moonslav59

I don't think the best means the most clients. Is McDonalds "the Best" burger joint?

True, but many people get to the highest places without being the best.

I can see why we can be viewed as the most unpredictable with so many players returning from injury and or joining the 26 man roster for the first time with Boston: Crochet, Buehler, Giolito, Hendriks, Chapman, Wilson & Narvaez Players who missed most of 2024's MLB season: Whitlock, Story, Casas, Grissom, Guerrero, Fitts, Priester and more... These players make-up about half of the projected 26 man roster. Other teams have many questions, too, but not really at this level.

Undisputed by you and probably many others- not me.

Yup. Here are all this winter's Rule 5 players: December 2025 Karim Ayubi Alex Binelas Miguel Bleis Caleb Bolden Jonathan Brand Taylor Broadway Allan Castro Juan Chacon Isaac Coffey Nathanael Cruz Noah Dean Kelvin Diaz Matt Donlan Shane Drohan Nate Eaton Max Ferguson Nathan Hickey Alex Hoppe Blaze Jordan Ahbram Liendo Enderso Lira CJ Liu Andy Lugo Marcelo Mayer Tyler McDonough Daniel McElveny Alvaro Mejias Tyler Miller Yordanny Monegro Juan Montero Hayden Mullins Christian Nunez Wyatt Olds Jedixson Paez Eybersson Polanco Luis Ravelo Eduardo Rivera Dalton Rogers Ronald Rosario Corey Rosier David Sandlin Michael Sansone Armando Sierra Phillip Sikes Adam Smith Noah Song Cristofer Soriano Christopher Troye Tyler Uberstine Brian Van Belle Diego Viloria Jacob Webb Jeremy Wu-Yelland

We may wait to see how Anthony looks before trading Abreu. Any developing plan that sees Yoshida-Ref as the major LF combo would also ease the way for a Wilyer trade. I do not think trading Casas is a good idea. 1. Our offense is suspect and he is one of our best hitters vs RHPs and LHPs. 2. The trade value for 1Bmen has dropped, of late. 3. He's young and cheap- just what JH loves. If we add Bregman or Arenado, I'd still keep Casas, even if it means benching or severely cutting out Yoshida's playing time. I think trading Abreu, after adding a 3Bman would make more sense, despite the weakening of the OF defense by having Yoshida & Ref platoon LF. It would likely only be a temporary plan, as we wait for Anthony, or even a Campbell in the OF possibility. We could also see Yoshida build a little trade value and move him at the deadline, or when we call up Anthony. This is nota horrible OF on O or D: LF: Yoshida-Ref platoon, CF: Duran, RF: Abreu-Rafaela platoon Yoshi & Ref could DH, when casas, Devers or our new 3Bman needs a rest. Duran could play LF, when the above happens, and Rafaela could move to CF for those games, or when Duran gets a rest day.

Yes, but waiting does not always work out best for him or his clients. Overall, he is likely the best at getting the max, but it's hard to know if that is true.

Having the most players as clients does not make you the "best," and what determines who is the "best?" Maxing dollars? (How do we know he got more than someone else might have gotten?) Getting the client what he wants? (I see countless examples where his clients seemed to get screwed while he attempted to max out their take.)

HOU reportedly "upped their offer" to Bregman, but are not considered a likely landing spot. It seeems like DET and TOR have offered longer deals than BOS offered, so what is the hold-up? Is BorA$$ waiting to see if BOS adds another year? If HOU adds even more? If DET or TOR one ups the other? I'm thinking once Bregman signs, Arenado will be traded to one of the other teams. I hope it's not us, unless STL pays down the deal, so it costs us no more than $10M x 3. Even at that cost, I'm not sure we should have to give up anybody, except maybe Jordan.

Moncada to LAA at $5M/1

He might be better than I give him credit for. I agree, if Brez sees more hope in him than I do, then no-go.

Many 3Bmen become fine or capable 1Bmen. It's not a major change, except fielding throws and doing the stretch. Devers is not bad with the glove and range. His major issue is the inaccurate arm. The one big factor in moving him to 1B, is that he only has to be as good or better than the worst defensive 1Bman in MLB, Tristan Casas. The bar is set as low as it can go. If it turns out, he's worse than Casas, then he DH's and Yoshida becomes a bench, PH'er or maybe a platoon LF'er w Refsnyder, if he shows he can hit .800+. (Duran plays CF and Abrue/Rafaela platoon RF, until Anthony arrives.) The upgrade in 3B defense would outweigh the downgrade in LF defense, IMO, but it certainly is not ideal. The hope would be, he does okay, and we trade him, later, once we know Anthony is the real deal.

Several, probably.

We have so many pitchers with the same hopes as Mullins, IMO. Sure, it would suck to trade the one that turns out good, but I'm thinking the odds of him doing well are pretty low. I'm still sticking to my opinion that I'd give nothing for Arenado, unless we end up paying him less than $10M x 3. Here is how I tier our pitching prospects: 1 Perales 2 Fitts, Priester (not a prospect but...) Sandlin (maybe not a SP) Tolle 3 Dobbins, Early, Cason, Guerrero (RP) Valera, Reyes 4 Penrod (RP) Monegro, Paez, Mullins, Ingrassia 5 Delzine, Neely, Clarke, Tygart, Fajardo, Carlson, G Jackson, Mata Long shots: Dean, Gambrell, Drohan, Rivera, Kirwin, Ehrlicher Mullins might be ranked 13th to 17th on our pitcher rankings, IMO. (I'd keep him over Jordan, and even #18 Allan Castro OF.)

Yoshida might end up having a decent season. Maybe he'll build up some trade value, and one less year of his contract might help our ability to trade him, next winter. We aren't getting Bregman. I hope we don't get Arenado, unless they pay it down to less than $30M/3. If Yoshida can hit .800 by bringing up his OBP, he might give us an unexpected boost. (Apparently, MVP is expecting it.) There is a better chance Yoshida hits .800 than we find a team to take him off our hands.

Not reaally, his spot on the roster will have to be filled by someone making about $750K.

Jansen got $16m x 2, so yes.

I look at Yoshida, like I look at Arenado, and I do think it's almost all about the money someone thinks he's worth. If Yoshida was a FA, would he get $18M/3? ($6M x 3) If that's the most he'd get, then one can think we could trade him +$10M a year for nothing and get him off our 26 and 40. Do we need a $6M DH, if we had no Yoshida? I'd say no, so maybe he's worth more to a team needing a DH than to us. Not many teams have such horrible defenders at 1B and 3B who are just so obviously DH types. We may be the #1 team in MLB for the least need of a DH. (Ref should DH, too.)

If you would not sign Arenado to a 3 year deal worth $XXX, why would you give prospects to STL for the right to pay that amount or more? The guy is a sunken cost, and like Yoshida, he still has some value, but just not near his contract value. His ability to play plus D at 3B and maybe close to the same bat projection as Yoshida, although not as much, to me, he's worth more than Yoshida. He's also owed more. You can see how this board has been going through metal gymnastics trying to find ways to shed Yoshida and his as much of his contract as possible. Why are we trying to add another Yoshida type, but with a glove? Unless they pay enough to make his cost $12M, $9M, $6M, in the next 3 years, I'd pass. And, that is assuming we give nothing more than Zanetello or Jordan to get it done. (I'm not even sold on this being a good deal, but our D would improve. Maybe we find a taker for Yoshida and pay $12M x 3 and save $18M to help pay towards the $27M we'll owe Arenado. Now, it looks better. (I know Bell, Mr. Hypothetical at it again.)

You add enough money towards Yoshida's contract to equal the savings they need. Word was they were going to pay half his contract to HOU. That's about $38M. We give them Yoshida + $16M and his contract costs $38M. They pay him $38M NOT the Sox. We pay for Arenado and $5M a year towards Yoshida. Like I said, I'm not sure I'm for this, because we are just swapping sunken contracts and taking on more cost, but at least we get a guy who can actually play a position well.

If they end up saving the amount of money they want to save, why wouldn't they take on Yoshida. They could just DFA him and save the amount they want. The really don't need a DH or weak defensive OF'er, but they could, in theory, trade him as a salary dump and save a few million more than they wanted, at the start.

Yes, they were in danger, because they were much better.

Well, if Pivetta gets $21.1M/1, that's about the same as Estevez and Minter got for 2 years.

We gave up Lugo, Kavadas & others for 2 months of Luis Garcia. Paulino and Coffey for 2 months of Danny Jansen. Portes for Sims. I liked those guys more than Zanetello & Jordan.

I'd give Zanetello, Jordan and Yoshida to someone willing to take on a big chunk of Yoshida;s contract. I'd expect nothing in return. If we could/would do this, we could afford to take on more of Arenado's deal, AND the roster bottleneck at 1B/DH would be eased by Yoshida's departure. The budget might come out close to even.