Nick

I am on board with Moon about acquiring a top of the line starter. However he missed my point about the likely of THAT happening in my opinion is slim to none. Moon states perhaps we have 8 years of window with our production farm and young players. Obviously I agree with his assessment and to make it clear, we are talking mainly about the positional players. Faced with the possibility of not 'going all out' for a starting pitcher, I suggested maybe we focus on building a kick ass bullpen where the contract value and the length is not so daunting as with starters. I simply threw out five names that came to mind as Sox starters, Giolito, Houck, Kutter, Bello and Fitts. OBVIOUSLY THE STARTING ROTATION HAS TO BE DEEPER. Moon and others are all over me about the starting quintet not being enough. All I'm suggesting is that maybe we should focus on the bullpen first. Acquire enough starters to get us to the fifth inning and let the bullpen take over. A simple league average in saves would have given us 5 more wins. Our save opportunities ranked 6th in the MLB I believe. That too me tells me bullpen upgrade will yield us the biggest win improvement in 2025.

Very good read. Minor detail but Duran is team controlled for 4 more years. It doesn't square up with your "4th year player". To be exact, he has 2 years and 155 days of service time. The Sox did well to bring him up to the majors at the right time.

Moon Had the Sox simply 'saved' the major league average, we would had 5 more wins, bringing our win total to 86. Our 71 savable games ranked 6th in the MLB. We need better bullpen.

I don't believe there's a DD in our organization to make a bold trade. What I really want to say is THERE IS NOT A MAN IN OUR ORGANIZATION. NO BALLS. ANYWHERE.

Why be so impatient? It's possible Abreu's value will go up. Here's my high ceiling lineup. C Wong, Teel as future backup/starter, both can play other positions/DH. 1B Casas 2B Campbell SS Story/Mayer as back up in case of an injury 3B Devers LF Duran CF Rafaela (I'm thinking defense first) RF Anthony DH/OF Yoshida, Refsnyder, Abreu (teach him how to play 1B) Utility IF Hamilton/Romy/Grissom I believe that's a solid positional player lineup. I would want to see the injury situation before I start trading anyone. Sign a starting pitcher and start assembling hard throwing bullpen help.

Assuming Houck, Bello, Kutter, Giolito, Fitts and others can go 5 innings, can we simply load up on the bullpen with some elite resume? Assuming we have a long reliever in Casper, let's build the bullpen with 7 studs. That maybe easier and less costly. Many of them go for short term deals.

I fully agree. Until these young ones are established major leaguers, we really don't know what we have. To say 'plethora' of outfielders in not true as of today. Maybe by mid summer.

No way I would trade 4 years of team control left for Duran in exchange for 1 year of Skubal. Hell just wait another year make him an offer he can't refuse.

Yep JH wonders how come we won 92 games in 2021 while only spending $180M. I think that's what he's looking at. Jays opening payroll this year was $226M and they won only 74 games, finishing dead last in AL East. Not sure what the Yankees will do if they don't get to the World Series. Re-signing Soto will not make the team any better. Not re-signing him make the team worse. He's probably looking at north of $45M per year in real money.

Since Day 1, Brez has advocated for not having a fixed DH. He wants to use rotation of players. I would prefer to start with Ref, Abreu and Romy along with 'resting' of Devers/Casas to having Yoshida as the DH. I rather first see Yoshida go before Abreu. Abreu will still be useful in the outfield, especially if someone gets hurt (Duran, Rafaela). Anthony should start in right.

The biggest problem is they are willing to simply admit, "We tried, we really did, but the price, whether in acquiring a free agent or trading for a player, the cost was too high."

Don't ask me to prove it, but I believe Bloom said something to the effect AFTER the trade yeah we could have signed Betts but as you said and Bloom said that the team would have been gutted, not enough supporting cast to put out a playoff team for three or four years. I would challenge the club now that we have enough pieces to put out a playoff contending team, spend some money to chase the title. Does JH really want to die and his epitaph to say well he was able to retain much of his wealth at the time of his death?

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts was left searching for answers following another hitless performance in a Game 2 loss to the San Diego Padres. "They're all outs. So, they're all terrible," Betts said postgame Sunday when asked about his at-bats during the 10-2 defeat, according to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. "I don't know really what to say about it. I'm giving my best, doing my best. Obviously, it's not good enough right now." The eight-time All-Star is mired in a 3-for-44 postseason slump dating back to Game 4 of the 2021 NLCS. He's gone hitless in six at-bats to begin this year's NLDS. At least I can take comfort in this.

With Pivetta gone, I would be reluctant to trade away a starter that pitched 180 innings. He is not expensive as a first year arbitration guy. Certainly cheaper than Pivetta's $7.5 M. Just keep him as an insurance. Houck, Giolito, Kutter, Bello, Fitts, Criswell and Whitlock (yes, him). Just add Burnes at the top and work on rebuilding the pen.

Yes......where in the hell did I get Buddy Bell? Thanks

Per MassLive\ By now, it’s obvious that the Red Sox made a mistake in not retaining Kyle Schwarber after the 2021 season. At the time, Schwarber was somewhat redundant because of fellow DH J.D. Martinez. But the Sox should have eaten the necessary money needed to trade Martinez and and kept Schwarber, who has averaged 44 homers over the last three seasons with the Phillies, while scoring 318 runs and knocking in 302. He’s also established himself as a dynamic postseason performer, with a .987 OPS. He caught and batted 2nd for my IU Hoosiers. For me there's no hindsight. I was ecstatic when we acquired him and disappointed when we just let him walk away. Only other time I felt that way was when we let Buddy Bell walk after a rental year when he re-established his VALUE playing for the Sox.

I agree somewhat but I was all in for Schwarber. I really didn't see the downside.

Signing Corbin Burnes would go long way in getting the Sox Nation excited. Anyone hear me? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

So the Orioles are again two and out despite leading AL East at some point. I still say we made a horrible mistake letting Schwarber go despite having to carry him and JD Martinez for another year. That would have stopped us from signing Yoshida. Ugh We simply have not made good choices. It's not always about money. It's about how and where we spend the money we have.

Is there any point in giving Grissom at bats when Campbell clearly has more athleticism and power bat already? I would start Anthony and Campbell out of spring training. Play the high ceiling guys and let the chips fall.

OF: Jhostynxon Garcia, Red Sox (No. 12) A/A+/AA: .286/.356/.536, 107 G, 23 HR, 66 RBI, 78 R, 33 BB, 99 K, 17 SB, 151 wRC+ Like Campbell, Garcia began the season unranked on our Red Sox Top 30 and finished it as one of the most productive hitters in the Minors. He hit balls harder than ever and did a better job of launching them in the air in 2024, setting career highs in almost every category and pacing Boston farmhands with 23 homers -- more than double the 11 he totaled in his first three years as a pro. This kid made the All-MiLB Prospect 1st Team along with Campbell and Anthony.

Projected Opening Day Payroll 2024 $175M (cash basis, no benefits) Projected Opening Day Payroll 2025 $106M (cash basis, no benefits, no arb and non arb players) Let's say JH tells Bres I want the Opening Payroll to be the same. That means we have close to $70M to spend. Duran, Tanner and Kutter will cost around $12M more in 2025. I will guess $8M for remaining minimum wage guys. That leaves us with $50M to 'upgrade' the team. Starting Pitching, 2-5 should be set with Houck, Giolito, Kutter, Bello, Fits and Cooper. We need #1. Question. Can we secure someone like Corbin Burnes for $30M and still have money left over to improve the pen and get a quality right handed bat? We start the pen with Liam Hendricks, Whitlock, Fits, Cooper and other pre arbitration guys. If we can't have it all, will adding Burnes and the return of Giolito along with Liam and Whitlock get us going in the right direction with the playoffs the goal? We'll have full year of Story, Casas and Grissom in addition to possible addition of our fab 4. T

Great point.....4 year window for the management to surround more good players to 'go for it'. No point in extending every player 10 years, a la Devers.