moonslav59

Agreed. He might even have a few decent seasons left in him.

All true, but one 3 for 4 game changes all those KC numbers. (OK, not the K/BB one.)

Good breakdown. I doubt Castro sees MLB or ever gets a long look. I like Jo Garcia more than many do. I see 3 very promising IFAs near AA/AAA: Arias, Gonzales & Valera. 3 is not bad. The rest are too far away or don't appear to have high ceilings.

I was comparing the Contreras bat w Bregman and the Durbin/IKF glove to Bregman's 3/4 season (+Toro 1/4). To me, the missing piece was replacing the Devers bat.

I don't disagree, and almost all of these IFAs start out in DSL and FCL. We do have quite a few IFAs who should begin the season in AA or get there, this year, so not all are very far away, anymore: AA: Arias, Jo Garcia, YRod, Bleis & Castro (plus NR Liendo, F de Leon & others?) A+>>AA? Valera, J Gonzalez & others? I do agree that many of these players will never make the bigs, but it is nice to see more IFAs getting into the picture.

Dropping Anthony, Mayer and Campbell was a major factor in the drop. I think more than trading away Perales, Garcia, Clarke and some lesser prospects. Also, we did replace perales with Bennett, added Watson while losing Paez and built up our catcher depth around the #30 rankings. Both made a difference, but I think losing the big three, plus Narvaez was the majority factor in the drop. I kind of expected a bigger drop.

This is the part many gloss over, ignore or are unaware of.

Next, the Yanks & Jays... LOL

According to MLB.com, the Sox have the most IFA prospects in their top 30- fifteen of them! Here is how soxprospects.com ranks the Sox IFA prospects: 2. Arias '23 5. Valera '23 7. Gonzales '24 8. Soto '25 16. Bleis '21 17. Cespedes '23 18. Azocar '24 20. Castro '19 21. Delzine '25 22. Ramos '25 23. Rivas '25 24. Jo Garcia '22 (That's 12 in the top 24, but most are bunched from 16-24th.) 26. Monegro '20 (He is the 13th in the top 30.) 32. Primera 33. Silverio 34. Brito (16 in the top 34.) The Sox have usually done pretty well with IFA signings, and it's nice to see them seemingly doing well, again. IFA players on the current 40: Rafaela, Bello & Yoshida That's a much lower percentage than the top prospect list.

While fangraphs is rather bullish on the O's and have them finishing about 1.4 fWAR below the Sox with their projections, they have Holliday (1.9) and Westburg (2.7) as key pieces for 2026. Both will be on the IL for a significant time to start the season. Fangraphs also has some sunny projections when compared to 2025 numbers: 6.0 Henderson 4.8 in '25 (Understandable jump) 4.0 Rutschman 1.2 (Why this huge leap?) 3.6 Alonso (3.6 in '25) 2.7 Westburg (1.9- starts year on IL) 2.7 T Ward (2.9 in '25) 2.2 Cowser (0.6- I could see this jump upwards) 1.9 Holliday (1.2- starts year on IL) 1.5 Basallo (-0.3) 1.3 O'Neill (-0.3 in '25) 1.5 Beavers, 1.0 (from 0.7 in '25) Alexander (starting 2B now) & 0.6 Mayo (0.2 in '25 and starting 3B now) 2.9 Bradish (1.1 in '25) 2.1 Rogers (3.3 in '25) 1.9 Bassitt (2.3) 1.8 Baz (2.0) 1.4 Eflin & 1.2 Kremer 1.1 Helsley (0.2 a big jump projected, here) 0.5 Kittredge (0.2 in '25) A guess fangraphs likes the O's for some reason, but why this? Rafaela: 3.8>3.2 (maybe) Duran 3.9> 2.4 (absurd) Story 3.0>2.3 (can see this) Contreras 2.8>2.2 (nope) Narvaez 2.7> 1.9 (sophomore slump?) Abreu: 2.4> 2.4 (entering peak prime)

The projected Orioles 2026 team: 1. Henderson SS .787 in '25 2. T Ward LF ,792 (under .756 previous 2 seasons) 3. Rutschman C .673 4. Alonso 1B .871 (.804 from '23-'24) 5. O'Neill RF .684 (.765 previous 3 seasons combined) 6. Basallo DH .558 as a 20 year old 7. Alexander 2B (Jackson Holliday on IL) 8. Cowser CF .655 9. Mayo 3B (Westburg on IL) SP: Bradish, T Rogers, Baz, Bassitt, Eflin/Kremer I'm just not getting all the O love. What am I missing?

Good points, but Bregman only played 2/3 of the season and kinda sucked near the end of 2025. Durbin is a very good defensive player. Contreras is new at 1B, but he looked pretty good, last season. Mayer should be a big defensive upgrade at 2B, if he sticks and stays healthy. Story may continue his decline on defense. IKF was a major upgrade to our infield bench defense and versatility. Overall, I think our infield defense improved. Our OF defense remains the best in MLB, if not top 2-3. Our catcher defense looks solid (top 10ish?)

Bennett is on the hill, today vs PIT. 1. Ward CF 2. IKF 3B 3. Monasterio 1B 4. Wong C 5. Thaiss DH 6. Romero 2B 7. Capra SS 8. Castro RF 9. McDonough LF

I call Contreras and Bregman a push on offense. The down turn was Devers to Durbin. On defense, we may have improved some: Bregman to Durbin, Toro/Lowe/Casa/Romy to Contreras and an awful 2B mix to Mayer. The pitching got way better on paper.

People tend to focus on the additions teams make over the winter(s.) The O's have lost a lot of talent, too. Two years ago, the O's were looking at... C Rutschman coming off 2 straight .800+ seasons. He has dropped off significantly, since then. 1B Mountcastle on the rise. 2B Holliday with oodles of promise. SS Gunnar Henderson as one of MLB's top young stars. 3B Ramon Urias, who had a decent 2024 season LF Cowser as another youngster on the rise. CF Mullins as a solid vet RF Santander about to have an .800+ season DH O'Hearn as one of MLB's best DHs Bench: Westburg, McCann, Hays & Mateo Rotation: Burnes (2.92 in '24) Eflin (2.60) A Suarez (3.70), Grayson Rodrigues (3.86) Bradish (2.75) Kremer (4.10) and Cole Irvin (coming off a 3 year 4.16 ERA) Kimbrel was their closer and they ended up having 4-5 RP'ers with an ERA under 3.30. That was a better looking & promising team than this one is. Way better.

Maybe a big WBC will get someone calling.

It's hard not to get excited about this young player.

After losing Refsnyder, this one hurts, more.

I've agreed Casas and Romy start the season on the IL and there is no need or rush to trade Masa, now. I don't see him "blocking" Eaton, either. KC will begin the season in AAA, and he won't get the call, unless it's to play FT or near FT, so in that context, Masa is not blocking him, until (and if) he has proven himself to some extent, but then again, Masa kinda has to re-prove himself, too, and with Duran at FT DH, that will be hard. To me, it's not so much about blocking KC & Casas-Romy, it's about having 4 FT OF'ers and using a bench slot for a DH only player who likely needs to be platooned. Yes, we may not not have to do anything, even until June or the dealine.

I was talking about our weakest spots as winter began and my desire to upgrade by more than we did by trading from our logjam position. I said we no longer have a big weak area, since we filled 1B (Contreras) 3B (Durbin) and SP (Suarez & Gray.) It is no longer practical to upgrade to a big bat, because we aren't getting KMarte and Paredes is not a big upgrade over Duran, and might not even be better. I don't think we need Masa. We might, if one of our 3 OF'ers get hurt, but I'd still be okay with KC, Casas & Romy filling in. The $4M saved is not earth-shattering. I'm not laying awake at night wondering how we can unload Masa for $4M added to our summer trading budget. It's really not a big deal, anymore. I just added my opinion to the conversation. I actually like Masa as a hitter and argued he might have an OPS close to Duran's in 2026, if given a long look. Like I said, maybe I'm higher on KC, Casas and Romy than you and others are. I've agreed that if an OF'er gets hurt, I could be eating crow. I think it's worth the risk to trade him, but waiting for Casas to show himself is probably worth it.

Sometimes I wonder if just choosing surgery on day one would be the best result. As of last week, Red Sox utility infielder Romy Gonzalez was experiencing shoulder troubles and received a platelet-rich plasma injection. He admitted that he would likely miss Opening Day, though he may end up missing significantly more time. Today, Sean McAdam of MassLive adds that Gonzalez will visit a shoulder specialist next week to see if he needs to undergo surgery. Gonzalez opined that surgery “is not a season-ender by any means, in my opinion,” though any longer absence for the lefty-mashing infielder will be a blow to the Red Sox’ lineup regardless. The right-handed-hitting Gonzalez injured his shoulder at the end of 2025 and experienced renewed soreness in January while ramping up for Spring Training. iHe posted career-best offensive numbers in 2025, batting .305/.343/.483 with a 123 wRC+ in 341 plate appearances for the Sox. While his performance against right-handers was slightly below average (95 wRC+), he absolutely teed off on southpaws. In 143 PA with the platoon advantage, Gonzalez hit seven of his nine home runs and posted a 162 wRC+ that was tied for 12th-best among hitters with at least 100 PA against lefties. Obviously, the team will hope he avoids surgery, but with that kind of production, they’ll do what it takes to ensure Gonzalez comes back at full strength.

ST'ing OPS 2.167 Duran 1.563 Contreras 1.438 Rafaela 1.097 Gasper 1.053 Monasterio 1.038 Ward .991 IKF .979 Story .900 Eaton .864 Castro .859 Durbin .833 Mayer .821 Ferguson .769 Narvaez, .762 McDonough, .747 Campbell .616 Anthony, .611 Hickey, .546 Romero .481 Thaiss, .473 Delay, .437 Abreu, .249 Sogard, .181 Wong, .125 Capra Pitchers ERA/WHIP listed in order of IP 2.16/0.84 Early 0.00/1.00 Oviedo 4.05/0.90 Tolle 8.53/1.74 Martinez 1.50/1.67 Guerrero 9.00/2.20 Sikkema 10.80/1.80 Watson 5.79/1.07 Crochet 5.79/1.07 Suarez Selected... 24.30/3.00 Bello 0.00/0.30 Song 3.00/1.67 Kelly 0.00/0.33 Whitlock 0.00/1.13 Chapman 13.50/1.88 Slaten 0.00/0.50 Weissert 0.00/1.80 Moran 0.00/1.20 Uberstine 6.75/2.25 Bennett 13.50/3.75 S Gray

Over the winter, Brez made some bold trades, and he didn't seem to shy away from trading prospects. He did keep the top ones, but according to soxprospects,com's rankings he ended up trading away these prospects: 4 from the top 10 and 7 from the top 20. 4. Perales (for current #6 Bennett) 6. Jh Garcia (for Oviedo- our #5 SP'er) 8. Clarke (for Sonny Gray- our #3 SP'er) 10. Fajardo (part of the Contreras deal- our starting 1Bman & #4 batter) 12. Sandlin (part of the Jordan Hicks dump trade) 18. Drohan (part of the Durbin trade- our starting 3Bman) 20. Travieso (part of the Contreras trade) We also lost #21 J Paez to Rule 5, but gained #19 via trade (J Reimer) for Rule 5 Ryan Watson. Besides adding #6 Bennett & #19 Watson to the top prospects list, Brez acquired: 27. Samaniego (with Oviedo) 29. Ziehl (Hicks & Sandlin trade) 30. Adonys Guzman (with Oviedo) 31. Luke Heyman (for Hoppe) 33. Garielvin Silverio IFA 49. Isaiah Jackson (for Grissom)

I can see how it doesn't make sense to trade him now. We could at least wait until Casas or Romy are back and showing they are okay. That may not ever happen, but when it does, Masa cannot be demoted, so I'd rather risk losing DH depth than keeping Masa as a PH only bench piece.