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You need to be more careful. A lot of people are allergic to Peanuts...

Well, I think we only call him an "Ace" because of his post-season performance, especially the game against Verlander. During the regular season, he was actually rather vanilla. Losing W-L record. 2.5 fWAR. Good ERA, but his 2 of his next 3 seasons were better...

Eovaldi is an ace in paycheck only. He cannot stay healthy enough to actually be one...

Especially since the Sox are not getting Archie Bradley, who just signed with Philadelphia...

Albert Almora is a terrific defensive outfielder as well. As is Pillar...

But that might be a bit unfair because sometimes we hand out the "ace" label after the ring season. No one would have called Lackey an ace after 2012, a season he missed for TJ, or after 2010-11, in which he pitched 61 games with a 5.26 ERA and combined for 4.2 fWAR. Was he any more of an ace then than ERod is now? (Hint: ERod had 5.9 fWAR in his last two seasons before missing 2020. So, no. Lackey was not.)

Robert Heinlein could have said that in 175,000 more words...

No Realmuto?

Until they rise up and enslave us all...

With a lot of snow outs...

What is the fascination with Jake Marisnick? He topped a .700 OPS one time in his career and needed to cheat to do it. The Sox would be better off with Albert Almora or Kevin Pillar...

No but we still could make it more fun...

The L-R-L strategy was always silly, and a negative contributor to game pacing. But it could actually be important now. It used to have the effect of having the LOOGY come in for one hitter and then leave the game. Or two hitters if they were both lefties. But now he is in for 3 batters minimum, so having a RHH in there makes sure that LOOGY has to face a right handed hitter in between the lefties...

The Sox won in 2018 without a healthy Sale for the entire second half...

They appear to be going for it in 2021 as they acquired short-timer Lance Lynn, but (yes, the unofficial) Roster Resource lists their starting LF as Adam Engel, whose only real attribute is CF defense, so he brings very little tothe table as a starting LF. Eloy Jimenez is listed as their starting DH, and while they could easily move him to LF and fill thatthe DH role with someone like Renato Nunez or Jose Martinez or Yoenis Cespedes or any of a few other options, they have not exactly done so, despite having an otherwise aggressive (by 2020-21 standards) off-season. Maybe that is their ultimate plan, but upgrading LF over the weak-hitting Engel is certainly another possibility. Other potential DHs on their current roster are actually very weak as their bench (again, per Roster Resource) apparently has Danny Mendick, Leury Garcia and someone named Micker Adolfo, whose minor league stats indicate he is not an MLB bench candidate due to his offensive prowess. Adding a LF (or DH) and replacing Adolfo on the bench with Engel seems like a better solution for a better overall team. No idea on their budget, but with Kyle Schwarber going for $10mill, Benintendi does look like a cheaper alternative. And they have solid SP depth with the very underrated Reynaldo Lopez slated for the bullpen. A swap centering around Benintendi and Lopez does work for both teams...

Reportedly the Astros and A's are still in. And I would think the White Sox and Cleveland Baseball Team also make a ton of sense....

The Sox shouldn't let Sale make more than 12 starts and maybe 60 innings. Of course, there is no guarantee he joins the rotation immediately after coming back, either.

Chavis has played all of 421 innings at 2B, or roughly a little over a quarter of a season, spread out over 2 years. It seems a tad early to call his defense there "horrific"....

It's ok with me if you want to...

God I hope not. It took the guy five weeks just to get on a mound and throw a few pitches. Think he is going to mull through 15-20 offers faster than that?

I was thinking that is crazy, but probably not true. In a market where Kyle Schwarber can get 1 yr/$10mil, Pederson should be get a deal with a similar AAV. Both are coming off bad years at the plate. Schwarber is younger (albeit not much) but Pederson is the better overall player. But the good news for the Sox is Benintendi is younger and cheaper than both of them, which does help his trade value in the face of his awful performances lately...

Also Rosario. Since August 19, 2019, Benintedi is slashing .136/.267/.189 for an extremely unimpressive .456 OPS. Granted, this only covers 161 plate appearances, and is maybe about a quarter of a season's worth of games. And Hunter Renfroe, the current in-house replacement, was not much better last year (.156/.252/.393) in 139 PA's. Maybe the Sox get a lefty platoon guy like Joc Pederson?

While true, we don't exactly know what the return will be, if there even is any...

So think this is a subtle campaign for his own return?

Well he is clearly invovled in this whole Benintedi scenario.