oldtimer

If Bogey goes, and that is likely, Turner would be excellent as would Swanson Maybe Pham could stick in left for a year or two (bridge to next prospect) Devers, Verdugo and Story are reasonable. Casas is worth a long look. I would keep Hosmer as insurance at first and he is inexpensive and is a legitimate DH candidate. To me Dalbec is not a good enough hitter for DH and is stiff in the field. I would send him down or trade him for prospects. We do need a CF. I don't believe Keirmerer is the right choice. We may be able to get someone who can field and hit at a better rate for secondary money. We do need a better catcher than McGuire who would be okay in a backup role. Vazquez will be difficult to replace. Bench: I would go with Arroyo, although if healthy he is starter quality. For catcher either McGuire or Wong. Neither are ML quality hitters but both are decent defenders. For utility OF, I would go with Refsnyder. Right hand hitter and better defender than Duran who I would look to trade.

Our proven hitters in the lineup who may still be on the roster in 2023 are Devers, Bogaerts, Verdugo, Story, Hosmer and Arroyo. With Bogaerts a question mark for 2023 and Arroyo is best in a utility role since he has an injury history. Casas is unproven but may prove to be acceptable at first and Refsnyder in a utility OF role. Is Pham in our long term plans? I doubt it. That is a decent start but we need viable hitters up and down the lineup to offer protection to our better hitters or else they won't see many pitches to hit. Guys like Dalbec, Duran, Plawecki, Jeter and Cordero were mainly easy outs and didn't much offer lineup protection. To improve our lineup, we need two OFs, a front line catcher and possibly a SS/2nd. That's assuming Casas displays ML ability and Hosmer can handle the DH role.A lot to ask when we need starting pitching and BP help.

As a Red Sox fan, I am not!

Just about every day we see details of ML players going to the IL. Some of those are key guys. Most teams have quite a few during the season and we certainly have had more than our share. Perhaps our problem is a lack of depth. It exists both in our pitching and our field players. We have a lot of dead money, perhaps keeping us from having real depth. Paxton, Price, Barnes and Sale constitute a lot of that so we wind up using guys over the Hill and rookie pitchers and in the field our depth was Dalbec, Cordero, Duran, JBJ and Plaweki. We even traded away our front line catcher. It has been evident for some time that we are not a competitive team and I agree, we should have been trading those not in our longer term plans. There are a lot of those, but clearly the two we might have gotten something for were Eovaldi and JDM. The front office and Bloom say we want to keep Bogaerts and while he would be a nice building block going forward, he may just want to move and may longer believe in Redd Sox management at any price. If he leaves, we have another serious hole to fill with an already difficult offseason scramble identified. Devers also can't be getting positive vibes from all this. So it looks like we better plan on Devers, Verdugo, Story, Arroyo and Hosmer for next season which leaves us looking for two OF, a SS/2nd, a 1st/DH (maybe Casas at 1st), a catcher and some depth pieces. Perhaps Refsnyder, Arroyo as depth with one of our catching prospects. In the pitching area we clearly have needs. The Sale contract has been a bust. I wonder what his real trade value would be? Probably significantly less than what we have to pay him in salary. Paxton is an unknown who probably shouldn't be renewed, so we have Pivetta, Crawford, Winkowski and a aging Sale to headline our staff. Perhaps Bello will become a viable MLer. In my view, we need 2 front line starters. Perhaps Wacha can be in the mix but Hill is toast. Our BP also needs help as they always typically do. I won't to into those but the demands on our budget may be enormous. I don't thin Bloom and the front office have put us in a position to be fully competitive in 2023 but like Moon, I would like to see major progress toward that goal with evidence of a plan to meet Bloom's rhetoric. It has been a very disappointing season. Let's give up any pretense of striving for a WC spot and give our best prospects some ML playing time.

Joining with Bogey, JDM and Hosmer. They need something from these guys.

That's to put it mildly. Two years left, but it's looked like one of the worst performing player contracts in Red Sox history.

That was unfortunately true. Add Kike to the list of players disappearing from the roster for 2023. Arroyo can be our utility infielder and Refsnyder our utility outfielder. Looks like a house cleaning is in order.

Trey Turner

The strength of the Red Sox batting order seems to have disappeared after the Vazquez trade. Guys like Arroyo and Verdugo still seem to be in there for the Sox

Interestingly, the Yankees have lost 5 straight.

Another possibility is Hosmer at DH part time and Casas getting a look at 1st base. Duran is having a tough go defensively in the OF and his hitting is not that good. time to look elsewhere for a CF.

I think that Bloom's moves have been constrained due to budget considerations. He has had to carry some dead money contracts and also needed to replenish the farm. All these points are valid but I see Bloom's moves as a mixed bag. The Bradley for Renfroe trade the removal of Vaz and particularly the way it was done. The long term contract to an injured Sale (was Bloom in on that?), the signing of Paxton with no return to date and others. Yes he has also had some wins in Pivetta, Hosmer, Whitlock so it has been a mixed bag. The thing I also note is the trajectory of the team's play. Instead of becoming more competitive as the calendar marches on, this team seems to be getting less competitive. Does this fit with Bloom's decryption of how he envisioned the team's growth? We need to give Bloom a little more time to see what he will do with more budgetary freedom, but I think the poster who noted we may have alienated both Bogey and Devers could be correct. That is also a bad thing.

Unless he was viewed as a foundational piece, like Bogey and Devers. And then, if not and they still believed they should sell, they also should have traded JDM and Eovaldi.

It only hurts when I laugh.

In the words of Bill Parcell, "We are what the record says we are". We are a last place team with a high payroll. Certainly, some of the leadership people and players are responsible. A seeming lack of coherence in our direction has to make one wonder what is going on.

Did you notice the article quoting Pedro Martinez as saying he is confused about the direction that Bloom and the front office is taking the team? Mixed signals. Trading Vazquez for a questionable return but not trading either JDM or Eovaldi. Picking up Pham and Davis a little earlier. Picking up Hosmer (a trade that I thought was smart). I join Pedro is feeling confused. We are not going anywhere this year and should have sold although I would have held onto Vaz, Bogey and Devers. The way the Vaz deal went down may well convince Bogey and Devers to look for another organization. As to your strawman about picking up Verlander on a short contract, I prefer we look for a #1 or #2 starter in his prime or younger. We have seen the Sale contract bomb, due to age and wear and tear. We also picked up Paxton and have yet to see any return on that investment. Another $10 Mil of essentially dead money this year. Again, I prefer younger, even if we have to pay the freight.

It will be interesting. We want to be stronger going into the 2023 season. Let's hope that Bloom makes moves during the Winter meetings. So far he treaded water in the opportunities he had. We need to have better defensive players up the middle. The guys you speak of could add an offensive presence to the defensive quality.

So you recommend we go with Plawecki as our top catcher? He can't hit or throw.

Add the salary of Paxton, another no show until at least Sept.

I agree, now we need a front line catcher since we rid ourselves of Vazquez. Such a player will be difficult to find. No way would I trade Casas. We haven't seen what he can do but he is a potential star. Dalbec at best is a journeyman and is expendable. I don't think Bogey is out of play. Possible 2nd base/DH going forward. There is a high risk of losing him though so you are correct to be looking for a SS/2nd baseman. I don't see anyone other than Verdugo as keepers in the OF (probably LF). Refsnyder could fill the utility OF role. I'd be looking outside for two FA OF's. I agree on Hosmer, Devers, Story and Arroyo For starting pitchers, Sale can't be looked on as more than a #2 starter, maybe less. Paxton is an unknown and may not fill a starter role in 2023 so we need at least one top line starter and possibly two. Bello appears to be the best internal option to make the jump. I agree, we need at least one quality relief pitcher. Never can have enough quality arms. I choose not to comment on the rest of the 40 man. If we keep Bogey, we will need a front line catcher, two outfielders, a quality SP, and a quality RP. I don't see enough resources available to accomplish all of that so in my view, 2023 will only see us make a partial step to competitiveness. Bloom's winter meetings and trade deadline inertia makes me wonder if he can get the job done.

I also wonder why Bloom seems to gravitate to flexibility with many of his position players. They may be flexible but often are not as good as dedicated players at any one position. It does help when the inevitable injuries occur, but how many of those players does a team need? Perhaps Bloom went in that direction since he had to reset the budget and could get those guys more inexpensively. What bothers me about Bloom's selections more than flexibility is what appears to be a lack of a coherent strategy of improving the team. He has stated that he wanted to make the team consistently competitive and part of the strategy was to strengthen the farm. If we look at what other teams have done, we appear to be less competitive now than last year and while the farm is said to be higher rated, we have only one position player that may contribute to the team in 2023. We are carrying JDM and Eovaldi, who don't seem to be in the plans going forward and we traded away Vazquez for prospects of questionable value. Our farm has yielded some pitching prospects under Bloom so it's a mixed bag. Looking at the Renfro trade for JBJ also didn't seem to fit the plan of making us consistently competitive in the league as we got less competitive as a result. So, If I read his signals correctly, Bloom will try to keep Bogey and Devers under contract on a more long term view while using money freed up for 2023 to sign some younger but high quality FA's. Hosmer and Story will stay and perhaps Verdugo and Arroyo. We have some decent pitching but will need at least one starter and as always BP help. Judging by us being the last place team in the AL East, it appears that there is too much for Bloom to do to bring the team up to parity with league powers in one year. Let's hope he has a coherent plan moving forward, that he makes wise choices and he sticks to the plan. The Vazquez and Renfro deals have shaken my confidence that he can and will do those things.

I think Bloom took advantage of a lucky break to get a ML first baseman in Hosmer for Groome. That along with the Padres willing to pay the bulk of Hosmer's salary. Groome was not in the Sox long term plans and we got a good player at a position of need and one that can be considered as a DH replacement for JDM in 2023 at a lower cost. He is also as insurance, should Casas not work out. This is one of Bloom's better moves.

The season is essentially over at this point and whether Dugo plays in right or not won't change the trajectory of the team. Time to get a look at prospects who may be good enough to fill a ML position in 2023. Other than Casas, I don't see any prospect who can fill a field position. That is not a good testament to the capability of our farm system.

I'm with you on this one for all the reasons you gave. JBJ's addition was an absolute head scratcher and looked like a moment of insanity for Bloom. Let's hope we see positive signs of a plan going forward.