notin

And they might. Coulombe is probably the most intriguing option left, and all things considered is extremely surprising to still be available. Unless he really wants serious cash…

Only a few times. He probably put Christian Vazquez at 2b about that often. While I’m not a fan of these weird one-off defensive alignments, Theyre not in the same category as putting Refsnyder in RF, which Cora clearly viewed as an acceptable weak side platoon defensive option…

Fair point. I’m hoping Cora learned from that…

So far this off-season, the Sox have all but completely ignored the bullpen, with the biggest additions being Ryan Watson and Tyler Samaniego. I could see adding maybe a Danny Coulombe into the mix., if you consider that spending. One reason for the slow activity could be that the Sox are not close to adding anyone that they feel is a significant upgrade over the current 40 man roster, so there’s no one they want to DFA. If so, maybe they are on hold until such a time as Houck can be placed on the 60 day IL..

I’d probably accept him. I accepted Bregman, after all. But I would feel dirty about accepting Framber, if that eases my conscience…

The Mets acquisition of Luis Robert likely lessened their interest in trading for outfielders. At one point this year they were trading away Brandon Nimmo after all. Plus all acquiring Freddy Peralta did was temporarily upgrade their SP to a lesser grade of s*****. So maybe that’s higher on their priority list…

Romy likely platoons with Hamilton or Yoshida (if Yoshida starts). Not sure Romy’s 110 career OF innings make him a viable option for RF at Fenway…

My baseball nut daughter’s theory is Framber really hurt himself by throwing at his own catcher…

Not to mention, Yoshida is probably a better DH than Suarez. Unless all you care about is home runs…

Not until teams start seeing pitching injuries and get desperate. Also it might help if Framber, Gallen and Bassett get signed…

Sox are much better off keeping Yoshida than dumping quality players to unload him. A deal for Baty would probably be something simple like Bello for Baty. At this point, Sox are probably going to maintain status quo until ST games begin, and if someone else has a pitching injury that gets them desperate, maybe we see a deal…

,Youre moving the goalposts. There is a difference between stashing a player for depth and demoting a player because he hasn’t “forced his way on to an MLB roster”…

Shaw did look pretty good at the plate after his recall, and his second half OPS was an impressive .839. Add that he is a very solid defender…

Baty has decent range but not much for an arm. He’s a good 2b candidate…

Would you trade Payton Tolle straight up for Matt Shaw?

But the players still take deferred money. Ohtani might have been better off with a 10 year $500mill contract that paid him $491mill the first year and $1mill each additional year than deferring $680mill over the next two years decades. But he still did the latter…

Shaw isn’t going to the bench and he isn’t going to the outfield. He starts at Wrigley or he starts in Iowa. Everyone asking about Hoerner or Shaw knows this…

I think the more likely candidate might be Brendan Donovan. St Louis has his replacement ready to go in JJ Wetherholdt, and the Astros are holding fast on Paredes…

Then they will never get to jam with Robert Johnson!!

Not to mention, these deferrals are not exactly off in the distant future. “Well, we can give you all $175million, Mr, Bregman, but you will have to be very patient. You might have to wait until you’re 45 years old to get it all.”

I think the whole notion that the negotiations were botched because fans are unhappy with the outcome is my issue. They appeared to be fairly standard by what I’m hearing, but with some obvious embellishments. Breslow and Boras (or any GM/CBO and any agent have clear and opposing goals in any negotiation. One wants to get as much money as possible; the other wants to spend as little as possible. That Boras came and said “we have a better offer” is far from uncommon, and in many cases untrue (see Bellinger, Cody). Boras is actually well known for fabricating interest and offers. Go read MLBTR commentary regarding the decade long running jokes about the omnipresent “mystery team.” There are some fairly questionable additions to this beyond the shifting timelines. Like some versions say “by the time Breslow countered, it was too late.” No it wasn’t. I can guarantee there was no such deadline. The start of spring training is weeks away and we all know Bregman himself has no issues waiting until late February for the deal he wants. The Cubs wanted Bregman more than Boston did, and that’s really it. And paid a ln awful lot for a players whose best days are clearly on the past. And now find themselves posturing on their infield overload, making nonsense statements like “Matt Shaw will play the outfield.” No he won’t, and we all know it. He’s not starting over either of the reigning Gold Glovers the Cubs already have out there, or even their perfectly capable right fielder who has openly expressed a distaste for being a DH. But gotta keep up some value with that top infield prospect…

So you think they should bid against themselves? I’m confused. Reportedly Boras tried the same “we have another offer” tactic on the Yankees sith Bellinger. But the Yankees called his bluff and got the deal they wanted…

The timeline appears to be shifting. Im confused. Did Breslow up his offer before or after learning about the Cubs?

So now we’re back to the $165mil was the original offer? These stories are all over the place…

You NEVER hear pushback. FO folks who give pushback don’t last long. Heck it was only LAST YEAR when Zack Short finally gave the dirt of Betts’ free agent offers. AJ probably got his info from Boras’ people. Right?