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I was more thinking signing guys to minor league deals. Over the years, I have said a lot of things on this board and BDC and, way back when, ESPN. Not sure how many are true or my warped perception or just my own ill-conceived opinions full of foulness and black magic. But one thing I have always said that will always be absolutely true - there is no such thing as a bad minor league contract...

He has that working against him. What he has working for him is, for some reason, Dombrowski seems to like him. He's kept him through a few trading opportunities. He facilitated an ill-conceived switch to LF to keep his bat in the majors. DD might have a bit of a man-crush on Swihart. And as Swihart is out of options, it looks like (although I might be misinterpreting things here) he and fellow option-less teammates Marrero and Brentz appear to have some sort of inside track to the roster. At least we know DD hasn't done much to supplant them so far. Although soxprospects.com apparently has less faith in Swihart and Brentz than I do. (I did not know it was possible to have less faith in Brentz than I do..)

In the last 3 years, Iglesias has been worth 5.2 fWAR. Bogaerts was worth 4.9 fWAR in 2016 alone. The Sox kept the right shortstop. Although I stand by my long-held opinion they should have dealt Worthless Will Middlebrooks directly to Chicago and not even bothered with Detroit...

The argument for players and managers voting should have died completely when they awarded a Gold Glove to a player who spent the overwhelming majority of the season as a DH and played only 28 games in the field...

Using this logic, Roger Maris was clearly using steroids despite many of them not being invented and all ofthem ccompletely absent from baseball during his career. ..

I'm thinking Swihart platoons with Moreland. Not a big deal either way, but Swihart is out of options, unlike Travis. I'm not wild about the internal 2b options. But as the Sox have three of them, one of Holt, Hernandez or Marrero figures to start. It's entirely possible Holt starts the season in Pawtucket as he is the only one with an option left...

The chatter has been surprisingly quiet on Martinez, but I would be surprised if the Sox are the only suitor. I get the whole "patience" tactic, because if the Sox move on, Martinez' price could easily drop to the point where we all look back and wonder what Dombrowski was thinking. Just like with Encarnacion last year and (on the trade front) with Josh Donaldson four years ago, when Cherington was told JD wasn't available and moved on while Alex Anthopolous refused to take no for an answer and acquired Donaldson for relatively little. ..

It was always a silly answer. It was never a crime to like Holt or want him on the team. That opinion has been shared by our last two GMs. But it is always hypocritical to think a player has value to the team and think that means he doesn't have alue to anyone else for the exact same reasons. There ia a big difference between calling a poster stupid and an answer stupid. I've had numerous posts I've made called out for being stupid or inaccurate and plenty of times I've looked back and thought "Valid point. What was I thinking?" I've even called myself out, and done so as recently as the Jeff Samardzija trade proposal yesterday...

I can agree with that. However when a player's value is based on being paid as little as possible, it really does mean he should be considered tradable. ..

Not necessarily. First of all, we don't know what money Martinez will be getting. Second, he can make depth moves off the 40-man roster that don't count against the tax...

There were probably times when it was. But his value to Boston was never "MORE" than in a trade. I think it was a combination of people liking Holt when a lot of fans views trades as for undesirable players, and a lot of fans thinking his versatility was a really rare skill. To me, he looked like a guy on a BABIP-fueled hot streak at the plate that forced him into the lineup where he had to play multiple positions he had no idea how to field. But to some people, that is the definition of versatility, I guess...

It's hard to say if Belt has less power than Hanley, but he is certainly a more powerful hitter away from SF. I'm not sure Holt and Travis hold all that much value. And over the years, when I have been saying "trade Holt" and received that universal (and always stupid) answer "Holt's more valuable to Boston than he is in a trade," when the opposite was always true. (And what people meant was "He's good. You're only supposed to trade bad players.") But right now, with Holt's health situation and Pedroia's health situation, for the first time ever, Holt might actually be worth more to the Red Sox than he is in a trade...

Really if the Giants want Bradley - and they reportedly do - it's probably going to come down to them giving up prospects they don't have or taking back Hanley. If Bradley for Belt is the baseline, slight edge to the Giants. Somehow they are going to have to sweeten their offer, or help out Boston. Or settle for Billy Hamilton. I think a reliever or a prospect back from SF evens the deal better, especially with Belt's health history..

Especially since pitchers and catchers report in only 45 days...

I'm talking about addressing even small needs like minor league depth for starting pitching or relievers. Or a bench bat. Or a stopgap 2B. Or any other need this team might have. Twelve weeks and so far he has gotten us Esteban Quiroz and Mike Olt. I get why he hasn't brought JD Martinez or Jake Arrieta or whoever is on his radar. But I don't get why in 12 weeks has has only gotten Esteban Quiroz and Mike Olt. Especially since there is a really good chance both of them are completely worthless...

Really? So three people looking at the same information cannot agree about it and that surprises you? Do you not own a television or follow politics at all? Or at any point in the last half century? I know this lack of concrete answers i a fun way to try and disprove fielding metrics over your own eyes. Many have. Yet these same people would look at the Chris Archer argument, even without the fWAR, and come to different conclusions about his status as an ace. When you have this many stats, there is a lot of interpretation sometimes. Coming up with defensive metrics for fielding has been among the toughet tasks, The eye test is actually almost worthlss when done by you or me. Too often it turns into the Reputation TEst (which is probably more accurate but completely independant of our input), or worse the "I Saw That Guy Make An Error Once" Test. And errors are not much of a metric either. They're really just some guy's opinion. The only reason you don't find them as questionable is that games only have one official scorer. I've seen hundreds of errors I would not have called and hundred more hits I thought deserved to be errors. (And probably a few hundred more attributed to the wrong player.) But most people think these are all obvious and the guidelines are accurate. They don't even follow the rule book...

He is aware he's allowed to make other deals for other needs while waiting, right?

And while I get the need for the bat and the long-lasting staring contest with Boras, maybe he could divert a little of that focus into addressing some of the other needs on this team. The season ended 12 weeks ago and so far the biggest addition has been Esteban Quiroz. Or has it been Mike Olt? That debate more than proves my point. ..

Angelos has said he won't trade Machado to anyone who will flip him to the Yankees. So either he hates them so much he certainly won't trade, or he wants their prospects for himself. If it's the latter, not so good. Unless he insists upon Torres plus, in which case it won't matter. But as it has been said before, he is a weird and tempermental guy. I think he holds Machado until at least July.

The interest in Machado is also possibly a negotiating tactic against Boras and Martinez. It won't work, but then neither does Boras' oft-employed and ineffective "Mystery Team" tactic...

How much is one year of Machado actually worth? Is he worth 3 years of Bradley? Four years of ERod? Six years of Chavis? In what figures to be a lost season in Baltimore, while none of those deals would ever happen, in which ones do the Orioles actually lose out?

If he gets dealt at the deadline, then absolutely wait on him, as there will be no Qualifying Offer attached...

Samardzija does seem like a reach, but BRadley is a good pickup for them. At least Fangraphs, who ranked him #46 in trade value, would agree. As for Hanley, probably only if the Sox took back Hunter Pence. Pence is still a decent outfielder, but his hitting has dropped precipitously. Steamer projects him at 1.4 fWAR next season and Hanley at 1.0 fWAR. Regardless, if Pence's only value is defense, he is an unlikely target for the Sox crowded outfield. Especially since any trade of Bradley is likely precipitated by signing JD Martinez. But if the Sox do sign Martinez, Bradley for Belt (plus?) does become a possibility. And if it happens, the Sox might release Hanley...

Today's crazy trade proposal that will never happen. Hanley Ramirez (1yr / $22mill plus option) and Jackie Bradley (3 arb years) for Jeff Samardzija (3 yrs $54mill) and Brandon Belt (4 yrs $64mill) Samardzija is actually a pretty good pitcher victimized by a horrific defense last year. He still ranked top 15 in FIP and xFIP (ok he was 16th in xFIP) in all of MLB. His value of 3.8 fWAR is impressive. While he had an ERA over 4.40 in the NL, if he had Boston's defense behind him, it would have been closer to 3.90 (assuming a lot of distributive normalcy). Of course that defense would take a bit of a hit without Bradley. Still, Samradzija might have been one of the most underrated pitchers last year. (Safe bet the Giants are somewhat aware of this.) Belt's big problem to me is his history of concussions. If that can be mitigated by DHing him, it could work out quite well. While he has never hit more than 18HRs in a season, bear in mind he is completely surpressed by his home park. 64 of his 98 career HRs were hit elsewhere in only 20 more PAs. The straight up Belt/Bradley proposals have been thrown around before. If Belt can DH, it might not be so bad. That does mean the Sox have to drop Hanley off the roster, which is certainly something Dombrowski is not hesitant to do, judging by history. The return could be sweetened a little to offset the health concerns with a bullpen arm (possibly a lefty?) or a 2B or a prospect, assuming the Giants have one. That still leaves a void in the rotation and the bullpen. SF doesn't have much else there, leaving free agency as an option. One name that might b worth a gamble is Chris Tillman. Bradley would be a terrific pickup for the defensively weak Giants. Hanley might not be so much on their minds, although unloading $118mill in salary might make taking back his $22mill a bit more palatable.

Depends on how it is done. Spending heavily on one arm who is going to pitch only 60-70 IP of the 500-600IP that the bullpen will handle is certainly a bad way to go. That's really no different that having one hitter in the lineup and assuming he will handle all the offense...