moonslav59

Send him to the FA pile.

.788, 116 OPS+ We can do this, all day. How about this one: 125 OPS+ since 2022 at 3 year arb costs. (Casas) 138 OPS+ since 2022 at $45M+ a year x ___ yrs. (Vlad)

Campbell with 4 Ks. (not Isaiah Campbell)

Probably true, but I said near or over, and .775-.790 could be possible and would likely be 100-125 points higher than Rafaela FT and Abreu vs LHPs.

We already have Casas and Raffy (and Ref-Yoshi), so why spend bigly on a 1B/DH, now?

No, it wouldn't be bad, at all. Bregman is a major upgrade over a DHam- Romy/Grissom platoon. Bregman at 2B and Devers at 3B, once healthy, would also keep Yoshida and Ref from playing LF, which is a plus, too. The D at 3B remains worst in MLB and the 2B D might be about the same as a DHam-Romy platoon, if Bregman plays there. LF D improves. Offense improves, but maybe not by as much as the other option... Bregman at 3B, Devers at DH and Campbell or a DHam-Romy platoon at 2B, pushes Ref to LF vs LHPs and maybe Yoshida to AAA or LF vs RHPs. Worse LF D. Way better 3B D. Maybe equal 2B D. Better O. The O comp is complicated, as it depends on who sits. With Devers at 3B and Yoshida-Ref at DH. One can assume Bregman's PAs take the place of Campbell or the DHam-Romy platoo at 2B, mostly. With Devers at DH and Ref/Yoshida playing a LF platoon and Duran in CF, we can assume Bregman's PAs would mostly replace Rafaela's. This seems like a better offense. The improved D at 3B probably outweighs the loss in D in LF. Cora could mix-and-match some, but jerking Bregman and Devers around might not be ideal.

Don't spend bigly on a DH/1Bman.

In terms of range, I think Devers would make a good 1Bman. I'm not sure how good he will be at scooping bad throws, but I can't imagine him being a worse 1Bman than Casas. I hope they hand him a 1Bman's mitt, at some point, this year, and see how he looks and likes it (or not.)

At this point, hoping Yoshida comes back healthy and can hit near or over .800 is probably more value to us than anything we can get by trading him. I know the DH slot may be taken by Devers 140-160 games, so that forces him to LF, PH or AAA duty, but what else can we do?

We'd have to pay a lot of Yoshida's contract to bring down the cost for SDP in this trade.

Duran switched positions, changed his batting approach 6 times a year and was an awful OF'er for the first couple years. He had a lot to work on. Rafaela was called up at age 22 while being as raw a player as possible. Casas was called up at 22. Bello just turned 23, when called up. It's been a while since we called up a 20 or 21 year old, so you have a point, but we haven't had much instant rookie success, recently, where we could have said, this guy could have been called up earlier. Have we? (Maybe I'm missing someone.)

Yes, and that is what I pointed out. Career Assists/Throwing Errors 1684/66 Devers (951 gms) 1746/49 Bregman (995 gms) Put Outs/ Fielding Errors (Devers is even worse, here.) 709/75 Devers 702/32 Bregman

Zero, but he's got a decent glove and range. it's his arm that sucks most. Of course, he doesnt play 1B, until he's shown he can in practice. I'm fine with just saying FT DH.

I figured you made a boo-boo, since you know more than I do about prospects, and couldn't get that wrong about Arias. I had a feeling Romero would not end up a MLB SS. It would be great if he lives up to some of his original hype.

The best Sox team, O & D combined, and with some speculation on the kids involved, might be: C: Wong & Narvaez. 1B: Casas & Devers DH: Devers & Casas (Ref) 2B: Campbell/Story SS: Story/Mayer 3B: Bregman (Campbell) LF: Duran/Ref (Anthony) CF: Anthony/Duran (Rafaela/Campbell) RF: Abreu/Anthony (Campbell) Utility: Rafaela & Romy (Yoshida, DHam & Grissom in AAA) I'm not sure how you find enough PAs if Story is 100% healthy all year, but I doubt that happens

I'm not sure starting the year with 2 from that group of 3 can be called "relying" on them, when Campbell can be called up, at any time. maybe we wait for him to gain the extra year of control and are "relying" on that plan. I would not be happy, if the year long plan was rolling the dice with the best 1-2 out of those 3, but starting the year with 2 should not be the end of the world. As I said, I hope Campbell wins the job, and all my recent inquiries were about wondering what we do, if he does not. I will add that the main reason our 2B position was so bad in 2024 was not because of DHam and Romy, especially after June 1st. fWAR at 2B: -1.0 E Valdez (202 PAs at 2B) -0.6 Grissom (109) -0.3 Westbrook (39) and Rafaela (17) -0.2 Gasper (11) -0.1 Reyes (16) & Short (3) 0.0 Sogard (42) -2.6 all the above (429 PAs) +0.2 (DHam 118, Romy 56 and Wong 8= 181 PAs) These numb ers are not great, but they were not what brought 2B down. bWAR was much more kind: these were their overall WAR scores (not broken down by just 2B): 2.6 DHam 0.9 Romy 0.3 Sogard -0.1 Westbrook -0.2 Grissom & Short -0.6 Valdez -0.7 Reyes I'm not as high on Grissom, as some seem to be, but I do think he still has some hope. I'm not high on DHam & Romy, either, but they did combine for a 3.5 bWAR in just 533 PAs. That comes to about a 3.9 over 650 PAs. These two were not the reason our 2B numbers stunk up all of MLB.

Mayer for mayor!

I disagree. All it takes is Campbell to not be put on the roster and Bregman at 3B. IMO, the next best choice is not Grissom FT: he is not good on D and has a lot to prove on O. It's not DHam FT, because he has not shown he can hit LHPs worth a dime. His D is okay at 2B only and he can steal bases. It's not Romy FT, because he can't seem to hit RHPs well. It makes the most sense to platoon DHam with either Romy or Grissom. I choose Romy, because he defends better, can play more positions than Grissom and DHam and killed lefties, last year. What is your choice at 2B, if Devers begins the year hurt and on the bench or at DH, assuming Bregman plays 3B AND Campbell is not on the roster? I know you don't like platoons, but who would you rather have?

Next Year's FA Class: https://www.mlb.com/news/2025-2026-mlb-free-agent-class-preview

Yup. He has used thepatoon, very often. For the first time, in as long as I can remember, a Sox manager seemed to start his catchers, not based on who they were catching, but often by the opposing pitcher's arm side. McGuire, who bats lefty never started vs a lefty in 2024. (41 GS v R and 0 v L) Wong did start many games vs RHPs, but I think only after Jansen took over McGuire's job. (71 GS vs R and 42 v L, which is about every game vs a LH SP)

True, often platoons don't work as hoped. Sometimes, players have reverse splits and mess it up, of one or both just have bad seasons. Sometimes, a platoon looks like a better choice than just letting Abreu play FT in RF, DHam or Romy or Grissom FT at 2B or Ref FT anywhere.

I think DHam is just thrilled to be in the bigs and getting playing time, after his rotten start. I'm pretty sure Romy will take what he can get and be happy the more he plays.

Many teams settle on almost strict platons at some positions. Injuries may force some changes, but it often works out okay. Players that platoon must want to play FT, but for some, they would not play at all, if not for their nice splits vs certain-handed pitchers. A guy like Refsnyder might not even make the 26, if he wasn't great vs LHPs, and the team has a great need for batters vs LHPs. If more of our players could hit both handed pitchers well, we would not need to platoon. That would be ideal, but it's not reality sand never was for many teams/players. Ref does great starting just vs LH'd starters and PH'ing other games. He ha sstarted some vs RHPs' but not many, and he does not do well, when he does. REF 2022: 1.005 v L (1.084 vs LH SP- 20 GS) and .792 v R (.771 RH SP - 15 GS) 2023: .828 v L (.740 in 39 GS) .466 v R (.556 in 9GS) 2024: .941 v L (.905 in 31 GS) .733 v R (.774 in 30 GS) He did start many games v R, mostly when O'Neill was on the IL and Rafaela at SS.)

Agreed. It might even be his to lose, this ST'ing. What's your solution, if Campbell does not make the roster? That was the scenario I proposed. It's not a far-fetched "what if," like some of my other ones. 🤪

I'm hoping we go with Campbell at 2B, day one. He seems to be ML ready, despite so few PAs on the farm. He should be okay on D, too. If he does not start on the big team, and Devers is still nursing his shoulder and is at DH, Bregman will play 3B. We may not like DHam-Romy-Grissom at 2B, but it's a real possibility.