Nick

Let's hope he's smart enough to retire before his contract runs out. He'll quit if he can't perform at high level. I just don't see him playing just for money.

I think they were Scott Boras client from get go. But you are correct. He thinks there's nothing to gain by extending. Of course, he did fail Mr. Drew.

Did you read my post at all? Who said anything about 'restricting'. Isn't one reason you're advocating signing Stanton is due to his salary value of $25M? Sox at some point can spend 'savings' on another player for say $5M. Fake money says $30M but in reality players are getting paid $35M ($30M for Stanton and $5M for the other guy).

This is where player's union does not do a very good job fighting for its members. We've already discussed how the team revenue is increasing at much higher rate than the luxury tax thresh hold. Owners are pocketing big chunk of the money. I would like for union to fight for incorporating 'team discount' into luxury tax computation. Here's how this would work. Whatever team a player qualifies as a 'Rookie', that team becomes his home team. You then put a cap on Annual Average Salary on that player regardless of actual contract. So in case of Mookie Betts, Sox signs him to $300M contract over 10 years or average of $30M per year. But because Red Sox is his home team, his contract is valued at say $25M. That $25M number is an artificial number. It can be tied to something similar to how the qualifying offer is computed. This would give Red Sox a leg up on signing Betts. What does the Union care? It gets what it wants. Overall player salary is going up. Fan base is happy. Or say in case of Sandoval. If a player is released outright, then his contract at the time of the release goes away for the purpose of luxury tax computation for the releasing team. What the hell does union care? Red Sox is now in position to spend additional $20M 'obligation' it just got rid of. Obviously its still on the hook for balance of his contract. I really think Players' Union does not do enough.

Yep, why not give Brentz a shot? Can he do much worse than last year's Young? We need to look under every rock, especially those that doesn't cost us much. We have to quit pissing away $5M here and $10M there.

Exchanging bad contracts works in NBA. I don't see much of it in MLB.

Better chance of Sox trading for Stanton AND Votto, AND signing free agent Martinez than trading away Hanley. Come on, where do you get this stuff?

Might as look good going over the cliff.

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Shohei Otani

At least my bridge doesn't cost me nothing. I like to think I'm optimistic, not delusional.

Changed my mind. My first option is to get a free agent with no loss of draft pick. Otherwise, just sit tight and move on. Chris Freakin Sale repeats. Price gives us entire season. Porcello can't be any worse, can he? Pomeranz continues to improve. Finally healthy, E Rod gives us quality starts beginning in June. Wright returns to his pre base stealing days. Carson Smith continues to get stronger. Tyler Thornburg returns to his Milwaukee days. Kimbrel repeats. Johnson makes smooth transition to pen. Hanley gives us 130 games at 1B. Betts back to his MVP runner up year. JBJ goes on a two month hot streak. Beni improves on his rookie year. Xander gets physical at the plate. Devers gives us 30 homers. Vazquez takes over behind the plate. Japanese kid becomes two way player. Kimmi is estatic. Not one single player is lost.

$210M/7 yrs for mediocre defensive player? I'm not sure I'm ready to pay $30M per year for DH. Ugh.

I still think Price was a good signing. I also think we need Stanton. He will solve our power issues. There's been so many pissing the money away signings in the past I can't keep track. We pissed away $10M here and there to death by God Theo and his little disciple.

I'm just happy that Sox are able to pursue high ceiling players.

I would love to see either one in Fenway. We need power bats.

I agree. It's not as though Henry's going to demand that Sox follow, say Marlins financial game plan and cut back on player salaries. We will always be one of big spenders. We do have some salaries coming off in two years. Pablo, Hanley and Porcello makes $60M together. That will surely pay for two big free agents, maybe one this year and another one next year. We may need to plug holes with $5-$7M type players. You can only have so many $30M plus guys.

I would say no. Pablo become free agent 5 days after 2019 World Series. Giants obligation for 2019 is league minimum, which would have been paid by the Giants in full by conclusion of 2019. What service did Giants receive from Pablo for 2020?

I don't understand everyone's logic. Moncada was moved to 3B because he was blocked by Pedroia at 2B. As it turned out, Devers at 3B looked better option than Moncada at 3B. Moncada was blocked at 2B because Pedroia's contract runs through 2021. After year later, we now think Moncada is a starter at 2B? What if Pedroia comes back in June? Is Moncada still a starter? MY ARGUMENT IS THAT MONCADA WOULD NOT START FOR SOX. THAT'S WHY HE WAS TRADED.

Again, but then we don't have Sale and we don't win last year. We also don't have Kimbrel. We also don't have Pom. What would our 25 man roster look like? Sale, Kimbrel, Pom combined cost us $40M. I suppose we could buy couple of good players with that money. c no change 1B Shaw 2B Moncada SS Xander 3B Devers LF Beni CF Bradley Jr RF Betts SP Price SP Porcello SP E Rod SP Wright SP Johnson I suppose if we were willing not to win the Division last two years, then 2018 could have been better. It's Henry's fault for hiring DD. Kimmi may have the right idea. Stand pat and let contracts for Hanley, Sadoval and Porcello expire. Use that money to extend Betts and Sale.

So all of you are saying we'd just eat Dustin's $57M left in his contract? well, okay then.

Dustin Pedroia is under contract through 2021. That spot is blocked. What are you going to do with Pedey? Bench him? Moncada was playing 3B when traded. He became expendable because of Devers. Shaw was traded because Sox management thought he was inadequate at 3B. DD loves Bradley. I would take Sale over Kopech right now. If Kopech was with Sox, we don't have Sale.

Now that 3B is occupied by Devers, can you name me one player that we've traded that would have started for us next year?

Extend Pedroia? I don't think so. $25M is a bargain for Stanton. Sandoval, Hanley and Porcello will come to $60M in savings.

To say his contract is the worst after 2 seasons is not very bright. I bet Price doesn't have any plans to flame out.