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Not unreasonable. The best comp I can think of is Zack Cozart, who got 3 years at age 31 after accruing 8.2 fWAR the 3 previous seasons. Didi is entering his age 30 season after accruing 9.7 fWAR the 3 previous seasons. So I would expect on the basis of being younger and better, he should top Cozart's deal by a good amount. The only factor that might alter this is if his elbow is a problem...

A fairly grim reason to not think about 2021 and beyond. "Don't worry about the Sox farm system. Why build for the future when the Zombie Apocalypse might negate it anyway?"

The Sox only hope is the fact that last year, Bogaerts was in the same position. Except Xander was represented by an agent notorious for eschewing extensions prior to free agency, and especially the year before free agency...

Although if I could flip Price for Wil Myers, I make that move. Myers might be awful, but the $18mill savings in AAV makes it worthwhile by itself...

I can't think of any instances offhand. But that's also not an applicable scenario to Gregorius, who was not offered a QO to begin with...

Bear in m,ind if the Sox trade Mookie for prospects, it doesn't mean they have to keep those prospects. But Mookie's market will be limited to a few teams, ones that think they are just that one player away from wiunning it all. If the sox get good prosects for him - MLB-ready or not- those prospects can be marketable to any team to get potentially multiple MLB players. Like when the Sox dealt Edgar Renteria for the late Andy Marte, and then flipped Marte for Coco Crisp...

No problem. All the Sox need is to find teams looking to spend $60mill on a DH and $96mill on a SP with questionable health issues. Maybe a couple Google searches...

There was definitely some luck involved. Just like how you pointed out the 2018 Red Sox had too many players having career years, so did the 2019 Yankees. Do you expect repeat performances from Urshela, LaMahieu, Tauchman, and Gardner (who will be back in NY)?

Even if you also assume his replacement(s) won 0 games

I knew who you meant. I was also prepared with Robby Ray and Anthony Bass...

If the only other 1B are guys named Chavis and, say, Matt Adams, sure. Why not? If Devers or a slightly lesser player is at 1B, I'm willing to let him play the outfield for the 6-7 games the Sox play in NL parks...

So are you saying you would trade Xander Bogaerts for AJ Pollock?

Not every player moves, and certainly not with every trade. Does he even live in the Boston area now? I have no idea; he never invites me over. If he does, and this is a concern, why is Betts so intent of being a free agent when Boston has already made him life-altering offers that would mean not uprooting his family? And if he does not, why would he uproot his family for a one year trade when he didn't do it for the first 5 years of his career? To me, this is a non-issue...

Plenty of players learn it. These guys all have a talent for baseball that we cannot understand. Even the worst player in MLB is still better at baseball than any of us are at anything...

There was a time not too long ago when I thought Danny Salazar was the most underrated pitcher in the game. A few years ago, his high Zone% combined with his low Contact% was equaled only by 4 other pitchers in MLB- guys named Kershaw, Scherzer, Price and Kluber. Since then he has had a littany of injuries. The man has 10 pounds of talent jammed into a 5 pound arm sling. He's thrown 4 IP since 2017. The Sox' big issue this year is likely to be the health of Price, Sale and Eovaldi. The entire season hangs in the balance of the condition of these three arms. If your main problem is pitchers with injuries, Danny Salazar is far, far more likely to be part of the problem than part of the solution....

A deal for those 4 means committing over $200mill over the next 3 seasons to 4 players, two of whom have legitimate injury concerns. And at the cost of 3 decent players. I doubt any GM makes that deal unless it's at gunpoint...

Actually it seems like there have been plenty of contenders with weak defensive 1b. The Yankees with Jason Giambi leaps to mind. Giambi fits the mold of a player who washed out defensively from other positions (2B and 3B) and settled in at 1B. Feddie Freeman had an uncharacteristic bad season at 1B for the NL East champion Braves. Moreover, many players who were defensive disasters at other positions seem to settle in and become good 1B, and very quickly. Mark Teixeira was a horrific 3B when he came up, but he was a Gold Glove-caliber 1B. Mike Napoli is another. Although it is possible his reputation for being a defensive liability behind the plate stemmed from Mike Scioscia's attitude towards the position. But even if he wasn't as bad as advertised, he was far from an elite catcher. He WAS an elite 1B, however. Heck, the namesake for this thread Eric Thames is an outfielder who washed out defensively, moved to 1B, and continued poor defensive play for a team that made the post-season this year and lost in the NLCS last year....

Actually it seems like first base is where most players who can hit but are poor defensive players get moved to. Most of the chances are throws intended to be caught, so it does tend to be the easiest position to play...

If JD never plays 1b and sits in the 6 games the Sox play in NL parks, it’s not a disaster.

If the Yankees wanted Gregorius back, they would have given him a QO in order to weaken the interest of other teams (or to simply just get him back for one year). Has any high profile free agent ever not been offered a QO and then re-signed with his former team?

Like the Yankees, where every player either had a career year or was injured again? You might consider dialing back your expectations, too. In a sport where every team wins between 40% and 60% of their games. these "big gaps' might not be as big as you think...

A lot of players don't move when they get traded. Especially those who get traded with only 3 months until free agency. Did Giancarlo Stanton ever move out of that penthouse in Miami?

1, Not getting the Von Hayes trade as a parallel. Thare have been so many similar unspectacular trades that I'm not seeing with this 38yo example stands out more than, say, the trade that set Ken Giles to Houston for a boatload of minor leaguers where the best one turned out to be Vince Velasquez... 2. No way in hell the Braves give up both Pache and Waters - both top 30 prospects in all of MLB - for the right to pay Mookie Betts $30mill for one season. If the Sox could get Waters alone, that would be a coup...

For negotiating with who?

If Moon's numbers are right or don't have another drastic change, that;s not possible if the Sox keep Betts and want to get under the tax threshhold. They would have only $1mill to spend and still need to replace a starting pitcher some arms in the bullpen and a get a player for CF. That cannot be done even with minimum wage players. Someone has to be moved. And it would have to be one of Price, Eovaldi, Martinez, Sale, Bogaerts or Betts. From that set, Betts is simply the easiest piece to move...