It's easy to look at these teams and say "their pitching is better", but then the Sox have certainly been competitive with both of them in head-to-head games this year...
The big problem with him trying to reach all those incentives is most of them are CBA violations.
There is no MLB player in history named Baez who is in Mookie's category. And Javier Baez, who "deserve this contract" is arguably the fourth best infielder on his own team...
Between Holt, Nunez, Lin, and Pearce, the Sox should have a decent amount of depth to give what’s left of Brandon Phillips time to get ready.
Personally I think Phillips is not as good as Holt at this point in his career
I would think the Mets would be all over those players, but then young controllable outfielders (Nimmo, Conforto) and shortstops (Rosario) are not their biggest needs...
Even then, is he still likely more than a future utility infielder? Not that UIF's are unimportant, but certainly they are replaceable and ca be acquired multiple ways quickly.
If he is the next Carlos Asuaje, was it a bad deal?
You've got to stop listening to Natick and Mad Stork about what this team needs. If Dombrowski actually took their advice and made those deals, they would both complain about what he did to the team and tell you how it was weaker and still not built for the post-season...
Soxprospects.com ranked Espinal 19th in a weak farm system and said he profiled as a future utility infielder
He was 23 years old and still in A-ball, granted due to a late start from playing JuCo ball. But I really doubt the Sox miss him...