moonslav59

He did end up getting very upset when they would not commit to the option years that led to the trade, and maybe he felt like his "good will" on taking deferments should have been demoted. The whole ending to his Sox time was a big bummer, and there were more to come after him. (There were plenty from before, too.)

When they say $150-200M, is it for 4 years or 10, or what?

No slight intended towards the Jays. They earned their trip to the WS and built a team that was better than I expected, but pretty damn good. I've mentioned how they had 3 SP'ers with 31+ GS. That helps, a lot. Their offense got better was the year went on. Their pen did okay, despite having a questionable closer for most of the season. That being said, they lost 88 games in 2024 and did not make a ton of additions. Looking at 2026, they have more productive players becoming FAs than the Sox do: Bassitt, Bichette, Bieber, Scherzer, Kiner-Falefa, plsu France & Dominguez. A lot will depend on who comes back or who might replace them, but they have a lot of winter questions. SEA made some bold deadline deals and made a great run at the big prize. Their once great rotation kinda struggled, this year, but they still came very close to making the WS. They may lose 3 huge bats: E Suarez, Naylor & Polanco and a real good pen arm in Munoz. They have some big winter needs, too. The Yanks will certainly retool, and they should have Cole back, but we know what counting on returning IL pitchers can amount to. They lose a couple big bats: Bellinger & Grisham, plus a bunch of role players like Weaver, Goldschmidt, Williams, Loaisaga, Hill, Rosario, Slater & Yarboro. It will be interesting to see what their winter budget will be. The Sox lose Bregman and Gio. Refsnyder and Matz had key roles, but not major ones. Wilson, too. Our budget may be our do or die question.

I think he gets Story money: $140M/6 or $120M/5- maybe with inflation: $150M/6 or $130M/5. (JH will not okay that deal.)

The betting odds favor a guy named Tristan Casas as our 2026 1Bman with Romy/KC as depth. The odds favor Yoshida/Romy at DH for 2026. The odds favor Mayer at 3B or 2B for 2026. The slot that is wide open is the one Mayer does not play: 2B or 3B.

My bad. We needed 2023 numbers over 2024 IP'd. Now, we need better than 2023 numbers and 2024 IP. Again, not likely.

Curious on Alonso & Schwarber.

At least he earned his.

The Dodgers have no top 5 pitchers. Maybe Yamamoto is #5. 1. Skubal 2. Skenes 3. Crochet 4. C Sanchez 5T. Webb, Fried, Yamamoto and maybe H Brown or Sale.

Yup. He could be our #2 because everyone else has not earned the slot, but he could pitch better than 2024 and be okay as a #2, and if our #3, 4 and 5 do okay, too, there is a chance we could still make the dance. (Not likely, yes.)

It might pay the bar tab.

There is a chance Crawford becomes our #2 or 3 SP'er in 2026- or never starts another game for us. Most likely, he'll be our #5-6 SP'er.

We also dumped all of the remaining Diekman contract. It was a decent deal on both ends.

I'm just glad they took Diekman.

He looked okay on D, but nothing special. I do think the odds are 2025 was an outlier, but maybe not. I do not hand hima FT job- for sure. What impressed me most was his okay numbers vs righties. I thought he might be our next Refsnyder, but maybe he can be more.

There is no possible way we let Crawford walk. At worst, we trade him.

Lodolo for Duran even saves us $3.5M. That may not seem like much, but if the goal is to spend up to but below the tax line, $48M might get us two really good players while $44.5M may get just one plus a decent other one.

Dreaming of dumping.... Yoshida ($37M/2) Hicks ($24M/2) Casas (3 arbs) Crawford (3 arbs) Clarke & Sandlin Sonny Gray ($40M/1 and $25M AAV) & Willson Contreras ($41M/2 and $17.5M AAV) We give up about $41M AAV for $43M AAV. Yes, only a dream.

The O's are still paying Chris Davis something like $9M a year.

We might be able to get Suarez and Merrill for around the $45M or so we have to spend and stay below the tax line, assuming that is the budget. Any subsequent trades would have to be even money, at worst. Duran's AAV is $8M and Campbell's is $7.5M.

I think we need more of a power bat, and I think he probably wants to be a SS, at least for a few more years. I'd take Alonso at the prices I listed, but getting Suarez might allow us to get a second major FA (not on this list.)

Romy even hit near the league norm vs RHPs (.718.) Was it a fluke, or does he deserves a shot at much more playing time? He was 5th on the team in PAs (283) from June 2nd on.

You did say "coming off the books, this winter," but I don't really want to nit-pick. I will say, if you are counting the possible $2M cut in pay to Muncy as part of the $96M, then why not count: Plus 5M Scott, 4M Treinen, 2M Yamo, 1M Snell

We could extend every promising prospect and young MLB player, but we aren't getting over the hump with what we have. Plus, we have to replace Bregman, Gio, Wilson & Refsnyder. Just replacing these 4 in kind may take a deals longer than 3 years. Then, asking to significantly improve with no long deals is like asking for Bloom to find ges in the ruff x 5. How did that work out?

We've done this, and may end up missing on one or two, but we aren't likely to win without some kind of major boost. 4 years deals don't get those big boost guys, anymore