notin

Depends on what they get back. As Bloom has a tendency to take a bad contract in order to up the return, there could be a fit with Kevin Kiermaier (2 yrs $25.8mill) in order to get Trevor Richards and Shane Baz, or, more likely one of, Shane McClanahan or Joe Ryan or Brent Honeywell. This deal works for Boston as the get one MLB pitcher (Ricjards) who is clearly being underutilized in Tampa, one minor league pitcher (your choice - each has pros and cons) and a short term replacement for Bradley. Tampa also deals from two positions of depth in pitching and CF, where they still have Manny Margot and Randy Arozarena, and saves a bundle of money. It's a win-win. All of these deal result in a minor overpay on BTV. If it's Baz, Tampa is overpaying. Boston is slightly overpaying with any of the other....

I would guess Vazquez is not with the Sox next season. They're going to have to make a few trades to prevent repeating exactly what Dombrowski did, and they do not have much in the way of trade bait. But Vazquez was apparently a somewhat sought-after player last month, so there should still be sufficient interest. I suppose Downs is another potential trade piece, since he was clearly not Plan A in the Betts trade. Possible he as only acquired to be a potential deal piece to get an arm when the Sox (mistakenly?) decided against Graterol?

Verdugo?

But then Lewis did not do it in his first 9 hits...

He's very readable. Ask any hitter...

No. It's worse than I projected in that way. (If I did predict, I would have thought Sale never signs an extension here and tests the market.) But the Sox not being able to afford Mookie and having no pitching coming up through the minors (or very little talent all around) was really why so many people were talking about the inevitable "cliff" that you lampooned them for in your own avatar until recently. When, you know, we fell off it...

I think that's a good/hopeful comp. I know a lot of Sox fans hated hearing about Middlebrooks as a comp for Mark Reynolds - and Middlebrooks never even came close. But if Dalbec can even come close to Reynolds' 298 career HR with a .780 OPS, I'd be more than satisfied with him. Not sure why Reynolds gets so little respect from baseball fans. He had a good career...

On paper, I have to agree. But te fact that it is still a possibility puts to some faith in the Orioles for me. What really helps the Yankees is they have no games left against Tampa, whom they are 2-8 against this year...

No. It was a very predictable outcome that I have been talking about for 4 years. And I am no prophet...

Peraza is extremely likely to be non-tendered. Of the remaining 3, Arauz is most likely to be in Pawtucket. He's only in MLB now to clear his Rule 5 status. While I liked Lin as the starting 2b 6 months ago, he has done zero to prove me right. Chavis is not a full time player. And I think Chatham can play the position defensively, but he is a high strikeout/low BB slap hitter whose numbers have been dependent on insanely high BABIP in the minors. (Granted, he rarely hits the ball in the air, and his LD/GB approach should lead to a higher BABIP.) Can he maintain anything close to this type of success in MLB? I'd bet against it if he was getting 600 ABs per year. He's probably best used as a utility infielder who can adequately back up 2B, 3B and SS. Munoz strikes me as the best internal option, but even he has had limited success in the majors to date...

Hopefully they do not get placeholders for two years while betting solely on Downs. Get a real second baseman/starting player and worry about the logjam when it becomes an issue. If the Cardinals do not pick up the $12.5million option on Kolten Wong (which is not the given it looked like 8 months ago), hopefully the Sox show some interest...

It is great to have those players. I do hate to see those long term, payroll sucking contracts. But there were also 3 that I either liked or advocated fr the Red Sox to make. 1. Manny Ramirez. He was 27 at the time. A player who reaches free agency at 27 is certainly worth more consideration for a big deal than a 30-31yo free agent. And Manny was a productive hitter for the entire length of his deal, a rarity. 2. Jon Lester - It was looking like he probably would not live up to a 7 or 8 year deal (and he is struggling to do so), but I wanted the Sox to extend him. 3. Mookie Betts. My problem was never his contract, which certainly did not surprise me in terms of years and money. But I did not like the Price contract that (I felt) made it tougher to afford Mookie and (I felt) took us all but out of the Mookie bidding. Beyond that? Not really. Although I certainly liked JD Martinez' contract when compared to the original asking price. And Bogaerts contract was brilliant and one I never thought we'd see happen since he is a Boras client and those players rarely avoid free agency with extensions...

While I can certainly understand the point about preferring to see the Sox win when it’s more dependent on the baseball acumen of the front office as opposed to the wallet of the owner, we have reached a point (some time ago, actually) where if the Sox were NOT amongst the highest spending teams, it would be a statement to the fans that they were simply no longer worth it. But it should never come to the point where the team with the third highest payroll in MLB is nightly trotting our starting pitchers with the pedigree of the current Sox staff....

As you are asking, I'm going to go with Kyle Lewis...

Possibly also trade for a pitcher in the final year of his deal. Interestingly, the bulk of the Astros rotation fits that description, in Verlander, Greinke and McCullers...

Per Fangraphs, Eckersley was more valuable as a starter, earning 41 of his 61 fWAR in that role. The thing about closers is, they’re useless if you’re trailing. Not really true for a good SP...

Nope. Even she was bummed out. She wanted a pitcher...

“Yeah!! Dylan Covey!” said no one ever...

So if they sign him, he has to pay it back...

Sale’s contract was actually only one year longer, right?

Actually not. Saying the best players do not always win titles is not even remotely the same as saying teams would be better off without them. However, if someone did say allocating far too many resources to keep the best player hampers a team's ability to build a competitive team around that player (which was the original actual point), would you agree or not? Most GMs would agree with that, which is why they frequently backload heavier contracts. It is a strategy that gives them more financial flexibility when the player is at his most productive and therefore easier to build a better team around him. And when he hits his more expensive years, he was unlikely to be as able to carry the team anyway...

Well, yesterday's cliff is today's abyss...

As do you apparently...

No Pivetta? Bloom apparently wanted him. That trade was far from a salary dump...

With Eovaldi, the question was never really talent. Not many pitchers can throw as hard as he does as many times as he does. But that is also probably the cause of the real concern...