moonslav59

A significant one. Merrill Kelly would be a huge upgrade over TBD, our current 5th starter. He's got a 3.22 ERA (133 ERA+) , 3.53 FIP, 1.057 WHIP and a very nice .624 OPS Against, this year. Those numbers are solid #3 numbers and better than many #2's. Crochet Giolito Kelly Bello (Harrison/Fitts/Houck/Criswell could be upgraded, too.)

Another team ahead of us and gaining ground... so far.

Maybe we end up with M Kelly & O'Hearn. O'Hearn has average 20 Hrs (49 XBHs) per 162 gsm since 2023. .796 OPS (125 OPS+) He kills RHPs (.874 in '25 Would that be enough?

Maybe we end up with M Kelly & O'Hearn. O'Hearn has average 20 Hrs (49 XBHs) per 162 gsm since 2023. .796 OPS (125 OPS+) Would that be enough?

Gotta also wonder how many lefty pen arms the Sox will have on the 26: Chapman Matz Wilson Bernardino Murphy?

Blue Jays: Shane Bieber, Seranthony Domínguez Tigers: RHPs Chris Paddack, Randy Dobnak, Kyle Finnegan, Paul Sewald Astros: IF Ramón Urías TOP AL WILD CARD COMPETITORS Yankees: David Bednar, Ryan McMahon, Amed Rosario, Austin Slater Red Sox: Steven Matz Mariners: Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suarez, LHP Caleb Ferguson Rangers: None We need to add more than 2-3 of these teams and add even with 2-3 more to be a top 3 team. Right now, we are losing ground to NYY, DET and certainly SEA. We may be even with TOR & HOU and slightly ahead of TEX.

I think Duran and Abreu are better, but we need a 1Bman, and I think Bradley regains his MLB stature. He's only 24 and has 67 ML starts under his belt. (4.14 FIP from '24-'25 and 3.0 fWAR in his last 46 GS. That comes to about a 2.0 WAR over 30 starts.)

Agreed, but I Campbell is not on the 26. He'll be kept over Alcala due to options and years of control. Criswell gets demoted, first. The second guy is between DFAing Alcala vs demoting Murphy. Maybe with Matz on board, we trade Bernardino, but I doubt it. I'd keep Murphy for August & September. We can pick up waiver guys as good as Alcala in AUG, if needed. We may add a SP'er and RP'er, today and both Alcala and Murphy are removed from the 26. We also have Harrison and Houck (maybe Guerrero) banging on the MLB door, too. (Fitts might get one more look-see.)

Maybe this time, they will deliver. You'd think we can find some really good but overpaid players, some teams want to trade for less of a return due to the money saved.

Would you do it for Diaz and the struggling Taj Bradley?

I'd keep Jh Garcia. I'd trade Romero or Arias- not both. I'd trade Tibbs or Bleis- maybe both. I'd include pitchers like Early, Sandlin, Uberstine, Mullins, Paez, Wehunt & Monegro is deals that bring back a controlled pitcher. I'd consider trading K Campbell over Jh Garcia, because I think he'd bring back a much better controlled pitcher. A Campbell, Romero & Sandlin trade sounds like the best I'd give up to get a very nice SP'er with 3+ years of control or a much better one with 1-2 years of control with hopes of extending.

Okay. I was thinking you meant to say 2023 not 2025. My bad. Murphy is better. I see your point about keeping as many options as possible, but we are near August, and it's time to put the best players on the 26. We still have 4-6 arms on the farm and another 2-3 coming off the IL, soon that all look as good as or better than Alcala, to me. If we add an arm, Criswell gets demoted. (Harrison may replace him soon.) To me, the next casualty should be Alcala not a Murphy demotion, but maybe both end up happening, anyway.

M's, DET & TOR getting better. NYY, HOU, TEX & BOS doing about the same, so far. To become a top 2-3 AL contender, we need to add more than what DET & TOT have already added, and maybe SEA, too. We need to add more than HOU & NYY add, as well. A very solid SP'er and LHB at 1B should make us close to top 2-3, IMO, assuming these other teams don't make major improvements by 6pm.

It's easy to just admit you made a mistake. Why compare 2025 Alcala to 2023 Murphy?

K Finnegan to DET

The .814 OPS Against vs RHBs is very troubling, under the new rules. Career: .766 v R .691 v L (.442 in 2025)

We'll demote Criswell before Murphy or DFA'ing Alcala. Ummm. Chris Mjurphy has a 2.70 ERA in 2025. (It was 4.91 in '23.) He has a 0.900 WHIP, but his FIP is over 5, due to 3 HRs in 16.2 IP.

Agreed. I must have suggested dozens of Casas & Yoshida trades, last winter. Depending on the return, trading an OF'er and calling Anthony up earlier might have been a great idea, too.

Here are the 2025 DRS numbers for the Sox: +16 Rafaela CF (DO NOT PLAY HIM AT 2B!) +14 Narvaez C (Thanks BREZ!) +10 Abreu RF (Still GG caliber in RF) +6 Duran LF (Not bad for a Fenway LF'er) +6 DHam 2B (Too bad he can't get on base enough to steal 75 bases.) +5 Anthony RF (in 1/4th the innings as Abreu!) +4 Bregman (missed some time) +2 Refsnyder RF (Helped by Fenway) +2 Wong (Bello's binky) +2 Romy 2B (just 254 innings) +1 Story (maybe at 2B in 2026) Others with 90+ innings: 0 Mayer at 3B, Toro at 3B and Sogard at 1B -2 Duran in CF (One poster swears he belongs in CF) -4 Casas at 1B (Should outs Yoshida as our next DH) -14 KC at 2B (Should be given every chance to win the 1B job or be sent to the OF or DH.) We really have just 2 bad fielders and one is out for the year, while the other may never play 2B for us, again.

If we do anything this offseason, I hope we can find a way to dump some of Yoshida's salary on another team. Take back a big salary dump in return, if needed. We should be looking at Casas, Campbell, Romy and Ref as DH options for 2026.

100%. I hope our 2026 alignment looks like this: C Narvaez 1B _____ (Casas) & Romy (Campbell) 2B Story SS Mayer 3B Bregman LF Duran (Jh Garcia) CF Rafaela RF Abreu & Refsnyder (returns for 1 more year) DH Anthony (Campbell/Jh Garcia) I am near certain we trade an OF'er this winter, if not at this deadline. Anthony OF and Campbel, Yoshida, Ref or Romy at DH. Jh Garcia as the 4th OF'er.

Perfect fit for the Sox!

I think the pendulum has swung towards the here and now, but the future is still a high enough priority that I doubt we try and empty the farm for a 2025 ring. Crochet, Bregman, Chapman, Buehler and Sandoval were not cheap. (Wilson was.) True, we traded Devers, so the huge outlay of cash was mitigated by a huge salary dump, but I think we will continue to build up the 26 for a strong run at ring #5. It may not be for 2025, but I think we keep adding more than we subtract. We don't have a lot of expensive arbs coming up, even beyond 2026. Cots has us about $74M under the tax line in 2026, and I would not be surprised if we went over by up to $19M. That could mean we have $75-90M to spend on... SP2 Closer 3B (some on 1B and 2B) In theory, we could spend $30M AAV on 3 players or $35M on 2 and $20M on a closer. We have a ton of cash coming off the books, and much of it does not really need top replacements, including Devers at DH (1B/3B.) We will need to extend or replace Bregman at 3B (Suarez?) We will need to extend or replace Chapman. We will need to replace Giolito, but we have Gio + Buehler's money to do it. We should add some more depth and fix the 1B issue. Maybe, we need to add a better 2B depth choice than DHam. Maybe counting on Mayer to stay healthy is a mistake.

That's how I see it, even if we trade Casas or he never wins back the 1B job. (He may/should be our next DH.) Blaze was a Rule 5 guy, who likely would have been selected, since he is ML ready. We'd have traded him for somebody. Matz is that somebody.

While it's not the top AL teams trading players to the NL, the 2025 AL has gotten worse, as a whole, via trades so far. (CLE & TBR looked like contenders but are selling.) To NL: Mason, Jh Duran, Littell & Sears To AL: E Suarez