moonslav59

How is it that we know more about your ever-trading GM than you do?

Carson Kelly would have been a good signing, but there are several defensive-first catchers around, that are not costly. I would not take on the Vazquez contract, as notin mentioned.

You mean of those already signed?

It could be. Other teams will make strong offers, too. I'm not really sold on Crochet being a top pitcher, but every pitching addition is a risk, and I'm not seeing many options out there. Burnes or Fried Crochet, Lopez Manaea, Flaherty, Castillo or maybe Eovaldi. I'm not sure, if these guys could be traded for and are some good enough? Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Mitch Keller, Alcantara, B Garrett or the like? Sonny Gray, (IS Monty too risky?)

Would you call a Bregman, Manaea, Kittredge winter a "good one?"

I've never been a big fan of how Vaz works with the staff. Our other catchers almost always got better results. Maybe he could add a bit of a salary dump aspect to a larger trade that brings back JH Duran, Ober or Ryan. Of course, Pablo could also be an option.

TH LF Duran CF Anthony RF

Bingo, except we need some defensive catcher on a 1 year deal- no biggie.

Alex Cobb to Tigers (Thanks) Carson Kelly nearing deal with Cubs. Sox now mentioned as "interested" in Santander (Bats L-R).

I'm feeling the same. The Yanks are going to need some PR damage control, and unlike JH, they care about their image. The Dodgers are not done. The Jays may bid on Bregman or a top pitcher. Other teams have talked about spending more. We need to see action not words.

My bad. I meant $16M/2. (MLBTR has $14M/2)

Yup, nothing about Castillo trade being plan Z.

Yes, 50% is likely impossible to get an agreement on. Just some sort of cap might be impossible, too.

I still think Castillo gets traded. I'm not sure the Sox work out as a fit, and I'd rather have Lopez or Crochet. (I agree, SEA will not want Yoshida, even if they include Garver or Haniger to cut down on Yoshi's cost.) I think the Sox may end up biting the bullet and trading Mayer for 2 years of Crochet, and hope extend him. That might "free up" enough money for us to win the Bregman or Teoscar sweepstakes, or we settle on Walker or some trade for a big RHB.

I'm not high on Bregman, either. A trade for Arenado, where we add pieces to force Masas being included might work better. I think the chances we sign Burnes or Scott are close to zero. I'm not sure of our chances on Fried or Bregman, but they seem like the best we could possibly get. More likely, we sign one from Manaea, Nate, Flaherty or Pivetta. I doubt we sign offman, but maybe Estevez, Yates or Kittredge might be worth a try. ( K Jansen/C Martin?) There are 2-3 defensive catchers still on the board: one is a must- or a trade for one. Be prepared for this: $70M/3 Manaea or a trade for Crochet $70M/3 Teoscar or Walker $15M/1 Yates Or $16M/1 Kittredge or $30M/3 Estevez $4M/1 Carson Kelly

How many times did we hear Castillo was not on the market to be traded?

According to spotrac, half the teams in MLB were under $148M (also under $170M.) 5 teams were between $62M and $99M. Another 5 were between $100M and $119M. On the top side: NYY & NYM $308M to $314M (with deferred money keeping LAD lower.) HOU, PHI, LAD between $240M and $255M ATL, CHC, TEX & TOR: $218M to $237M SFG & BOS $188-202M STL, AZ, LAA & SDP $170M to $175M

The thing is, only one team gets to sign Soto. Even if all owners spent a lot, there would always be have and have nots, and contract prices would go up, even more. It seems one way to "fix" it is to have a cap and a hard floor: like maybe $160M to $240M, with the floor always being at least 66.6% of the cap. Maybe have situations where going over the cap is allowed, in certain situations. The penalty system is not working.

I don't doubt we end up doing what MVP suggests: just 1 pitcher (likely not Burnes or Fried) and not a top line RP'er added, somehow. I read the Dodgers and Teoscar are not close on numbers, and they just signed Conforto, so maybe we get TH. Walker makes some sense, too. HOU seem to be high on him, and they will be losing Bregman. I'm braced for another letdown.

With the $75M signing bonus counted in, Soto will make more than several teams in 2025.

Sadly, I agree. If we get 2 quality SP'er and push Crawford to the pen, we may be just barely okay. By "quality," I don't think 2 from these quys will be good enough: Flaherty, Pivetta, Nate & Manaea.

Top FA's on the market, ranked by MLBTR w estimate: 2. Burnes $200M/7 (He may get $245M+/7) 3. Bregman $182M/7 (may get $210+M/7) 6. Fried $156M/6 (may get $200M/7)______ 7. Alfonso $125M/5 (I guess we could trade Casas.) 8. Flaherty $115M/5 (maybe him + Manaea/Nate would be okay.) 9. Santander $80M/4 (Not much talk about him as a Sox.) 10. Manaea $60M/3 (Manaea + Nate + Hoffman?) 11. Teoscar $60M/3 (Consolation prize for no Soto?) 13. C Walker $60M/2 (see Alfonso) 14. Scott $56M/4 (I still want him, badly.) 16. Profar $45M/3 (I'd rather just play a kid in the OF.) 17. Eovaldi $44M/2 (The kind of contract JH might like.) 18. Hoffman $44M/4 (If we get just 1 SP'er, I think we need Hoffman, at min) 20. Torres $36M/2 (Not a fit for us, unless we trade Campbell.) 22. Estevez $27M/3 (consolation prize for missing on Scott & Hoffman?) 24. Pederson $24M/2 (I don't see the fit.) 25. Heaney $24M/2 (This would be the Bloom signing.) 26. Hye. Kim $24M/3 (Nope) 28. Pivetta $21M/1 (Will get 3-4 years) Quintana $20M/2, Scherzer $16M/1, Buehler $15M/1, Gibson $13M/1 Verlander & Sugano $12M/1, Ogasawara $12M/2, Morton, Lynn, Cobb, Junis Minter $16M/2, yates $14M/1, Kittredge & Soroka $14M/2, Kahnle 413M/1 K Jansen or C Martin, Sewald, Robertson $11M/1 H-S Kim $12M/1, Carson Kelly or Diaz (catchers)

This deal makes the Ohtani deal look much better, and the Betts deal look like the steal of the decade. I do not see a major increase in secondary contracts, though. Most are coming in slightly higher than MLBTR's projected amounts. Snell got $30M more than projected, but I count him as a first tier signing. Adames got an extra year, but the money was close. ($182M/7 vs projected $160M/6- more money/less AAV) The secondary signings, so far: Actual Contract/ MLBTR Estimate $63M/3--$60M/3 Kikuchi $67M/3--$51M/3 Severino (significantly more) $49.5/3--$42M/3 O'Neall $38M/3--$30M/3 Holmes $29M/2--$25M/2 Boyd $34M/3--$22M/2 Montas (significantly more) $20M/2--$8.5M/1 D Jansen (LESS) $18M/2--$17M/1 Conforto (significantly more AAV) $13.5M/2--$15M/2 Higgy $26M/2--$12M/1 Bieber (significantly more) Third Tier: (No estimate from MLBTR) $22M/2 Treinen $10.75M/1 Chapman $12M/2 d'Arnaud $8.5M/1 G Sanchez

I'm glad he'll be in the NL.

To me, the first priority has to be adding an ace or two high quality SP'ers. Burnes or Fried (or a trade) If we get two, without Burnes or Fried, I'm thinking Eovaldi and Crochet. I top SP and a top RP'er might push us to the line of the bare minimum needed for our staff to improve, significantly.... Something like Fried and Hoffman or Nate and Scott. This is the least we can do to come close to what is needed. We lost Pivetta, who some seem to undervalue. He's been a top 4 IP guy on the Sox for 4 straight seasons, while averaging a 2.3 bWAR per year. (Nate gave us 1.7 per year from 2019-2022, also 4 years.) We also lost the two best RP'ers we've had since Kimbrel in 2018. That's the best 2 in 6 years. Just to break even, we need to do a lot. True, we are also, in a sense, adding Giolito, Fulmer and maybe much more time from Whitlock and a little more time from Slaten. Our AAA SP'er depth looks better than in a long time: Criswell, Priester, Fitts & Dobbins. If we add a top pen piece or two SP'ers and a decent RP, which would push Crawford to the pen, our minor league pen depth would look decent, assuming the MLB 8 would be _____, Chapman, Hendriks, Whitlock, Slaten, Crawford, Winckowski, Wilson. The AAA pen: Guerrero, Penrod, Kelly, Weissert, Fulmer, I Campbell, Booser, Mata. Next, has to be adding a defensive catcher. This need not cost much and could be on a 1 year deal. Maybe Teel can be ready late 2025 or to start 2026. The big RHB might have to be a luxury, but if we end up trading Casas, one of our best lefty on lefty batters, the loss of O'Neill will be multiplied. I have previously talked down the idea of signing Bregman, but I like what it would do to our defense. With a healthy Story at SS, our defense could go from bottom 5 to top 10- top 15 almost for certain. We may need to count on a prospect or two to get us over the hump. That is never ideal, but even if we add Bregman, Fried, Estevez and Carson Kelly, we may still need Campbell or Anthony to rock the house.