Nick

It's laughable to suggest that baseball players must earn entire life's worth of living expenses during their baseball career. So what if Dustin has a bum knee. He can't do anything else to earn money? They can go get a f***ing job like rest of us when they retire at 30!.

Nice write up....I appreciate it. I will keep it simple. As I get older, I simply go for individual's ceilings. What's his best? You have to assume the player is 100% healthy. I'm just excited for our rotation. The ceiling is high for this unit. I did back flips when we signed Eovaldi. I'm a gambler by nature. I like the five cards dealt to me.

Sky is falling. Sky is falling. My guess is Cora is communicating with DD on his needs and wants. I've not heard Cora complaining yet.

https://weei.radio.com/articles/column/tomase-craig-kimbrel-red-sox-reliever-remains-available-because-hes-flawed-not Here's great article on WEEI about Kimbrel. I'd look elsewhere. I prefer mid year acquisition depending on how Brasier/Barnes do.

Brasier getting the closer job at $550K is no riskier than giving Kimbrel 5 year, $80M contract to do the same job. Is it just as likely that Brasier's career is finally taking off as likely as Kimbrel's career is beginning to decline? Which option is riskier for Sox? You can make adjustments to mistake option #1. How do you make adjustment to mistake option #2? What say you, Mr. Pablo Sandoval?

Well said.....I'll worry about it after 5 blown saves in a month. Until then, we're the freakin' World Champs.

Kelly only became effective when he went away from his 100 mph, straight as arrow "hit me hard' fastball.

Not sure if you read my post carefully but I said, Not only that, in a jam, Eovaldi can indeed step in and close for us. If we don't sign a closer, Sox will name either Barnes or Brasier as the closer.

It's interesting that MANY of you did not want the Sox to sign Eovaldi. I think it was brilliant move from the perspective of hedging against both Sale and Porcello leaving the Sox after 2019 season. Not only that, in a jam, Eovaldi can indeed step in and close for us. If we don't sign a closer, Sox will name either Barnes or Brasier as the closer. And If they 1) falter before the trade deadline or 2) a starter emerges from the farm at some point this season or 3) Sox is unable to trade for a closer at trade deadline, you may see Eovaldi move over to the pen to save his arm. We know that Eovaldi is all about winning, he's signed for four years, He's not playing for a new contract in 2019. I can't see him saying no. In essence, if Eovaldi does indeed end up closing, we gave Kimbrel's 4 year deal to Eovaldi. Unlike Kimbrel, our new closer Eovaldi, can start or come in in relief and pitch 7 innings.

Signing Pearce to a one year deal was another excellent move. Sox would like to see Chavis step into the 1B position for 2020. I believe if JD opts out and signs elsewhere, Pearce may get the first call to fill in the DH spot. Basically going from $35M (JD, Moreland, Pearce) to say $8M (Pearce, Chavis) for the reset. Just saying.

And he can even DH when an JD subs in outfield.

2019 soft cap after taking out player benefit is $193M. Let's make the numbers easier by saying each team can spend $200M on 25 players or $4M per man. The goal is to win. That's what makes fans happy. I'm sorry but I don't care how good Trout is. I'm not going to watch him play if he's on a losing team year after year. I will always watch winning Red Sox team. I will not watch losing Sox team with Betts on it. If Betts eats up too much of that $200M payroll, Sox will not win. Baseball is still a team sports.

I guess the thinking is 50% penalty of $20M based on our mythical budget of $40M plus the limit is just is too rich for Henry as opposed to 20% penalty of $8M. The delta is only $12M which may mean nothing to Henry.

Closer signing in terms of amount and years will say awful lot about Sox plans for reset.

5 more years at $31M AAV.....it could get ugly.

Few Random Thoughts This was one of most enjoyable Red Sox team. Power does matter, you can't convince me otherwise. DD will do his best to put together best team on paper. He will not trade any significant pieces this year. It's just silly. It's more likely that we'll extend some of our players. I know what a 'cliff' looks like. That was E Rod's rookie year. Call me a homer but I only watched games when he started. A 'cliff' is when majority of fans decide they have better things to do in life than to spend 3 1/2 hours watching the Sox get pummeled. Happy New Year everyone.

Yep, if true, all we have to do to afford Betts is get rid of Vaz' $4M. Hello? Is anyone home?

I get that Moon. But how do we reset while keeping Sale, JD along with Betts, JBJ, Beni, Devers, as outlined above. I need to see the numbers from you. Show me how you would get to $208M less $15M in benefits. Are you willing to let Sale and JD go?

The topic was resetting. Unless you're willing to tell me how to get to $208M less $15M for benefits, or $193M, then there's nothing to talk about. Now it's my hope that we simply keep the payroll at $248M. Then many things are possible.

Who the f*** wrote THAT? (nice find, Moon) I guess it just goes to show you, if we go way south this year, this team will be taken apart.

I liked your analysis of prioritizing current Sox players as they become FA. I have as much fascination with Sale as I do with Betts. Here we have a player that clearly wants to be with Red Sox. I think he'll take an extension of say 6 year, $180M. I simply love his competitiveness on the mound. We gave up a lot for his three years of service, albeit team friendly contract. I would love to keep Sale and JD Martinez and reset, if that's possible. In reality, we have only 4 contracts for 2020. Price ($31M), Eovaldi ($17M), Pedroia ($13.75M) and Vaz ($4.52M) for total of $66.27M. 3 major arbitration players are Betts (say $22M), JBJ (say $11M) and E Rod ($8.50M). That brings total to 7 players at $108M. Add Sale at $30M and JD at $25M (front loaded) and now we have $163M committed to 9 players. Throw in $15M for benefits, with a luxury tax line of $208M, we have $30M to cover the cost of 31 roster players. Gone are Xander, Pearce, Moreland, Nunez, Thornburg, Holt. You'll have 15 players making league minimum of $550K. Say that's $8M. You now have $22M for Beni, Devers, Barnes, Brasier,.....basically 16 players for $22M, which is doable. The team would still be competitive 2020. SP Price, Sale, Eovaldi, E Rod, Wright, Johnson, Hector BP Brasier, Barnes, etc C Vaz 1B Chavis 2B Pedroia SS Lin 3B Devers LF Beni CF JBJ RF Betts DH Martinez You can trade Vaz for cheaper option. Delta for Betts is $13M more to get to magic $35M, going from arbitration #3 to FA. We can blow through the budget for 2021 at 20% penalty and 2022 at 30% penalty. At the conclusion of 2022, Price's $31M will come off the books along with Pedey's $13.75M, which will have come off year earlier. Again, goal is to win the world series. Build a team around Beni, Betts, Devers, JBJ and Martinez. Throw in Price, Eovaldi, Sale and E Rod. Other teams have much less.

Only way to beat luxury tax issue is to have more, talented team controlled players. With Sale and Porcello in their last year and Cora's desire to rest our starters through the year, will someone from the farm emerge as a possible 2020 starter? Will Chavis or someone else emerge to take over the 1B position? I could see a scenario if JD leaves, Pearce becomes a DH candidate and fill in for other positions as well. (assuming he has a stellar year) Can Lin fill in for Xander or Pedey if one does not return in 2020? To me we have plethora of young arms that can fill in in the pen. Try them all. Again, what are we afraid of? One candidate may emerge.

Re-setting will require intensive planning. It will involve not only pending free agents but also players currently under team control. How expensive will Beni be as he gets into arbitration years? What about Devers? Do we trade good young players for good younger players in order to extend the team control years? Is there a player out there that will be Beni in two years? Can we acquire two of those for real Beni? If we are going to reset after 2019, we should trade Betts for couple of quality team controlled talent. You can always offer Betts 10 year, $350M contract. He'll be back if tha's the best deal. If that's not the best deal, then we won't sign him anyway. Maybe we should hire someone from Tampa Bay Rays that knows something about 'churning' players.

Big part of appeal about Betts is his athleticism to go along with his baseball skills. I seriously doubt in 7 years, he'll be making the same type of running catches nor running the bases with abandonment as he's doing now. His power will certainly decline. He is NOT going to repeat last year's performance year after year. I would agree Betts is worth $35M per year if he repeats last year's numbers for next ten years. I just don't think he can do it.

Well, I'm big enough to admit I was one of those. I thought he'd hit 60 home runs in Fenway!. We got JD Martinez instead and I couldn't be any happier. Good or bad, JD's contract is reasonable in money and length. DD deserves an A for that signing.