moonslav59

1. Agree. 2. Duran for Lodolo makes sense to both teams, but Duran for Ryan does not to MN. Duran to HOU for Paredes and a LH'd RP'er might work, too.

I think most teams would want Rafaela over Duran, due to his low salary, especially in the front end, and 6 years of control to 3 for Duran. He plays way better defense and at a tougher position. He might improve on offense, where Duran might decline in the next 3 years. Rafaela vs Abreu is a tougher call. Abreu plays great defense at an equally challenging OF position and has the power this team cannot afford to part with. Abreu has one pre-arb year left and 3 arbs to follow. He may end up being cheaper than Ceddanne over the next 4 years, and CR has a back-loaded contract, so many poorer teams would likely trade him after 3-4 years. Rafaela makes $10.5M in '30 and then $13M in '31 with a $16M option w $4M buyout. That does not seem like an overpay, but many teams would trade him at that price. The presence of K Campbell and even Yoshida as a short/corner OF'er option makes trading an OF'er a must, to me, this winter. There are arguments to keep one over the other, but one should be traded. To me, they all look pretty close to even, when you factor pay, years of control, defense, offense, power and speed, so I'd trade the one who brings back the better return. Unless we get a big bat upgrade at 2B/3B, I'd hesitate to trade Duran or Abreu, so to me, this context is what decides who I'd want to trade. If we get a big bat, I'd lean towards trading Duran. If we don't, it's clearly Rafaela, IMO. I'm far from giving up on K Campbell, and I think we can "hide him" in LF, if his defense sucks. I have little doubt that his hit tool is a plus. I know many here cringe at the idea of Masa in LF, and I don't like the idea either, but I think Brez & Co are not afraid to play him there. If Casas comes back to form, we could easily platoon Campbell and Masa in LF and DH Casas, if there was a major OF injury. These are risks worth taking to fill that 2B/3B need. Counting on signing Bregman or Bichette long term is not likely.

He probably would have traded more top prospects, but Brez has already traded more top 20 prospects than DD did, at this point in his time with BOS.

There is little doubt the Jays are serious.

Since joining the Sox in 2022, Refsnyder hit .924 v LHPs. If he could have reversed his splits, he'd be an all star player, since he'd have had so many more PAs and qualified among the league leaders in 3 of those 4 years. (The guy hit lefties better than Betts and many other studs.) His .924 OPS placed him 7th among all MLB players with 500+ PAs. Since 2024, his OPS was .949, so he was getting even better as he aged. Only 4 MLB players had a higher OPS than .949 and 280+ PAs. His OPS beat out Schwarber (6th) and maybe our "new Ref," Romy (7th.) He also had some very big hits along the way. I wish him the best of luck, when he's not playing the Sox.

We can focus on trying to win a WS in 2026 without writing off 2027, 2028 and beyond. You do that by not trading away a bunch of the future for one year players and minimizing 2 year players. Did trading for Crochet ruin our future chances? To some degree, it might have, had we not extended him, but he was not a one and done addition.

BINGO! And with our recent, god-awful history on the lack of 1B depth, stashing Casas in AAA until he shows something is the clear answer. If he doesn't return to form, there's a clear answer for that, too, but give they guy some time.

I don't think they want to either, but I still post what I think they should do. I think you sometimes feel we are posting what we think will happen and not what we think should happen. We all voice our opinions on what we think. So, what do I think will happen? I have said that, too. I think we seek a FA player who might accept a 1-2 year deal- maybe a 2 year deal with a team option for year 3 but with a significant buyout. To me, that might be E Suarez or Okamoto. I could also see us maybe signing Bassitt to a 1 year deal, which might allow us to trade one more SPer coupled with an OF'er for a 2B/3Bman- not like K Marte. More likely a straight trade like Crawford for Paredes or Rafaela for Paredes and one of HOU's LH'd RP'ers. It's a guessing game that some of enjoy playing.

As much as Brez has traded players & prospects away, he has also added a lot of good players and a few prospects, too. Our farm will drop in the rankings, but much of that is due to graduations and attrition. We still have a very young team and plenty of promising prospects. 26 Key players by age (team control) and only 1 (Whitlock) has 1 year left. Gray, Chapman, Contreras, Oviedo & Yoshida have just 2 years left. 21 Anthony (8-9) 22 Tolle (5+) & Mayer (5+) 23 Early (5+) & Campbell (7-9) 24 Rafaela (5) & Harrison (5) 25 Casas (3) 26 Crochet (6), Bello (4-5), Abreu (4) & Narvaez (5) 27 Slaten (4) & Oviedo (2) 28 Duran (3) & Romy (3) 29 Whitlock (1), Crawford (3) Sandoval (1) & Houck (2) 30 Weissert (4) 31 Yoshida (2) 32 Story (2-3) 33 Contreras (2) 36 Gray (1-2) 37 Chapman (1-2) 7 Role Players 27 DHam (4) & Sogard (5) 28 Moran (5), Eaton (5) & Hicks (2) 29 Wong (3) 30 Kelly (4) That's a pretty solid core of 26 + 7 players. Then... 7 more on 40: Tristan Gray, T Uberstine, S Drohan, T Samaniego, R Watson, J Bennett & Sandlin Prospects not on the 40: 2. Arias 20 4. Witherspoon 21 5. Valera 19 7. Gonzales 19 8. Soto 17 10. Phillips 21, 11. Eyanson 21, 16. Holobetz 23, 17. Mullins 26, 23. Delzine 17 12. Godbout 22, 13. Romero 21, 20. Azocar 18, 24. Ramos 18, 25. Rivas 17 & Jo Garcia 21 We have the pieces for a 5 year window.

I'm not obsessed with 26. I'm not for trading for 1 year guys. Trade for Marte and a 5 year window!

So is Yoshida.

He was drafted by Bloom, right?

Yup, and then the SP'ers fell like dominoes and Newcomb sucked as a starter.

We are the only AL team not to sign a MLB FA

Not really. He has added some, too, but it has gotten worse.

Donovan has 2 arbs left. This year is estimated to be about $6M. I think BTV has his value at $32M. Sox Players $46 Duran $25 Bello $22 Crawford $19 Campbell $18 Casas & Witherspoon $8 Romero $7 Harrison $6 Eyanson

Minor League deal

You might be right, but it seems like more a move for the future and not 2026. This does not seem like the moment to go that road.

Priester would have gotten a shot, as we ended up trying everybody, trading for Dustin May and then adding 2 rookies to the 40 befre we needed to meet Rule 5 requirements. That being said, he was maybe 10th to 12 on our depth chart and was not viewed as likely to get a chance to pitch, so I get why we did it.

That won't last, but I do wonder if Brez might just sign 1-2 minor FAs and make one more big trade.

It's rather stunning the amount of trades Brez has made this winter. He made that real big one, last winter and few others along the way and before, but this whole roster and system is fast becoming almost half his in just 2 years. Chapman is 18th in seniority on the 40. Brez's prospects rank: 1 Tolle, 4 Witherspoon, 6 Bennett, 7 Gonzales, 8 Soto, 9. Sandlin, 10. Phillips. 11 Eyanson, 12 Godbout, 16. Holobetz, 20. Azocar, 21. Watson, 23. Delzine, 24. Ramos, 25. Rivas, 29. Samanieg0, 30 Cason. 31. Guzman, 32. Heyman, 33 Primera, 35. TYgart, 36. YRod, 37 White, 38. McShane, 40 Rivera. That's 7 of the top 10. 11 of top 20 18 of top 30 26 of top 40 10 to 12 of the 26 could be his additions.

I might be too high on Holobetz, but Marcus Phillips, the comp pick we got in that trade, might end up being the biggest prize. (YRod is still young enough- 20- to turn things around, too.)

Soto and Azocar both show great potential. It's sort of like a shot in the dark on this thing. I kinda like Delzine & Cason, too. My dark horse not so young would be Johanfran Garcia.

I kinda felt the same about trading Yorke for Priester, then trading Priester for 3 prospects, then...

I realize the future production by Duran is kind of hard to project, but Vientos and Tong are very suspect, going forward. I'm kinda looking for something more like a sure bet. I don't project Vientos to outhit Duran, so we'd take another step back on offense, after already losing Devers, Bregman, Refsnyder and D Lowe. The Contreras gain at 1B is significant, but he and Anthony can't make up for all that loss and then add Duran to the loss list. I'd feel better about trading Duran, if we got a solid #2 SP'er or someone like KMart or even Donovan plus something else from STL or a third team involved. Duran to PHI Painter & Hicks to STL Donovan to BOS