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Pedroia, Bogaerts, Sale, Varitek, Porcello, Beckett. The Sox have signed their own players plenty of times. The problem is, a lot of players really want to test free agency. They know that's where the money is, and they have been working for reaching free agency for most of their adult lives. No one hires an agent so they can take a hometown discount...

Well somebody needs to do it. Mike Elias is clearly not up to the task...

If the Sox are not going to spend on Schwarber, are they willing to spend on Correa/Seager/Story?

Some people do still trades are to get rid of people and not primarily to get anything back. Now ZIPS hates Duran, projecting him to be worth 1.5 fWAR over the next 3 seasons. BTV gives him a surplus value of $23.5 mill, which is probably reasonable…

I’ve said Duran isn’t a good defensive outfielder. I’m not alone in saying. In fact, pretty much everyone who’s ever seen him play says it about him. I am all for trading him because I think he can get back something decent and there is no place for him in the Sox starting outfield. Making him a 4th outfielder where he gets maybe 100 PA a season is actually much worse than anything I’ve ever said about him. Believe it or not, calling a player trade bait is a bigger compliment than calling him bench material. At least I think he could start somewhere. Specifically in Oakland…

Accidentally?

Let's say the Sox do plan to trade Bogaerts. First, is this really the right off-season? Any team willing to spend on a shortstop can go sign Carlos Correa or Corey Seager or Javier Baez or Trevor Story and not give up any prospects beyond the draft pick, and also get them for more than a single season of control. So any team interested in Bogaerts will be a team that 1) needs a shortstop 2) has a significant budget 3) plans to be competitive in 2022 and 4) cannot afford the free agent players listed above. Obviosuly the teams losing those shortstops should candidates, but the Dodgers appear to have already filled Seager's role. The Cubs and Rockies are not likely to be very competitive next season. That leaves the Astros as one potential target, Maybe the Phillies? One could argue the Yankees fit the criteria, but I think they are a likely landing spot for Seager and his left-handed bat. And even if they weren't, the Sox are not dealing them Bogaerts (I hope). An maybe we can add the giants to that list, since they undoubtedly plan to try and get back in the battle for the AL West, and while they are losing Brandon Crawford to free agency, they also have a lot of other money coming off their books. So they might be spenders and grab one of the 4. So the Astros or the Phillies. No one wants the Astros. Let them go sign Freddy Galvis. That leaves the Phillies. Per BTV, Bogaerts (with 1 year left) has a surplus value of $32.4 million. This makes him roughly equal to Philly RHRP/RHSP Ranger Suarez ($29.4 mill) or maybe a package of former 1st round pick RHP Mick Abel, AA Shortstop BRyson Stott, and the contract of Jean Segura (1 yr/$15.8 mill). The flaw in this plan is the Phillies might just as well go forward with Stott and Segura up the middle next season and allow themselves to hold on to the pitching depth. So where would Bogaerts go?. The Giants? For prospects?

Wrong off-season...

Who?

Not if he was buying A-ha and Kajagoogoo albums...

3 Fenway Franks is enough in one year for me...

Why bother explaining, beyond saying this is the plan going forward? I never saw any follow up to the Betts trade beyond the normal "direction going forward" stuff. And while his negotiations got pretty public, they were also going on for a few years. Some fans might get upset if they deal Bogaerts, but it's not like this requires some sort of special planted story. Player salaries and contracts are all so public now (to an extent) that suspecting dealing Bogerts this off-season is hardly new conjecture. I've been throwing out the possibility on this bard for months, and I pay very little attention to the Boston media. And story or not, that Bogaerts plans to opt out hardly qualifies as news. There's a reason that clause was put in there in the first place. Of course, one could argue that by making X's decision to opt out public, the Sox would be risking making it even harder to deal him...

Possibly,. I have heard him talk in the past about how he no longer goes out and talks to the people in the field any more. But that doesn't mean he has no contacts, or that he still has any. Also as I moved out of Massachusetts a couple decades ago, I am not sure if he still operates the same way...

It will if we get all the chemists together with their discoveries, determine the best one scientifically, and then execute all the chemists. Search is over...

Well then, I will get right on signing him...

With other perks? Like we let them wear the Wally costume once per week?

With the same frequency and damage as cars?

Yet for some odd reason, the Public Perception is more often to side with the owners...

I never heard of horse colliding with another horse...

Yep. All Hyundais are capable of making is air pollution and owner frustration...

Was Shaughnessy - who is a coulmnist and not a beat guy who goes out and actually talks to people - citing any actual sources or is this just pure conjecture?

I know. Horses are so much better. Horses run on grass and hay and never require gasoline. They can heal themselves as opposed to going into the garage. You never have to worry about spare parts. And when your horse gets too old, it can make it's own replacement! Let's see your stinkin' Hyundai do that!!! But how many of the dissenters are willing to give up their cars and get a horse? After all, for a very, very long time, the horse was exactly how transportation had always been done...

I live among Cubs fans who, for decades, embraced the team’s failure. Fans who proudly wore shirts that said “1908 World Series Champions” into the 2000’s. And who used phrases like “lovable losers” and sold out Wrigley even with the team in last place in August. Is this what to expect from Mariners’ fans? Rather than embrace their teams failure, they start a new and completely useless concept of combining wins across multiple seasons to prove the team is competent but just unlucky, rather than coming to another obvious conclusion that the team is consistently mediocre and still never good enough?

FWIW the Red Sox and their fans don’t take delight in doing better than teams that punt…

“The way it’s always been” is not a good reason to maintain the status quo. Ever. Anywhere. In any field or any job or any situation…