Hugh2

As is for any team if they lost 4 guys to the IL

Crochet/Houck/Giolito/Bello/Buehler. The ceiling of that rotation is as high as we’ve seen in years, with a higher floor and more depth as well.

Literally two years of that was because of TJ. Last year he didn't look great. Is that because he isn't the same guy? or because he's still climbing his way back? His post season run certainly seem to indicate the later. If the Sox only signed him I'd be pissed, but with Crochet also added I think it's a great addition.

Walker was a Cy-Young candidate back in 2021, while Pivetta has never even SNIFFED a top ten.

Sox payroll, who I trust more than Cots puts the payroll at $24 million under the luxury tax

I also suspect that it's not all about money. If it was, he would wait a year and take a few hundrew million dollars more. Even Ohtani only took up about 1/2 of LA's pool. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sasaki only get around $5-$6 million and not $10. It depends on where he wants to go. I wonder if he's holding up the Burnes market.

I love how they're going after arms they like, Buehler was projected to go to Boston months earlier because he has the exact profile Breslow/Bailey like in an arm. Not only do you get a solid guy if he's on, but then you can Q.O. the guy and net a draft pick out of him as well. Would be pretty nifty if the Sox turned themselves into the rehab destination. Net bounce back seasons and picks. Of course, this works because you put someone like Crochet at the top of your rotation who should be competition for a Cy Young next year.

the 2025 one

With Buehler signing the Payroll is at $216. $4 million dollars away from $220 million threshold I BOLDLY predicted the Sox would eclipse. $24 million below the LT threshold apx, makes you wonder if a Crochet is in the cards for this year. That alone might eat up the rest of their space. That and/or a Bregman signing may also take them over the LT this year. I'm starting to think they go over that line again now.

Love this deal

SOX sign Buehler for 1 year $21 million

I suspect If Anthony/Mayer/Campbell all graduate they will take a big step back. They have to keep drafting good.

PSA Can we please stop throwing Giolito in the same camp as Paxton and Sandoval? Lucas was healthy when he signed and then got hurt. It’s not an accurate comparison.anyone you sign can get hurt, it’s not the same market and structure when going out and signing someone who is already rehabbing.

I would argue they didn’t overpay for Story but rather he got market value. the fact that he’s been injured and underperformed might make it easy in hindsight to believe it was an overpay, because it certainly turned out that way. yoshida on the other hand clearly seems like a gross overpay. And im not sure why a bunch of people weren’t fired over it.

Great move. if the Sox don’t add another GOOD starter who is ready for opening day 2025 then shame on them. but on its own, great depth move.

Yes, you're right. If you're paying all of his salary you would just release him before adding a prospect.

^^^^^ and use the prospect to trade for another catcher.

Yes it does, but that's still going to limit how many teams could actually find use for them on their roster. Pure conjecture and I'm just going to guess to illustrate my point. For the league minimum, perhaps there are 9 teams out there that would put Yoshida on their roster as a DH/pinch hitter type. Without knowing who those teams would be lets just pick two to further illustrate my point (regardless of actually need) lets say one was the Dodgers and one was the Pirates. The Dodgers could eat the money, the Pirates would want the contract paid down. My point is, out of those 9 teams, most are NOT going to want to take on the money. So you're left with a very small pool of teams to trade with. So the expectation should be nothing of value for Yoshida, you're probably packaging up a prospect to get him off your books and still paying down a significant part if not all of his salary of the salary. The value in trading Yoshida is to open up a roster spot; that's it. How much value is adding a bench piece going to make towards the 2025 roster better? Yoshida on or off the roster doesn't really stop you from signing a starter to play the outfield, whether that was Juan Soto or if it's Teoscar Hernandez. But lets say, with the Hernandez addition, you want a defensive utility player taking up Yoshidas spot on the roster, so you trade his contract. So what does that look like? They sign Bregman or Hernandez for $25-$30 million and pay Yoshida $15 million to play elsewhere? So you're now paying $40-$45 million dollars just to have that roster flexibility? Honestly, I think the team would be better by just giving TOP prospect Roman Anthony the job and using that money to sign a front line starter. I'd be very intrigued to see what the Sox do with a Yoshida trade if it happens, but I just don't think it's very likely. And the fact that he's injured only makes it harder, but if he can't start the season he could start the season off the 40 man....so they'd have that roster spot anyways. If a guy or two goes down a month or two into the season, you might want to see how he looks at DH.

I think this is a fact. He can’t field, he doesn’t have a ton of power and he hasn’t been able to stay healthy. Some teams wouldn’t want to make space for him on their roster even if we pay down the whole salary

Yeah, I mean Steven Cohen could pay 1 billion dollars for an ice cream cone if he really wanted too, it doesn't mean hes' going to do it. He's a billionaire. He's more likely to buy the farm that raises the cows and the company that makes the ice cream.

That's exactly my point, he's not going to spend into infinity just because he's rich. In a vacuum, the Mets haven't really signed anyone to an insanely absurd overpriced contract. They've just spent a lot of money. It's like, if you have two cars, and I'm rich and I own 25, I can still have paid market value for all of them and spend more money on cars than you. Just because I'm rich and own a lot of cars it doesn't mean I'm going to pay $250,000 for the $100,000 corvette.

no argument here, I'm not saying he's not insane. I'm just saying it's been more about QTY than just drastically overpaying for guys. Soto's 51 million per year. According to fangraphs the last few years he's been worth: $65 $48 $30 & $54 million; and most guys put up much better stats from 25-30 than they did from 20-25. Soto isn't arguably overpaid AT ALL, the worry is....you're paying him to keep that up for 15 years. But it's not like they're paying him $100 million a year. This argument that Cohen would spend anything on anyone....as if he'd go up to 1.6 billion on Soto is just unfounded.

But Cohen never really spent an unreasonable amount of money, he just bought a lot of players. Sprinkle in a few high AAV but short years E.G. the Verlander/Scherzer. Soto is out of the norm...even for them.

Destroyed the farm? The Sox have 3 prospects in the top 50 and he kept all three and acquired a TOTRS. I suspect the farm to take a steep step back in next years rankings....but it will be because 2 to 3 of Mayer/Anthony/Campbell have graduated.