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Well a minor league contract doesn't count at all until the player gets added to the 40-man roster. But the contract the Rangers gave Jon Niese is a good model, where he will make between $1mill and $1.45 mill if they need him, which is a small price for an upgrade. And as the Sox have to DFA someone to add him, it cuts into the budget slightly less...

Johnson will with be in mlb or released. There is no third option. So if he starts, he still needs to be replaced in the pen. Elias is being covered to relIef. Rodriguez is hurt, which is getting to be a little too common. Wright is hurt, and is 33 years old with exactly one good season under his belt. That leaves 29 year old Hector Velasquez as our style source of living depth. Ironically he was officially signed as a minor league free agent, the exact same thing I have been saying the Sox need to do all off-season

That's actually a horrible summary. While the numbers are right, Fister did start slow, which should be expected when you sign a player whose a free agent mid season. Down the stretch he was outstanding. And you absolutely cannot count on pitchers like him being available every year in the middle of the year. It makes sense to grab guys on minor leage deals now (on months ago actually). Why are you so opposed to this zero risk strategy thst 28 major league GMs have been using all off-season? You've never given one good reason why, except you think it can happen at any time. But even then, what's so wrong with being prepared?k

$7.5mill is middle reliever money...

I'd take Dickey in a hearbeat. But maybe at 43 he wants a guarantee or he retires?

After I posted that I realized that was Epstein's year when thd team quit and collapsed...

Well one of those last place finIshes was when the team basically quit on him. They were in first into September. Is that really the GM who's at fault? The team was more than competitive for five months. And another last place finish was the fire sale team of 2012. Really 2014 is the indefensible one. But even then he returned a roster largely intact from a World Series champion. His failures were more related to his transactions. Sandoval was a bad call any way you look at it. Ramirez looked like a bargain but didn't work out. The early struggles of Bradley probably influenced him to sign Castillo, who is mired in AAA purgatory. The unorthodox Lester and Lackey trades did nothing to build the future. And he never dealt any prospects, which teams need to do tp stay competitive. The whole"last place the times" thing is an oversimplification. He also had a fire sale and won a title 14 months later, which is really impressive no matter how you look at it. ...

He's not a star, and possibly not worth his salary, But there are certainly worse outfielders suiting up in MLB. But a combination of Castillo's contract, the Sox payroll, and his performance and injury history will keep him in the minors. ..

Primarily Fister, who isn't around any more. ..

He still can. And he's the one guy who doesn't have to worry about giving up draft picks for Arrieta. ..

Martinez filled a big need. If Price is healthy, he fills another. If Price isn't healthy, there could be issues....

Or - crazy thought here - maybe we should see if Groome can have a good season in A-ball before we put him on Full Red Alert for MLB duty in any capacity...

Ummm no. If Martinez -who didn't have draft pick compensation, unlike Moustakas - price fell thst low, other teams would enter the market. Martinez' price was a big reason the Sox were the only suitor. In terms of cost and length, Dombrowski did a good job on this deal and there's no reason to wish it was better. That would be like going up to Michelangelo in the Sistine chapel and saying "It's a good fresco, but I think you can do a better one. And do it by tomorrow morning. "

While Moustakas is a bargain, he had an additional cost for Boston in terms of draft pick compensation. If the Sox were going to give up picks, might as well go sign Cobb to a short deal instead and fill an actual need...

If you are a very careful trade, why was it so important to you too take commentary that Dombrowski doesn't draft with the same success rate Sox fans are used to anf turn it into defending him as better than Cherington? Is any criticism of Dombrowski so upsetting top you, you need to create an alternative argument you can defend him in? The guy hasn't drafTed as well as our past GMs. If you think he is simply going to replace the farm wIth equivalent prospects, you are extremely likely to be disappointed. Deal with it. Not my fault. Not on his ream. I will say I am unaware I needed to know more than Dombrowski to criticize him. As you have been mocking Cherington, safe to assume you consider yourself a better baseball mind?

I don't claim I know more. But don't you find it the least bit questionable that 28 out of 30 teams have signed at least ONE pitcher to a minor league contract. Nearly all of these teams have better pitching prospects than the Sox do, yet they still build depth. (The Dodgers are the other team to not sign a minor league pitching deal. But they also have a couple pitching prospects among the game 's best who are knocking on the door to end majors. ) So it's not just me who sees the point. It's 28 major league GMs. Somehow you're defending one of the two who doesn't, And very likely for no reason beyond blind faith. "Well if Dombrowski did it, it must be right." Can we assume you'll be ew ally excited when the Sox f o need a pitcher and we roll out the 2018 version of Sean O'Sullivan because that is the bedy option available? Yeah!! Thanks Dave!!

Yeah. That should do it. The Sox have NEVER used more than two minor league call up pitchers in a season before. (You are aware Elias is moving to the bullpen, right?)

Read more carefully. I said Dombrowski is not as good of a drafter as we are used, and he isn't. Even the people trying to prove his drafting have done more to prove my point that disprove it. But again, you misread my posts. And assume too much. I never specifically said Cherington was; I said as our past GMs. This wasn't about Dombrowski vs Cherington as it was Dombrowski vs what Sox fans are used to. And whether or not others have compared Cherington and Dombrowski is immaterial to that point...

A while ago on one of these threads I mentioned a game Steve Phillips was playing on MLB Network radio called "Five In, Five Out." The premise is, that since roughly half the post-season teams from one season do ot make the post-season the next year, which of the ten teams from the 2017 post-season are least likely to return. The Twins are always the overwhelming favorites. Now in the last two weeks, the Twins have added Logan Morrison, Jake Odirizzi and Lance Lynn (at the cost of $15mill and a shortstop non-prospect), are they still the overwhelming favorites to not return to the post-season? If not, who is and why?

No. Bet he's been an extremely solid defensive outfielder in limited action who deserves more chances in MLB as opposed to being the highest paid player in the International League But we know he won't get those chances in Boston and why..

Good for the farm. But when he changed his approach to free agency, he made too many bad calls. Also, he needed to learn to trade prospects once in a while. (Although I do think Rusney Castillo is a better player than many Sox fans have given him credit for.)

Actually, not what I am doing. I am saying Dombrowski is not as good at drafting as GMs we have had in the past, and going forward it will have implications to this team. Comparisons about Cherington and Dombrowski as GMs have been brought up solely by you.

That's actually not really an impressive coup for a 12 year stretch. I know you probably didn't do extensive research (I wouldn't have either), but in order to bulk that list to seven names, you had o include a pitcher entering his age 29 season who has started more than 18 games only twice in his career, and won't start any games this year. (If you have ever ripped Buchholz for being fragile, Smyly might not be the guy to prop up) and Cameron Maybin, a career part time starter/part time DL mainstay who has struggled to stay on the field even when healthy. If someone tried to pass off players like this as Cherington's highlight picks, would you accept them? Granderson, Miller and Porcello were all good picks. That is true...

I'm not one to wory about spring training stats. But this is a guy who shlould be trying to impress. Well, thankfully we can just look into one of those minor league free agent vets Dombrowski has been signing. You know. Just in case...

No. In fact my biggest criticism of Cherington was that he didn't trade prospects, despite my faith he could replace them. Dombrowski has traded pretty much all of them. In the next two years, the Sox could lose all of Sale, Bogaerts, Hanley, Pomeranz, Kimbrel and Porcello, among others. Who is going to replace them? Brian Johnson and Sam Travis? The Sox are built ton "win now", but that can disappear with one or two key injuries. So will you call Dombrowski the victim of bad luck? Not to mention the overall pitching depth is extremely poor. You might like Jalen Beeks now, but how will you feel if he can't get his ERA under 5.00? Or 6.00? Or 243.00? The same "ham and eggers" you disparage are still better than most prospects (which are not all created equal). And that includes many of the top-ranked prospects. If you took the top ten starting pitching prospects in MLB right now, using whatever ranking you like, easily 1/3 of them will never be better than Trevor Cahill is today. And it's funny that you can't stand these veteran pitchers only one season after the Sox won the AL East by such a slim margin that we probably would not have won it at all and maybe not even made the playoffs if Henry Owens was taking Doug Fister's starts. But hey, who needs guys like Fister? We have Justin Haley queued up for key Sepetember starts...