moonslav59

Agreed. There was a marked shift in spending policy under Dan D. He also signed Offerman and Tom "Flash" Gordan.

142 games = 60?

I do not think Yoshida plays LF, unless we add a 3Bman and force Devers and or Casas to the DH slot. Even then, we may just cut ties with Yoshida or trade him and almost his whole salary. The loss of O'Neill should not force Yoshida into the OF, as long as the DH position is his. Rafaela should not be used at SS, so he can play FT CF/RF. The season could start like this: LF: Duran v R/ Ref v L CF: Rafaela v R/ Duran v L RF: Abreu v R/ Rafaela v L (until Anthony wins an OF job.)

Sox sign another Catcher to a minor league deal: Mark Kolozsvary. He will get an invite to the ML ST'ing camp. Apparently, he profiles as a no bat- strong defensive catcher who bats RH'd.

I'm almost certain we are done with our closer role. I'm not even expecting anyone else being added to the ML staff before opening day. I think we may add a RHB, like Grichuk and roll the dice, again.

I'd say no. Thanks to Machado.

Pedro joined the team in 1998. I think Dan D was around for 3 years before that, and we did okay- maybe about like now. From 1998 to when JH took over the team, we tried to win. We did finish in 1st in 1995.

I think they still win, but they also lost Holmes, Cortes, Torres & Verdugo. (They added Fried, Bellinger, D Williams and Goldschmidt to replace Rizzo.)

Let's see if losing Soto to free agency has the same outcome.

Yup, another winter sham.

The Pedro trade was a big part of that. The Manny signing was a clear sign we wanted to win. I agree.

Hope is not a projection.

I feel the same. Great job on building up the rotation and rotation depth, but nothing, everywhere else. Even the rotation was built on pitchers returning from injury and a trade for 2 years of a really good pitcher, recently converted to a SP'er.

Our 3B depth sucked, but I think our depth was fine, last year. Houck was slated to be our 6th starter, before Gio went down. Criswell did very well as our 7th SP. DHam and Romy did way better than E Vadlez /Grissom/Reyes, who started the season at 2B. Rafaela helped stabilize the SS position in a way Kike never could. Abreu emerged as a solid platoon player with plus D. We had to go outside the system to get Dom Smith, so we did suck at 1B depth (Dalbec), too. Our pen depth struggled, especially down the stretch, but overall, I do not think our depth was worse than most teams: we just needed it, a lot. It's hard for any team to replace a Devers.

Those three injuries hurt, and maybe Gio's, too, but I don't think we had way more injuries than other teams, and we had less than the Dodgers. It looks like our hopes for 2025 rest on health, once again. It was all about Sale for 3-4 years, Story for 2-3 years and ongoing, and now Devers, Casas, Whit and others.

It seems like the pen is the best way to get talent without giving up 5-8 year deals and $100M plus. I thought the Jansen and Martin signings signalled the Sox recognized that as a way to improve the team on the cheap and without long commitments. (We ended up paying Jansen and Martin more AAV than Scott got, but they were just two 2 year commitments and not one 4-5 year commitment.)

They were looking to save about $40-45M with the Astros trade, so if any deal comes close to that, they might listen. Taking on a $54M Yoshida deal would mean we'd have to pay off his whole deal and pay $40M for Arenado (STL pays $20M). That makes zero sense for the Sox. However, if the bottom line is what this is mostly about for STL, they could add Contreras, who is owed exactly what Yoshida is owed, and we could accept Arenado's full deal, saving STL $20M more, or accept the $20M and give them less young talent, in return for Contreras. Yoshida, Fitts and Cespedes for Contreras and Arenado & $15M cash. (STL saves $45M and we pay enough to stay under the tax line) of Yoshida and Cespedes for Contreras and Arenado w no cash. (STL saves $60M) We pay $18 to Contreras, not Yoshida and Arenado's full boat- what COL pays.

I did not say my list is what will happen- only that I see these areas as our weakest ones. I think Narvaez is a plus on D, and he has shown some power in the minors (about 20 Hrs per 550.) He has an okay OBP in the minors, but that is not something that always translates to the bigs. Our best hope is, the new coaches help Wong improve on D, and he shows his decent offense, when compared to only catchers was not a fluke. Realistically, we may sign Grichuk and someone like Finnegan or Beeks.

Grichuk. Career: .833 v LHPs and about the same as Bregman v RHPs at .737. 2024: .914 v l/ .801 v R 2023: .995 v L/ .694 v R 2022: .926/.620 He might cost 5-10% of what Bregman gets.

Bregman's splits: .795 OPS since 2020 (122 OPS+) He has reverse splits since 2020: .746 v LHPs .817 v RHP Sox players to possibly be replaced by Bregman in the line-up: (v L/vR) Yoshida: .669/ .810 (Bregman is about 80 pys better v LHPs and about the same vs RHP, but we can platoon Ref with Yoshida and get better results than Bregman.) Rafaela .610/ .684 (Bregman is much better in both splits) Casas (if traded) .772/.846 (Casas has been better in both splits)

Bregman is not a great solution to the RHB need. He would help, but not by a lot. If we end up trading Casas to make room for him, it is essentially a loss on offense (even vs LHPs and a loss vs RHPs.) If we bench Yoshida (Devers and or Casas to DH) we will gain vs LHPs but lose vsRHPs. If we move Yoshida/Ref to LF, then Bregman's bat would essentially be replacing an OF'ers bat, most likely Rafaela's, and that would be a plus vs LHPs and RHPs. (We'd probably see an Abreu-Rafaela platoon in RF.)

I have adding a catcher pretty high on my top priority list: 1. Lock down closer 2T. Catcher who can play D and not be bad on O. (Wong is good on O/ Narvaez is good on D.) 2T. RHB 4. 3B Defense 5. 1B Defense

Our SS depth is pretty weak, at least for 2025 and probably 2026. Arias and Romero offer far-away hopes, but DHam, Grissom and Romy are not season-long fill-in types at SS. It would likely be Rafaela, again. Unless we add an OF'er or Yoshida-Ref get shoved into LF after a Bragman addition at 3B, we'd need Anthony promoted to make that happen. (Not a bad idea.) While Rafaela did not look all that good on D at SS, he wasn't horrible and could grow into the position, if allowed to play there FT. He's not the ideal bridge SS for 1-2 years. Again, it comes down to Story's health on a Mayer trade. I hear yah. I might be willing to risk it. I'm not sure Campbell could win the SS job, either. We need a closer, and JH is being stingy. He did pay aged Jansen and Martin $25M a year x 2, but refused to pay Scott $19M x 4.

The Cardinals were willing to send $15-20 million to the Astros as part of the deal to help pay down Arenado’s salary, sources said. The eight-time All-Star is set to earn $74 million over the next three years, though the Rockies are on the hook for $10 million as part of their 2021 trade with the Cardinals, while $12 million of the deal is deferred, bringing the present-day value of what he is owed to roughly $60 million. The money the Cardinals were willing to include would have brought the Astros’ commitment down to roughly $40-45 million over three years. So, if we pay $15 the $54M owed Yoshida, STL pays Yoshida $39M, instead of Arenado $60M. That certainly does not save them $40-45M, but $21M is a lot. Essentially, we'd be paying Arenado $75M/3, but after subtracting Yoshida's deal we would really be paying Arenado We'd be paying Arenado $60M/3, but would save $39M/3 of Yoshida. That comes to $7M a year for Arenado over Yoshida. I can see STL saying no, and giving Helsely with Arenado makes it harder to swallow, but who knows how they value the other players I included. I'm not sure JH would do this, and I'm not sure I would either. Arenado is due to crater. Only a Helsley extension would make the deal interesting. I've come to the conclusion that there is no way to dump Yoshida, unless we just pay $10-14M a year out of the $18M/yr owed.

Apparently, HOU's offer to Bregman is still "on the table." TOR is getting close to signing Alonso, so I doubt Breg goes there. It will probably be Detroit, with maybe BOS or HOU as distant second runners.