Nick

Ok I have always treated this Yankee fan with respect. No more. I am not only one to say it. I have seen videos of Rafaela playing defense. He has speed, good instincts, efficient route to the ball and strong arm. Get the f*** off the Sox board. You are the worst kind of Yankee fan. At least they act like jerks from get go. I wont forget your comment.

I believe Devers ranked 9th at 3B in fWar or RPI (I forgot). Is that worth $30M?

Does Devers bet on himself for his walk off year? Aaron Judge made the right decision. But the Yankees had to keep him. If Devers plays well. he will price himself out of Sox reach.

Might as trade Devers for a major league ready player with few years of team control (or just extend him and plug the 3B hole)

Thanks Moon...I don't know where I saw it but Rafaela is major league ready defender in the outfield. He is Mookie Bettsisque.

This is what the future looks to be.....it's a start, upgrade at every opportunity 1B Casas 2B Story SS Mayers 3B TBD/Dalbec DH Turner and his clones LF Yoshida CF Rafaela RF TBD C Wong SP1 Bello SP2 Whitlock SP3 Houck SP4 Mata SP5 Kutter Pen....Young gun non-starters.

I enjoy his contribution to this board but kicking a dog while down gets pretty old. Then he pulls the disappearance act when his team is going South. I am incensed that we went over the cap by less than $5M. What the hell? It's time to move on to 2023. Nothing short of World Championship is good enough for the Yankees. Their luxury tax payroll is up to $289M. They are now committed $143M to only 5 players for at least another 4 years. Sox can get into the playoffs. We'd welcome a series with the Yankees. It won't be a cakewalk. I'd start worrying about the health of HIS team.

That's what I've been trying to say but you said it well. I'm not sure there's much difference between Kluber and Eovaldi health wise. I would think Kluber's chance of pitching 200 innings is little better than Eovaldi's. I don't have the figures in front of me. Bigger issue for me is that anymore the team takes all the risks. Kluber has chance to earn $28M over two years if he meets all of his incentives. And it's not based on K's, ERA's, or won loss record. It's based strictly on games started and innings pitched. If he gets hurt (think Sale), the team is on the hook for $10M. So if Kluber gets hurt during spring training, the Sox still owes him $10M for doing NOTHING. I believe that's reasonable. I like the contract. That and identifying future 'core member' such as Bello and Casas early and buy out at least 2 years of their free agency. They did that with Whitlock. Say you give Bello a 8 year deal for $80M starting 2024. That's the type of risks I would take if I'm John Henry. I'll say it. Players are getting greedy. Many contracts are one sided. Owners have no protection in case of injuries. Incentives based on games played, innings pitched or plate appearance should be utilized more often.

Cleary Sox is no longer interested in giving out mega contracts. Study the Kluber deal with incentives based on innings pitched. It doesn't take a genius to figure out Sox doesn't want another Sale situation. Sox are protecting against injuries by limiting years and also performance measured by innings pitched or games started. I suspect Eovaldi was not interested in performance based contract.I applaude Bloom for that.

I can be a dick sometimes. Probably trying to get a rise out of one of you. I really have tremendous respect for all these guys, even Brasier.

With sincere apology to Red, let's talk about 2023 and beyond. Following players will be with us 4+ years, counting the options. Hopefully we can add Devers name to it for 8 years. Top tier players (in my projection) 6 Casas (1B) 6 Whitlock (SP) 6 Bello (SP) 6 Kutter (P) 6 Mata (SP) 5 Story (2B) 5 Yoshida (LF/DH) 5 Houck (P) 4 Schreiber (RP) Others 6 Wong © 6 Seabold (P) 6 Duran (OF) 6 Mills (P) 6 Winckowski (P) 6 K. Ort (P) 6 German (P) 4 Dalbec (IB/3B/DH) 4 Darwinzon (RP) I'm sure some will be a flop or already is one. I enjoy watching someone like Bello pitch. Great thing about TV is I can always turn it off. I'm probably little more optimistic than most of you. Having won 4 rings over the last 20 years probably has great deal to do with my optimism. PS. I just don't like Bloom telling Kike "we're be MUCH better". Hopefully he was misquoted. Maybe said something like "we MAY BE MUCH BETTER".

Yeah, what about it? He was a great player for the Sox. He is NOT on my roster. He plays for the Padres. Come on Red. He took the most money and I'm happy for him. I've been a Sox fan since 1967. Great ones come and go.

My choice for ss at this point would be Jose Iglesias. He would be my 'placeholder' for either Mayer or Rafaela. I get the sense that Rafaela is more ready now than Mayer. Sox is high on Rafaela at multiple positions. Eventually they will both be starters in my opinion. As a side note, please do not get cute and move Story to shortstop. That's is all we need is for him to get hurt playing short. Keep him at second base, PERIOD. I will be PISSED at Bloom if a move is made.

#1 Identify the core group. 4+ years of team control. #2 Fill the roster around them.... #3 Wait for youngsters to develop...Casas as an example....lock him down after this year #4 Extend Devers for 8 years ..trade him he rejects the offer #5 Xander who?

This +1000 Bello Whitlock is our future. Kluber is a placeholder for Mata

#1 this was the year to reset. I nlame Bloom for the mistake he made at the trade deadline. To go over by $4M was a big mistake. Our pitching will be better. Pay attention yo Bello and Whitlock. I expect Mata to join them in 2023. Thats is our future.

Bloom is counting on Sale Paxton and Whitlock. At some point he will need to deliver on his promises. I am willing to give him two more years.

We're vrying over Hill? He is not in the core group going forward. I don't care what he did in 2022. He is a coin flip pitche I rather see Mata gain experience than some over the Hill guy pitch.

We are still looking to bolster our starting rotation. Not .sure it's a wise move to trade him when his value is so low. Despite what our Yankee fan says, Sale still has more upside than anyone else.

Oops update on Cot's....does not have Justin Turner's payroll. We'll have about $40M to spend.

We are going below the luxury tax line in 2023. Coming off the books after 2023, $16.500M Devers $10.000M Kike $09.375M Barnes $04.000M Paxton $02.500M Brasier Total $42.375M Sure looks like we have the money to spend.

Just looking at the spray chart for Justin Turner. He makes tons of fly ball outs to opposite field. He just needs to pull it at Fenway. Most of his homers are to left/center, left field. His groundball outs are to the short. Just odd. I predict his offensive production will be close to Xander's. He had more RBI's than Xander in 2022 in about 90 less at bats. He hit 13HR to 15HR for Xander. He just looks strong to me. OPS of .788 vs .833.

In my dreams, Mets are completely out of it by the All-Star break and they make Verlander available. Of course we are in contention so we swoop in and pick him up.

Cot now has our tax payroll at $185M. We're $48M under the cap. Turner article in MassLive indicated that Devers needs to DH more in order to get him off of his feet and mitigate injury situation. I guess my concern is that the organization is concerned about his playing health. Again, Devers health is not my concern. But it does appear that the organization is concerned about it. I'm now less than 50/50 on the Sox extending Devers. Ugh. PS. Mets now up to $384M in tax payroll.

Let's wait and see the offer made to Devers. It should be big enough so the Sox will not be embarrassed.