moonslav59

I could see the Sox thinking Mayer is our FT 3Bman and Romy is our FT 2Bman going into 2026. DHam- Sogard-Campbell-Grissom would be the 2B depth....maybe just 2-3 will be on the 2026 40 man roster. Story stays at SS for one more year is the odds on bet. If they also put their hopes in Casas-Romy/Campbell at 1B, we'll know the sham is ongoing.

I think that is the likely scenario, if Breggie returns (new deal or no opt out.) Hoskin would help, but we'd really be putting all our eggs in the Anthony-Mayer basket. If we end up trading Duran or Abreu for pitching, one could argue our on paper offense got worse. The real possibilities happen, if Bregman opts out. The budget would allow for a significant upgrade for the offense, especially the power aspect of it, with his $32M AAV added to the winter budget, which looks to be close to $35-40M, already (no Lowe & Gio.)

I have no issues with your tone, Drew. I appreciate your insights. I think Devers was healthy enough to play 1B. Casas was an injury waiting to happen, but had .850 w 30 HR potential as our DH. I'm fine if you disagree, but I firmly believe the best line-up was Devers at 1B, Casas at DH, and Bregman at 3B. (Mayer at SS and Story at 2B might have been better than Campbell at 2B and Story at 2B, but we did make the playoffs.) I wonder if we'd moved Devers to 1B not DH, right off the bat, if he'd still be here. We'd be talking about adding one big bat- not two.

All true, but how well did that work out? Look at all the rings the Yanks got with a better defensive SS playing 3B. Just play your best batters at the positions that are best for the team and stop pampering your stars with the greatest seniority.

Although Sean Murphy is not the batter he used to be, I'd see him as a major upgrade over Wong as the #2 catcher and part time DH. He doesn't improve the power much, but maybe we can get him for Hicks, Mullins & Wong. Sign Alonso, Schwarber or Suarez to play 1B. Trade Duran and whatever for Joe Ryan or _____. I seriously doubt we do even this, so asking for a second big bat seems unrealistic. Bringing back Bregman (Mayer at SS and Story at 2B) would help, but would be very expensive. Adding Polanco or Torres at 2B with Mayer at SS and Story at 3B would also help. the offense. KMarte is likely a pipe dream, if we do even just some of this other stuff.

It's weird that the organization wanted Devers to play 3B, but the manger apparently never even hinted at it with Devers, let alone politely asked if he could even broach the subject. I think it's weird they did not view Devers as a better 1Bman than Casas- the worst on D in the history of MLB- maybe. I think it's weird and GM gets on a plane to speak to Devers, but apparently never asked him to play 1B, either. I do think Cora can think of several things over a winter and positional alignment is one, especially when you see how bad our D was in 2023 and 2024. The Yanks did not agonize over keeping Jeter at SS, but maybe they should have.

He had a great season, no doubt. I'm pumped up over our young pitching.

Good to see some velocity from Perales, but he still has a lot to prove.

I doubt we look to 2B for a big bat, too. I think we look at corner IF, first, I think Brez & Co alkready view Anthony as the second big bat "addition" despite the fact that he gave us 300 PAs in 2025, and we subtracted Devers, I don't like that idea, but I think it's reality. I also think they view mayer as the 3B or 2B solution- like it or not. They will probably run Yoshida back at DH for another season of powerless DH production. IMO, we simply have to make up for the lack of power at DH by looking beyond corner IF- like 2B or just add 2 power corner IF'ers and run it by with mayer and Story at middle IF and Yoshida/Romy at DH. Trade Duran plus___ for a solid arm and call it a winter. This is highly unlikely to happen, even if we don't go huge and just add Suarez and Hoskins.

I can totally see Drew's point. The first priority has to be adding a big bat. The second one could be either another big bat or a solid SP'er, but we really need all 3 about the same: 2 big bats and a big arm. I'm not sure I'd call Bregman a "big bat," but oif the other bat is Alonso or Schwarber, I'd be okay with Bregman, KMarte, Suarez or Polanco as the other one. I might think positions and defense matter more than Drew does, but I think we can do some things to improve what we already have- like Story to 2B, no Duran in the OF and more OF play from Abreu, Rafaela (no 2B/SS) and Anthony. (Jh Garcia is supposed to be pretty good on D, as well and has some power from the right side.) Alonso, Schwarber, Polanco, Bregman or Suarez do not make the D better. KMarte is better than what we had on D, this year, but I think he's about average. I think we can absorb the poor D, as long as the O gets helped enormously, and we still stay strong at the other slots. Some combo of those 5 players added to the IF would force Story to stay at SS or play 3B/2B with mayer at SS.

Exactly, and I often fall prey to the same habit. I assume the trends continue. I used to be strongly against the idea that the playoffs are more crapshoot than seeing skill- based results. I'm starting to swing more to the middle.

Polanco (actually has some power) and Torres for 2B? Trade for K Marte? Add a 3Bman and play Mayer at 2B? There are some options out there.

Because it's what they do, and it's worked so well, year after year.

It seems obvious Brez needs to trade from the OF and... gasp... pitching depth to upgrade thew quality in the IF (including a big power bat) and TOTR.

The've played musical chairs at 3B since the day Pedey got hurt. In the last 9 years (about 12000 innings at 2B) here are the Sox innings leaders: 2017-2025: Not one player has 1/9 of the innings. 1248 Arroyo (less than 1/10th of all innings.) Most innings in '22 & '23 1103 Holt (most in 2019) 1046 Nunez (most in 2018) 890 Pedey (most in 2017) 845 Valdez (most in '24) 814 Story 679 DHam 556 Chavis 472 Campbell (most innings in 2025) 418 Romy 357 Kike (most in '21) 332 Marco H 298 Kinsler 200-260: Marwin, Grissom, Reyes, Rafaela, urias, Arauz, Peraza (most in '20) 100-199: Sogard, Lin, Iggy, Y Sanchez, Westbrook, Rutledge 13 players 10-99 innings 7 players 1-9 innings Predicting another merry-go-round at 2B seems like a safe bet.

True. I think Story would be okay at 3B but much better at 2B. I share your immense concern with Mayer's ability to play a full season, so counting on him to play 3B 150 games scares me. We have no real depth at 3B, either.

Perhaps, the "Flippers." Let's see.

I get the "luck" and small sample size, but a .530 OPS Against and an ERA and other stats like the ones you posted almost looks like bad luck.

Assists: 397 Story 206 Bregman Almost identical throwing errors per throw.

Yup, but I might go Story at 3B or 2B and Mayer at SS. (Sign Suarez- yuck on 3B D, or Polanco/Torres for 2B)

I'm thrilled they keep him.

How about those Tigers? They had one of the most epic regular season collapses, barely squeaked into the playoffs and now are a game away from advancing into their third playoff series.

Good points. It seems strange to me that a pitcher can have a .530 OPS Against and still have those horrific side stats. It makes me wonder if using OPS for batters is worthwhile.

Ahhhh... the memories!

Indeed, then his boss trades away the only batter other teams did fear. Add to that the fact that he lost over 162 possible GSd from his #2 through #12 rotation pitchers. 33 Crawford 33 Sandoval 24 Houck 7 Gio 5 Bello 20+ Dobbins 10+ Fitts & Criswell Maybe 20+ from Priester (traded) and Perales (IL) And, this may be the biggest question: How many had faith in our pen going into 2025?