moonslav59

Kinda hard to carry on a team with 2 players in the same clubhouse. Word I heard was he was hitting on multiple teammates wives. He did not play all that great after that year, and his D declined, too.

The day I heard of the trade, I knew OCab was a plus defender at SS and told my family, the trade was going to win us a ring. They asked who we trade for and I said Orlando Cabrera. They said, "Who?"

Masa, Sandoval & DHam for Gleyber Torres, Javier Baez & $10M.

Sandoval, DHam & Phillips for 1 year Hoerner (Sandoval's contract helps us pay for Hoerner at $12M/1.)

Looking at Rodgers, pre-2025, the guy looks like he might be able to hit over .720 or so, with a little bit of pop. While that is not great, and not what I wanted, it's probably better than we can expect from I K-F/DHam/Sogard/Eaton mix. He hit .798 in 2021 with about 23 HRs and 60 XBHs per 650. From 2022 to 2024, he hit .723 with about 15 HRs and 52 XBHs per 650. While .720 is not great, and it wasn't what I was hoping for, it would almost certainly be better than a I K-F/DHam/Sogard/Eaton mix and maybe better than Mayer overall and Romy vs RHPs. He's only 29, so maybe he can do okay at bat. We know he can play defense.

The DH would be Duran v R and Romy v L, so the only guy benched for defense would Mayer or Story. This line-up is barely worse than the best offensive one we can construct.

He became a FA, so it was up to him, too, although I never heard we made him an offer. One other important factoid: we recieved two comp picks for losing him to free agency: Ellsbury and Lowrie We later traded Lowrie for Melancon and Melancon for Brock Holt. We later got Michael Kopech as a comp pick for losing Elsbury to free agency, and he was a key part of the Sale trade. I think I'm glad it worked out like it did. That being said, I loved that Nomar trade and actually predicted it would lead us to a ring.

Sox 4 GG Winners: Wilyer Abreu RF 2024 & 2025 (Career .791 OPS w 27 HRs per 650) Ceddane Rafaela CF 2025 (Career high .708 OPS in '25) Brendan Rodgers 2B 2022 (He had a .746 OPS from '21 to '24 w 17 HRs per 650) Isiah Kiner-Falefa 3B 2020 (His best OPS seasons were .699 in '20 & .683 in '24) Close calls: Story in 2018 and 2020 at SS. Would this be the best defensive alignment? C Narvaez 1B Contreras 2B Rodgers 3B Story/Mayer SS I K-F LF Anthony CF Rafaela RF Abreu Narvaez was a top 3 finalist at C in his rookie 2025 season.

Top 2025 OBP Splits: v RHPs .424 Anthony .363 Duran .350 Eaton (41 PAs) .333 Contreras (w STL) ,347 career .321 Abreu .318 Masa & Romy .308 Story .306 Rafaela .302 KC .296 Narvaez .294 Mayer .255 Wong v LHPs .378 Romy .375 Contreras (w STL) .366 career .371 Sogard (35 PAs) .365 KC .347 Eaton (49) .337 Anthony .332 Narvaez .306 Story .299 Abreu .265 Rafaela (reverse splits, career too) .260 Duran (.284 career) .250 Masa .185 Mayer (27)

I might try this... 1. L Duran LF v R/ R Romy v L 2B 2. L Anthony CF v R & LF v L 3. R Contreras C 4. L Abreu RF v L/ R Story SS v L 5. R Story SS v L/ L Abreu RF v L 6. L Masa DH v R/ L Duran DH v L 7. R Narvaez C 8. L Mayer 3B 9. R Rafaela 2B v R & CF v L

Duran may or may not be our best hitters, but Anthony and Contreras had the best 2025 OBPs of any returning player on the roster. I would not mind Anthony up 2nd, as he rates to be our best hitter. Contreras may have more power than anyone but Abreu, so 3rd or 4th for him is fine by me. Duran's low OBP was the reason he was removed from leadoff, last season. .332 is not horrible, but for a lead-off guy, it kinda is. (He's .328 career.)

So, what is you generic opening day line-up? The one you think is the most likely used one, assuming no injuries, except Casas. 1. L Anthony LF/CF 2. R Contreras 1B 3. L Duran CF/LF v R & DH vs L 4. L Abreu RF 5. R Story SS 6. L Masa DH v R & R Romy 2B v L 7. R Narvaez C 8. L Mayer 3B 9. R Rafaela 2B/CF This is doable, although I cringe thinking Rafaela plays 2B in over 100 starts.

Masa has a career 109 OPS+, but your point still stands. He turns 33 in July, so there really is no reason to expect he tops 109. His best season was 116 in 2024. That might be a reasonable ceiling on his expectations with his 2025's 93 OPS+ as maybe his rock bottom floor. For a team that needs a DH and not a DH with power, he should have value. He's a negative on LF defense, so I doubt any team would be thinking of a dual role for him, other than maybe 5th OF'er/emergency back-up LF'er while primarily being a DH only guy on the 26. BTV has his "value" as $5.6M for 2 years. That's $2.8M x 2. If some team values him this much AND wants/needs him, we can be expected to pay $15 x 2 years out of the $18M x 2 years owed. That kinda makes me think I'd rather keep him as DH depth than trade him, but he takes up a 26 man slot. As long as Casas is on the IL, I'm okay with that, but if he comes back and looks good, I can't see any need for Casas. The other idea is to add a prospect like we did adding Sandlin with Hicks in a trade for a distant prospect. If we added one or two of these guys to Masa, maybe we save these amounts of money need to pay off Masa: 19.9 Crawford (I really like his bounce back chances, but we are loaded with SP'er depth.) 12.5 Soto 7.6 Oviedo or 4.7 Harrison (see SP'er depth comment) 6.8 Cespedes (I think this is vastly over-valued) 4.5 Sandoval (would dump even more salary and AAV implications) 3.8 DHam (now that we have I K-F, Cheng and Rodgers, he can be taken away from Cora as an infield option.) 3.5 Bleis 2.9 Drohan, 2.3 Zanetello and others near this level. I don't see it happening. Name a team that would significantly improve with Masa as their DH and is willing to pay him $3-5M a year, or more if we add a prospect or two?

2026 Salary (AAV) added from 2025, including '26 extensions and '26 re-signings: $31M ($41M) Gray ($20M paid by STL) $25M ($28M) Crochet (extension) $18M ($21M) Contreras ($4M x 2 paid by STL) $13M ($13M) Chapman (extension w option) $7M ($26M) R Suarez (5 year deal) $6M ($6M) I Kiner-Falefa $3M ($16M) Anthony (8 yr extension) $2M ($8M) Campbell (8 yr extension) That's a total of $105M actual 2026 salary added (-$24M paid by STL= $80M+) That's also an astounding $159M AAV added! (minus $24M paid by STL= $135M added.) You may not like how the money was spent or argue it was spread too thinly. You can argue we still lag behind where we should be on spending vs revenue, and have merit. IMO, you should not say we "are not spending" or "Henry has been cheap over the last 2-3 year.) Since the massive Devers extension, we also extended Bello & Rafaela, signed 2 year deals with Gio & Sandoval, paid the highest AAV to a pitcher (Buehler) since the Sale extension and added a great closer for over $10M. He has spent, Has it been enough? I'm okay with saying no, or saying we need more large and long deals to get the cream of the crop. I'm okay with saying drop the NTC crap. I'd say work the deferral angle for all it's worth, as long as we don't lose our prize target by doing so. I'd say get the team near the middle or top of the pack on spending vs revenue- for sure. But, I would not say JH is "cheap."

The only way I see Masa as a "fit," is if Rafaela plays 2B and Duran plays in the OF. I'm never benching an OF'er for a decent contact hitter with a .775 OPS tops. Who do you bench for Punch & Judy Masa? If Casas comes back to form, who is the next guy you bench? Too bad Masa can't play 2B. I'd gladly bench DHam for his bat.

If Masa would agree to go to AAA, but why would he? He'd be useful as DH depth. If any OF'er gets hurt, Duran moves to OF and Masa could DH, at least vs RHPs only. That does have some value, but not taking up a slot on the 26. He'd be the 5th OF'er behind the same guy, Duran, ahead of him at DH. It would make a ton of sense to try and offload Masa somehow- someway. Exchange for an underwater pitcher or infielder? Throw in a decent prospect (below #12ish?) Or, just pay $12-15M or of his $18M owed each of the next 2 seasons. Our roster would have more flexibility, and with a weak offense, we may need as much of that as possible. If an OF'er gets hurt, maybe Campbell can be given a shot at winning the FT DH slot for the rest of the season. Maybe Casas comes back in time to fill the role. When and if Casas comes back, Masa's role is diminished even more.

I heard that, too, and I gotta think HOU and the CHC are still open for a deal, but maybe Brez is just refusing to "overpay" to get what we need. It's hard to know specifics on what players HOU and CHC want, but at this point, I'd give Bello & DHam for Paredes or Hoerner (and maybe a prospect added.) Initially, I felt HOU should add King, Sousa, Janek or maybe even B Abreu with Paredes, but I'd take a decent prospect, instead. I'm not sure either team wants Bello that badly. Hoerner has just one year left, so it seems like a good deal for them, too. (Paredes has 2 years.) Shaw may cost more due to his 4 years of control, but we could us a 4 year guy at 3B. If we can't make it happen with one of these three guys, I'm guessing it's Brez being stubborn. You gotta give to get and we need a big get.

We do have quite a few players that could take a step up on offense (Anthony, Abreu, Mayer, Campbell, Rafaela & Narvaez) or just repeat what they did 2 years ago (Duran, Contreras, Casas & Wong.) Maybe Story, Romy and Masa give us a decent season. We might not need everyone to step up, and it's unlike they all do, but if a handful do, and the others don't all regress on us, maybe we can cobble together an offense that ranks near 10th or 11th. That could be "enough." Limiting black holes and timely hitting are always the big worries. Last year, we had fewer black holes than most of the best teams in MLB, but we also had fewer big bats. We lost 4 of our top 6 OPS guys from a 2025 team that was already not all that great on offense. We added Contreras, I K-F and expect some rookies and 2nd year men to take up the slack. That's a BIG ASK.

With the Sandlin trade and the addition of Gage Ziehl (slotted #30 as a 22 yr old pitcher,) soxprospects.com has adjusted their rankings: https://soxprospects.com/index.html The top prospects stay pretty much the same: Tolle, Arias, Early & Witherspoon (1-4) I'd put Early #2. Valera, Bennett & Gonzales (5-7) Poised to make jumps? Soto, Phillips, Eyanson & Godbout (8-11) Decent mid tier hopefuls. Romero, Uberstine & Drohan (12-14) May be AAAA types Holobetz & Mullins (15-16) offer more hope, to me than 12-14 do. Watson at #20 is Rule 5, so 2025 is it. Bleis at 17, Cespedes at 18 & Castro at 21 should be nearer to #30 in my book. It's make or break time for them. Azocar (19) Delzine (22) Ramos (23) Rivas (23) & Cason (29) are so far away, it's hard to know how good they can be. Nelly Taylor and #27 Yordanny Monegro offer some hopes of progress. #28 Samaniego is on the 40. We finally added some minor league catchers with some promise: 31 Adonys Guzman, 32 Luke Heyman, 33 Franklin Primera along with holdovers Jorge Rodriguez & Brooks Brannon (1B?) I'll be keeping an eye on: 34 G Silverio, 35 D Brito, 39 M White, 41 Ingrassia, 50 I Jackson, 51 M Martin, 53 B Morgan & 59 M Patton. I think our farm may surprise a few people in 2026.

Soxprospects.com no longer lists an "acquisition" to the infield. They demoted DHam to AAA and inserted I K-F as an infield utility man. C Narvaez 1B Contreras 2B Romy 3B Mayer SS Story LF Anthony CF Rafaela RF Abreu DH Duran Bench: Wong, I K-F, Eaton & Yoshida (Houck, Sandoval & Casas on the IL) I think DHam or Sogard could beat out Eaton for that slot, and maybe we find a way to trade Masa or get him to agree to "rehab" in AAA. The AAA bench, according to sp.com will be K Campbell, DHam, Sogard & Gasper. Non 40 man players that could see time are Matt Thaiss, Mikey Romero, Nathan Hickey and Braiden Ward. The issue with the 13 man pitching staff is measuring quality and need vs players with no options and deciding to move some starters to the pen to start the season. Soxprospects.com lists 14 pitchers, and I think Kelly will be the guy who begins the season in AAA, so Moran & Watson do not need to be DFA'd or sent back on Rule 5 requirements. Crochet, Suarez, Gray, Bello, Oviedo, Crawford (pen?) Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten Weissert, Harrison, Watson, Moran (Kelly to AAA) Others on the 40 but beginning the season in AAA are: Tolle, Early, Uberstine, Drohan & Samaniego (Bennett in AA.) To me, this looks like a very solid 26 and 40 man roster with a handful of decent players not on the 40. The two major weak areas are 2B or 3B and offense (power.) One player, like Paredes can address both of those needs, while someone like Hoerner or Shaw could address one need and help a little with the other. I'm feeling less optimistic about adding another big piece, before the season starts, and counting on Brez to do it mid season up to the deadline is a frightening thought. Without any significant additions, we are left with hoping the youth movement takes center stage, while some vets put up career or near career years. I suppose we could win with pitching and defense with average offense, but that is a new mindset for Sox fans to grapple with... me included.

We really needed a sharp focus on rebuilding our pitching staff, farm, evaluation, acquisition and development systems, and is some ways our everyday player side of the roster looked deep at nearly every position. There were, and still are, a lot of quality young players with 3+ years of control on the 26 and 40. Brez has added some good ones and traded away some players like Verdugo and of course Devers. He basically needed to fill three major everyday needs, and it could have been with just 2 high quality players: Big bat, 2B/3Bman and 1Bman. We had a couple minor needs at catcher and infield depth/defense. He did fill the 1Bman need, well, but not really with the big bat many of us felt we needed, and that was the easier slot to find a big bat, as opposed to 2B/3B. He added the infield depth and minor league catcher depth, but we still need a higher quality 2B/3Bman who can also hit well- hopefully with some power, too. The clock is ticking, and teams are wrapping up on seaking major trades to fill big needs. It might be too late. Brez did a great job filling the pitching needs we had, this winter. Some might say it was overkill, and within the context of not filling one major need on the other half of the roster, the criticism has some merit. We should remember that in 2025, we went into the winter looking like we had about 10-12 capable to quality SP'ers and we didn't really even count Newcomb, Tolle and Early, who all started several games. We ended up trading for D May and using openers for starts and even deLeon for one. 2025's 10-12 Crochet, Houck, Buehler, Bello, Giolito Crawford, Sandoval, Fitts, Newcomb, Dobbins Priester & Winckowski I'm happy we have this depth, but having this with a gaping hole in the infield is a big gamble for Brez to take. He's made some recent moves to boost the infield defense, and when you have great pitching, that's not a bad idea, but we could have used a bigger bat than Contreras. He'd have been great, if we also added KMarte, Bregman or someone like Paredes/Hoerner or maybe Shaw/E Suarez. There may still be time to fill the one and a half needs we have with just one guy but big, mid FEB trades are rare.

Yup. Story looked like another one, until last season. Maybe Masa can give a little value before his time is up.

Yanks resign Goldschmidt $5M/1. They just keep beating us to the best of the best!

Too bad none of them can hit.

You keep posting that old news that surely is incorrect by now.