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Former first rounder for former first rounder…

Everyone goes right for Trey Ball, but other 1st round picks include Jason Place, Kolbrin Vitek, Bryan Price, Jay Groome. At least Yorke made AAA…

Yorke was hardly one of the worst first round picks. He’s not even in the bottom 10…

So the Sox traded a middle infield prospect for a pitcher? Hmmm…

… but it’s an admission the best course of action would be to abandon Yoshida or Sale. If Sale was truly sunk cost, trading him away is the proper course…

You do realize the “sunk cost principle” is predicated on the notion that abandoning the cost would be the smarter course, right? It doesn’t mean it’s a free no risk opportunity… So once you call Sale “sunk cost”, you’ve more than justified the logic in trading him. And you did this in post 1353…

And did the Sox make another move related to this? It’s amazing how you can cling to a singular word in my post and go back and dig up evidence like this. There are some pessimistic fans who dislike any and every move. I don’t even get your argument. “I liked the trade, but I thought it meant more was coming.” 1. First of all, more did come. They signed Giolito later that week. It didn’t work out, but it did happen. Now this is evolving into to “I meant ‘even more than that’.” 2. People say “there must be more coming all the time out here. It happens with DFAs quite often. I’ve seen it get posted when a minor leaguer gets pulled from a game. 3. Yes it would have been nice to replace Giolito. But why did you expect it? Sale went down in ST multiple times and never got replaced…

Where one new, effective reliever could have resulted in 3 more wins minimum?

When I see Westbrook in the lineup and Romy in at 1b I die a little bit inside…

Only Verdugo and Torres hit the ball hard…

Yes, and it’s didn’t work out. But back in December when we all assumed Sale was headed for another partial season, we all liked this trade…

I don’t think MLB front office people leap to “sunk cost” conclusions nearly as quickly as fans do…

Multiple sources have the Sox linked to Angels RHRP Luis Garcia. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/garcilu03.shtml It’s entirely possible these “multiple sources” are quoting each other.

Jansen isn’t a bad pickup. He just does nothing to get Jamie Westbrook and Romy Gonzalez out of the lineup vs LHP…

How many teams have a $29mill fungible starter? Henry has gotten cheap, but even teams that haven’t don’t spend that on “fungible starters.” If Sale was a free agent this off-season, he doesn’t get that kind of money…

It doesn’t help that plans B and C are on the IL…

Still two more days. Hopefully progress is being made…

I have no idea if or how they were connected. Both pitchers were expected in the rotation in 2022 and 2023 and neither proved reliable. They tried to keep the wrong one in the rotation in 2024…

I don’t think they wanted both or that Giolito was such hot property they needed to add him. I think the goal was to get some pitching out of the $29mill they committed to Sale. There were only two options. 1. Count on Sale 2. Move as much of Sale’s salary and spend it on a pitcher who will actually pitch. To me, option one is no different than the repeated attempts to force Whitlock into the rotation, something no one has supported…

Check your math and then explain how it factored into decisions made in December 2023…

I actually didn’t, although Montgomery rumors were a little enticing. I did like Bello-Crawford-Houck more than most. And probably still do. Although my faith in them was definitely in the wrong order, as Bello was my favorite and Houck my least. Honestly the Sale-Giolito debacle wasn’t the worst decision this off-season. Just the most overblown. The worst one was once again forcing Whitlock into the rotation. Unlike the Sale trade, this is a move that had already resulted in multiple failures and looks to have depleted a very worn out bullpen even further right now. Sale/Giolito has just been horrible luck. But how Whitlock was handled was stubborn, ignorant, and negligent…

No. Negligence would have been rolling Sale out there again and watching him get hurt and miss 3/4 of the season. They were proactive in getting a pitcher with a solid track record of showing up for work, something Sale hasn’t had in a long time. Yes, Giolito struggled after for his final 60 IP last year. But he also pitched 126 IP before it happened. When was the last time Sale even pitched 126 IP in a season? Let alone added on 60 more?

I think there are reasons to question the results of what they did, but the logic made sense at the time…

Not about rules. You know that. Sale pitched 102 IP last year, but missed a huge chunk in the middle of the season with an injury. He missed almost all of 2022 with an injury. He kissed most of 2022 with an injury. He missed all of 2020 with an injury. He ended 2019 with an injury and a mediocre 4.40 ERA for the season. Thinking he was just going to step in and pitch like this for 150-180 IP bordered on a fantasy. And his AAV was what? $25.6mill for a huge question mark? If you honestly can’t see why he was moved after that 5 year stretch detailed above at what he had cost, not sure what to say. Atlanta rolled the dice and it’s paying off huge, but if Sale was on the 60 day IL right now, would you be surprised? Giolito on the 60 day IL actually is much more surprising, especially since he could have been a one year solution. 23yo Vaughn Grissom’s inability to recover from simple injuries is also somewhat surprising. This deal has been a disaster for Boston. And probably never gets made if Sale had shown anything close to durability from 2020 through 2023. 100 IP interrupted by an injury is not an acceptable display of durability…

Getting actual innings pitched?