moonslav59

The bell may Tolle Early, this season.

There was a marked change from 2024 to 2025. I admitted much was undone by the Devers dump, and pointing out the lack of deadline moves was something I neglected to mention. So far, this winter, we have not been "aggressive" financially, despite all the extensions kicking in and adding some salary via trades for Gray & Contreras. I agree on that.

You made some great points, but I have to disagree on this. Just because the nearly $50M spent on new pitchers ($21M/1 for Buehler) and $18M/2 for Sandoval, $11M/1 Chapman + $2M/1 for Wilson) did not all work out very well, we were aggressive. When you factor in the highly aggressive trade and extension to Crochet, it's hard to think we were being meek & mild on pitching. The Devers extension kicked in in 2024, and dumping his salary sure fits your comment on not being agressive as that was a move backwards, despite taking on the Hicks contract (add him and the Chapman extension to the 2025 pitching ledger- mid season.) However, spending $40M on Bregman, which blows away the Sox record FA AAV and topped the Devers AAV can hardly be considered nonaggressive. On top of his deal, we extended Anthony and Campbell on the heels of the Bello/Rafaela ones from the previous season. We are being aggressive, but just in different ways. We haven't signed a mega large and long deal since Price. The JD, Story and Masa FA signings have been our largest. That's a big change and could be viewed as being passive. I get that. Maybe spending $20M more in 2025 than 2024 is not "aggressive" enough, but it is a significant uptick. The end of year budget was almost $23M more than 2024. Only 6 teams had a higher AAV line than we did in 2025, and while that reflects sme future spending more than current, I thought that was a good thing. One of biggest gripes has been losing our young stars to a free agency and not extending them. We just locked up Crochet, Anthony, Rafaela, Bello & Campbell. That's a hge swing in philosophy and a bit of a gamble. Dare we call it "aggressive?"

I think KC is going to be more than fine.

Casas/Romy/Narvaez would be the immediate replacements, assuming an OF'er is traded.

I do wonder if one domino falls, they all follow quickly. Bregman or Bichette, then the other and Suarez and maybe a trade or two (KMarte? Donovan? Vientos?)

sp.com has him on the bench in AAA.

I think we will look to Harrison and Crawford to help the pen by taking bulk innings. A lot of that depends on how healthy the other SP'ers are and can stay. Last year, we looked 11-12 deep and even traded away Priester, thinking we had more than enough depth. We ended up trading for D May, starting Criswell, de Leon and some "opener" starts, as well. Then, we ended up promoting rookies, Tolle & Early and ran short of starters in the playoffs. I see Tolle & Early as the guys we most trust to fill in rotation slots. They might not be the first two tried, but if we begin the year with Harrison & Crawford in the pen, they might be used first. Drohan, Uberstine & Sandlin seem like fringe options, to me, and all may best be used from the pen, but they will start the year in the AAA rotation. The AAA pen looks kinda light compared to 2025, but the winter additions are not complete. If everyone is healthy, Kelly may begin at AAA, as Moran & Watson are out of options or Rule 5. Then, we have Mullins, Samaniento & Song. I'm not sure mentioning Harris, Gamboa & Berrios is worth it. Some AA pitchers might jump over them.

And when you look at how well we've done with comp picks and using the bonus signing money efficiently in recent years, I think it matters a lot to the Sox. I seriously doubt we go past the second line- perhaps never.

With Campbell, I'm thinking it's a FT or near FT role or he stays in AAA. An injury could create that slot. A bad year by someone else could, too. A lot depends on whether an OF'er gets traded, this winter and or, if Duran is significantly used at DH.

Thanks for this. Very encouraging.

Still very sweet!

He does not count. He was healthy when we signed him. He was reversed.

Aren't we due getting one of these rehab pitcher right, for once?

He's like Hendriks, and Sandoval is like Paxton.

We signed a sweet FA, today.

I'm not sure it's a big worry: Career splits: Whitlock: .648 v L/ .668 v R Slaten: .542 v L/ .606 v R Weissert .711 v L/ .665 v R, but .606 v L in '25/.673 v R

Good point. He did have 3+ months with him, last year, though.

OPS+ since 2023 127 Contreras 123 Duran 119 Casas 118 Abreu 111 Yoshida 108 Romy (123 w BOS) 95 Story 89 Rafaela

That's easy... with the man without a position: Kristian Campbell. Second choice: Casas. Third choice: Romy/Narvaez when Wong or Contreras catch.

He'll trade Duran for a RP'er and prospect for the $7M savings that keeps us under line 2.

I've agreed tat we could and should spend more. I'm not sure wat else to say. My beef is hearing people say we aren't spending, but we are. We are spending way more than the previous 3-4 years, and we are doing some things, like locking up our young talent longterm way more than we did, even in the glory years from 2004 to 2018. It's not all bad. We have a nice core of young players, some obtained because we tanked- kinda like the Astors did before their run of glory. I don't want us to waste this window, and if we do things right, maybe we can keep the window open wide for many years to come. We need one more major piece, or maybe 2 really good ones, and spending on one makes the most sense, but spending on one and trading for another would be fine with me. Just do it. No more talk of full throttle and wanting to be competitive- let's see some action and results.

Our farm is not very deep with ML ready everyday players, so maybe Romero sticks around another season.

Could Rivera possibly make a jump to the bigs by AUG-SEP?

It does happen, sometimes that pitchers regain their form after surgery. Sometimes it takes longer than our short term deals cover, and we miss out. Sometimes, they don't ever get back to even close to previous levels. That may happen with Sandoval and Crawford. Let's see. I'm glad we have Harrison, Tolle & Early in case they don't.