moonslav59

You did not mention Anthony for CF and or RF. I'd say Catcher is the number one positional need, along with balancing the Lefty overload. It's really more about defense at 3 positions (C, 3B, 1B) and offense at one position (CF) with no position lacking in both areas. Maybe Campbell can play 3B, at some point, but that would indirectly squeeze out Yoshida. At some point, someone will get squeezed, unless all three top prospects flop. Anthony can easily squeeze Rafaela to a jack-of-all-trades utility man and or a platoon w Abreu (as Anthony could alternate between CF and RF, depending on who is playing.) Mayer could play 3B, 2B or squeeze Story to 2B. Campbell could push DHam and Grissom to utility roles or push Devers to 1B/DH. It seems like the easiest way to balance the L-R thing is to trade Abreu and sign someone like Grichuk on a 1 year deal, until we know more about the kids. notin mentioned a Story for Sean Murphy deal that would bring us the RHB we need and a decent catcher, but it would lock us into Mayer at SS with not much depth, unless you think Campbell could do better than Rafaela. I'd rather see Romy sub at SS than DHam or Grissom.

One unspectacular move could be to sign Kyle Finnegan. If anything, he is the model of consistency: 4 year ERA: 3.62 in and average 67 gms/yr. His ERA never went over or under by more than 0.14. His games pitched was always within 2 of 67. In 2024, he had 38 saves in 43 opportunities.

I'm not the driver of that wagon. I'd be fine with going all in, but I'm never a fan of "halfway."

I'm with you on this. The Crochet trade should have meant the window is open, now, and other moves should have/be made to build a team around him, Buehler and the existing core. Signing Buehler, instead of Fried or Burnes is okay, I guess. Signing Chapman, instead of Scott leaves something to be desired, but maybe Hendriks can help. We really made no other major improvements, except Crochet and Buehler. When you look at what we saw walk away, it's not a major improvement. Some could argue it's not one at all. Pivetta may have been average, but he was the horse we've needed. O'Neill was out HR leader and only really good RHB, (okay Ref was, too.) Jansen and Martin were no slouches. Rotation: better. Pen: worse. Line-up: worse. Defense: the same.

Over the last few seasons, all we've pretty much had were hopes that just about everything could go right and maybe, just maybe, some magic could happen. For many of us the winter before 2021 was not hopeful, at all. I think I had more hopes going into 2022 than 2021, so I guess anything goes, right? I'm not happy with the totality of our moves, this winter, and maybe something major will still go down, but there are a few things to be more hopeful about than there were, last winter, of the ones before. We had a lot of questions about Houck and Crawford, last winter, and we still do, but I feel better about both, now. I was worried about Wong's bat, last winter, but now I'm not. (I am terrified about his defense, though, while last winter I had hopes he could improve.) I'm about equally concerned about the health of Casas, but I still am pretty sure the guy can rake. I feel way better about 2B than I have since Story was the FT'er there. The health concerns about Story at SS has not gotten any better. Devers at 3B feels the same. I fell way better about the OF, as Duran answered all Qs about him, Abreu looked real good on O & D and Rafaela did okay. The pen looks deeper but more sketchy with our top 2 guys going into 2025. I have to think Buehler should be better than Pivetta, but he has to stay healthy. Adding Giolito to the mix looks good, on paper. Bello looks no better than he did last winter, but having Criswell, Fitts, Priester and Dobbins in AAA helps me think our rotation should be better with quality and quantity in 2025. The pen looks the opposite, to me, but there are so many promising arms that maybe we can cobble together a decent 8 and not take all season to settle on the right one. Catcher looks worse. 1B about the same. 2B better. SS about the same- maybe a bit better. 3B the same. OF much better and the bench looks better than it did, last winter. Overall, this seems to show we should be better, but we needed to get 10-20 games better, not 5-7 better. As always, we must rely on players staying healthy, and the list is long: Story at SS, Buehler at SP, Casas and Devers at corner IF, Giolito & Hendriks, Slaten & Whitlock, Yoshida and others, too. Maybe, by opening day I will feel more optimistic, but I was hoping we could do better than just slightly improving and relying on the same hopes we've seen dashed, year-after-year.

If the plan was to open the window in 2026 or 2027, I wish we'd have kept Teal, Montgomery and Meidroth.

I'm not sure why he'd even be in the running for 3rd or 4th place on the Sox in OPS or OPS+. 2024 OPS+ 139 Devers (at age 27) , 129 Duran (27) , 129 Refsnyder, 120 Casas (age 24), 114 Abreu (at age 25) Bregman was at 122 at age 30 2023-2024 OPS .860 Devers .838 Casas .832 Duran .794 Abreu ,787 BREGMAN .775 Yoshida

I'm not getting the faith in his offense. He is not the guy from 2017-2019. He's gone 5 years showing he is a good to very good hitter, but not great, anymore. Maybe Fenway would be good to him, like it is to many lefties, but it's not like HOU is a pitcher's park. He'll be 31 on opening day. He has a very nice 122 OPS+ over the last 4-5 years and a 118 OPS+ in 2024. That is an improvement over our 2Bman, for sure, but was 2B our biggest need area? Our second biggest? 3rd? 4th? 5th? 6th? (I'd say no to all and beyond.) Just because he is the best FA remaining, doesn't mean we should choose him to be our overpay. I'm barely on board with signing him as our 3Bman. Barely. In a sense, we'd be paying him his salary plus the benched Yoshida's salary to make room for him. That is also reason enough to say no, but at least he'd improve our offesne (Bregman > Yoshida) and 3B Defense (Bregman >>>>>>Devers) and maybe 1B deense (Devers ??>>?? Casas). The DH 1B share by Devers and Casas may keep both healthier, fresher and maybe needing less full days off for rest. It would be 2-3 pluses, not one.

So, of all the FAs signed and unsigned, you think signing Bregman to $25M-$28M a year for 5-6 years to keep our 2B defense maybe the same and bat .795 year one and maybe less, every year afterwards is the solution? We might get .730-.770 from a DHam-Grissom platoon, or much better from Campbell. The D at 3B, 1B and C will still suck. The offense may get slightly better for a year, maybe two. Bregman would provide the option to move him to 3B in a year or two, about the time his defense starts declining. I'd rather sign Santander to less money, then trade Abreu for a catcher and RP'er. He's a better bat, and we'd fix 2-3 needs, not barely one.

Who is saying don't sign Bregman or anyone else? We've all been suggesting ways to upgrade our actual weaker areas, now ones where we are better than others or have great hopes in a ML ready prospect to step in, if the DHam-Grissom 2B platoon implodes.

.729 might be what Breg hits over the next 6 years. DHam brings more than just .729. He is, IMO, a better defensive 2Bman than Breg and steals mega bases. My real confidence lies with Campbell, who am certain will outhit Breg in the next 6 years and is likely a better defensive 2Bman, too. If Mayer wins the SS job, we'll have a RH'd GG 2Bman, as well, in Story. We don't need a 2Bman who may or may not improve the 2B offense.

You act like the first half of 2024 is the outlier. It's not. You don't hit .795 over the last 4-5 years and think he is really the batter he was over the second half of the most recent season. There is no reason to think he'll be better over a full season in 2025. 2023: .726 first half/ .901 second half 2022: .764/.894 He's a streaky hitter, who has had reverse splits over the 2023 and 2024 season. He may not be the savior we need vs LHPs, either. 2023: .696 v L and .712 in 2024. He's a damn good defensive 3Bman who hits well, but not great. He may be a good defensive 2Bman, but we already have that role filled. Who is overthinking this? We need to improve 3B D. We need a good to great RHB. We don't need a good RHB to play 2B.

It's hard to imagine JH saying no to a Jansen contract. These are the types of things that puzzle me.

You know I'm talking about 3B defense. I'm not signing Bregman to bench Devers. His bat stays. Nobody is saying we bench or trade Devers.

DHam was better than "good at 2B" and hit .729 v RHP. We have Campbell. We don't need a 2Bman, finally. If we sign Bregman to play 2B, I'm jumping on the fire Brez & Cora bandwagon, day one. (That is NOT hyperbole. That choice breaks the camel's back.)

.795 OPS over the last 4 and 5 years. He would add some RHB help, but not enough. His plus O and plus-plus D at 3B is what fulfils his true value. We have a weakness at 3B. Don't overthink it.

That does sound like I think it could happen. I did not mean to imply that. I know they are tied to Devers at 3B until Casas or Yoshida are gone. To me, I'd make the move now, even without adding Bregman or Arenado. Either start Campbell at 3B and go with a DHam Grissom platoon at 2B or give Grissom some time at 3B and Campbell times at 3B and 2B. Devers and Casas share DH/1B duty and Yoshida is benched, dumped or forced to win the LF job.

I know this. That won't stop me from saying what I think is a better plan.

Exactly. The window SHOULD be , now, but instead we get halfway measures- maybe just enough to give fans enough hope to not revolt.

3 years of god-awful defense at 3B, and the talk is about how much they want to keep Devers at 3B, even if they add Bregman or Arenado. This is gross incompetence, or just a ruse to keep Devers happy, at least until they actually add a real 3Bman.

That's how I see it. The trade made the window NOW! Of course, we may extend him, and maybe they already have an extension worked out, but for now, the window may not be better in 1 or more years. If the plan was to wait for Anthony, Campbell, Mayer and others to be significan't, then we should have waited to make a Crochet-type trade.

Casas has 4 years left.... UGH!!!!!!!! LEEEEEEEEEEEEE! The middle IF, once again, will rely on Story's health, but I do think we already have 2B "fixed," defensively. DHam looked like a plus in 2024 at 2B, and there is no reason to think Campbell will be a minus at 2B. (BTW, Campbell might also be the solution at 3B and not 3B. Maybe he plays 2B v LHPs and 3B vs RHPs.) I've never thought the Sox would move Devers, as I wish they would. I'm surprised you'd rather keep him there. Do you think he'd be better at 1B than Casas, who is awful at 1B D? (We could DH Casas or do a 1B/DH share between the two.) notin mentioned Grissom at 3B or Mayer. Could we see this? Vs RHP: Campbell at 3B and DHam at 2B Vs LHP: Grissom at 3B and Campbell at 2B

So, basically a used car salesman= big fat liar. (BTW, I don't disagree.)

He's just trying to give hope to guys like Crawford, Fitts, Priester, Criswell and Fulmer.

#32 out of 34 from 2022 to 2024, according to OAA (-16.) Wisdom & Burger were worse. #34 out of 35 '22-'24, according to DRS (-24.) Only Bohm was worse (-27.) With different players coming up slightly worse than Devers on these two lists, one could argue Devers comes out as the worst or tied for worst. Anyway, is it really that much better if he's 29th or 28th? We need to give our pitchers a break by providing them with a plus defense behind them, and the place to start is corner IF. (We have to just hope Story bring more stability to our MI.) Catcher is another task that needs to be addressed.