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Absolutely, although replacing the innings from Eovaldi, Wacha and Hill needs to happen. Fulmer and Montero are a great start for upgrading the bullpen. If you have a healthy Houck and Taylor, leave them in the bullpen all year long with Whitlock and Schreiber. Barnes will still be here barring a salary dump swap. And then add a LHRP. That’s a pretty RH bullpen, especially if Taylor isn’t back…

Nimmo! Nimmo! And more Nimmo!

Well, while he is no Bradley/Kike/Coco Crisp with the glove, Brandon Nimmo is a CF. I won’t speak for him, but playing CF might be something he is looking for in a new contract. If so, I’d keep Kike as an infielder on the table. Of course that still means the Sox need a RF. Presumably one found via the trade market. (Ramon Laureano?) I think my personal choice would be Kike and Nimmo in CF and RF, not real adamant about which one plays where. And pry SS Ha-Seong Kim from the Padres where, if Tatis returns, he becomes a $7mill AAV utility infielder who was worth 3.5 fWAR last year. Even if you think the Padres will retain Snell (certainly possible), do they want or need or are they able to budget $15mill for a utility infielder the next two seasons? Especially if they want to extend Soto?

He does own the forum pay-per-view rights…

We assume Kike to CF. Or the adventurous think maybe Kike could go to 2b. But what about SS? If Story’s arm problems do prohibit a move back to SS, Kike is the best internal option for 2023, and his metrics at SS are pretty good, although to be fair, the encompass like 700 innings spread out over 8 seasons or something like that. That would mean the Six need to add 2 outfielders, needed to replace Bogaerts and improve the offense. Nimmo can replace Bogaerts, or at least the overwhelming bulk of his production. But then who for the other OF?

The Sox are now officially played .500 ball since that 10-19 start…

Now if Bogaerts opts out, the Sox have something like $80mill committed for 2023, and nothing says “trying to win” more than just spending. The big problem for the Sox is - spending on who? Sure they could add a closer, but how many last place teams were one closer away from first place? (Hint:None. Ever.) They have some obvious needs in the rotation, but is this the free agent class to fill them? Seems like the best pitchers are the oft-injured type who are more likely to create a void in the rotation than they are too fill one. The Sox could grab an outfielder, but, after Judge there isn’t much in the way of headline grabbers. And Judge will never be an option. (I stand by the unsexy Brandon Nimmo as the Sox biggest free agent need.) They could spend on Devers, but they had Devers last year. How does making Devers financial future more secure make this team better? Shortstop, I could see. There are a few options available who are team changers, like Turner and Correa. Certainly Bogaerts is an option albeit he’s the status quo. James Dansby Swanson is a good all around shortstop, but he really isn’t the elite game-changing, ticket-selling, franchise-altering player the Sox should be looking at for PR purposes. If he replaces Bogaerts, he’s a good player that’s tough to sell, like Jose Offerman as a replacement for Mo Vaughn.

He said “can” outspend, not “will outspend” or “did outspend”…

Houck has a much better closer track record than Bard had prior to joining the Rockies. The grass is always greener, I suppose. If we had Bard and the Rockies had Houck, fans would be complaining about how other teams develop their own closers while the Sox with their huge payroll have to dig up guys who have been retired for 8 years…

Did the Sox ever really want those guys to pitch and hit? Rodriguez had a slew of plate appearances his first year and then none after. Ball had 0 players appearances in his first 5 minor league seasons…

The Sox final payroll was $234 million. Adding Jansen takes them to $250mill, which I believe is territory even Dave Dombrowski was not allowed to go. Just because they went over the tax limit doesn’t mean the budget was suddenly infinite…

I don’t think converting minor league starters to major league relievers counts as an unexpected source. Every team does that and has been doing it for decades. Heck Mariano Rivera was a starter in the minor leagues. Want a reliever from an unexpected source? Maybe convert a minor league shortstop! Sure the Sox fans will scream about this clear abomination, but this is how Joe Nathan and Trevor Hoffman started their careers. Ditto for former Red Sox minor league shortstop and Rockies closer Rafael Betancourt. Jeter Downs has a good arm. Maybe?

You could get three Pham’s for that price and it would still be an overpay…

Exactly. Teams only exercise options if the player is expected to be a bargain. Players only exercise player options if they know they can’t do better in free agency. And these two situations never coincide…

$1.5mill

Houck has more saves now than Bard had prior to becoming the Rockies’ closer. I would imagine the 2023 Sox cost is already on the team - whether it’s Houck, Whitlock or Schreiber. I just want to add some better bullpen arms and not worry so much about the roles. To me, Fulmer and Montero are the best free agent options. Of course, a lot depends on the health and recovery of both Houck and Taylor…

Jansen is also the guy the Dodgers walked away from and it didn’t exactly show them down. Not to mention, who exactly were the Sox supposed to not sign so they could afford Jansen? Do people really think the choices came down to Diekman or Jansen? Or better yet - Jansen over Story? Seriously? There was no way the Sox could afford Jansen. And Bard just ruins the “we need a closer with experience” argument since he did take 8 years off and wasn’t even a good closer before the hiatus. Diekman and Robles had better track records in the role. Bard had FIVE CAREER SAVES prior to becoming the Rockies’ closer. The Sox had multiple pitchers with more success in the role than that prior to this season…

Pham’s option is $6mill, not $12mill. It’s a mutual option, which means 99% of the time there’s no chance it gets exercised by both parties. The Sox should pass IMO…

The Sox will certainly try to get better. The main problem is the quickest way is to just spend, spend, spend, which can lead to immediate positive results but then also leads to negative ones just a few seasons down the road, and it’s flat out a lot harder to get out of a bad contract than to bring one on board…

You do realize the Sox have a high payroll, right?

Actually, 2016 and 2017 were the weakest seasons in AL East history since 1989…

I think you missed his point…

1. They don’t all come due at once. Sale has two years left. 2. The end date of the other two was set by Dombrowski at the time of signing. The only thing Bloom could have done was trade Eovaldi after 2021, which in no way in Hell he should have. Eovaldi was the clear ace of the AL runner up. There’s not much else that could have been done. You can’t possibly advocate that he should have traded Sale after seeing what it took to unload Price. (And Price has thrown over twice as many IP as Sale in the last 3 years despite voluntarily sitting out a season). And Martinez is in deep decline and not a player many if any teams would trade for without giving something equally useless back. These are deals the Sox are stuck with and have no choice but to watch expire…

Don’t underestimate pitching, defense and speed. I’ve seen plenty of Red Sox teams that lead or were close to the league lead in home runs and runs scored and simply missed the playoffs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Sox team that lead the league in pitching and missed out. Maybe once?

As the primary proponent of saying they should be better with this payroll, please tell me who were the biggest deadweights on that payroll? Who are some of the names who simply didn’t live up to their salary?