Nick

I don't believe if he gets to 140 innings, with a mutual option of $19M, the Sox probably won't go for it. But if he falls short, it becomes $14M club option, which maybe reasonable. At least you know what you have with him. He has at least 15 more starts, needs about 81 innings. I think he gets there, 140 IP that is. And let's not forget about Patrick Sandoval. We owe him $12.75M, or $9.125M luxury tax payroll for 2026. So he'll start us if he's healthy. So we could go Crochet, Giolito, Sandoval, Bello and Dobbins. I'd like to see Tolle and Sandlin pitch this year if we're out of it.

Sitting tight other than to sell off parts absolutely not necessary or valuable. Buehler, for his ineffectiveness Chapman, get something of value and then parade few closer candidates to see what we have, Hendriks was a disaster in my opinion Basically we have 4 rookies in our lineup, although one has been demoted. C Narvaez, 1B Campbell 2B Mayer OF Anthony. Don't worry about Campbell's position. 2nd year player in Rafaela, 152 games and 544 AB in 2024. OPS of .664 vs .716 in 2025. He should be our fixture in CF based on his defense. Another 2nd year guy in Abreu, 132 games and 399 AB in 2024, OPS of .781 vs .795 in 2025. Just not sure why we want to get rid of him. 3rd year guy in Duran, 160 games and 671 AB in 2024, OPS of .834 vs .711 (really down). Lets face it. We are young. Maybe we need to patient especially with these 7 players. Extend Bregman. Keep DH open to allow Cora flexibility in our lineup. And we are now back to the starting rotation. Bello does not possess swing and miss pitch. He's a #4/#5 at best. I think I would bring back Giolito at this point. Who is better other than Crochet?

No one has come to Devers defense.

At least he is throwing strikes.

I don't think it's about what choices do we have? Hamilton's value is speed. I bet there's a playoff team out there that can use him to just pinch run. We are destined to finish dead last if we don't do something drastic. What do we have to lose? I don't care if we end up with 70 wins when the alternative to play the same players and get to 81-81. I am willing to let it play out until the All-Star break. We need to make a decision at that point. We just don't have the pitching staff to carry our offense right now.

Like I said, it was a salary dump. Because the Giants took 100% of his contract, our return was going to be less. Yes, you maybe right. Hey check out my post on 'Old is New Again'....I'd love to hear your thoughts. Maybe you've read the article.

Drag Factor = ((100 - wRC+) * Plate Appearances) / Team Total Plate appearances This was brought up on Over the Monster. It's a good read. Sox drag factor is 14.20 compared to 5.50 for the Yankees (smaller the # the better). Trevor Story is highest at 2.83, followed by D Hamilton at 2.54 and Wong at 2.05. The conclusion is D Hamilton and Wong has no business being on our 26 man roster. It seems very obvious. Say what you will about Story, ultimately he's a utility player. Sox trying to squeeze out every bit of production solely because he's highly compensated ultimately makes no sense. Every at bat we give these three hurts the team. It makes perfect sense to me. But Cora feels obligated to play Hamilton and Wong. His comment was they need more at bats. Really?

Assuming Chapman is gone, who are our backend guys for 2026? We are collecting hard throwers who can't throw strikes, or it seems. 1. Justin Slaten, 5 yrs of team control 2 Greg Weissert, 5 yrs of team control 3 Jordan Hicks, 3 yrs of team control 4 Jorge Alcala, 2 yrs of team control 5 Garret Whitlock (he's in my doghouse) 6 Louis Guerrero, 6 yrs of team control 7 Bernardino, 5 yrs of team control 7 Tanner Houck, we used to think he could be our closer 8 Kutter Crawford, we used to think he could be our closer If we sell at trade deadline, it's time to start Realistic View, 2026 Part I

I'm not sure we got 'crap' back. Assuming big part was a salary dump of Devers (in management's point of view, they are using 'bad teammate' as an excuse but I think it was the money). We picked up a reliever, possibly a backend guy that throws 100 mph, Jordan Hicks with 2 years of team control after 2025 (yep, we're paying him $12M, more than Chapman, let that sink in how good of an acquisition Chapman was). Kyle Harrison was highly thought of only a year ago. We have 4 more years of team control after 2025. We got couple of more guys. I like to think we got more than a 'crap'.

Geez, back off.....are you telling me that had we swept the Jays, we're not right back in it? I didn't say anything about we can do it.......I'm trying to put a cheer into what is turning out to be another horrible season. Put me on ignore.

1 Bregman is a priority. Extend him. How about 6 years at $40M per, defer it so the tax hit is around $30M. We don't care the cash outlay, we only care about the AAV. I think he's just a good hitter especially at Fenway. Good defender at 3b so we don't have to worry about that position. Our window of opportunity realistically starts in 2026. That's when Crochet's 6 year deal begins. We HAVE to take advantage of it.... 2 We need one deal at the trade deadline packaging several players to entice someone to return us a team controlled starting pitcher. I don't want all one for one trade get a fringe reliever type. 3 As much as I'm not a big fan of Story, as long as we don't have a legit 2B, we need to keep him. I'd prefer Mayer at SS and Story at 2B. Mayer is our future shortstop. Let him play there. Unfortunately Cora would never go for it. Story is the second coming of Kike Hernandez for Cora. But Bregman, Story and Mayer works for me. 4. We need a legit 1B. I don't care how we do it. Go get him. 5 If we are giving up on 2025, trade Chapman and then sign him as a FA, 2 year $30M. 6 Starting Rotation...give our young arms chance to show us what they have...Houck has no value to trade him. Let him turn back into a reliever. Let him pitch hard for one inning. Kutter will be out. 7 Duran and Chapman should be our big pieces. Throw in couple of prospects and get a solid starter in return with some team controlled. 3 or 4 years would be nice. 8 We are basically down to Crochet, Bello and Dobbins for now. If we can't get any value for him, then we keep Giolito so thins don't get out of hand. So in summary, Moon. Extend Bregman, Package Duran, Chapman and couple of prospects to obtain a solid starting pitcher that won't get hurt, lol, trade back Buehler to the Dodgers for prospects, maybe take on his entire salary to get a better return and sign a team controlled 1B. C Narvaez 1B Trade Acquisition 2B Mayer SS Story 3B Bregman lF Anthony CF Rafaela RF Abreu DH Refsnyder/Yoshida/Gonzalez/Narvaez SP 1 Crochet SP 2 Trade 3 Bello 4 Dobbins 5 Giolito (we're getting thin with Kutter gone and Houck struggline) Too tired to think about our bullpen without Chapman. Whitlock is turning into Matt Barnes.

Looks like we need to score 6+ runs to win....here's the break out. 0-2 when scoring 0 runs (duh) 1-11 when scoring 1 run 4-10 when scoring 2 runs 5-23 when scoring 2 runs or less (-18) 7-4 when scoring 3 runs 5-4 when scoring 4 runs 4-6 when scoring 5 runs 21-37 when scoring 5 runs or less (-16) 19-5 when scoring 6+ runs 40-42 (our record is not good at 4 and 5 runs scored)

We get a sweep and we're right back in it.

PRIORITY #1 WHILE LOOKING FOR PITCHING HELP ENTEND/SIGN BREGMAN.....GOOD DEFENSE, GREAT BAT ESPECIALLY AT FENWAY. DON'T MESS THIS UP MR. BRESLOW.

Fitts has started 6 times. The team has lost all of his six starts. Fitts, Houck, Newcomb combo has yielded 4-16 team record. Now we have flame throwing relievers that can't throw strikes. How does Tampa Bay do it? Pitcher after pitcher.

I am just tired of watching this team finding a new way to lose each time out.

Crawford will undergo surgery on his right wrist, likely ending his season. Manager Alex Cora said it was an accidental off-field injury. (Last updated: June 25) What the hell is wrong with our team? Another player falling off a bike or something stupider? Now Kutter will enter 2026 in the same condition he was in this year. Frekin' unbelievable. Everyone wants to collect disability on this team.

It still feels like we're at the beginning of a rebuild with our three amigos plus Narvaez the starting point. Obviously the big dog is Crochet. You need a lock down bullpen for 7, 8, 9th innings. Buehler was big disappointment. There are just too many teams in the mix for the playoffs. I don't care about playoffs anymore. We're .500 team. I care that we figure out what we have and go with it. We can't just continue to play Russian roulette with our lineup.

If Tanner Houck was pitching for another team, he would be perfect pickup for the Red Sox. We'd sign him to a two year deal, maybe not expecting him to pitch this year. Thinking we can rehab him for the start of 2026 season. Only the sox goes around looking for pennies under a rock.

Mayer looks comfortable at pretty much any infield position, I'm guessing. Hamilton, Campbell and Gonzalez can look shaky out there....I like Gonzalez at 1B the most.

Finally, we have Mayer playing 2B. He needs to be either at short or 2B.

What type of return can we expect for following? Bregman Duran Chapman Buehler Giolito Are we getting in return middle of the pack starters, relievers and position players. Do we parade all of our young starters and find out what we have? I'm thinking of Kyle Harrison, Hunter Dobbins, Richard Fitts, etc. Let's see what we have going into 2026. What team can 'go for it' with the additions of Bregman, Duran and Chapman? What young, established starting pitcher can we get?

I can wait patiently. We need to play little bit over .500. Get some reinforcement not only at the trade deadline but get as many players back from IL. Then at some point we need go on a serious run. We need Bregman to come back as soon as he can. Looks like Buehler is first one out. It appears Kutter will not return any time soon. I have no confidence in Houck. So that leaves us with Crochet and Bello. We need for guys like Hicks to get off the IL. See what he can do with 100mph pitch. Is Kyle Harrison even an option for the stretch run? Our infield defense should get better with the return of Bregman. Then I don't have to see Hamilton as much. Bregman, Mayer and Story should be pretty sound defensively. Rafaela has stepped up his game. Stellar defense to go with .721 OPS. It's .918 in June. We need a full time 1B to bridge the gap to Casas. Not sure how much the sox are relying on him in 2026. We have tons of holes but Pitching comes first. Pitching, Pitching and more Pitching.

I definitely agree about Cora letting Anthony know that he has confidence in him. I applause him for that. Obviously, knowing the result makes me a genius in critiquing Cora.. I realize that Buehler had another horrendous performance. But, the game was tied 5-5 when we loaded the bases with one out. Someone has to make the big play and unfortunately we did not.......just frustrating.

Another choke job by Whitlock. His best year was his rookie year. 3 Freaking walks to go with getting hit....... Cora missed an opportunity to hit Refsnyder for Anthony, bases loaded, one out. He at least would have made a contact. Ugh.