Hugh2

It's like, you know you won't be getting Mookie Betts and family too.

Pretty much, but the reasonings are much different now. Teams like the Sox and the Yankees could easily throw money at players they like in the later rounds. I think typically, those are the guys you see who don't sign now a days.

``Like, We could have traded Tolle and Arias for JOE RYAN 1.5 years ago. Thank god we did not

That's fine, but you will never have a cost controlled cornerstone franchise player if that is your philosophy. Ever.

I forgot to address the first three picks in the 2021 draft. # Henry Davis - college draftee, 27, been in the league for 4 years with a -1.1 Fwar .565 career ops. He's effectively a defense first back up catcher now. #2 Jack Leiter - college pitcher with a 2.5 FWar across 3 seasons now, career 4.95 era, has spent lots of the time on the dl. #3 Jackson Jobe - high school pitcher (and we know how much we love it when the Sox take the top ranked college pitchers. Very young, just 23 and has been bouncing up and down the last few years. Career 3.91 era in 99 career innings. Shows some promise, hasn't really put it all together yet but he's entering 2027 fully recovered from TJ surgery and has good stuff. All those guys are either failures, or it's still too early lets' wait and see.

It's actually fairly common for a guy who is regarded as the #1 talent in a draft to be skipped #1 for financial reasons and happens much more often when that guy is a High Schooler. But yeah, people look at rankings and get expectations and hype guys up.

Interesting tid-bit. Every single MLB player who had a mutual option this offseason is now a free agent. Not one of those mutual options turned into another year of team control. Also, 0 mutual options were exercised in 2025 as well. Mutual options being exercised are rarely a thing. Effectively what has to happen for the mutual option to be exercised is the player has to be worth almost exactly what the option value is AND both the team must love the player and the player the team. Mutual options are typically designed to not be exercised. They're a financial tool used during financial negotiations.

I think the Sox would pick that up all day long if Sonny exercised his side of the option

John Henry doesn't have the balls to pay Skubal.....But I do. Unfortunately I do not own the Boston Red Sox

Those two plus, yeah.

and so was Vaughn Grissom. Meanwhile Wilson Contreras, Adley Rutchmen, and Ranger Saurez were not. I think the list was outdated.

They had players on the blueprint that have been out of the organization for over a year.

and I have .9 Million to SPARE C: Adley Rutchmen ($9.1M) 1B: Wilson Contreras ($17.25M) 2B: Franklin Arias ($0.80M) 3B: Caleb Durbin ($.80M) SS: Elly De La Cruz ($7.9M) LF: Jarren Duran ($10.5M) CF: Ceddanne Rafaela ($6.25M) RF: Roman Anthony ($16.25M) DH: Masatak Yoshida ($18.0M) 4th OF: Tyrone Taylor ($4.01M) Utility: Custis Mead ($.80M) Utility: Romy Gonzalez ($1.8M) Backup C: Connor Wong ($2.0M) POS: Add Dead Money Here ($22.50M) SP1: Tarik SKubal ($45.0M) SP2: Garret Crochett ($28.00M) SP3: Ranger Saurez ($26.0M) SP4: Payton Tolle ($.80M) SP5: Bryan Bello ($9.7M) RP: Aroldis Chapman ($12.70M) RP: Erik Miller ($1.5M) RP: Justin Slaten ($1.0M) RP: Greg Weissert ($1.0M) RP: Tyron Guerrero ($1.0M) RP: Kutter Crawford ($2.6M) RP: Justin Slaten ($0.80M) RP: Johan Oviedo ($0.80M) POS: Add Dead Money Here ($4.0M) Payroll is 2.75% under budget

Maybe that fits better if they have to trade an Abreu type to plug up another hole.

Be the change you want to see in the world Red.