Nick

Looking from Reds' perspective, Bradley would replace a left handed bat, with four more years of team control. It would cost far less for him than for Votto. I suspect they'd want couple of minor leaguers to boot.

You don't think Reds wont ask for Bradley? E Rod? Moncada? Swihart? Again why would you give up any of them when you can go after FA?

For pitchers Clay B 1 Price 2 Kimbrel 2 Kelly 2 Pomeraz 2 Ross Jr 2 Porcello 3 C Smith 4 S Wright 4 E Rod 5 M Barnes 5 H Hembree 5 B Johnson 6 H Owens 6 Kopech 6 will need reinforcements earlier than the position players

Team Control through # of years for position players Young 1 Hanley 3 Holt 3 Xander 3 Betts 4 JBJ 4 Leon 4 Vazquez 4 Pablo 4 Swihart 5 Pedy 5 Shaw 5 Moncada 6 Benintendi 6 Hernandez 6 Position players are set...only Young will be gone after 2017, 0 in 2018, Betts, Hanley and Holt after 2019....Basically we have 3 year window to win a world series with only Young gone.

If we simply sign EE, we lose our draft pick, valued around mid 20's 1st round. Why would I give up JBJ and someone else when I can simply sign EE?

We need to be patient with a kid such as Swihart. He's under team control for another five years. He can hit major league pitching.

I can be an ass pretty frequently.....but let me say this... Good luck to Theo, Lester, Lackey, Ross and the Cubbies. Good luck also to Tito, Napoli and the Guardians. For me, baseball has again taken the center stage. It is the greatest game. I've never been so nervous for a game that has nothing to do with the Sox. I'm in a no loss situation. I'll be happy with whoever wins.....but I'm hoping for a two out, Guardians down one, runners on second and third, bottom of the 9th inning scenario.

I tend to live in parallel universe. There are threads that's based on my views of Sox nation. But most of my threads are based on what I think the Sox front office will do. Former doesn't count for much because I tend to guess wrong, often.

Projecting ahead Xander becomes FA in 2020, JBJ and Betts the following year. Pablo's and Hanley's contracts will go away after 2019 season, $5M buy out on Pablo's. That will release $40M in annual contracts. Rick Porcello will be a free agent for 2020 season along with Xander. I'm thinking $40M 'savings', adjusted for mlb 'inflation' (I'm not talking about cpi for your nerds out there) will cover Xander and Porcello. Porcello signing maybe more critical than Xander's at that point. We may have other options. Beni, Moncada, Devers all maybe in their prime by then as they go through their arbitration years. Sox will still be locked into Price's contract until 2022, $32M per year. No way we'll not resign Betts. I would love it but I just don't think we can afford to have EE's contract if it goes beyond 4 years. Too much money will be needed to keep our current youngsters on the roster by then. That is why I won't be too upset if we don't do much this winter. Yes Moon, we'll need to shore up our bullpen but we can do it without giving up the farm. E Rod needs to be given time to develop into upper echelon starting pitcher (ie DO NOT TRADE HIM). Who knows if he'll get there but you don't trade away a guy with his potential. At a comparable age, 2017 season would be Lester's break out year (something similar to what Porcello did in 2016). Guys like Wright and Pomeranz also need to be retained. They come cheap. I'm not worried about the 50% penalty if we are going over the limit by $20M at max. That's only a $10M penalty. It's just cash at that point. We paid $30M penalty on a $30M signing. And what was the posting fee for our friend from Japan? 50% penalty on say $10M? I'll speak for John Henry. In my best imitation of Matt Damon to Johnny Chan in movie Rounders, "Don't sweat it, Moon".

Is it wrong to think that basically we traded Lester for Porcello? Players 15 16 17 18 19 20 Lester 26M 26M 26M 26M 26M 26M Procello 13M 21M 21M 21M 21M It remains to be seen who got the better deal....Lester has the edge so far...mainly from 2015 season. 2016 was pretty close, not counting the playoffs.

I bet 90% of fans would love to move away from Buchasshurtz. It's more of not having anyone in the farm ready to come in. Owens, Johnson, etc have not taken steps to assure the Sox FO that we have enough depth. And Clay as a consequence, weasels another $13M. Shame on Sox for not developing major league pitching talent.

Not sure as an owner I want to pay $39M for one year's contribution, consistently. You'd be burning my wallet.

Moon sometimes I just like to throw crap at you....rationally speaking though Price gave us what we needed. He three over 200+ innings. Sure I would love for him to be lights out starter. He gave us a chance to win every game at the start. I'm not sure if win without Kimbrel. I too was surprised with his up and down outings. I thought he threw just strikes and not be so wild. But he was pretty effective for most part closing.

We won the Division title after finishing dead last for 2 straight years. Our farm system is still in good shape. Thank God our GM sucks.

But what will it cost in players to get Todd Frazier?

I agree with you, I really do. My point is entering 2017 in reality, we have two holes to fill. Are there options? Sure. It spoke volume that Sox started Holt at 3B in the Division series. Again, this is a half billion dollar operation. I don't see how DD will go into the season with so many 'holes', however many we have.

If there is a hole, it's at DH. If Hanley is DH, then there's a hole at 1B. If Shaw is at 1B, there's a hole at 3B. Discussion is reminiscent of "we don't have an ace but we have five #2's. This is half billion dollar operation. You can't go half ass 'hoping'. DD will reinforce the bullpen. Picking up Clay's option will give us some depth. That's critical because we're not sure where Wright will be physically in April. I just don't see DD not addressing Papi's missing bat with something more than abc will get it done as a committee,

I see Beni making a big leap in 2017 and join Xander, JBJ and Betts as next generation of stars for Red Sox. Swihart and Moncada can get their feet wet in 2017 and then join the foursome in 2018. That would push up the young talent group to 6 with Hanley, Pedey and a catcher. How exciting is that? Next up, Devers. Wow....I'm replying to my own post......I'm having a senior moment?

I rather have him learn to play 1B and put Hanley at DH. I think Swihart and Beni are similar players. He will be a super 2 arbitration player with 5 more years of team control. I'd keep him too. We need to save money whenever we can. You do that by playing potential big bats, big league players such as Beni, Moncada and Swihart.

We have him for another six freaking years.....he's a keeper. Do not trade Beni.

I'm pretty content with the team....needs tweaking DD will quickly get the bullpen situation settled...FA signings (no big names)/trades I can still see EE signing....that's just how DD rolls and I won't be suprised Pablo will get a shot in spring training...at some point, it's on Pablo isn't it? Does he have any pride left or will he just be content collecting money and getting fat? Shaw needs to quit whining and get his bat going.....they are not going to give it to him...he has to earn it. DD needs to tell Swihart, what he wants from him Benintendi should not be platooned.... Anxious to see Wright pitch again I hope Clay is our 6th man and we don't need him.. It's a good time to be a Sox fan

You must have extra long left index finger...lol

Moon projected $21.85 on his 9 arb players (see page 1...Abad and Holaday not included)....It turned out to be $22.7......that's pretty damn good Moon.

Projected Arbitration Numbers per MLBtraderumors Red Sox (11) Fernando Abad (5.073) – $2.0MM Robbie Ross Jr. (4.100) – $1.8MM Joe Kelly (4.029) – $2.6MM Drew Pomeranz (4.013) – $4.7MM Josh Rutledge (3.090) – $1.0MM Brock Holt (3.052) – $1.7MM Xander Bogaerts (3.042) – $5.7MM Bryan Holaday (3.025) – $900K Brandon Workman (3.018) – $600K Jackie Bradley Jr. (2.150) – $3.3MM Sandy Leon (2.149) – $1.3MM jake arietta up to $16.8M in his final arbitration year....he'll be expensive next winter.

come on Moon....we can fix our pen without declaring national disaster..... Aren't you the one that suggested no top of the line closer would come to the Sox with Kimbrel already on board?