moonslav59

Before I saw this trade announced, I was about to relay a 3 way trade I saw on BTV that looked doable: To BOS: Paredes To HOU: Nootbar To STL: Soto Made some sense for all teams.

...or Duran!

Could this be the depth chart by position? C: Narvaez, Wong> Contreras (emergency only), Seigler, Gasper (AAA Thaiss) 1B: Contreras, Romy, Casas > Monasterio (Hickey) 2B: Mayer, Romy, Durbin/I K-F, Cheng, Monasterio, Sogard, Seigler (Romero) 3B: Durbin, Mayer, I K-F> Monasterio, Seigler, Sogard, Eaton, Romy SS: Story, I K-F> ??? LF: Anthony, Duran> KC, Masa, Romy CF: Rafaela, Anthony/Duran> (B Ward) RF: Abreu, Anthony > (Eaton) DH: Duran/Masa/Casas LHBs & Romy/KC RHBs

Okay. I should have said he's showed he can play 3B very well, but hasn't proven anything at 2B, yet. Mayer at 2B is a question mark, too.

The why is that if they first prove they are great, their extension will be at a much higher cost, or they will see dollar signs in their eyes and "want to see what the FA market has to offer." Sound familiar? This is done to help prevent the next Betts & Bogey situation from happening. We will likely miss on some. Last winter, we heard some wondering on why we extended Rafaela & Bello so early. I'm not hearing that anymore.

Nope. The signed him on April 2nd.

To me, the power question and overall offense performance is our biggest worry, at this point.

Actually, the defense might be better, if either is not playing. I K-F is a GG 3Bman and very good at SS and 2B. Rodgers is a GG 2Bman. Durbin might be a better defensive 3Bman than Mayer (not 2B though.) The other infielders look good on D, too.

The pen does have some concerns, and the depth is lacking, unless we can use our starters there. That assumes few SP'er injuries, and these days, that's nearly impossible to expect. Slaten returns, but we lost Wilson & Bernardino. Moran, Watson & Kelly are questionable.

Agreed. I thought last years was very good, too, and it was. We even felt we could spare priester, it looked so deep, but we ended up adding Tolle & Early before planned and had to trade for D May and start de Leon, late in the season. No doubt- depth on paper is precarious. Last year, our #2 (Houck) sucked and then missed his las 22 starts. Our #5/6 (Crawford) missed the whole season. Our #4/5/6 (Sandoval) missed the whole season. One of our plus de[th starter, Dobbins, pitched very well, then missed half the season with an injury. Newcomb, Fitts and other spot starters did not do all that well. The two additions- Buehler and DMay sucked.. Gio & Bello did fine. It's largely unknown, and we've recently traded some of that depth away (Harrison, Dobbins. Fitts, Perales & Clarke,) but we still look pretty good down to our #8 & 9 guys: 1. Crochet 2. Suarez 3. Gray 4. Bello 5/6 Oviedo 5/6/7 Crawford 5/6/7 Sandoval 8/9 Tolle & Early

Agreed. I think I've said that a dozen times, this winter. I'd rather look deep on paper than not.

Good answer.

Indeed, despite Abreu out hitting and defending him in 2025. I think Cora would prefer not platooning Duran, but sitting him one out of every 3 games vs LH's SP'ers might only be about 15-20 starts. He'd probably still PH and be brought into most games he starts on the bench. (Same with Abreu, if he doesn't start vs a lefty.) Not having Refsnyder changes the OF dynamic. I know we hear "Romy can platoon in the OF," but I think he's better utilized as a 2B/dH platoon while playing some 1B vs selected RHPs.

Gasper is for catching depth, not infield. KC is the 5th OF'er. He's about the 8th string infielder. Once we add I K-F, I think we DFA Cheng, so we'll be at about 6, in paratice.

Yes. I could see all three (Mayer 40%, Duran 35% & Abreu 25%) sitting 25-40% of the games we face LHPs. When Anthony needs a breather, he can sit vs a LHPs, too or maybe DH a few games to keep his bat in the line-up and well-rested.

I know they haven't named Durbin's position (3B or 2B,) yet, but I hope it's 3B. Te early return metrics show he's much better at 3B. I prefer mayer at 2B, so we could platoon Romy there, if needed. (I don't want Romy at 3B.) That keeps it simple. I'd DH Duran near FT, only playing him in the OF, when a better defender needs some rest. The subs would be the only ones bouncing around, under this plan.

I think if Duran sits vs LHPs, we'll see the other 3 OF'er playing. I doubt Romy plays much OF, unless there is an injury. More likely he platoons at 2B w Mayer and DH w Duran/Masa/Casas (all LHBs.)

Never said it was "enough" for me. I want a ring as badly as anybody. I think we are on the right path. Call me a homer or an eternal optimist, but I nor my wife view me as such. She sometimes chides me for always thinking of the worst things that can happen. IMO, we got a lot better in 2025. I had hopes we could improve by about the same amount, this winter, and in some areas, we did vastly better than I expected (rotation, 1B & infield depth,) but we fell a little short on one big bat and way short on the second big bat I hoped for. In just one week, our defense went from meh to very nice, depending on who is playing. It's too bad the best defensive team we can play might be close to our worst offensive team, but Durbin & Rodgers should/could hit better than DHam/Sogard/Eaton and even Mayer. They both are good defenders. (Rodgers has a GG.) I K-F is a GG winner, and may hits as least as well/badly as the carry-over 3 I just mentioned. I think this team, on paper, is better than 2025's, despite the downtick or break even on offense part. The rotation and starter depth is second to none. The pen looks solid. The defense looks top 10, now. The offense looks, to me, like #14 to 18th, with an upside of barely reaching top 10, but a floor of maybe #19th, unless we get hit hard by injuries. Our L-R situation is improved. Most of our better players are under team control for 3+ years. You can doom & gloom all you want, but I'm not getting sucked into that vortex.

He may only have to outhit Duran vs LHPs to stay playing FT.

Is there a good injury Ju Ju? 😏

That looks like a damn good pen. Sandoval, Kelly, Samaniego and maybe Uberstine or Early could be enough depth, but usually a team uses 20+ pitchers a season. I agree on your choices for who starts in the pen vs the rotation (MLB & AAA) soxprospects.com has been all over the map on who starts the season on the IL, pen or rotations. They now list Sandoval as not on the IL, but in the MLB pen. They have the staff at 14 pitchers. AAA rotation: Tolle, Early, Uberstine + Sikkema & Gamboa as NRIs. AA bullpen: Samaniego plus 9 NRIs, including Noah Song, Hobie Harris & Osvaldo Berrios. Jake Bennett is the lone AA player on the 40.

And so it begins...

Good to see you gave an opinion (meh.) Thanks for thanking me for sayings it's okay to say what you want. I wasn't aware until you pointed it out. LOL

Contreras can play catcher a few times a year, but should be viewed as emergency only, until the call-up can arrive. Gasper is not great on defense, but he's on the 40. We added decent minor league depth in Thaiss, so I think we are done adding catchers. We also added Anthony Seigler to the 40. He can catch. While it's no help for 2026, Brez did address beefing up the lowe rminor league catching group by adding: 31. Adonys Guzman A+ (part of Oviedo trade) 32. Luke Heyman A- (Alex Hoppe trade) 33. Franklin Primera FCL & Jorge Rodriguez (IFA signed 2024)

Yes, we all know he didn't. I was answering why they extending him early. They were hoping he'd do well, and they signed him before he'd be asking for more. The deal could still end up looking like a decent contract or maybe even a great one for the team... or not.