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Reportedly the Sox and Pirates talked about Cervelli in July and may have recently renewed their discussions, per soxsphere.com. The Pirates have some interest in Mike Sharwyn, according to MLBpipeline.com. More to come at the Winter Meetings?...

You could say the same thing about Eovaldi, with the exception of this year. Price would have been the best one on the market had he opted out...

Yes, Dombrowski did the right things and they worked. It's OK to criticize some things, but to hold any and all mistakes against him like they were fatal to the organization is flat out silly. It's like chiding Alexander Fleming right after he discovered penicillin by saying "Hey!! You ruined all that bread!!"

Having a potential outfield with Juan Soto, Victor Robles, and Adam Eaton helps...

Athletes in any professional sport bleed the colors of the team that signs the checks...

Oh there was lot of “These guys were the future? Pfffffft.” And “Moncada lead the league in strikeouts!” That kind of stuff. Moncada will be a star. Sale is one. Logan Allen looks like he will be a star very soon. Kimbrel was one. That’s how trades are supposed to work...

No. You can dislike trading Moncada and still like the Sale trade. Many people do...

Read the boards more often. There have been plenty of posts about Moncada and all the other prospects DD traded away saying things like “DD traded away the future, but these guys were the future?” No one needs to justify DD’s trades that way. Sale and Kimbrel and even Pomeranz did enough to justify them on their own...

Patrick Corbin to Washington. Others to follow? https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/12/nationals-to-sign-patrick-corbin.html

Expectations are the enemy of any prospect. I’ve seen some already label Moncada as a bust. He’s one month older than Bobby Dalbec, who hasn’t even reached AA yet and some fans are already getting excited about. If Moncada is a bust, what’s Dalbec?

I’m not so sure the Sox can get a lockdown closer with their current prospects. Look at what controllable closers have gone for in recent years (Giles, for example) or what other contracts are taken on to acquire them (Diaz and Cano). I’m hoping the Sox can get someone like Keone Kela, Jose LeClerc, Kirby Yates or Corey Knebel for Chavis (plus?). But the Marlins turned down Chavis and Groome for 27yo Drew Streckenrider last July. At the time, they were ranked 1 and 2 in the Sox farm system...

To be fair, the contract Miller signed with the Yankees at that time was actually pretty outrageous cash for a set up guy. The market did catch up with Miller fairly quickly, but I don’t fault anyone for not seeing that...

The only GMs who never make bad moves are the GMs who make no moves...

Omar Vizque is like 51 years old. Ozzie has to be over 60 by now...

And out of those players, I expect Lakins and Feltman to make debuts as relievers (not starters) this year. Possibly Sharwyn as well. But for starters, Hernandez and Chatham I can see. Chavis and maybe Dalbec, but neither probably in Boston ( especially Chavis, whom I suspect is dealt within the next 2months)...

Except for the dreaded Boras Factor...

Gotta keep those sons of Major Leaguers. Toronto has built a premier system around them (Vlad Jr, Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Dwight Smith Jr)...

Ok well I’d like to know how optimistic you are. Discounting anyone in A-ball, since a lot can happen good and bad between A-ball and MLB, how many major league starters do you think the Sox have? How many star player? I think no star players, and maybe 4 starters at most. And that Groome has been continually ranked so high after setback atfter setback is not a good sign...

The Sox probably acquire two relievers to replace the departed Kimbrel and Kelly. If that actually does happen, I’m going to guess that leaves Thornburg, Johnson and Workman battling foe two spots. Johnson probably has the upper hand because he is left-handed and has had success as a spot starter. As TO surgery is apparently not the easiest thing to recover from, Workman is the de facto insurance policy against Thornburg ever regaining form...

Why? Milwaukee only played him there because they acquired Moustakas to play third and the Hernan Perez/Jonathan Schoop duo had their weaknesses and Milwaukee couldn’t or didn’t think they could tolerate them. Shaw at 2b was not a defensive success, but rather Jim Hendry-style experiment of jamming the best 9 hitters into the lineup and working out the positions later. I’d take Brock Holt over him at 2b everyday. I’d even take Blake Swihart at 2b over him as well...

The problem with the Sox minors, particularly in AA and AAA, isn’t size so much as talent. Benintendi was a stud from day one and spent very little time above A ball. Even DD knows the minors are not very good. Not that long ago, a lot of scouts had Josh Ockimey, who is a very big human being (6’1”, 230 lbs) listed in the top ten. But, even with space available, DD chose not to protect him. If he feels that way about players in the top ten, how do you think he feels about the nes who aren’t?

Sometimes I do find questions in why DD holds on to certain players while releasing others. Travis over Ockimey is a good example, although soxprospects.com does list Travis as starting inLF this year so maybe they want to see how the position change works out. Keeping 29yo Bruce Brentz over 2015 draft pick Ben Taylor was about as questionable as it gets, especially when DD actually acted surprised that Ben Taylor was claimed. I sort of get keeping Walden and Josh Taylor. Walden is pure fringe talent but both do add an element of minor league pitching depth. Marco Hernandez is just worthless at this point. But really, DD could have kept Ockimey without DFAing anyone. The Sox still have an open slot on the roster. Even if he was holding it for a potential Eovaldi signing, he could have DFAd Ockimey later. I think he simply has less faith in Ockimey than in Travis and Chavis. Or, crazy thought here, maybe he wants Ockimey to get selected so he can work out a trade for a minor leaguer who doesn’t need protection...

In my defense, it was a conversation about how good we thought our prospects would be, not about their size. You even responded to moonslav asking if anyone would be Devers or Benintendi good. Not a conversation about physical stature. Benintendi was a clear stud from the second he signed the contract. Typically you can actually count on the numerous scouting organizations to identify the future stars. When they make mistakes, it’s almost always the other way - identifying a star player who doesn’t pan out. There are some rare cases of players who were never ranked becoming stars - Paul Goldschmidt and Kevin Youkilis leap to mind. But this is much, much less common and certainly nothing that can be counted on.

Benintendi was drafted in 2015 and came right out of the gate posting a .972 OPS in A-ball that year. He followed up with a .894 OPS across multiple levels in 2016 and was the #1 ranked prospect in all of baseball by both Baseball America and MLB.com before the 2017 season. Is this really the guy you want to use as an example of a player who didn’t look good in the minors but then panned out?

Now you only get players on short deals if 1) they’re not impact players 2) they’re older and taking a short deal over retirement or 3) they’re coming off bad seasons and want to rebuild value. Pitchers trying to rebuild value don’t typically come to Fenway. That leaves older and non-impact players (who actually do sometimes make an impact, like Steve Pearce)...