Hugh2

I mean I get it, but 3 at bats each? i'm not going by his numbers vs. those guys....I'm bringing him up when he's ready. If he's good to go I say the sooner the better. If he needs time to adjust start that clock now before the playoffs.

I believe that is only if he is released, which he would have to pass thru waivers first to do. Otherwise if a team claims him a trade would likely be worked out. I would imagine in said scenario a team is going to want serious salary relief

It depends. A player can't overstay his rehab assignment, the team has to make a roster move. They could option him if he has options remaining but they would need Story's consent to do so. I see zero reason why Trevor would consent to that. If he did he would have to wait at least 10 days before he could be recalled, the only exception to this would be if someone else got injured and went on the IL; Story could take their place If they place him on waivers and a team claims him they could be responsible for the contract but any team claiming him is going to want salary relief, likely most of his contract. If they can't work out a deal he is DA'd and the team has 7 days to trade him If he passes through waivers, and he refuses assignment the club has to release him. If he is released, and another team claims him the Red Sox are responsible for his entire contract. I could be off a little bit, but generally I believe this is how it goes. The most likely scenario is Story remains with Boston.

I have maximum faith in Roman Anthony long term, but I'm not very confident he's going to hit the ground running. I'm not betting against him, but he could be very rusty. Shaking off the rust in AAA is good, but it's still not MLB pitching.

That's the thing though, the free agent market is not looking very good next year. Sure there's always a few decent names but if you want to add one it's increasingly year after year looking like you need to trade for the guys you want. And the guys we want are going to cost us Tolle/Anthony/Rafaela type of players. A 1-1 deal like the Early for Mead are what we are going to need to bring in high end talent, because it just doesn't exist in the minors for us....UNLESS we are willing to part with Arias.

Problem is, where are you going to get those guys? I think you'd have to go to the trade market for a 1 & 3. I think you can get a good depth option starting pitcher or mid rotation guy in FA. I'd be pretty happy seeing if Sonny Gray wanted to resign and roll out Crochett/Gray/Tolle/Suarez/Bennett next year. And we will also have option such as Bello/Crawford/Houck/Oviedo+ not that I'd put a ton of stock into those 4, but I bet one of them emerges as an important contributor in 2027. And seeing what the pitching staff has done this year.....I'd be very very very curious to see what someone like Oviedo looks like healthy, working with our pitching department. Honestly, besides some depth pieces, the only thing we may really need this offseason is an elite relief pitcher. Whether or not Chapman still has it next year.

That's what I would bet on happening.....if I was a betting man.

I'm not really sure we have the names to lose. We shouldn't expect any big trades this offseason, unless we are subtracting from the big league roster.

I'd say there's a lot of intriguing guys outside the top 3, certainly some guys who have blue chip prospect ceiling, but there's a greater chance they never reach the majors too; Soto/Valera/Delzine, and we haven't seen the 2026 picks in much action yet. But yeah, the system has taken a hit.....as it should.

I think a lot of this is the graduations and trades. Prospect evaluaters are always weighing proximity to majors and ceiling. When a lot of guys in the high minors are either graduating or being traded it seems to make sense what is left over at the top are high ceiling further away guys. The way I look at that is I try to see the higher variance. Those guys can all bust, but if more break towards good than bad then we'll look back in a few years and not see the system as being very weak right now at all. I really do like the two guys we have at the top after Arias (Gonzalez/Primera).

Breslow has traded away 5 of our last 6 first round draft picks (exluding this year for obvious reasons). For many other reasons, looking at the team in Boston and the minors top to bottom. The system is pretty much all his now. At the very least about as much as a system can be after only just a few years.

And who did you want for 1B and 3B?

How many peopel were talking about signing Pete Alonso to DH and not talking about signing him to play 1B back in March?

Right now the Red Sox offense in the American League: FWar 6th Runs 4th AVG: 2nd OBP: 2nd SLG: 3rd. Next year we will be adding back Anthony/Mead and getting a full year of the Rutchman and Arias at some point. I'm no longer worried about this offense. I'm back to wanting starting pitching depth and a bullpen piece.

Yes but Yoshida was not, but there was already a log jam there and the thought was you rotate those 4 guys between LF/CF/RF/DH. I suppose if you view Duran as the stricth DH, you don't rotate guys and you go out to get Alonso as DH. But again.....this all goes back to my original point of having an opinion based on hindsight. No one was calling to dump an outfielder as a method of getting a DH.