harmony

David Price reportedly was upset about his third drug test this offseason:

Conversely, does Cot’s offer the best-case scenario?

Serous question: Why trust Cot’s over Spotrac (or vice versa)?

If the Red Sox were not concerned about the CBT penalties the Sox would have aimed higher than Jose Peraza and Martin Pérez so far this offseason.

The Red Sox can ill afford the status quo because of the luxury tax implications. That places the Sox at a disadvantage in relation to most clubs.

Potential trade partners have good reason to believe the Red Sox want to get under the luxury tax threshold, leaving the Sox in a difficult bargaining position. The status quo might be less acceptable to the Sox than to the trade partner.

Wil Myers could probably match Mitch Moreland’s production (although as a righthanded first baseman without Moreland’s pronounced platoon splits).

The Red Sox need to shed salary before they can add a three-year, $18 million contract for a player whose last team paid a $1 million buyout instead of exercising a 2020 team option for $7.5 million.

The intentional redundancy was a humble acknowledgement that it’s just one fan’s speculation. Or not. Thank you for the feedback.

The Red Sox have probably exchanged firm offers with multiple teams without reaching a meeting of the minds. Or not.

Boston Globe columnist Alex Speier writes of the "short shell life" of a homegrown core: https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/redsox/2019/12/28/taking-closer-look-baseball-unusual-offseason/e5gtbQLYtEN6aKacuPuHAP/story.html?event=event25

As Nathan Eovaldi starts the 2020 season on the downside of his 30th birthday, the righthander could bounce back to the career ERA+ of 94 he's posted over parts of eight seasons (a marked improvement over the ERA+ of 81 Eovaldi posted in limited action this year).

2022

On the 100th anniversary of this deal, we can say some moves don't work out: https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2019/12/babe-ruth-was-sold-by-red-sox-to-yankees-100-years-ago-this-day.html

And Yankee fans would prefer 1995. Or 1923.

Even so the Orioles have one division title and three postseason appearances in the past decade (only one postseason appearance fewer than the Red Sox over that period).

Teams are unlikely to tank in the sense of manuevering for higher draft picks (which do not carry the weight the picks do in the NBA or NFL). Some teams have the vision to look beyond the next season. Their goal is to win at some point in the future even if that means competitiveness is postponed for a year or two. In a world of immediate gratification, that strategy does not play well with some fans.

San Diego fans generally don't like a proposed trade of Wil Myers for David Price: https://www.eastvillagetimes.com/is-a-wil-myers-for-david-price-trade-beneficial-for-padres/ Scroll down to comments.

The Texas Rangers probably need Rougned Odor more than Nathan Eovaldi after acquiring Corey Kluber, Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles this offseason. https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/depth-charts/rangers Other than that, the trade would represent only a minor overpay by the Rangers, according to Baseball Trade Values (and would save the Red Sox nearly $9 million AAV for three seasons).

In 2018 Nathan Eovaldi posted 2.2 fWAR in 111 inning while J.A. Happ posted 3.0 fWAR in 177.2 innings. Over the past two seasons Eovaldi has posted 1.9 fWAR in 178.2 innings while Happ has posted 4.2 fWAR in 339 innings. Baseball Trade Values gives Eovaldi a negative value of $29.5 million and Happ a negative value of $9.1 million. Eovaldi is unlikely to command a better return than Happ. However, Steamer projects Eovaldi with a 2020 WAR of 2.1 in 148 innings and Happ with a 2020 WAR of 0.9 in 87 innings.

This presumably addresses the potential competition the Red Sox would face with David Price in the trade market for starters, not suggesting that J.A. Happ is a Sox trade target. Or not.

Brilliant!

Teams probably use similar criteria -- projected production, salary commitment and years of team control -- but may assign different values. Or not. Each team's contention status and respective needs likely influence the calculation as well.

MLB.com columnist Mark Feinsand today listed David Price among six pitchers possibly available in trade. Here is the list with Baseball Trade Values valuations and Steamer projected 2020 WAR: David Price: negative $60 million, 2.6 WAR in 164 innings Mike Clevinger: $82.5 million, 4.2 WAR in 197 innings Robbie Ray: $21.7 million, 2.7 WAR in 174 innings Matthew Boyd: $37.7 million, 3.1 WAR in 183 innings Chris Archer: $3 million, 3.0 WAR in 180 innings Jon Gray: $37.7 million, 3.5 WAR in 186 innings Starting pitching market after big free agent signings WWW.MLB.COM Hyun-Jin Ryu is on the Blue Jays. Dallas Keuchel is set to become a member of the White Sox rotation. Madison Bumgarner will pitch for the D-backs. So what now for the other pitching-needy teams? For weeks, we’ve heard that the Angels, Dodgers, Brewers and Twins were looking to add https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/team-values/ https://www.fangraphs.com/projections.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&type=steamer&team=0&lg=all&players=0

From Mark Feinsand of MLB.com: Starting pitching market after big free agent signings WWW.MLB.COM Hyun-Jin Ryu is on the Blue Jays. Dallas Keuchel is set to become a member of the White Sox rotation. Madison Bumgarner will pitch for the D-backs. So what now for the other pitching-needy teams? For weeks, we’ve heard that the Angels, Dodgers, Brewers and Twins were looking to add