moonslav59

The best part is that Dugo's end of the trade is over after 2024. Fitts, Weissert and Judice have years to go. Other deals have a ways to go on 1 or both sides: +0.2 Priester for -0.2 Yorke -1.2 I Campbell for +0.4 Urias (end of control) Note: ICampbell was +0.5 in '23. +2.7 O'Neill (end of control) for 0.0 Nick Robertson & n/a Santos I won't bring up the ATL trade players.

I doubt anyone takes a call on Yoshida, until he's back and showing he can hit. Even then, the amount we pay will always be the key. It seems almost a sure thing, he'll be on the 40 on opening day- maybe the IL on day 2, but still on his team. The most likely trade gus might be LHB Abreu, LHP DHam and RHP Wink. Not sure what we get for any of them, or some combination of them. A lot might depend on just how much faith we have in Anthony, Campbell and Mayer, and if the service time issue will be a factor, or not. If we assume all are ML ready, right now, and service time is not an issue, a list of players fighting for a slot on the 26 could reasonably include... (assuming health) Wong & ____ (Teel not ready for opening day and does not need to be added to the 40.) Casas Campbell, Grissom, DHam Story, Mayer, Romy Devers (Meidroth likely stays in AAA and not on the 40 to start 2025.) Duran Rafaela Abreu & Anthony Yoshiuda, Ref-EValdez This is 16-17 players fighting for 13 slot, and there is no Gasper, Sogard, Teel &Meidroth.)

This is the type of deal I think the other team might do- not Yoshi for Monty, even if we add cash. It would improve the defense, and swap a LHB for a RHB, but that's about all the good I see. Worse offense. Worse budget hit, especially AAV. Close call to me. I'm not sure JH would even consider this.

Very informative article. Thanks. Bailey Horn had some awesome minor league numbers, this year.

Agreed, and I am holding out hope that moves like I Campbell, Weissert and Sandlin will payoff, too. Then, there is Fitts, Priester and Criswell, who are all pre-arb, until 2027.

The hard part about matching up with a team looking to dump salary, is that they are looking to DUMP SALARY- not trade one for another. If you lessen the cost and or shorten the years of cost, they may be interested, but if someone else allows them to save more money, and they are in rebuild mode anyway, why would a rebuilding team want Yoshida? It would not be for PR. It would not be for a team looking at a window opening in 2027- just in time for Yoshida's final contract year at post prime. More likely: we find a team willing to take Yoshida and $13M a year x 3 and then maybe take Monty and some cash for DHam or Wink.

It makes more sense, to me, if we end up paying off much of Yoshi's contract by taking back a pitcher's salary, instead of just cash. I'm not sure Monty has "plus value," so topping other team offers might not be what harmony is suggesting. Any Monty trade might be more about how much AZ is willing to pay down and not what the return package might be. Here is just a made up example of possibly 2 choices: A. We pay $13M x 3 for Yoshi to play somewhere else and get nothing in return. B. We end up with the same net contract cost as A, but have Monty on the roster at no added cost to net A costs. (Or, maybe we end up paying $2-6M more and have Monty vs nothing from A.) Can someone say why B is not a better idea? (I'm not saying finding a trade like that is easy or possible.)

Great article.

We'd have probably made the playoffs with Sale, and even subbing just Stroman for Gio. That might not be "there," but some could argue so.

I think they grossly undervalued Raleigh and likely overvalued some Sox players. I don't pay for their site, but they seemed to do a pretty good job, overall.

I totally agree, and have not been quick to jump on Brez. We've already hashed over, enough, all the reasons why the deal might have worked out better. It looks like we might have "fixed" the 2B problem, internally, without or with Grissom's help. To me, much of this off season's final grade will be determined by 2 things: 1. The winter spending budget, which could range from $20M to $60M. 2. Brez's ability and or willingness to trade a top 4 prospect. He might not be "free" to do much more than what Bloom was allowed to do. He might also be told to make certain moves, like dumping a salary. While Bloom deserves all the criticism he gets for his most costly additions- Story and Yoshi, within the context of losing betts, Price, Porcello, JD, Nate, Bogey and others, had that money been spent wisely, it would still have been hard to come close to the talent we lost.

It could very well happen that we move a GG CF'er to LF in 2025. Maybe, we win 3 GG OF awards in '25/

I certainly think they may view this year as a punt or more like a "quick kick" as it will be disguised as a real non punt play. However, I really think are "there," now, and one could even argue we could have been there, this year, with just no Sale trade and a different SP'er signing.

That is fine with me, too- better even, but I seriously doubt sany takers are out there, at least until they see how he does after surgery. Getting another big salary, who pitches, seems like a more likely way to shed Yoshi from the roster.

I'd do it.

Why look at just one pitcher and not the fact that Wong was not #1 with any?

Would anyone trade Mayer and Abreu for Bailey Ober, Jhoan Duran and Ryan Jeffers? SP: Houck, Ober, Giolito, Bello, Crawford RP: Duran, Hendriks, Slaten, Whitlock, Criswell, Wink, Fulmer, Guerrero 1. L Duran LF 2. R Campbell 2B 3. L Casas 1B 4. L Devers 3B 5. R Story SS 6. L Anthony RF 7. R Jeffers C 8. L Yoshida/R Refsnyder DH 9. R Rafaela CF C: Wong, UT Grissom, Romy & DHam

ERA 2024: Houck: 1.82 McG, 3.30 Wong, 5.09 Jansen Crawford: 1.17 NcG, 4.57 Wong, 7.20 Jansen Pivetta: 2.42 McG, 3.68 Jansen, 5.24 Wong Bello: 3.23 Jansen, 4.64 Wong, 5.81 McGuire Criswell: 2.32 Jansen, 3.12 McG, 5.33 Wong Wong is so far behind with all 5 of these guys, I think I'm convinced a change is needed.

Last year, we saw the tides shift mid season on how well our pitchers did with differing catchers. I've avoided the issue, this year, as it seemed Wong became more of a FT catcher over a split duty set-up like 2023. Here are some numbers- pitcher by pitcher: OPS Against (PAs) Houck: .537 w McGuire (199) .612 w Wong (464) .856 w Jansen (80) Pivetta: .561 w McGuire (169) .698 2 Jansen (94) .801 w Wong (332) Criswell: .700 w McGuire (143) .760 w Wong (210) .857w Jansen 71) Crawford: .501 w McGuire (122) .728 w Wong (526) .797 w Jansen (111) Bello: .599 w Jansen (167) .744 w Wong (415) .823 w McGuire (120) Wink: .728 w Wong (150) .743 w McGuire (114) .836 w Jansen (72) Slaten: .533 w McGuire (89) .593 w Wong (114) As you can see, Wong did not do the best with our top pitchers. Only Wink did slightly better with Wong. While Wong is still young enough, and many catcher "mature" in their late 20's or even early 30's, I'm not sure how much longer we can stick with Wong. I'm fine with the idea of adding Higgy or Jansen or trading for Jeffers. Splits in 2024 (L/Rcareer) Higgy .742 v L/.737 v R (.720/.644) Jansen .714 v L/ .634 v R (.703/.737 reverse split) Jeffers .817 v L/ .693 v R (.832/.695) Jeffers looks like the better batter, especially vs LHPs.

MLBTR reports... It was almost exactly one year ago that Michael Fulmer underwent a UCL revision surgery, which ended the right-hander’s 2024 season before it even began. After a year of rehab, however, Fulmer told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford (X link) that he is back to throwing off a mound and “is trending well for” the start of Spring Training. Despite the injury, Fulmer still landed a contract last offseason, as the Red Sox signed him to a two-year minor league contract with the knowledge that the 2024 campaign would be a wash. Fulmer’s turn towards relief pitching in 2021 yielded pretty positive results over the 2021-23 seasons, and if he finally get healthy during what has been an injury-plagued career, Fulmer is an intriguing no-risk flier for the Sox heading into next season.

Several Red Sox scouts liked Masataka Yoshida, including: Steve Ward A veteran scout who was convinced of Yoshida's talent after watching hours of video and hearing reports from Matsumoto Gus Quattlebaum The vice president of scouting development and integration who traveled to Japan to see Yoshida in person Mike Rikard The vice president of scouting who traveled to Japan to see Yoshida in person Steve Peck A special assignment scout who traveled to Japan to see Yoshida in person Marcus Cuellar The manager of international scouting who traveled to Japan to see Yoshida in person The Red Sox were unable to travel to Japan to see Yoshida in person in 2020 and 2021 due to pandemic-related restrictions. An article link: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4215769/2023/02/17/red-sox-scout-translator-yoshida/

IMO, we need both. I's much prefer a better SP than Kikuchi, but I'd like him in the starting 5 over what we have. I'm not high on Crawford and think Kikuchi is better than Bello and Gio. He'd be my #2 our of what we have, now.

If Gio is healthy, someone goes to the pen, and in theory, improves it. If Gio is not healthy, Kikuchi just has to be better than Criswell (18 GS) and pen games (14.) The scary thing is, he can be much better than Criswell, but not match the team's 12-6 record in his starts.

Was he this bad on blocking and framing in 2023?

Great article. I'm with notin on going with the shorter deal, which might be Higgy. Teel could be ready by 2026. I also think getting a pitcher (or two) from MN, along with 1 year catcher, jeffers would work. Not sure how he ranks on D, but nobody seems worse than Wong. One Q: didn't Wong look okay on some defensive metrics, in 2023?