Nick

José Abreu rumors: Red Sox ‘high on the list’ with Cubs, Astros, Marlins (report) If you recall we came in second when Abreu signed with the Sox. Our response the following year? 7 year, $72.5M to Rusney Castillo. Name a worst contract. Chris Sale is one injury away from that distinction.

It sure looks to me like San Diego is picking up close to $13M and the Sox $5M. The contract was for $144M over 8 years or $18M AAV per year. SOMEONE has to pick that up. No way San Diego pick up the entire $144M in AAV on top of sending $39M to the Sox. It would have been different had San Diego simply DFA's Hosmer. Then I agree that Padres picked up the entire tab for AAV. That was not the case, however. It was a trade. Trades have AAV and cash consequences if money is exchanged. Sox can trade Hosmer and reduce the AAV liability (say the Sox suck but Hosmer is outstanding through July).

You are on......

I think you are all wrong. And I'm willing to bet on it. San Diego is done except for the monetary hit they have taken, $39M. Hosmer is off the books. San Diego benefited from AAV perspective by paying higher salary amount the first 5 years. The AAV is computed over the life of the contract, or over 8 years. Thus, their annual AAV hit during the first five years were lower than the actual payout amount. I believe the numbers shown for the Sox on cot's spreadsheet is correct. Someone is responsible for the liability and I don't think it's San Diego. Otherwise they would have been penalized twice, once for actual cash and another for the AAV liability.

Just a fyi on Hosmer contract. He is a Boras client. When he signed his 8 year $144M deal, his first 5 year payout was $21M per annum and the last 3 years are $13M per annum. Many here flippantly say Sox is only liable for the league minimum. That is TRUE. The reason San Diego was willing to trade him and pay his entire salary was to DUPM his remaining luxury tax payroll amount, approximately $5M per year for next three years. Sox are obligated to assume that paper liability. San Diego didn't care about the 'money'. They cared to get rid of his residual luxury tax payroll off their books. That looks Bostonisque. Nicely done. Much better than Bloom getting us into a possible severe tax situation by going over by thin margin. Everyone here knows to go BIG the first time.

As always good stuff. Every poster is valued here. I hope some of you can play nicer. Someone has to be the bigger man. We can always ignore some posters. I'm sure I'm on someone's ignore list. As a former CPA, I can't help but to keep track of budget AND the team control that a team has on a player. The company I worked for always had a rolling 5 year budget in addition to the annual budget. It's about bringing the core group together, whoever is in that core group. Devers is NOT in that core group until he signs his extension. Story is, good or bad due to his contract status. Management has shed some light on some things such as naming Whitlock as a starter and maybe Houck as well. Bello is under team control for next six years along with Whitlock if all the options are exercised. Houck is under team control for 5 more years. I'm little more ambivalent about Pivetta as this is his second year of arbitration and I'm not sure if he'll ever be more than a #4 starter. Yes he does gives us innings. But we can't have .500 pitchers 1 through 5. Someone has to step up. I see that Verlander is a free agent. He is someone I'd consider for a two year deal. He's a winner. He recently had his Tommy John so he should be ready to go. Unlike Chris Sale, he looks to be fit and strong. If we can get him for a two year deal (say at $30M), that contract would coincide nicely with Sale. We would shed close to $60M after the 2024 season. Why not reset in 2025? With Verlander, we can ignore Eovaldi and Wacha. Maybe sign Hill to supplement Paxton as emergency starters. (Verlander, Sale, Whitlock, Pivetta, Bello, Houck (?), Paxton, Hill, Crawford, Winchowski, etc). Get couple of more bullpen arms and we'd be set pitching wise. If we have no intention of going after a big money guy, then I'm not sure what Bloom meant be saying we'll be much better. Sigining Verlander to a two year contract would make us competitive, especially in the playoffs. At my age, I'm looking for #5. Everything else is the Yankees.

I am not going to live and die by 2023 season. It's all about making 'progress' towards next championship team. We can't make the finances work if every player we need comes out of free agency. That includes both Xander and Devers who will be free agents. Bottom line is we came in dead last with both Xander and Devers this year. Not their fault obviously. But we wasted two productive seasons out of our top two players. That's on the management. We didn't do enough to augment their productive season. Make all the excuses with injuries. But injuries are part of the equation. Chris Sale is no longer viewed as a sure thing based on last three years. The trade was excellent, his extension not so much. We need to be very careful about giving out say 8 year deal as an example to Xander, who is 30. How confident are we with Mayer at shortstop position? I'm just opposed to a pay raise of $10M to Xander and extension on years. We have competent shortstops in Story/Kike tandem.. Their salaries are baked in. Are we not better off using $30M on a short term deal say on a starting pitcher? I'm all for paying a little more for 2-3 year deals. Except of course for Devers. He's young enough for the Sox to build the next World Series title contender around him. I'm more concerned about extending him this winter than paying exuberant price for Xander. We will regret it.

Good point....

It will be interesting 2 months..... Fact is we DON'T know what Bloom is thinking. "Team will be MUCH better"....I hope he doesn't use the logic of having Sale back alone will make the "Team will be MUCH better".

I am 100% behind Bloom until he does NOT deliver on his promise to Kike that the team will be 'much better'. And I'm not even talking about actual results. All he can do his put a team together on 'paper'. But I will see what's on HIS paper and judge.

Watched Moneyball for 75th time. Loved the trade made with David D. of Detroit. Say what you will. He did get the Phillies to the World Series. Brilliant move to sign Schwarber. That would have been a no brainer for me. Hey, Bloom went OVER the magic line anyway without signing Schwarber.

I will repeat myself.....assuming we're building a World Series contender, based on years of control SP 1 Bello RP Houck RP Whitlock Possibly, Schreiber, Crawford 1B Casas 2B Story That's it.... we don't need an All-Star at each position but we need more 'high ceiling' guys. Devers is next up.

He did sign Schwarber and I still think we made a mistake on him. Just one year of overlap. We went over the luxury tax limit as is.

1B Casas 2B Story SS Mayer CF Rafaela SP Bello SP Matta RP Whitlock RP Houck I would focus on Devers this winter. If no agreement on extension, then trade him.

This!!

As I get older, that means absolutely nothing. I want World Series Championship teams. I wait anxiously as Bloom assembles next winning it all team. Starts with Casas and Bello. Hopefully Devers is in that equation.

Why now? Why did we not keep him? Is he a better player now than when we let him go? Again, all these are minor movements. Signing multiple Beni types will NOT make Sox MUCH BETTER. I wait anxiously for difference maker/impact player signing(s).

It's about winning the World Series. Right now specifically, fielding a team good enough to beat the Astros. It's about building the future around Bello, Casas and Devers. And we're talking about bringing back slow white dude in Beni? Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase. (yeah, it's a bait to stimulate discussion!)

Everything Must Be in Play https://nypost.com/2022/10/24/everything-must-be-in-play-as-yankees-prove-theyre-not-enough/ Where is my favorite Yankee poster? Not piling on but we discussed horrible situation that Yankees find themselves in......winning AL East is just not enough. They have set a high bar for themselves. It was a failure. 0-4 in American League Championship. They find themselves in similar situation with Judge as we do with Xander. It will cost us both more just to get same results in 2023 from their best players respectively.

Yes, I'm on his side of the fence today. That could change in few weeks.

It was a long shot but I wanted Sox to sign Schwarber last winter. I got it that there was an overlap with JD but looking back, we could have used him at DH, LF and 1B. A four year deal was not going to kill the Sox, who stupidly went over the luxury tax by mere $5M or so. IF you are going to go over the first time, you go over by $20M, everyone knows that. Acquiring JBJ was the biggest mistake. He added NOTHING. Defense? What did his defense get us? And please don't bring back Beni......he is not my idea of making the team 'much better in 2023'.

Little surprised Guardians did not have a better starter for G5.

Thanks for that, MVP.

None of you have posted an acquisition that in my view says "we're much better in 2023". Yeah I get it that we will get worse maybe by not resigning Xander. But signing him does not make us "much better". He had a pretty good year and his signing gets us back to the starting gate. I will hold Bloom to what he said. And his mismanagement of luxury tax at the trade deadline this year will negatively impact us much greater the $900K penalty we paid. Many of you could have done better and I'm serious.

Back to 2023 I will give JD credit. His OPS was 3rd among all the DH. Xander lead the shortstops. Devers I believe was in top 5. Let's hope Story can stay healthy and cut down on his strikeouts. Our outfield needs to give us better production. Would love to see starting pitcher #1 and starting pitcher #2 signed this offseason. That ought to do it.