moonslav59

We still have control of Story beyond 2025, even if he opts out. Sounds weird, huh? If he opts out, the Sox can negate his opt out by exercising his 2028 option at $25M, thereby giving him 3 x $25M left not 2 x $25M left.

Even we don't get a SP'er at the deadline, we end up wishing we did...or even "another one." It's not rocket science- just look at every deadline we've had since Peavy. Why not just get an extra one or two during the winter, when they are cheaper to trade for. Or, just sign an extra one or two. This year, it looked like Brez got us 11-12 deep, then traded Priester, cut Newcomb and 4 went on the season ending IL. We still ended up trading for a SP'er and giving Criswell his first start. If this season did not prove that the need for SP'er depth is more important than OF depth, then nothing will convince some posters. The next point is this: I love Duran and Abreu, but assume we trade one, look at the depth we'd still have. Yes, some is speculative or lacking in one area, but it's still more than enough and better than decent. Trade Duran: LF Anthony-Garcia-Campbell (Yoshida/Refsnyder) CF Rafaela-Campbell-Garcia (Anthony) RF- Abreu-Anthony-Refsnyder (Garcia) Trade Abreu: LF: Duran-Garcia-Campbell (Yoshida/Refsnyder) CF: Rafaela- Campbell-Garcia (Duran) RF: Anthony-Refsnyder-Garcia We'd need 2 major OF injuries to be in trade mode at the deadline. We know we will have 2-3 pitching injuries. I am not about trading Duran or Abreu out of anything wrong with them: we have a surplus of OF strength and will have a big need at SP'er, just like we have one now, post trade deadline.

I've all but given up responding to TadJizzPuppyMoppy. The others are fine.

Max, just because we may be able to overcome a couple or three weak areas, does not mean we have none. 1. 1B: You keep clinging to the season numbers by Toro that were greatly inflated by a 9 game stretch nearly 2 months ago. Romy is great vs LHPs, but he may be needed at 2B, so 1B, especially vs RHPs is a big weakness. Campbell may be a fix, but no way do we know. 2. 2B: Mayer may need surgery. Even if not, he has an injury issue with his wrist. Campbell sucks at 2B D, so I doubt he is a solution. We may end up with DHam-Romy at 2B or go with Rafaela at 2B all season. That pretty much means Yoshida is the DH, all year. 3. DH: Yoshida- nuff said. 4. Buehler: May might be a fix, but right now our 4/5 slots are 2 weak areas, despite one nice start by Criswell, who is now at AAA. That's at least 5 weak areas of varying degrees. (I'm not even counting Wong's bat as a weakness.) We clearly have 3 weak areas and 2-3 minor ones. It's my contention that every other AL team has 3 or more.

Funny thing is, it wasn't "satirical."

We could be right back to a major 2B issue. The position has been jinxed since the Machado- Pedey incident. A couple nice partial seasons by Story and Kike is the only times we've looked good at 2B since Pedey in 2017. This is year 8!

I seriously doubt PIT trades Skenes, but if they do, not many teams have the young talent they'd want in return. I agree, we go hard after Ryan with Keller being the "fall back." Would you trade Yoshida, Duran and Sandlin for Keller & Reynolds?

While I don't think the Yanks are THIS BAD, they lost to MIA, today and ate 21-28 in their last 49 games! They are close to losing their WC slot. TOR lost, as well. First place in ALE is certainly in reach. 65-48 TOR 62-51 BOS -3.0 (Sox are 0.5 GB HOU for the 3rd best AL record) 60-52 NYY -4.5 WC Race 62-51 BOS (+3.5 on TEX, who is losing.) 60-52 NYY 59-53 SEA (up 5-3 v TEX) 58-54 TEX (down 5-3 to SEA) 56-55 CLE 56-56 KCR

The next decisions may be... 1. When Mayer returns DHam will be demoted. 2. Will Campbell replace Toro at 1B vs RHPs (and maybe LHPs, too as Romy plays 2B or DH v LHPs.) 3. When Criswell's 10 days in the minors is up (or some pitcher goes on the IL) who gets demoted (Murphy?) or DFA'd (Alcala?) 4. Does Harrison get a 2026 look? (for who, if no IL?) 5. Same with Burdi, Kelly and Fitts. ( think Burdi > Alcala and maybe the others, too.) 6. What's up with Grissom? 7. Does JH Garcia get a shot, if no IL?

We can beat good teams. We do still have some weak areas, but just maybe other teams have more. We are no longer looking for "help from pitchers coming off the IL." (They are all out for the season.) Only Mayer remains as an IL hopeful. Our AAA depth is now (on the 40): SP: Criswell, Harrison & Fitts RP: SP'ers above + Bernardino, Burdi, Kelly, I Campbell 1B/2B/OF: Campbell 2B: Grissom SS: Sogard OF: Eaton & Jh Garcia

How many times have we heard about a drop in morale after recent lackluster deadlines, especially after other teams seemed to go overboard to improve their rosters? I think a poster or two mentioned it, this season. We did add two players and demote two others, so it's not like no clubhouse changes were made. One also wonders how trading non 26 man roster players would affect the clubhouse morale, or if we got better players than M & M.

Someone mentioned trying Wong with Buehler, but maybe spreading out his non Bello work is a good idea, too. Narvaez needs some rest. I'm also worried about Crochet leading the league in IP.

Fred, Rafaela is now at .761. What is your projection for his final OPS for 2026? (I'd say .740 to .770. Give me a 30 point range.)

Kaleb was the name of the best dog who ever owned me. He lived to be nearly 20 years old.

Ultimately, he wanted Breggy, or else he would not offer the highest AAV in Red Sox history for someone he did not want. Who cares who convinced him. He was convinced enough to want him. Then, he went out and got him.

We can see on display, today, that other top AL teams have as many or more weak areas as we have. The Yanks have sucked for nearly 2 months. (21-27 since June 7th) The Astros have several big holes. The Tigers are under .500 for nearly 2 months (24-26 since June 3rd) The Jays were playing as well as anybody for a long time, but have shown recent kinks by losing 5 of their last 6. They have several holes, too. SEA and TEX are playing well, but they too have several issues.

Very true, but answer me this: where do guys get most beat up and who do we always need to trade for every deadline? It's pitching and rarely OF, unless it's some minor Tommy Pham trade. We'd be subtracting from OF depth and adding SP depth. I still want us to sign a solid SP'er AND trade an OF'er for another one. (I'm pretty sure Brez would just do one without the other, so I get your point.)

The Crochet extension solidified the trade as being brilliant. I'd love to see a similar trade with Skenes, but being so close to the Crochet deal, I think they would see it as creating an unwanted unbalance between the here and now and future. Also, it would surely take giving up Anthony, Mayer, Campbell or Tolle- most likely one of the first two and one of the second two. (Mayer and Tolle or Anthony & Campbell) plus other top 12 prospects. I think a deal for Ryan or Keller is much more likely, this winter. I see an opportunity with Pittsburgh. They must feel awful about their Reynolds signing. He is already showing decline and 5 more years at $14M and then $15M x 4. That's a lot of money for PIT. Keller is owed $17M, $18.5M and $20.5M in the next 3 years. That is way too much for their liking. I'm pretty sure they planned on trading him, when they signed that deal. Here's my grand idea: A super blockbuster: To BOS: Skenes (still prearb!), Keller ($56M/3) & Reynolds ($76M/5) To PIT: Yoshida ($36M/2 as an offset for taking Reynolds and Keller's contracts) Pitt saves about $96M on those 3 players listed. Then we add: Duran ($8M in '26 then 2 more arbs) Reynolds plays LF and DH for us, but we lose one OF'er and our DH, so it frees up our OF/DH logjam by 1. Mayer (Prearb) He's injury prone, but looked like our 2B solution (or Story to 2B as Mayer plays SS.) We gotta give something to get Skenes. Campbell ($60M/8 fits the PIT budget) Again, we gotta give to get, and I'd prefer KC to giving up Tolle or Anthony. (PIT might insist on Tolle, buy see the next player.) 1 or 2 from Early, Sandlin, Perales or Paez. (If they insist, we could offer 1 from Clarke or Valera.) Add others like Mullins,, Castro or Cespedes, if needed. We'd fix so many problems with a deal like this, but we'd lose some great young talent and Duran. Our core would now look like this: Crochet, Skenes, Giolito, Keller, Bello (Tolle, Crawford, Dobbins, Houck, Fitts, Criswell and more) FA Closer, Whitlock, Slaten and the others. C: Narvaez & Wong 1B: Casas & Romy or FA (Alonso or E Suarez? Naylor/Hoskins?) 2B: FA (Torres?) or Grissom/DHam/Romy SS: Story 3B: Bregman LF: Anthony/Reynolds (Jh Garcia) CF; Rafaela (Anthony/ Jh Garcia) RF: Abreu/Anthony (Refsnyder/Jh Garcia) DH: Reynolds/Refsnyder or Romy Most likely, we'd have to give Tolle and keep Campbell or Mayer, and we would not need to sign a 2Bman or 1Bman. It actually fits our needs more, as we'd be loaded in our rotation and have less need for Tolle, but I really hate to trade Tolle. Mayer at 2B not a FA would help. Campbell as a 1B option would likely mean we would not sign a FA 1Bman and have more money to fill the closer role and 2B need. I know, I know- not too realistic, here.

Nice reply to a nice post by Max. It was a 3 year delay. I fixed it for you. I love great SS defense, and I was thrilled, when we signed him. I knew his Coors numbers skewed his numbers on O, but .750 and GG type D is great for a SS.

Why not call up Campbell & demote Toro? Would that hurt team morale?

He's been hurt, so much, that I think we should cut him some slack for the early games, this season, and not see it as being wildly inconsistent. He needed time to readjust and find a groove. That being said, he's always been a high K guy with a tendency to be streaky, as well as being "helped" by home field advantages at Coors and now Fenway. I am not expecting .825 to .875 from him. I'm not sure he will ever have another .800 season, but I do think he can give us .750 to .799 offense, along with plus defense at SS or 2B, going forward. That would be great, to me.

and one of those options is to trade one... LOL I totally agree with your point, but the issue is this: the only way all 4 of our OF'er can be in the line-up vs RHPs is for Rafaela to play 2B (or SS) or one to DH. The DH choice is fine, by me. The Rafaela to the IF is NOT, unless in emergency short term situations. As long as we have Yoshida at DH, with maybe Refsnyder or Romy platooning with him, it can't happen enough times to keep all 4 on the field. We easily say, "Cora can find a way," but there really isn't unless he benches Yoshida, If that happens, you might as well trade him and his contract for nothing (fine by me,) but until that happens, we will see wasted talent on the bench. With Bregman back in 2026, and everyone healthy, one could see how Romy would be squeezed, unless we platoon Mayer. Romy could platoon at 1B with Campbell (a fellow RHB) Casas or Toro or a 1Bman TBD's, but he might be forced to DH or ride the bench vs LHPs. That CANNOT happen. If refsnyder retires, he'd have a better chance at finding DH time, but I'm hoping Ref returns. We could see ref platoon with Abreu in RF, but that further squeezes the 4 man OF, as it is. I haven't even talked about the RHB Jh Garcia, yet. He is depth and an "option," too. Campbell could play OF, as well, if we don't use him at 1B. It is great for Cora to have so much depth, flexibility and "options" to work with, but unless we can get an OF'er to play 1B, we need to find another home for Yoshida or just cut ties with him.

Maybe we could have kept Teel & Meidroth by adding Campbell, but I still absolutely love the Crochet deal. (This from someone who really values having a good farm system.)

IMO, we had several other prospects like these three, and even some slightly better ones that could have been packaged for better pitchers or a RHB 1Bman, but without knowing what was out there, I can't get specific and prove Brez should have done better.

And it goes deep into low A ball and DSL/FCL! Look at all the promising pitchers who could start a game for the Sox in 2026: Crochet, Giolito, Bello, Sandoval, Crawford, (Houck will not) Dobbins, Harrison, Fitts, Criswell (Hicks, Murphy, Wink & Whitlock used to start) That's 14 pitchers with MLB experience as starters minus Houck & Whitlock and probably Murphy makes 11. Now, add these guys projected to be MLB ready during the 2026 season: Tolle, Early, Sandlin, Perales, Uberstine and maybe Wehunt, Drohan & Mullins. Let's just say 4. That makes 15 on the depth chart before any additions. The pen has a long list, too, and it could include some of the SP'ers listed above. We do need a closer, but here's a look at the rest: Slaten, Whitlock, Weissert, Hicks, Bernardino, Murphy, Kelly, Guerrero, I Campbell & Burdi. That's only 10 for the 7 slots beyond our closer TBD, but some of those SP'ers will pitch from the pen. Here is the minor league RP depth that will be MLB ready in 2026 (not listed as SP'ers above): Mata, Moran, Hoppe, Mills, I Coffey, Harris, Olds, Anderson, Liu, Bolden, Webb, Brand and maybe Wu-Yelland, McShane or Ingrassia. Maybe say 10, here. That makes about 20 pitchers looking at those 7 slots= more like 15 looking to make the final 2 slots on the 8 man MLB pen. The depth of our farm pitching has taken a big step up under Brez. Soxprospects.com lists 8 pitchers as starting or PB Starters on Woo, next season. Some of them could be counted as AA starters, thereby pushing other level starters down a level, but let's roll with what they project: AA: (They have Mullins in the AAA pen) : Clarke, Paez, Rivera, Holobetz, Rogers & Dean A+: Valera, Witherspoon, Phillips, Eyanson, Aita & Tygart (WOW!) A-: Fajardo, Neely, Travieso, Y Ruiz, Patton, B Morgan & D Brown FCL: Cason, Delzine, D Reyes, Zink, Cordero & Frias SPs.com has taken the liberty of projecting some SP'ers to the pen, and certainly some will be and have to be, but these lists could be even longer..