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You think he would not have been able to? He still had a WHIP extremely comparable to many other save leaders that year, including Greg Holland, Cory Knebel and the MLB saves leader Alex Colome. And Fernando Rodney! Think Rodney was more capable of closing than Uehara?

THAT was my biggest hope. My fear was he would give it to someone like Pedroia or Papi who was clearly not going to last that long...

If they did that, they likely could have gotten multiple arms for what Kimbrel was making. The only real positive here is with extra money at his disposal, DD might have gone of and given some extension to a player akin to what he gave Cabrera...

And his condition is not contagious...

And also about the lack of replacements in the closer end of the prospect pipeline...

True. But a lot of that was the littany of weak pitchers not named Uehara...

Uehara could have closed in 2017. He declined a bit and was not as effective as Kiimbrel, but he was certainly still good. Kimbrel was great in 2017 and the first half of 2018, but then he just fell off a cliff and was not even closing when the won the WS. His postseason that year was questionable at best...

The contract was fine. The prosepct payment for a reliever not among the highest paid probably would have been fine too. but going overboard on both counts, especially for a specialty pitcher to fill the one bullpen role that wasactually working, felt unwise. That's why I liked the Thornburg trade at the time. The Sox did give up a lot, but for a pitcher that was not going to bog down payroll. But then Thornburg's later injury made it a moot point, which I don't fault Dombrowski for...

LOL And for the record, different Dick Williams. The former manager passed way 9 years ago. This one is his son...

And that is true. I even mentioned it earlier today. But that diesn't mean you go all in for a closer. Bullpens run 7 to 8 pitchers deep these days, and addressing a bullpen solely by trying to improve a ninth inning specialist is not necessarily the best way to go, even with the trickle down effect (of moving Koji to earlier innings). And as the objections to acquiring Kimbrel were largely the impact it had on the farm system and the overall cost and impact on team payroll, this was overkill, to be kind. A bit like fishing with dynamite, except in this case it substituting the TNT with C-4. Could the Sox have acquired other bullpen arms who were not among the highest paid in the game and without giving up farm talent (needed to maintain an economic balance on the team) that off-season? DD did try that route as well, and while he failed miserably, the reasons why were not on him. (I liked the deals that brought Thornburg and Smith to the Sox, despite neither working out.) But instead of Kimbrel, there were other relievers the Sox could have grabbed for a lot less while leaving Koji in the closer role. My observations on pitcher acquisition is teams are better off trading for starters and signing closers. Even the best closers who get the bigger contract at least only get them for shorter terms....

Ummmm.... no

They were disappointing, which can be worse than being flat out bad in some cases...

Which one had performance issues? They were all good pitchers, but all had major health issues. Unlke ERod, their issues were all related to their arms and not due to infectious disease...

Well that hardline stance had some serious implications...

My point exactly!!

To do what?

And you don't think the presence of Kimbrel had any impact on the amount of saves for Uehara? And really, who pitched better between the two in 2016? Kimbrel was a lot younger and Uehara was clearly winding down a brilliant MLB career. But closer was not the Sox top need...

They had already move Moncada off second. Yoan did have an abysmal debut in Boston, but I doubt that was why he was traded; Pedroia had a rough start his first call up, too. Moncada and Kopech were traded simply because Sale was not coming cheap...

Someone didn't, although stories seem to vary about what numbers it would have taken to lock Mookie up...

I think they were willing to overlook that part of his methodology..

Sign and trade? That's the NBA where they do that. ERod will likely be tendered a contract if he passes a physical of some sort. If he doesn't pass whatever the criteria, no point in signing him. If he does, he helps fill the biggest need on the team...

Kopech is off to a start that makes me think he will be Eovaldi 2.0. That's fine for a while. Just don't go signing him to a 4 year $68mill extension and hope he is going to actually be able to pitch...

I was much more OK with Sale, as he was younger and on an insanely good deal and an elite SP. Kimbrel I felt was an overpay for taking that contract from the Padres, and while the Sox biggest pitching weakness in 2015 was actually the bullpen more so than the rotation, the one role in the bullpen that still looked solid was closer, as they still had Uehara, who was coming off a stellar season even at age 40...

I think the difference thee was 1) JBJ was here and a known commodity and 2) for one year, the money did not make a difference with resetting since they had clear plans to not sign anyone else and to move Mookie and as much of Price as possible. It is possible that before JBJ was tendered, conversations with the Dodgers had already started. Those kinds of deals just don't happen on one phone call...

He was dealt to get Kimbrel, which was a clear attempt to fill a void on the Sox. And a rare one to be addressed by Dombrowski. But let's not pretend the impact of departing players begins and ends with their stats on other teams...