Jack Flap

Teams that want to take their best prospects "off the table" in any Mookie trade talks should be told to go pound sand. I don't care if that's rational or not. You're not getting Mookie Freakin Betts for a bunch of spare parts.

I'm sure the Red Sox always do their due diligence on the Rule 5 in case some guy they're really high on is somehow available, but in general, we usually don't have roster spots to spare for players who probably aren't major league caliber. (No Josh Smith jokes, please.) I wouldn't expect this year to be much different.

I figured we could use a thread like this for news worthy of a post but not necessarily its own thread...like... Mike Moustakas signing with the Reds for 4 years and $64 million (apparently to play second base). Raise your hand if you saw that coming.

I can't claim to know where any of this is going, but I'll wait to see where things land by spring training. Ownership set him up for a near-impossible task before he was even hired, and he walked in to a fan base expecting him to work miracles from day one.

If you chose the 2010's, no offense, but you are objectively wrong and should question all of your life choices, IMHO.

Even if that kid is a nobody (seems likely), it's kind of nice to get something, anything in return for Sandy... we should be able to find a good defensive backup for much cheaper.

Stat Masterson shutting this speculation down: Alex Speier @alexspeier The deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players is tonight. There’d been some question among MLB teams about whether the Red Sox might non-tender Jackie Bradley Jr. That’s not going to happen: Per source, the Red Sox are tendering a 2020 contract to Bradley.

I voted no, but... Boston Strong @BostonStrong_34 Ken Rosenthal reports that the Red Sox reportedly being interested in OF Avisail Garcia could be related to non-tendering Jackie Bradley Jr. (the initial Rosenthal report appears to be behind The Athletic's paywall) Is Bloom about to move his asssssssss?

If Noah Song actually has the real-world trade value that site believes he has (I suspect he does not), then the Red Sox should probably trade him yesterday, given that he's about to report for military service next month with no word on an exemption being granted, and may not pitch for 2 years after that.

Right, and it doesn't have to be a "mandate" per se for my post to be true. I suspect Kennedy was sent out to walk it back after it was realized that publicly announcing your need to shed a large amount of payroll might not be the wisest idea from either a PR or a business standpoint, but even in that appearance, he said it would be difficult (though not impossible) to retain both Mookie and JDM next year. Of course, I should also note that I've previously expressed my skepticism that they'll actually follow through with getting under $208M this year, but for now, they've given us just about every indication possible that this is something they're taking seriously.

...or not.

I mean, multiple high-ranking team officials (Henry, Werner, Kennedy) have made statements since September indicating that getting under the $208M line is something they would really, really like to do. That isn't media spin or idle fan chatter...that is coming from the team itself. Does that mean they'll definitely end up getting under? Of course not...but for now, it's all we really have to go on, so it only makes sense to take them at their word. It's not like our opinions or input are being considered here, anyway.

The Red Sox: We plan to reset the luxury tax next season, just FYI. Fans: Huh, okay...let's talk about some ways the Red Sox might do this. Inevitably Some Other Fan: Why do you care so much about John Henry's money?

I certainly never thought of it that way. For three prime years of one of the best pitchers in baseball at an extremely team-friendly salary, we probably gave up about what we should have...maybe even got off a little easy.

He was actually placed on outright waivers, meaning he'll be off the 40-man roster but can be sent to the minors if he goes unclaimed, correct? (Same process by which we were able to send Leon to Pawtucket last spring.) Anyway...easy guy to root for given all he's been through. Provided 126.1 innings of above-average pitching (106 ERA+) in 2017-18, and his out-of-nowhere CG shutout in '17 was a really cool moment. We definitely need to get some better depth options ahead of him at this point, but I'll be sorry to see him go if that ends up being the case.

Youthinks correctly.

Don't let this distract you, though, from the fact that it's been another day and Bloom has yet to move his asssss.

I don't think Bell is wrong here, though. Ownership wanted a change in direction, and they got it...out with Cherington, in with Dombrowski. It seems silly to "blame" Dombrowski for doing exactly what he was hired to do and behaving exactly as everyone expected him to - especially since (in 2016-18 at least) it worked out about as well as anyone could have reasonably predicted. As for what went wrong subsequently... John Henry's fingerprints are all over the Sale extension at the very least, given his comments in spring training about not wanting to blow those negotiations the way they felt they blew the Lester situation. Knowing that his bosses very much wanted to avoid the distraction and spectacle of another ace pitcher getting ready to walk at the end of the year, it seems quite possible that Dombrowski felt some pressure from above to get a deal done. In any case, I have questioned and still question why, if we believe ownership that they knew at least a year in advance that they were going to want to re-set the tax penalties in 2020, and that there were major disagreements with Dombrowski as to the future direction of the team as early as the World Series, Dombrowski was then allowed to continue writing fat checks to injury-prone pitchers. If the financial goalposts he had to work within were not made clear to him, or if he was somehow allowed to defy ownership's wishes and keep spending profligately, then that to me is on ownership. Please note that I'm not trying to bash or complain about Henry & Co. (four World Series wins - end of story), but I think if they find themselves unhappy with the corner they seem to have been backed into with regard to the luxury tax, the first place they should probably look is in the mirror. Dombrowski makes a convenient but not entirely convincing fall guy here...I prefer to say thank you for the ring and leave it at that.

I'll reserve judgment until we see an actual trade package put forward for Mookie, but conventional wisdom seems to hold that the Red Sox are going to have trouble getting elite young talent in return given his 2020 salary, only one year of control, and the fact that every sentient being in the solar system knows that he's 99.9% going to free agency without an extension at this point. Short of some team getting desperate and stupid (which certainly could happen), whatever we get back is going to feel very underwhelming. If it comes to it, I'd certainly take the 6-7 WAR (on the low end) Mookie will provide in 2020, and take my chances signing him in the offseason, over a couple of middling prospects that may never pan out, or another Allen Craig/Joe Kelly type trade (such control, wow, so value). We're not talking about just any trade of any player, but one of the finest talents that this franchise has produced in its long and storied history...and whatever their respect for Bloom's skills in wheeling and dealing, you can bet Henry & Co. are also heavily weighing the PR consequences of trading him for a return that does not reflect that.

I do understand the antipathy towards Cherington, given the epic run of bad decisions in 2014-15 that paved the way for his exit from Boston...still, anyone who helped deliver a championship gets a few mulligans from me and will always be remembered more fondly than not. Congrats and best of luck to him.

100% yes.

All this proves is that he's been getting screwed by the free agent market. The last two seasons, he's had to settle for one-year deals in the $5-10 million range. Do you expect him to do dramatically better this offseason, when he's the same player but another year older?

The more I think about it, the more I remain unconvinced that the Red Sox are actually going to follow through with getting under $208M this winter. With the amount of talent on this roster, it may make more sense to plug 1B, 2B, and the 5th starter spot with internal options and/or 1-year free agents, make one more push in 2020 with the existing group, and re-set if you must in 2021, when you may lose Betts and Martinez whether you like it or not. I'm probably wrong, but that scenario would personally feel easier to swallow than watching them do something this winter to actively make the team worse, like trading Mookie for an underwhelming return or giving JDM away in some salary dump. It would be nice if there was a magic bullet out there to save us like the 2012 trade with the Dodgers did, but I don't think there is...whatever we're going to need to do to get under the limit this winter is going to hurt.

I thought the deadline was 5 pm and was looking forward to some news by the end of the work day, at least, but Speier reported that it's actually midnight...which (given the way this seems to be getting dragged out to the last minute) likely means a few additional hours of waiting.

Yes, there are now giant ads showing up in the middle of thread pages, or even (it appears) inside individual posts. I don't remember noticing that before today.