moonslav59

Too bad, huh? They might be one team that would take the contract, if we included someone they really want.

Depending on who we protect, here are some possible prospects that could be drafted, plus some notable names on the list: Hunter Dobbins, Michael Fulmer (almost certainly will be protected) Jhostynxon Garcia (I'd be safe and protect him.) Yordanny Monegro (22nd ranked on soxprospects,com and projected AA in '25) Alan Castro (16th ranked on sp's. & projected AA in '25) Notables: Grant Gambrell (part of Beni-Wink trade,) Blaze Jordan (3rd rd pick in '20 & 28th ranked), Bryan Gonzalez (20 HRs in 327 ABs,) Nathan Hickey, CJ Liu, Alex Binelas (from Renroe-JBJ trade,) Noah Song, Chrisopher Troye

We've been losing a lot of players to Rule 5, recently, but none have seemed to burn us, just yet. 2 of 10 players taken in 2023 were Sox (Drohan & Fernandez) We traded for Slaten, who was taken by the Mets. In 2022, Ward was taken first, Politi 9th & Song 11th (3 out of 15) That's 5 Sox prospects out of 25, in the past 2 dratfs, combined.

I wonder if the top brass has had a sit-down on their winter strategy. If so, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall. Brez has had a full year to evaluate who we've had on the 26 (over 40 players) as well as gaining a better understanding of many of our prospects and their values. He's probably already determined a few players that do not fit into his philosophy. I won't pretend to know who those players are. I also think, if Brez is going to do something bold, he's going to have to identify a player/prospect or two, who he may really like, but will have to part with to fill some key need areas we have, right now. I'm not sure who that might be, as well. With the injury issues with Story, one could argue trading Mayer would be a huge risk. It's hard to argue with that. If both are healthy and playing well, we could probably find a slot at 2B or maybe even 3B, if Brez is bold enough to move Devers to another position. Then there is Campbell, who could play 2B or maybe 3B of OF. Counting on him to win a middle IF role might be pushing it, so soo, We also have what could be a decent 2B platoon of Grissom and DHam, and some hopes that Romy is blooming into a nice role guy. Meidroth seems better suited for 3B, but he offers some ML depth, at SS and 2B, too. (I'm not counting Rafaela as middle IF depth, but it's hard to ignore, especially with Anthony threatening to crowd the OF more than it already is.) The OF was our biggest plus, this year. O'Neill is a FA, but we can use Rafaela full time in the OF, and Anthony seems like the most "ready" prospect in the nation. Counting on a rookie does not ever seem like a solid plan, but in this case, maybe we will have to do just that. Duran is a lock, despite some issues vs LHPs, and his defense has taken a big jump forward to the point where he can be counted on in CF or RF. Abreu has to prove he can hit LHPs to be full-timer, and we may not be able to afford him the opportunity to do so. Refsnyder is the opposite split guy, so he matches up well with Abreu, but his defense is not good enough to play RF. That complicates an Abreu-Ref straight platoon, and one could suggest Ref platoon with Yoshida at DH, instead. Assuming no return of O'Neil, no Abreu trade and Anthony starting in Woo, we could maybe roll out this vs RHPs: Duran LF, Rafaela CF, Abreu RH and vs LHPs: Refsnyder LF, Duran CF and Rafaela in RF. I'm betting on Anthony to be a full timer, sooner rather than later. That would probably mean Abreu gets traded, but who knows? Another option might be Campbell in the OF, especially if we end up making the biggest splash of all, and trade Anthony. With so many moving pieces, it opens up opportunities to trade almost anyone, or even a selected two players. It seems like we have no idea if any big trade will be made, nor any idea on who we trade, if we decide to get bold.

Just trying to find out, if he met or fell short of pre-season expectations.

Yup, and they also made deadline trades, when they had a shot at the playoffs. Lots of low spending teams suck for long periods and never get like the O's are now. The Astros did it, too, and stayed a top team for 7-8 years. They may extend that, if they decide to spend more, now.

I get that. My question was, what did you expect Rafaela to hit in 2024, back in March. I would have guessed .650 to .680. Once he started heating up, I was thinking .700 to .725, but he slumped, badly at the end.

Trading Betts made dumping half of Price much easier. We are still paying the price for that trade. I'm not sure that is a good example on how we can or might dump Yoshida. I would not look for someone to take Yoshida, if they wanted Duran or Casas with him, unless we get some young and controllable pitcher who looks to be an ace. How many rebuilding teams who would love to have Mayer, would agree to take on Yoshida or 3/4 Yoshi. I guess there might be someone, and maybe Brez needs to get real creative, My guess is, Yoshida will be our DH, next season.

Agreed, and it's all going to come down to the willingness to pull the trigger, and how well Brez chooses the right guys to keep. He missed on Sale, but I do think he had some valid reasons, and 2024 was apparently not part of the "open window" period, anyway. I guess, one could argue, however, that had Brez used the $19 AAV from Gio and signed Lugo, Imanaga or Wacha and not made the Sale trade, we'd have made the playoffs and "opened the window wide." He seemed to do okay to good on getting Slaten and Fitts. The jury is still out on Priester, Sandlin, Weissert and I Campbell. Brez will have very little room for error, this winter and simply CANNOT have a major miss like Gio and the ATL trade. The budget JH hands him will be important, but so is how B rez uses it and his trade capital. Get it done, Brez!

The Orioles are 23rd and were 27th, last year. Minnesota is another team that seems to make the playoffs, often, while being in the middle or lower third of the team budget rankings. While spending on more FAs does help some teams, some don't seem to be able to sustain winning for very long. GO TIGERS!

It could be more than Abreu, or a prospect, if they prefer that. It's not easy finding a trade partner to balance a salary dump trade, since they would likely prefer to dump the whole salary and get young talent in return. The idea is to allow them to still save some money, and maybe get a better return by agreeing to take Yoshida plus some cash but not a big chunk as part of the package. We all saw what including half-Price to the Betts trade did to the return. Something on those lines. Maybe someone takes Yoshida, if we package him with Mayer, or Mayer and Abreu. One would assume a decent return player might be received.

There is a theory that a manager can rest his players at DH on some sort of rotation. Instead of giving a player 5 days of total rest, you can DH him 10-15 times and stay in the line-up 162 games (for the good hitters, only.) The idea of Casas and Devers sharing 1B and DH also could help both stay healthier and not miss any line-ups, at all. 81 games at DH and 81 at 1B, each. That being said, I'm not for trading Yoshida just to add $2-3M to the winter AAV amount Brez is given. I'd rather just keep him at DH and hope he does a little better. Trading other players will bring back better returns. The idea of trading Yoshida for a high-priced pitcher was just a theory. I came up with the Guasman example, and said I doubt TOR does it, unless they rest of the return package helps their longer term outlook (like Abreu would) AND save them some money, as we could pay down enough to tilt the money balance in their favor. There are other high priced pitchers on teams looking more toward the extended future than 2025 & 2026. I just hope we kick all the tires on trading Yoshida, because I think our team can get much better by opening up slots for Anthony, Campbell, Mayer, while letting our poor defenders DH or move to less important positions. I seriously doubt moving Devers off 3B will happen, this winter, but it would be one big way to improve the defense, without hurting the offense or costing Brez a penny.

No doubt. Those recent deals really closed the deal- something we avoided, last winter and deadline.

There has been a lot of talk about the promising farm we have, right now, despite the lack of sure-fire pitchers. This aspect has been a weak area in the Sox pipeline since the days of Letser, Buchholz, Masterson and others. Somehow, we made do, often by trading everyday players and all types of prospects for top pitching, from Pedro to Schilling to Beckett and Sale. This is not a complete list of significant farm infusions since the Theo days, but I do think it shows we are seeing a trend towards more helpful homegrown players and perhaps more importantly pitchers. I'm not sure we can ever match the top 3 farmhands left for Ben: Betts, Bogey & JBJ, and we had some stretches of very little help, along the way. Here is my list: 2015: Margot (traded with others for Kimbrel) [ERod from BAL system acquired by Miller trade.] 2016: Moncada (traded with Kopech & others for Sale) Beni (later traded for Wink) Dubon (traded for Thornburg) Espinoza (trade for Pomeranz) 2017: Devers 2018: Beeks (traded for Nate) Buttrey (traded for Kinsler) Espinal (traded for Pearce) 2020: Houck (first big impact in '24) Dalbec (brief impact '20-'21) 2021: Duran (1st impact '23) [Whitlock was a NYY farm product acquired from Rule 5. Wong from LAD system made 1st impact in '23] 2022: Casas (1st impact '23) Bello (1st impact '23) Crawford ('23) [Winckowski was a product of the KCR farm, but did see a lot of time in the BOS system.] 2023: Rafaela (2024) [Abreu was a product of the HOU farm, acquired by trade. DHam from MIL system made impact in '24.] 2024: [Slaten was a product of the TEX system acquired by trade] What jumps out at me is the long gap between the Devers call up and when Houck, Duran and Casas started to make an impact in 2023. Secondly, is the fact that Houck, Bello, Crawford and to some extent Wink and Slaten show a marked improvement of pitching impacts from previous years. I won't get into the long list of current prospects that look very promising, but it does seem like a corner has already been turned.

I used to live in Milwaukee and was a big Tommy Harper and Brewers fans, when the first moved to Milwaukee from Seattle. I'm a huge fan of great defense at SS. I admit I don't know how to project Adames defense going forward, or if there is any way to predict he direction on D. I might pass for that very reason. Like the RHB aspect, but the kinda low OBP makes me have doubts. He's just 29, so the "risk" of bust is less than almost any FA pitcher, though.

It is interesting to note that the year the SDP wnet below the tax line, they made the playoffs. (2023 was over: they missed/ 2024 under: they made it.) Using them as an example seems a bit out of context.

Well, I could see us doing exactly what I mentioned: trading Mayer (for a pitcher,) then spending money on Adames. Spending on FA pitchers seems more risky than on Adames.

Unless we trade Mayer, I doubt we even contact his agent.

One was the trainer, Ben Chadwick. I'm not so sure this is that big of a shake-up, and how many of these guys were "old guard?" Is this just Brez making minor adjustments and quietly putting his stamp on the organization? It does seem like there has been a very significant change to the system that began under Bloom and includes the overhaul of the farm system personnel.

I'm not sure TOR wants Yoshida, or would like to save more money by trading Gausman for a low cost player, but this may be the only type of Yoshida deal that makes sense. Of course, I'd prefer we go out and get a younger, cost controlled pitcher, but that would likely cost us a top prospect of someone like Casas. Abreu, DHam + Winckowski is not getting us that.

He should have made the honorable mention list, I suppose. Too many baby injuries for my liking.

Agreed. Not many teams go into the winter thinking they are looking for a DH only player with little power. Put aside the $18M owed for 3 more years, and ask, what would a team pay him as a free agent for 3 years? That is the probably the "break even" points, as in trade him with cash that evens out that number, and expect nothing in return. I'm guessing other GMs might pay him $3-6M x 3, maybe $7-8M tops. Some may seek to give us a higher-priced player in return to lessen the cash return needed, but that gets complicated. It's a sad situation, and it's not an easy choice to make. We have a team with two awful defensive corner infielders with some injury histories. It would make a hell of a lot of sense to at least let them DH a dozen or two times a season to get some or more rest, while still keeping their potent bats in the line-up as much as we can. I fully realize this whole idea could be just a pipe dream or something that is years away from happening, but it would improve the team, IMO. The choice to just keep Yoshida at DH and roll the dice on hopes he can do better as he ages also makes some sense. Why pay a team $10-14M a year to have him hit for them? Just hope he can get over .800 and keep our corner infielders where they are for 3 more years. Is saving $4-8M a year going to get us a helpful player, anyways? Who knows? Maybe no GM wants him at even $3M a year. We'd probably have to take a bigger contract to even get a GM to listen to us. Thanks Bloom & Co.!

You thought .700 before the season, or after he had that nice run to get over .700?

Do you think Rafaela did better than you expected in 2024? Do you think being asked to play so much SS affected his offense, at all?

No, they won't. A three way deal has a better chance. The Astros need a 1Bman, but I doubt they part with a top, young SP'er to get Casas.