worried waters may not pan out like his rating suggests, but this trade would be interesting. (I'd try to get them to add Wright and maybe take back Pivetta.)

I can't see a team offering enough for me to be okay with trading Devers. I still think he is going to improve and maybe even vastly improve- both on O and D.

Every suggested Vaz trade I have made on the BTV site involves us getting back a catcher, most of whom I believe are better handling the pitching staff than Vaz, but I am no expert on other team's players. I would never trade Vaz while counting on Plawecki and Wong to be our only catchers of note.

Pedroia will still be paid his $12MM salary in the upcoming season, and his $13.3MM average annual value will count against the luxury tax for the Red Sox.

Here is a comp of the better of the two OPS (career or 2019-2020) of the Sox with or without Schoop at 2B: With Schoop: v R .830 Verdugo RF .821 Beni LF .754 Schoop 2B (.833 Arroyo) .687 EHern CF v L .912 Renfroe LF .873 Schoop 2B .821 Verdugo RF .820 EHern CF Without Schoop: v R (.833 Arroyo? 2B) .830 Verdugo CF .821 Beni LF .717 Renfroe RF .687 EHern CF/2B (see Arroyo) v L .912 Renfroe RF .821 Verdugo CF .820 EHern 2B .778 Beni LF with Pillar (no Schoop) v R .830 Verdugo RF .821 Beni LF .687 EHern 2B (.833 Arroyo?) .685 Pillar CF (.687 EHern?) v L .912 Renfroe LF .821 Verdugo RF .820 EHern 2B .784 Pillar CF .

Just sign Schoop and solve 4 problems at once: 1. Solidify the LF Beni-Renfroe platoon and improve the LF defense a little. 2. Keep Verdugo in RF near FT and improve RF defense over having Renfroe out there. 3. Improve CF defense by playing EHern there, instead of Verdugo. 4. Improve 2B offense while not hurting 2B defense. vs RHP .821 Beni (.740 from 2019-2020) .810 Verdugo (.830) .754 Schoop (.753) .740 Chavis (.740) .717 Renfroe (.699) .678 Pillar (.685) .678 Arroyo (.833) .673 EHern (.687) vs LHP .912 Renfroe (.879) .820 EHern (.739) .788 Verdugo (.821) .784 Pillar (.870) .726 Schoop (.873) .699 Chavis (.699) .691 Beni (.778) .597 Arroyo (.551) 2B: Schoop full time (EHern back-up) LF: Beni-Renfroe CF: EHern full time RF: Verdugo Better offense- better defense. One signing.

I'm thinking, if we sign Pillar and not a 2Bman, it would mean EHern would be the primary 2Bman. The OF would be like this: LF: Beni-Renfroe platoon CF: Pillar (EHern?) RF: Verdugo There may be days where Pillar is "rested" vs RHPs, and on those days, I suppose Verdugo would play CF, Renfroe RF and Beni LF, but they could also play EHern in CF vs most RHPs and essentially platoon Pillar and Arroyo/Chavis, although they all bat RH'd. (Note: Arroyo & Chavis both hit RHPs better than LHPs in limited ML sample sizes.) Here are the career splits: vs RHP .821 Beni (.740 from 2019-2020) .810 Verdugo (.830) .740 Chavis (.740) .717 Renfroe (.699) .678 Pillar (.685) .678 Arroyo (.833) .673 EHern (.687) vs LHP .912 Renfroe (.879) .820 EHern (.739) .788 Verdugo (.821) .784 Pillar (.870) .699 Chavis (.699) .691 Beni (.778) .597 Arroyo (.551) I think Pillar's defense outweighs the slightly better OPS by Renfroe vs RHPs to bench Pillar, but EHern's numbers and defense in CF might make a Pillar-EHern platoon in CF make some sense, while also having a EHern-Arroyo/Chavis platoon at 2B occur, at the same time. It looks like we want to avoid using Renfroe and Pillar vs RHPs. While EHern might have the lowest OPS v RHPs, his defense in CF outweighs the slight differential on offense vs Pillar/Renfroe. It looks like Arroyo should never start vs a LHP and Beni has done better vs LHPs in the last 2 seasons than earlier in his career. I might think this would be the best alignment, assuming we sign Pillar: vs RHP: 2B: Arroyo/Chavis LF: Beni CF: EHern RF: Verddugo vs LHP: 2B: EHern LF: Renfroe CF: Pillar RF: Verdugo

Angels-O's finalizing trade for Alex Cobb. -MLBTR

Never really trusted Pete.

Words like "working on the framework" of his retirement. Does this mean they are restructuring his money owed? Deciding when and how he retires? I'm glad we don't really have any pressing roster crunch issues, this winter.

I could see the Sox making no more significant moves. They may just sign a 5th OF'er for defense, like Marisnick or Hamilton. Keep some cash to add a player or two mid-season, when contracts are pro-rated, assuming we are not sellers at the deadline. Give Arroyo, Chavis and maybe later, if they both fail, Arauz or Munoz a chance to win the 2B job, at least if and until Downs shows he deserves a shot. I really like EHern in CF. He is much better, defensively, there than at 2B. So, we start the year with this line-up: 1. Beni/Renfroe LF 2. Verdugo RF 3. Bogaerts SS 4. Devers 3B 5. JD DH 6. Dalbec/Chavis 1B 7. Chavis/Arroyo 2B 8. Vazquez C 9. Hernandez CF Bench: Plawecki, Beni or Renfroe, Arroyo or Chavis, Marisnick

Hasn't the retirement plan already been hinted at as happening? Are there any quotes from Pedey or his agent on this?

I'd prefer Schoop or Colome, if we can only add one more player, but Colome would not fill the 13th nonpitcher slot. If we don't get a 2Bman, I'd like to see a CF'er not a RF'er. Pillar?

The weird thing is, he publically stated he wanted top tier prospects for both, but he settled for quantity over quality. I can understand why the Sox did not trade 3-4 prospects for 2 years or an injury-prone SP'er. One could argue we should be trading one of our injury-prone SP'ers for 4 prospects. I hope Ben does well in PIT. I've always liked the Pirates and the city of Pittsburgh, but I think Taillon is going to do great things, the next 2 years.

A possible everyone healthy 26 man roster, as of now... 13 pitchers SP: Sale, ERod, Eovaldi, Richards, Perez, Pivetta (long relief) RP: Ottavino, Barnes, Brasier, DHern, Taylor, Houck/Andriese, Whitlock/Brice 13 non pitchers C: Vazquez, Plawecki 1B: Dalbec 2B: Arroyo, Chavis (EHern) 3B: Devers SS: Bogaerts LF: Beni, Renfroe CF: EHern (Verdugo) RF: Verdugo (Renfroe) DH: Martinez 26th man: Wilson (AA), Puello or Munoz (not on 40 man) or add 2B (Schoop?) or CF (Pillar?).

How long do the Sox have before they need to add EHern & Richards? Pedey retiring would make one roster move easier, although I'm not sure anyone is fretting over DFA'ing anyone on the bottom of our 40 man roster. Chances are, the player we DFA might end up on our minor league roster, anyway, or we can sign a minor league FA just as good as the guy we cut. Possible DFA or trade candidates (options remaining according to soxprospects.com): Pedey retires Springs 3 Payamps 1 Wilson 2 (maybe only if we add an OF'er) Brice 0 Walden 1 Brewer 1 Arauz 2 Valdez 2 Mazza 1 Andriese 0 Whitlock 3 (rule 5) Bazardo 3 Groome 3

I think this is one of the most under-rated aspects of the game. I'm not sure how much MLB GMs value this aspect of a catcher's skillset, or if they view Vaz as lacking in this area, as I do. My guess is some GMs value this more than others, and since it is a very hard skill to objectively quantify, there are probably some varying opinions on which catchers are big pluses or minuses in this area. That being said, this is one reason I have identified Vazquez as a possible trade candidate, despite the fact that his salary is not all that high. He has two years of team control. I get how we are trying to look good, this year and next, but to me, out biggest priority is 2022 and beyond. I'm not going to get into the data, once again, but I will say that almost every single pitcher we've had here in recent year that have had significant sample sizes with Vaz and another catcher on our team, did better with the other catcher. On top of that, if you look at the unbalanced sample sizes and smaller sample sizes, just about all of them showed pitchers performing better with any of our catchers not names Vaz. (Swihart is the only exception.) I'm not for handing Vaz away. I'm not for trading him away just for the sake of doing something. I'm not sure how much other GMs value him, but I do know several competitive teams would love to upgrade their catching position. I doubt Vaz would be a fit for a rebuilding team looking 3+ years down the road.

I think the only person I heard mention him was you.

I didn't provide the CERA-type data to prove Stallings was a wonder in that area- just to show he's not sucky like Vaz is in that area. The BTV site adds value for years of control, but they have Vaz ranked 9th and Stallings 12th among Major League level catchers.

Carlos Rodon back to CWS.

Plenty of time to sign all these FAs!

I agree 100%. I still think getting Taillon will be the best off season move any team makes.