Nick

I hope to see some of our younger guys. With Verdugo, Kike and JBJ possible starters, I hope to see Duran play more. I would love to see either Houck or Whitlock get a chance to start. I can't wait to have Casas get to the majors this year. Some of our farm guys should see time in the pen. This is not the 2018 team but it can be a fun team to watch if some our younger kids are playing.

Let's see...if I got this right Jays added Chapman but lost Siemien. Jays added Gausman but lost their Cy Young guy. Yep looks like mega improvement.

With Chris Sale out indefinitely, I'm guessing Wacha will get an opportunity to start. He should be familiar with that role considering he's started 184 games out of 202 games pitched. Based on recent trend in Bloom's spending, it would have been an overpay to have Wacha in the pen and pay him $7M, topped only by unfortunate contract extension given to Barnes. But who knows what was discussed during negotiation.

Blue Jays trade for Matt Chapman: Boston Red Sox AL East rival continues to improve roster, adding All-Star (report) The 28-year-old Chapman, a three-time Gold Glove winner, had a down year offensively in 2021. He batted .210 with a .314 on-base percentage, .403 slugging percentage, .716 OPS, 27 homers, 15 doubles, three triples, 75 runs and 72 RBIs in 151 games (622 plate appearances). Toronto signed starter Kevin Gausman who posted a 2.81 ERA in 33 starts for the Giants last year and finished sixth for the NL Cy Young. The Jays also inked lefty Yusei Kikuchi earlier this week. He had a 4.41 ERA in 29 innings for the Mariners last year. BUT The Jays lost stars Marcus Semien and Robbie Ray in free agency. Those were significant losses after Ray won the 2021 AL Cy Young and Semien finished third in the 2021 AL MVP voting. Tell me again how the Jays just improved their roster from year ago?

Wacha has started 184 of 202 games in his career. Do you have any evidence to think he's okay with coming out of the pen? How in the f*** do I know what was promised? Do you know? Maybe we signed Paxton to be the closer.....Do you know or as a smart guy that you are you would assume he was signed to start. Give me a break Moon.

You're asking Bloom to LIE to our free agents? You honestly think Hill signed thinking he maybe moved to the pen? It's one thing to be moved because you SUCKED, aka Richards, it's another to move a veteran to the pen after signing him as a starter. Word gets around. Who in the hell would sign with Sox when we don't keep our word? I hope I don't ever get hired by you.

No to trading Duran, Dalbec or Downs. None has shown me that they won't succeed in majors. Do you honestly think Duran has been given a fair shot? We'll wish we have Downs when Xander opts out and Devers sign elsewhere. Dalbec and Casas can be in the same lineup. Do you think Verdugo, Kike and JBJ is enough? Duran can't hit less than JBJ. No to trading our younger players.

Starting Rotation Season Opener 2022 vs 2021 Eovaldi vs Eovaldi Sale vs E Rod Pivetta vs Pivetta Wacha vs Richards Hill vs Perez Sale made his debut on August 14th and started 9 regular season games. I just don't understand the 'panic' on this board. Moon, Eovaldi, Pivetta and Sale (thr 8/14) has chance to be better than Eovaldi, Pivetta and E Rod (thr 8/14) of 2021. I'd say Wacha/Hill combo versus Richards/Perez is a wash. I would also contend that we have more starting options in 2022 than in 2021. I won't even bring up Paxton because a Yankee fan told me he's brittle or something. Why the panic?

I don't mean to give impression that I'm okay with the team as it stands. I will be very disappointed if we don't add Suzuki. Verdugo, Kike and JBJ? Really? I'm not a fan of JBJ. I was hoping we flip him again for additional minor leaguers. The guy goes on a 3 month slumps. Or Sox can make a bold move and add Correa. I love Xander but he's just not a very good shortstop. You'll know a good shortstop when you see it. Contracts coming off after 2022 $22M JD (replaced by Dalbec/Casas) $17M Eovaldi (replaced by Houck) $16M Price $07M Kike (re-sign him) $07M Vaz $07M Wacha (replaced by Whitlock) $05M Hill (replaced by Paxton) $03M Strahm Total $77M Throw in another $20M for Xander opting out, that gets us close to $100M coming off the books for 2023. Cot's has us at $210M. We could blow past the $230M this year and bring it back down next year.

Yankees add Josh Donaldson. He's right handed, no? Interesting. I thought they wanted to add left handed bats.

I became a Sox fan in 1967. Henry's teams have won 4 World Series and I will give him the benefit of doubt. He doesn't intentionally put on a s*** show. At some point, it's on the players. Look at 2019. On paper, our starting pitching looked very good. It didn't turn out that way. We're almost done getting rid of dead money, Price and Pedroia contracts comes to mind. I'd be surprised if we're not a finalist for Suzuki.

We added two lefties today to the pen. Jake Diekman is projected to be our best lefty. Matt Strahm was the other depth piece. That's on top of three other lefties that pitched for the Sox last year, Hernandez, Taylor and Davis. Bloom is making incremental improvements. You simply can't dismiss every addition because they are not signed for $10M+. If Houck or Whitlock starts, that means one of the projected starters will go to the pen. You NEVER see the other side of equation. We had a closer in Barnes, look how well that worked out. Maybe he'll be the closer again this year. You keep trying to make the team better, Old Red. Bloom is not going to give up. Henry is not going to put out a s*** show. Lastly, a reminder that our 2019 opening payroll was higher than 2018 World Championship team. We reset in 2021 (forget 2020). We have $100M possibly coming off the books after this year. I doubt we'll ever have the payroll that Rays live with. Bloom has done what he said he will do. Our farm system is improved. Eventually that will benefit the Sox. I think we're on the right path.

Up 2-1 with 2 games in Fenway coming up....I'll take that every year. Some of you keep bringing up E Rod being gone. Here's my take. We have Chris Sale to replace him at beginning of season. It's my hope that Paxton will replace last year's Chris Sale. There's still chance either Houck or Whitlock will start if needed. I think we have more depth in the pen. We should get more help from our farm system. I think overall pitching depth is better with today's 2 signings. We still need a right handed outfielder in my opinion.

It's the dumbest discussion title...misleading....wtf...

Lets sign some Free Agents..... I want Whitlock to start because I want to watch him start on my MLB subscription. Just don't start him on Friday nights.

No to trading away top prospects. We have some money to sign FA. Luxury Tax at $230M. I think we're slightly above $200M. Also we'd be a first time offender in 2022 so going over may not be a bad thing. Couple that with expiring contracts after the season means we can be little more aggressive. #1 priority for me is Mr. Suzuki.

I just want to watch baseball....

So basically a 12% return not factoring in inflation. Could she have done better with her money elsewhere?

We're being too simplistic. It's always about the opportunity cost. Big question is if you have $1B to invest, do you pick a baseball franchise or simply invest it elsewhere? It's foolhardy to think you can lose money and think you're okay with it because somehow the 'value' is going up. Only way that's happening is inflation. No one, not one single capitalist wants to lose money. Period. I am sure some smart people have figured out where the point of no return is for 2022 baseball season. Apparently, we're not there yet.

Good call on Sawamura....just because a guy has a contract doesn't mean he doesn't have arbitration years left. My bad. Foreigners...

I'm pretty sure Sawamura has two more years if the club exercise option for 2023. Probably a long shot but Sale does have an opt out after this year. I don't see Xander on your list so Sale shouldn't be either.

You have a valid point. I always believed that small market teams opposed increase in luxury tax limit due to imbalance that it would create from on the field competitiveness. I AM WRONG. Small market teams don't want to raise the luxury tax limit because in doing so there would be much lesser payroll amount subject to the tax. Players want to raise the limit, the higher the better. Owners, who many of them benefit from allocation of luxury tax back to them, would not want to raise the bar and decrease the amount subject to tax. It's taking money away from them. Owners should Increase minimum wage. Increase the funding and number of eligible players for the pre-arbitration player bonus. Hell give it to top 150 with a $100M pot. $3.3M per year per team. Award the said bonus pool to a metric, fWar as an example. Highest fWar player would get the most money, based on the ration of player fWar divided by total fWar for 150 players, multiplied by $100M. Get the season started.

I'm not sure if I would use the phrase 'hurt'. But based on sheer numbers my initial thought is big revenue clubs such as Yankees would lose most in terms of 'lost opportunity'. Despite high payroll, some have estimated Yankees' gross revenue to approach close to $350M. The club may withstand it financially for lost season but they probably lose OPPORTUNITY to earn $50M. That would 'hurt' no matter how rich I am. It may 'hurt' the Rays ownership more not to profit $10M. I'm just throwing out numbers. Also someone mentioned what the lost season would do to 'value' of a club. Most business takeovers I've been involved dealt with FUTURE free cash flow. I would guess that would be the case with baseball teams. So in example above, I would value the Yankees based on $50M annual free cash flow plus fair market value of hard assets. I doubt one partial season will diminish the value. As a seller, I'm asking you how much are you willing to pay me for a chance at earning $50M annual free cash flow? Obviously it's more complicated than that but an easy way to start thinking.

I'll say it again. Owners are in complete control when it comes to dishing out mega bucks. They want the players to stop them from spending. I suppose Yankee ownership can always claim, hey look, $210M is the soft cap. We're spending up to the soft cap, meanwhile pockets greater portion of gross revenue.

Latest from MLBTraderumors.....probably a long shot... As for the Red Sox, Rosenthal lays out a scenario where Correa takes over as their shortstop given that his defense is far superior to that of Xander Bogaerts, who could be shuffled over to second base. However, he also points out that, given the lockout-shortened Spring Training to come, there will be less time for Bogaerts to develop his skills at a new position than there would be in a more normal year, perhaps making the plan too awkward to implement successfully. After this season, Bogaerts can opt-out of the three years and $60MM that will be remaining on his contract, something that he seems likely to do if he has another healthy and productive season. Signing Correa now could be a way for Boston to preemptively replace Bogaerts, but as Rosenthal points out, the club hasn’t signed a free agent contract larger than $14MM since Chaim Bloom became the club’s chief baseball officer. Suddenly dropping $300MM on the table would be a huge departure in strategy. However, it’s exactly because of that avoidance of significant commitments that the club’s future payroll is fairly blank. If Bogaerts does indeed opt out after this season, that would leave Chris Sale as the only serious commitment on the books.