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I bet the Braves are pleasantly surprised. If they expected him to start out this good, they probably don't ask the Sox to include so much cash...

There were plenty of experienced arms who signed MiLB deals. The Sox signed none of them. Even if that starter comes through with a 5.00 ERA, it is still better than burning out the bullpen every 5 games. That will come back to haunt the sox later if they have to keep doing it...

Even if it is not an ace per se, if the Sox can get a controllable SP, is he worth a deal? With BTV going to a pay model, I don't know the values right now. But if you can get a 2-3 starter with 3 years of control, do you pull the trigger? Some suggestions - Mackenzie Gore? Alek Manoah? Nick Lodolo? Josiah Gray? Reid Detmers? These are all pitchers who reach free agency one year prior to Duran, and are all varying degrees of good but none would be considered ace level today. Not sure what teams would actually want Jarren, however. But I am not asking if those teams would pull the trigger...

If the Sox can stay within striking distance and actually decide to be buyers, Lugo is the prime sell high candidate right now...

It's not working out, but given what Sale has and has not done in the past 4 years, I totally understand why this deal was made. But I can't rank this trade anywhere near the Betts trade, and not even with the Bagwell trade. And I think if the Sox had any inclination Sale would actually be healthy, they either don't make this deal or trade Sale for a lot more and pay a lot less, if they pay anything at all...

There's really no excuse for having that many bullpen games. The Sox still need pitching depth...

The one I think is clearly not keeping it going is Suarez, who has allowed 4 ER in his last 48 IP. That pace is historic. The one thing in Imanaga's favor is his ungodly control. He does not put himself in trouble with walks...

It wi9ll be interesting to see how the OF plays out. Duran, Rafaela and Abreu are all under team control for the next 4 seasons. Plus Roman Anthony figures to knock on the door soon, and probably some other outfielders in the system can make themselves known. It's possible someone from this Sox outfield is not here as soon as next year (not counting O'Neill, who is likely gone after this season)...

As of right now, he is tied with Wheeler and Imanaga for the NL lead in fWAR, with Suarez and Tyler Glasnow 0.1 behind. Houck leads MLB with 2.2 fWAR. Crawford is third in the AL...

That was always the primary criticism of Sale, as well...

Bello - good. Rafaela - probably a bit too early. Even if he takes over CF, there is a good chance he is Darren Lewis 2.0, but now he is one with a rather hefty contract...

He walked too many people for those high leverage roles he pitched in...

He's probably the best pitcher in the last quarter century to not have a CYA, so it is arguably overdue. Right now, the three biggest obstacles between him and the Cy Young award are his own durability, Imanaga, and Ranger Suarez...

And I did, too...

I only disagree with the Sox ruining Bard by making him a starter. He was overrated as a reliever to begin with…

Mata is a DFA/re-sign candidate. He’s barely pitched in the last 3 years, has no MLB experience, and no options left. He’s not s guy I see getting claimed…

It was explained. Not my fault you don’t know how BABIP works…

So Grissom gets optioned for being unlucky? Grissom is third on the Sox in line drive rate (26.8%) yet has a BABIP of .171. That’s crazy bad luck. He also has the third lowest strikeout rate for players with 30 PA or more. Not so sure optioning him is the right idea…

Moon’s post was largely sarcastic, but calls attention to some truly bizarre Devers Hate. Some of the criticisms of this guy do seem crazy. “He only hits solo home runs!!” “He’s no Ortiz!!” Ok so he isn’t a Hall of Famer and he’s struggling with some clutch situation this year. He’s still the best player on this team and will probably go down as one of the ten to fifteen best hitters in the history of the Red Sox…

Florida offers a nice combination of a tropical climate and some older architecture that you just don’t get in other warmer states…

Starters throw more innings but relievers throw harder (than they would as starters). I think the greater workload probably trumps the greater effort when it comes to injuries…

I like the stretch of equating WWII to gator-wrestling. But it really is just that - a stretch. Bottom line we both agree that the point was neither were in the same class as Williams, which was the whole point...

The Yankees have absolutely won their share of titles by flexing their financial muscle, because you can do that nowadays, But if you read "Summer of '49", at the end of the book, Halberstam details some conversations between Sox and Yankee players to reveal that the Yankees were actually the lesser paid team, and they outplayed the Red Sox because they needed to in order to get the extra money from winning the title. Oh, how times have changed...

Well put. The mere fact that the Sale trade takes longer to evaluate is in itself a big difference. Even if Verdugo turned into Dwight Evans Lite and Jeter Downs panned out, we knew that deal was not going to be even. And we knew that the same day it happened...

Would you have preferred Greenwell? I lose some of my parallels that way, but Greenwell was the better player. But I still think these trades are miles apart. When Sale got traded, the previous seasons at least made it easy to understand why. When Betts got traded, we knew the previous years had nothing to do with it except that they upped his cost. Betts' trad also came at the tail end of 3 years of failed negotiations for an extension. Sale's trade came at the end of 4 years of frequent IL trips. When I look at those two players, I feared that when Bett's deal was coming to an end, it would mean he was trade bait. With Sale, it was getting to the point where I just wanted that deal to end. Just last year, some story broke about how Bloom turned down the chance to trade Sale and his entire contract for nothing. Pure salary dump. And Bloom turned it down because he was getting nothing in return. And a lot of people still blasted Bloom for not doing it. But they move Sale for a legitimate prospect, and Sale manages to not get injured for his first 8 starts, and suddenly this new trade is mentioned in the same sentence as the Mookie trade because minimal parallels can be drawn? I think you're looking for hyperbole in the wrong place...