Hugh2

Getting a draft pick for one year on a guy is a pretty sizable consolation prize for having a pitcher leave after one year. In a vacuum I think the Giolito deal is great, it’s the lack of other moves to strengthen the rotation that worries me.

At this point, if the Red Sox were to sign Montgomery or Snell to a market value deal would the perception of ownership change? Or would the narrative be that they freaked out and overpaid a guy to appease the fan base?

This is what all teams do. Unless Anthony or Mayer have 200 at bats in AAA and are tearing the cover off the ball, calling up AAA depth is the same move any team would make. And the teams that do the opposite, and rush players often aren't exactly model franchises.

Absolutely. I just personally don't see it a blunder not resigning a guy like Schwarber, Erod, or Turner. No one ever says the Sox lost Cody Ross to Arizona or Scott Atchison to NYM, but they also went out and got Shane Victorino and Koji Uehara and won a world series the next year. Players are replaceable, with the exception of guys like Betts.....who are much much harder to replace. But finding a Schwarber or an Erod is not very hard at all. Sox just don't want to invest in those guys and the guys they have invested in to replace them have largely been lackluster. If Kluber came in here and pitched like he had something left in the tank, Whitlock stayed healthy and pitched well, Jeter Down panned out and took over SS, and Yoshida was better on defense and didn't tail off at the of the year with the bat how much better might the 2023 team looked? Sox made all the right moves, in terms of trying to fill holes, they just made the WRONG right moves. Is that cheapness? faulty player evaluation? bad coaching? or just bad luck? Probably all 4, but when you can consistently do a few of those things right you can cover up for a bad signing here and there, a bad trade, a bad draft etc etc etc. The only bright spot today compared to 4 years ago is the farm is better, and honestly, 3/4 last place finishes and no real big trades in a long time should render a better farm system than just middle of the pack. Sox have a lot of work to do.

Are those guys even in the same stratosphere though? Failing to secure Betts might be the blunder of the millenium. But was losing Schwwarber to Philly and Erod to Detroit really that bad? or does it just look bad because they didn't make any moves to really replace those guys. Most would agree LA is a more competent ownership group, they lost Turner to Boston. Turner is 39, I have no problem grabbing your poker chips and leaving the table, what I take issue with is walking out before you'd really tried to hit it big. I bet John Henry only plays at the $5 black jack table.

I'm not even sure who Gonzalez is here. I do agree with Notin though in that I think one of Rafaeala/Abreu starts the year in AAA. I think it's Ceddanne, he could use alittle bit more seasoning, and Abreu has earned a shot.

John Henry will pop out of nowhere and pretend like he's cared the whole time if the Sox actually ever manage to win another World Series under his tootiledge. Credit should be given in that situation, but I will despise him for how he's handled this team recently, and the seeming lack of any accountability and inability to communicate and empathize with the fan base that has made him much richer.

Allegedly the Yankees weren't bidding with anyone and that has been his best offer. Boras is good at what he does, but lets not pretend like he's never had a client go unsigned and have to play in Japan for a year OR settle for a one year deal and hit the market next year. Here's the problem with Montgomery and Snell, next years pitching market is better and has 4-5 guys that would probably be picked before them at this point. Waiting out a year to hit next years market does not exactly help them. There's either a mystery team out there, Baltimore enters the bidding (despite recent news I actually highly doubt this for this year) OR Boras has actually fugded things up for once. We will know more when these guys actually sign come March.

Gonzalez? or Reyes?

4.5 billion

I would have agreed with this up until recently. Casas does not look like he has platoon splits at all, in 2022 it looked concerning, but his break out was against both LHP and RHP. If anything, I want that cultivated. Imagine going up against our lineup with Casas right in the middle of it who can hit lefties and just DARING a team to burn through their lefty reliever. Kind of un-necessitates the need to be so L/R/L/R/L/R heavy.

Because Abreu, Rafaela, Yorke, Valdez, Bello, Casas, Duran, Fitts + are all in Worcester or above.

I think there's a difference between being the back up and then being the emergency (said position). I don't see a problem with a guy like Casas being the emergency 3B, but honestly he shouldn't getting more than 9 innings in that role a year. Ideally you have someone coming off the bench who can also play multiple positions doing that. You got 4 guys on the bench, right now that projects as McGuire/Reyes/Dalbec/Refsnyder. Thats' fine, but a guy like Cooper to replace Dalbec makes sense, and he's your back up first baseman. Reyes is your back up 3B. I have crazy speculations about a guy like Grissom possibly playing some 3B, maybe not in 2024 but if a guy like Yorke pans out or Mayer is up soon and Story is good/healthy you can get creative on getting guys at bats. Or not.

I do see it as a contradiction.

I don't think that's crazy at all.

That's not exactly saying there's a budget though. There's a difference between we can't spend, and then we won't spend. If the Sox set their budget at 215 million and are sitting at 200, does that mean they have to go out and spend that 215 just because that's their budget? I think it's perfectly reasonable to assume their self imposed budgetary constraints could lay higher than what they actually spend. For example, they might be perfectly willing to sign Jordan Montgomery to a 4/90 dollar deal, but that's not going to happen so they "probably" won't be spending that extra 22.5 million. It's sort of a different way of being cheap.

It's a tough climb to the top, did we really think there was an offseason to be had that would take us from a 78 win team to a 98 win team?

Did the Sox front office ever actually say that though? It was reported after the Sox shed some payroll in the Sale trade, and after it was reported they were trying to move other players. But as far as I can recollect that never came from the FO. It feels like pure conjecture, conjecture that could be absolutely true by the way. It's hard to argue with this offseasons results so far.

You know things are bad when you start convincing yourself that Garrett cooper would actually be a decent pick up. But.......he may actually be a decent pick up. He had a .904 OPS against LHP last year. If the Sox use him to spell Casas at 1B vs tough lefties, and play some outfield when they need another righty in the lineup he could make for a valuable bench piece. Sox now have their back up 1b. As far as I can gather.....he can not pitch.

zips and steamer projections are more for O'Neill than they are Verdugo, because if healthy "the juicer" actually would be an upgrade not a downgrade there. If O'Neill goes down then I presume Abreu/Rafaella come up each of whom may add equal or greater value...or not. I expect the same production in LF/CF with the slight chance of improvement out there. Story will upgrade SS, Grissom will upgrade 2nd. Honestly, this feels like an 82 win team. That could break one way or the other depending on how much goes right/wrong. A major pitching upgrade would have many feeling much better about the team, that's for certain.

Tuesday morning rumor is that Justin Turner has signed with the Toronto Blue Jays. Jays fans on Twitter are pissed about the move.

I think the position side looks pretty darn good, it's the other side of the ball I find concerning.

For the rotation to look good, you're going to need two out of the Wikelman/Perales/Fitts group to pretty much hit their ceiling. I'd be happy with one, and this is assuming Bello/Crawford can be a 2/4 type each. Next years free agent pitching class looks good, and fairly deep, but with a lot of teams seemingly sitting out on the Snell/Montgomery sweepstakes I feel there will be a lot more top dogs bidding on pitching next winter. I think the FO should still strongly consider these two this offseason if the price is reasonable.

After this season the Astros will lose Jose Altuve Alex Bregman Justin Verlander Ryan Pressly Two big bats up an ace and their closer. They also have zero top 100 prospects. I'd much certainly rather be any one of the Dodgers or the Braves right now than the Astros. Even the Orioles, if they ever decide to spend....look out.

They sign extensions early, buying out more team-controlled years. You take a big paycut but you take guaranteed millions with a chance of still hitting free agency around 30. A lot can happen in 5-6 years so that has appeal to a lot of players. There's risk there for the team too.