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There will be no Junichi Tazawa reunion. I am not crushed by this...

You do realize everyone on planet Earth thinks the Sox need another reliver except DD, right? It;s not like we have a vote here or DD is coming to these boards for ideas (he isn't). The only thing I can say about the subject is DD does have a rather long history of building bullpens with limited resoruces. Acquiring Kimbrel the way he did was his least Dombreowki-esque move since coming to Boston. He has had mixed results. He started the relief career of Trevor Hoffman (who was a shortstop), and used closers like Rob Nen, Matt Mantei, Antonio Alfonseca, Braden Looper, and Fernando Rodney, none of whom were established closers at the time. But then he's also had his failures in the role as well, and made some flat out dumb moves like trying to use what was left of 39yo Joe Nathan. I doubt he is done, and his solution might look really stupid in March. But looking stupid in March really doesn't mean anything...

I think you're overestimating Vazquez' offensive skills. 200 points, which I assume you mean OPS? Last year Leon was one of the worst hitters in MLB last year. For all players with 200 or more plate appearances, he did have the 2nd worst OPS. But Vazquez was the 7th worst. Leon did have the lower LD%, but it was uncharacteristically low, and typically both players are around 24-26%. Both also typically have the same hard it %. As hitters, they are typically more equal than many seem to realize. The two are the same player. Why not actually give Swihart a chance? The Sox have had ample opportunities to trade him, and so far, DD has been reluctanct, probably becuase no one will give him anything. As a backup catcher, he might play 30 games a year, which is more than he will play as 3rd supersub off the bench. We've seen he can throw. His game calling and pitch framing probably need some work, but that goes for a lot of catchers. And right now the Sox bullpen is Barnes, Brasier, Hembree and 4 question marks. That's not a small hole we are talking about. The bullpen will pitch 600 innings a year, and those three might handle 180. That leaves 420 undetermined innings, with roles determined by the personnel we have. And 420 bullpen innings is more important than the 150-250 at-bats from the catcher spot you are worried about. (Yes the new reliever(s) won't have all 420, but there is a trickle down effect in their roles.)..

I would. And my reasons are simple. 1) Leon is as good defensively as Vazquez and Sale and Price work better with Leon. 2) While Vazquez should be a better hitter, the catcher bats ninth for this team anyway. 3) His AAV is actually the highest of the three 4) If the Sox are hellbent on keeping Swihart, at some point it needs to be justified with more playing time than a third string catcher typically gets. 5) I have a little faith in Swihart defensively and offensively. At least for now. 6) And most important, I think Vazquez can bring back a decent return...

Whoa!! Slow down, big spender!!! You're trying to trade four quarters for a dollar. While it works down at your local bank, it's not so efficient in MLB...

Who do you suppose has more trade value - Chavis or Vazquez?

Oh ye of little faith in Erasmo...

Trade Vazquez for an arm. Leon is essentially the same player and give Swihart a chance. And you might even get a decent reliever for Vazquez, unlike Swihart...

Did Greg Holland, Alex Wilson, and Nick Vincent all retire?

Apparently teams used to pool 31% of all their revenue, which includes gate and TV monies. Not sure if that number still holds true. https://library.fangraphs.com/business/revenue-sharing/

Not over Price. Eovaldi still carries a few question marks...

If Dombrowski stated the Sox goal is to stay under the highest limit, I wouldn’t consider that throwing Henry under the nus. It is the highest limit, after all. And we still have the highest payroll. If anything, it would really make me question his own moves earlier this off-season even more, however...

Brach and Strickland are both good pitchers, but there are other equal and potentially better options still available. And given his tendencies to acquire his former Tiger players, Justin Wilson and Alex Wilson wouldn’t surprise me. And he’s been linked to Kelley. Not to mention, Greg Holland, who actually pitched very well in Washington last year after his horrible start in St. Louis, doesn’t seem to be linked to any teams so far this off-season...

But I hope he has a sky high limit for one year deals...

Hence the “hold” statistic, which is basically a save before the final inning. In fact, there is no “blown hold” stat. If you surrender the lead in a hold situation, you get credited with a blown save...

I can only go by the quotes in the press. You yourself have said Henry shouldn’t mind paying the tax if it leads to making more money. And if you didn’t say that, you should have...

They also might put the fatter one in the Hall of Fame next to Harold Baines...

I’m pretty sure away teams do get 50% of gate revenue...

Actually some of his loudest complaints have come from fans who were his staunchest supporters as recently as November...

I’d be ok with that. But as far as I can tell, no one has said “don’t go over the highest limit!!” It appears to be the choice of Dombrowski alone. Which makes me wonder what’s at stake here. If Henry doesn’t mind the extra expenditures (as long as the bottom line goes up equally), then is DD’s primary concern losing 10 spots of draft position? Really?

The chances Pedroia retires early and walks away from the game (this saving the Sox roughly $14mill annually towards the tax limits) are about the same as the chances of my daughter’s guinea pigs wining the Nobel Prize for Chemistry this year...

I do think there are a few decent pitchers in there, but it’s going to come down to DD’s ability to find them and sign them cheaply...

See, I don’t see Kimbrel as a necessity, but I don’t like the idea of cost cutting there, although “cheap” doesn’t always mean “bad.” I really don’t get signing Pearce to backup 1b when for less money, CJ Cron, Jon Lucroy and David Freese could be had, and possibly Neil Walker, who signed for half of what Pearce got last year. Or maybe just try Swihart, whose already here? I think DD might have misread the market? But then his history does include two distinct traits - trading away prospects and going cheap on bullpens. He does have mixed results on the latter one...

Short answer: Yes Long answer: Yes, we do...

Ok I give up. The Sox should not be cutting costs in the bullpen. Where should they be economizing? There does appear to be some reality to the Sox spending limits. And while I agree bullpen is a bad place to be overly frugal, what is a good place? I’ll even get you started. While I didn’t think bringing back Kimbrel was a good idea, I did say he would be a better free agent to sign than Eovaldi. Do you agree - closer over rotation? Also I don’t think I will ever understand paying so much for Pearce while replacing Kimbrel and Kelly with Erasmo Ramirez and Domingo Tapia. Was World Series MVP Pearce a bad move? Ageee or disagree? Or would you like to see the Sox trade a high-priced starting position player to accommodate a closer? Bogaerts? Bradley? Pedroia, whom it’s really not possible to trade? Or maybe JD Martinez needs to go? Or a starting pitcher. Maybe Porcello? Or Price? They seem to have hit their limit, and as fans we really have no grounds to call Henry cheap, since he will have spent about half a billion dollars on players in 2018 and 2019 alone. So who should go in your opinion?