Hugh2

He was BA’s #40 prospect heading into 2026. 23 years old, bad timing for us for him to have a breakout game

Yes, but keep in mind that no other team traded for those guys either. Every other team interested looked at the price and said "yeah....that's too much" I'm sure they wanted Arias PLUS a boatload.

It also got you several years of control of Mead. We had a lot more starting pitching depth than we had middle infielders.

Another fact though, is all the short stops in question did NOT get traded at the deadline. We didn't get Otto Lopez, but no one did We didn't get Francisco Lindor, but on one did We didn't trade for C.J. Abrams, but on one did We didn't trade for Eli De La Cruz, but no one did. We didn't trade for Zach Neto, but no one did. This tells me one of two things happened in each of these situations. A.) the player was just simply not for sale and there was nothing that could have been done. or B.) The price was so high that not a single team in baseball was willing to go that high and considering what we paid for 1.5 years of a catcher I'd be scared to see what the price for some of those guys might have been. I'm not sure we can blame Breslow for not picking up a short stop......no one did. He did get a 2nd baseman who had the best offensive numbers moved at the deadline. Unfortunately he got hurt.

I'm giving them an B+ They picked up who was arguably the best bat to move at the deadline (not their fault Mead got hurt) and then picked up and all star catcher, filling in two of their biggest holes. They also got a very intriguing bullpen arm, who is a control tweak away from being a late inning guy. I knock them down from an A for failing to get an innings eater and givin up a lot of value. But I'll take a B+ at ever deadline all day.

Durbin/Contreras/Gray/Suarez/Bennett have all been amazing additions this year. Even the lesser role players have looked good for what they were signed/traded for (middle relief/bench/depth) Guerrero/Moran/Seigler/Monesterio/IKF. Kind of makes me wonder what Johan Oviedo would have looked like this year if he stayed healthy.

For the past 2 months Caleb Durbin has arguably been the best 3B in baseball.

I don't disagree, and I think a long lock out is a very real possibility. But to me a long lockout could also be 1/2 the season......and not a full season. Which would still be awful.

This is pure conjecture on my part, but I find it very very hard to believe we lose a year of baseball. Playing a partial season does seem much more likely however.

If Jarren Duran gets going (and it's looked good the past week) this team is going to be legit dangerous. Now they can hit and pitch.

I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone surprised the Sox started to play better and improved their record this season. But I don't ANYONE could have seen this type of turn around coming. If anyone predicted the Sox would be where they are two months ago they'd be called an idiot. The crazy thing about this run, is it was hard to believe in it in the beginning because the team was so bad for so long that a good week or two just felt like a blip, but now we are 6 weeks in and this team does nothing but win. They win and they win, they play good teams and they win, they play LA and they sweep them. This is crazy.

The only time I can remmember a season with this level of extreme, and I don't want to open up my mouth here but it was the 2011 season, the "chicken and beer" season. But this team is different than that one in so many ways. But they started off cold as hell. Played like a 100 win team for 4 months, then completely fell apart in September.

One thing about being on top is the buck stops with you. You get the blame when things go wrong, but you get the praise when things go right too. Right now, Brez is looking pretty damn good.

We’ve all had our moments

I certainly wouldn't believe every dude with a blue checkmark on X.

That's what I was assuming, seems logical.

OPS+ is positionally adjusted and may not reflect the positions they're going to play moving forward. Eaton has played more RF, while WHite has played more LF. There actual OPS numbers are a career .623 to a career .604. Still minimal but statistically not insignificanly bigger than .02 Also if you look at the RAW 2026 numbers White has a .691 OPS vs. a .563 OPS that's pretty significant. White also has a .758 OPS vs. LHP this year, which is what I'm hoping they use him for. The upgrade might be just a little bit better than what you're giving it credit for.

I should probably go watch this interview now before assuming he's a bench bat/platooning with Duran.

I'm wondering if he will platoon with Duran in LF? we won't lose anything on defense and White is likely a boost to the lineup vs. LHP vs. having Duran in there. I don't think he's worse than Eaton, he's likely an offensive upgrade over Eaton.

Maybe he was traded for to strike Ohtani out during the world series.

It's always tough selling low on a guy, the criticism comes when the trigger is pulled. It's like investing in stocks, when stock xyz falls you start thinking about selling, but you want to hold onto it because you're emotionally tied in, you don't want to sell low and you keep thinking it's going to go back up. Could Mayer turn into the player we once thought he could be? absolutely, he could also continue to fall in value and never be a regular MLBer. The fact is they pulled the trigger when they pulled the trigger. We can sit here and criticize them all day, the reality is when you hold onto guys for a long time some are going to crash in value and you're going to look bad for not selling high, while others are going to shatter their value and make you look good for not trading them. Mayer looks bad, holding onto Tolle right now looks good. That's just the way it is. If Erik Miller because the next pitcher they bring in and retool into a serious bullpen weapon the trade looks a lot better, and he has the underlying talent to be that guy. His stuff is elite, his statcast page is red and red, but he walks guys, a LOT of guys. I feel like we've heard this one before? team gets guy with great stuff but can't hone it in. It's a gamble, you win some and you lose some. Time will tell.

I was saying all week, people should be prepared for the price. These trades always cost a lot more than we think they will cost.....still, this feels like an overpay. I'd love to know what the Yankees offer was. Despite that, I don't care, this team is going for it and Adley is a really good catcher. If they can regain his bat he will be elite with his defense, and even if he hits just as well as he has this year it's still going to be a massive boost to the lineup because his bat replaces Narvaez. The deal makes more sense if they extend Adley.

Ummm, are we extending Adley???

You're probably giving up two guys in the 5-10 range.

Adley Rutchmen has 2.2 FWar this year compared to Goodmans 2.5 But Adley did that in 67 games opposed to Hunters 102. All things equal Adley is the better catcher if healthy.