moonslav59

I might trade Duran's 3 years of control for 4 years of Abreu straight up. Abreu plays better D and at a more difficult position. Duran runs much better. The L-R split thing may now be in Abreu's favor. vs LHPs: 2025: .676 Abreu/ .600 Duran Is that enough to outweigh 2024-2025? .604 Abreu/ .634 Duran

$70M is too high, with his declining D, but his speed does add a lot of value. How would BTV rate a trade like this? Duran, Rafaela & Hicks for Buxton & Ryan

We need one of both: a big power bat (high Ks or not) and a .300 type batter with a .360+ OBP.

Bregman and Casas were FT'ers, too, but both suffered significant injuries. Narvaez is about as FT a catcher as you can have. Anthony should have been a wire-to-wire FT'er, but was called up late and got hurt, too. Mayer should have started on the 26 over Campbell, but his injury history came to the forefront, anyway. Do not be surprised if Abreu loses his platoon status, next season. The only 2026 platoon might be Yoshida-Romy at DH or Mayer-Romy at 2B. I suppose we could platoon Jh Garcia with Duran and or Abreu, but one will be gone, this winter.

Lay off Gio and his sore elbow. Breggie opts out but may return on a slightly longer deal without all the differals. Story takes the option. Hendriks is a no-brainer bye bye. Also, the team give Duran is $8M option, and he has 2 arb years after that, but we trade him this winter.

I'm all for trading Duran for the right return, but if we don't add two bats (better than Duran & Bregman) our offense takes a step back, when need a major step up. I realize that for many years the farm focus was on everyday players, and we have about 12-15 pretty decently, mostly young bats with a lot of promise, but we need to add some surer bets. If Breggie returns we still need two bats- maybe just one mega and the other like a Hoskins, Polanco or even Torres.

Our injured pitchers never come back.

I'm not too impressed with the FA pitching class.

I have no beef with his bat. He might be the worst defensive SS with a ton of innings in MLB history.

Seems realistic and doable. Does it work with Duran not Abreu?

Sad way for the Phillies to lose.

He was very consistent. If you throw out the 202 PA 1992 season, he hit between .297 and .328, every other season from 1985 to 1993. He dropped off sharply at age 30 and was out of baseball after his age 32 season. He had several seasons with more BBs than K's, including his fantastic 1988 season, where he walked 87 times and K'd just 38 times. How many times does someone walk more than twice their K total? 1988: .325 22 119 (.416 OBP/ .531 SLG/ .956 OPS) He had a .570 SLG in 1987, but only got over .460 one other time.

Yes, we can't stop at one, and if we lose Bregman, it needs to be two that are better than Bregman.

Agreed. We can't pinpoint one reason we lost a game based on microscopic differentials.

Don't tell anyone, but Bernie Williams, Goose and Guidry.

For real. What baffles me about this is that there is no report of anyone in the organization actually asking him if he'd play 1B.

He has created consistent winner. It can't all be related to big budgets, but I do think he has not changed enough with the times, and his teams have flaws they can't ever seem to overcome. It's been over 15 years, now. Yes, they've only missed the playoffs less than a handful of times since their 2009 ring, but just one ring in 25 years, with all those trips to the post season makes you wonder what is lacking. I'm thankful he's not figured it out. I'm very thankful he's kept Boone as the manager for so long. What is it? 8 years, now?

Yes, and on so many levels. A round ball on a rounded bat. Microscopic differences can make a huge impact.

It's their career wide stats. Okay, how about when it REALY counted? World Series: .973 ARod .832 Jeter (Yes, 6 more series than Arod) ALCS: .981 ARod .751 Jeter (yes, 4 more series than ARod)

He coulda been clutch as a 2Bman. BTW.... Career Jeter .817 OPS/ .809 High Leverage/.776 Late & Close ARod: .930 OPS/ .952 High Leverage/.869 Late & Close

What if the Twins look to slash their budget? Could this work? Trade: Hicks ($12M x 2,) Duran ($8M + 2 arbs,) Rafaela ($8M x 6,) Campbell ($7.5M x 8,) Wong (3 arbs,) and prospects Holobetz, Clarke & Valera. for Pablo Lopez (owed $21.8M x 3/ $18.4 AAV,) Byron Buxton ($15.1M x 4/ $14.3 AAV,) Joe Ryan (3 arbs) and Ryan Jeffries (last arb)

Wong had hand surgery.

Man! That's some sad news.

.675 would certainly not be top or even middle tier, among SSs, but it might be enough to stick around FT. The SS OPS in 2025 was .711. Ten teams had a SS OPS of .665 or lower. Over a quarter were below .650. Of the 43 MLB SSs with 200+ PAs, 17 were below .675. More than half were under .700. If we're talking FT, let's raise the PA cutoff: 35 SSs with 350+ PAs: 15 below .700, 11 below .675 and 6 below .650. 31 SSs with 400+ PAs: 112 below .700, 9 below .675 and 5 below .650. That's nearly 1/3. I'm not sure all those 1/3 are great fielders. 8 SSs had 500+ PAs and were under .700. Six were below .675. If he was the only sub .700 batter in the line-up, okay, but its hard to win with several.

Two players who will not be getting long term deals are E Suarez and M Kelly. Both are getting old, but the Sox are a young team, even more so without Ref, Gio, Bregman, Buehler, Wilson and Matz. I'm not saying they are my favorite players, but I'm think budget. Suarez is 34. He's had some up and down seasons, so he's no sure bet big bat add, but he might be all we can expect. He's not good on defense at 3B, but maybe he can play 1B and back up 3B. His OPS+ since 2021: 82>129>103>115>126. He had 49 HRs in 2019 and again, this year and 30-31 in 3 other recent years, but he did have a 22 HR year in 2023. He may be the best we can hope for, in terms of a FA signing. Having Suarez allows us to place our bets on one of two guys staying healthy, instead of two: Mayer & Casas. Merrill Kelly turns 37, soon, but his rookie year was age 30, and he seems to be aging well. His ERA+ in the past 4 years are: 119>133>104>117. He could be a decent 2/3 slot pitcher. His 10.1 fWAR since 2022 is 35th in MLB. That's close to bassitt, Keller and Cole. Of the 51 pitchers with 500+ IP from 2022, he places 11th in ERA- at 82. That's like Verlander, Gallen and Ranger Suarez good. He's 25th in xFIP. Can he do it for 1-2 more years? If we added Suarez and Kelly, maybe we could trade Duran plus others for K Marte. Maybe we add Hicks and get Semien. Maybe we could afford to sign 3 FAs: Kelly, Suarez & Hoskins, assuming Bregman bolts.