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Well, not exactly apples to apples. The Sox traded one year of Betts and the rights to pay him $25million for Verdugo, Downs and Wong. Brandon Lowe has 4 years of control and has yet to reach arbitration; he is still making league minimum. These are important factors...

Maybe he meant Josh Lowe aka Nate’s brother? He’s an infielder in the Tampa org, too. The Rays are still loaded with that name even after dealing Nate...

Why not just ask for Ronald Acuna and Max Fried?

The Rays did get a catcher (Heriberto Hernandez) in the Nate Lowe trade with Texas, but he is not one who is expected to stick at catcher. He's also 19 and in Low A ball...

Yonny Chirinos had TJ surgery and is expected to miss all of 2021...

Houck could take that spot in April. The other Shane, Shane McClanahan, has only pitched 8 games above A ball. But 4 of them were in the MLB post-season...

Looting the Yankee system today I see...

In the AAA portion of the Rule 5 draft, the Red Sox select Tyreque Reed (1B) Texas AA roster https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=reed--000tyr

I typed "nadir". After this, maybe a few marble races can provide me some excitement...

So now I am streaming the Rule 5 draft. This might mark a low point in my search for entertainment in 2020, below even that stretch where I got into Jelle's Marble Runs on Youtube...

Sox pass in the second round...

And he goes to Miami...

So much for my Paul Campbell prediction lol

the Red Sox select Garrett Whitlock from the Yankees.

The lack of eligibility rules is what confused me. Thank you.

So when do I see if my first Sox off-season prediction comes true?

And what I really need is for someone to explain to me how exactly does the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft work?

How are the networks not covering this?

Yes

While true, so far they have only traded one player and non-tendered another who makes any money. If they can move Sonny Gray or Mike Moustakas or Nick Castellanos, then the salary purge will look a lot more serious...

Players only hit trade board rumors when they struggle and fans want them gone...

The only reason I kept Brice over Taylor is this is solely an MLB roster, and Taylor has options left while I believe Brice does not. Valdez dos have 2 options left and could be replaced by Taylor, and I am ok with that. (I prefer it, as I am not really much of a Valdez fan.) But whichever of the them starts the season in AAA, they will make MLB appearances in 2021, assuming the season has enough games in it...

29. Atlanta seems to be the outlier...

I'll throw out a very detailed prediction for the Sox 2021 MLB opening day roster, you know, for the heck of it. C: Mike Zunino - signed as a free agent. Good defensive catcher who can hit 20 HRs and still struggle to maintain a .700 OPS. But Bloom has acquired him before. 1B Bobby Dalbec 2B Enrique Hernandez - Signed as a free agent. A very under-the-radar possibility that sneaks in. Other possibilities include the equally underrated Cesar Hernandez, along with Kolten Wong, and Jonathan Schoop. Marcus Semien remains a longshot with some very interesting potential. 3b Rafael Devers SS Xander Bogaerts LF Andrew Benintendi CF Kevin Kiermaier. Acquired from Tampa in a deal for Christian Vazquez RF Alex Verdugo DH JD Martinez SP: Eduardo Rodriguez SP: Nathan Eovaldi SP: Nick Pivetta SP: Rick Porcello. Signed as a free agent. SP: Shane Baz. Acquired with Kiermaier from Tampa for Vazquez. Shane McLanahan is also a possibility. (Neither trade works on BTV, as Vazquez' value is greater than either combination. But I am still predicting it or some variation.) Tanner Houck could also claim this spot, which is just a placeholder for Sale. All three pitchers (Houck, Baz, McLanahan) have minor league options. CL: Brad Hand. Signed as a free agent RP: Archie Bradley. Signed as a free agent RP: Matt Barnes RP: Ryan Brasier RP: Darwinzon Hernandez RP: Paul Campbell. Rule 5 selection from Tampa. Bloom drafted him out of Clemson. RP: Austin Brice RP: Phillips Valdez BN Kevin Plawecki BN: Michael Chavis BN: Brad Miller. Signed as a free agent. Can play 2b, 1b, and corner OF and provides a LHH bench bat, and has a history with Bloom. BN: Christian Arroyo A bit of an obvious theme - Bloom acquiring players he knows. Of course, he has already done some of that by acquiring Christian Arroyo, Cesar Puello, Ryan Weber, and probably 1 or 2 others. (He also seems to like former Giants and Rockies.) So how would this team fair? If you don't like it, blame Bloom, not me...

Other names that could be on the move include Riley Pint (Rockies) LHP - Former 4th overall pick with high 90's fastball. Limited by control issues some team might view as fixable. Omar Estevez (Dodgers) 2b - Buried in the middle infield depth of the Dodgers org, Estevez posted a respectable .784 OPS in AA at age 21 in 2019 Lake Bachar (Padres) RHP and Jordan Guerrero (Padres) RHP - The Padres once again struggle to protect their abundance of minor league talent. Two MLB-ready arms that can fit into nearly every MLB bullpen for a year. Paul Campbell (Rays) RHP. Very possible Sox target, as Bloom drafted him out of Clemson despite his unimpressive college career. Campbell has posted better numbers at AA than he did in college, and is projected to be a backend MLB starter.