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Tread water? He will play 1b. Most plate appearances for the Sox last year went to Abraham Toro and Romy Gonzalez…

Contreras is a good get. He’s top 5 or 6 in just about every offensive metric among first basemen. See? We don’t need Alonso…

You get what you pay for? Did the Sox get what they paid for from Price? Or Crawford? Or Hanley? Or Story? Or Yoshida? Or Fat Pablo? I could go on. None of them were Dumpster Dives. Why does the focus need to be on big name free agents, whom history has shown repeatedly drag you down more often than build you up. Why this obsession with spending? The Sox best moves lately have been trades and promotions. And despite that those have been working, you think the Sox should abandon that strategy?

Here is the point, and an oft-repeated one. Free agency isn’t a fine for short contracts to fill temporary needs. But it gets problematic with the long term contracts fans want. 3 of the 4 players you named signed short term deals. The fourth one signed a long term deal that has been the subject of numerous complaints over the previous 3 seasons…

It’s never MANDATORY to sign free agents to fill those voids. And in most cases, teams should be advised against it. The problem is fans equate spending with winning, and therefore assume teams not spending are not trying….

Thats my lazy-ass mistake. But Texas reportedly was shopping him regardless. No idea if it’s true, or if he has an NTC. And he might, because players getting traded from the Rangers to any team other than the Astros do effectively take a pay cut…

That track record spans over 50 years, multiple executives and 4 WS rings. The reality is free agency is a bad way to build a team. It’s mostly nothing but PR Fluff…

That’s not really much more. I doubt Chris Young would look at Castro and say “the marginal outfielder is a good start, but can I get some AAAA pitchers as well?” Arguably Drohan and Uberstine hinder a deal as neither is very good or has much potential but both require a 40 man roster spot. I will say, Eovaldi’s contract structure on B-R looks like it was put together with a trade before 2026?in mind. Salary goes up from like $2mill in 2025 to $24mil in ‘26. …

I will confirm for you - he is definitely taking his time…

Jim? Jim Hendry? Is that really you? I didn’t know the former Cubs’ General Manager and his “give me 8 bats and we’ll sort out the positions later” attitude posted on this site…

Isn’t that kind of how all these budget crunch problems started? The Sox didn’t spend more because DD told them to; they spent more because Henry allowed DD to…

BTV gives him the same surplus value ($2..4mill) as Allan Castro. I make that trade yesterday, and I don’t even think they need more starting pitching. (In fact I think they need to trade a couple.)…

Reportedly being shopped by Texas. 2 yrs $53mill left on his deal…

True, and Sandoval (Pablo, for you newbies playing along at home) is an excellent candidate. But I was talking about pitching contracts, so I didn’t mention him…

Fair point. I was thinking “pitched well enough to never be an albatross”. And I think of Price as the epitome of bad Sox pitching contracts…

Who was the last free agent pitcher the Sox signed to a deal longer than 3 years that worked out?

When you look at the deals given to Bello, Rafaela, Anthony, Campbell, and Crochet and maybe one or two more Ive forgotten about, it’s not like thr Sox are not spending. Theyre just spending more on their internal players, which does make sense. Sorry, it does. First of all, internal arb-eligible and pre-arb players often sign cheaper, which they do more for risk aversion purposes. Second, if you can extend a pre-arb player, they are almost exclusively under 30 and often under 27, so they still have their best baseball ahead in most cases. Free agents, on the other hand, are almost always over 30 and in most cases, and primed for a decline that could appear at any time So the Sox method is to get more stable players for less money. Free agency is there to fill the 1-2 year gaps, not build a team. Sure, signing your own younger players is not without risks. Kristian Campbell has yet to set the world on fire, and he might never do so. (He will.). But if he doesn’t, he won’t be blazing that trail, either. There’s a parade of Scott Kingery’s and Jon Singleton’s ahead of him. And wasting $50mil on Campbell, even well over 10 years later, is still cheaper than it was to gamble on Carl Crawford…

They gain it all back and then some if enough teams are interested…

Someone has to take over Grayson Rodriguez’ IL spot. Serously, what are the Orioles thinking? They give away Rodriguez and all his injuries to get one year of a 30+ outfielder coming off a career year at the plate. And then they go acquire another pitcher wuth injury issues similar to the ones they unloaded Rodriguez for having, but is also is not as good on the mound that he gets too less often…

If the DBacks sign Bregman, does that make Marte more available?

That depends. Do teams not want the player or not want the contract? Hicks has never averages under 100mph when kept in the bullpen. Sure he’s overpaid now, but if that can be set aside, I could see plenty of teams giving him a chance. Every team in MLB will use 4 or 5 RPs worse than Hicks at some point. Hamilton isnt a horrible player. He is a very good defensive 2b with useful speed and a minimum wage salary. At worst, he’s serviceable. He could peak at being a useful role player. Teams won’t give you a #2 starter for him, but he’s a good ancillary piece that plenty of teams could use. Including Boston. Hes not as bad as some on here keep insisting. Yoshida can hit, but he’s tough to move with no position. He’s either in Boston, Worcester, or on the waiver wire. It’s hard to see a trade unless it’s for a contract NO ONE wants to take back…

And I’m ok with that…

Intriguing. It does further clutter the Sox OF/DH logjam, but there is time to work that out. And sometimes injuries do that for you. Hicks did bump his fastball up to 97.5 mph last year. Poor season aside, there is still something there to intrigue a team, and if the Dodgers may not be thrilled with Teoscar’s middle infielder-esque .738 OPS. Another one that looks fringey but acceptable on paper (to me, anyway) is Triston Casas for Mark Vientos…

But pronounced to rhyme with “Ow”…

So the field died with Michael King? King was never an option for anyone but San Diego. Between injuries and his limited experience as a starter, no one was going to surrender a draft pick to sign him. If anyone filled out the MLBTR Free Agent contest and didn’t put King back in SD, they gave away a freebie. He was the equivalent of the center space on a Bingo card. MLBTR ranked King as the 5th best starting pitcher on the free agent market. 3 of the 4 ranked above him (Valdez, Imai, Suarez) are still available…