Hugh2

Defesively? that outfield would miles better than the Yankees outfield. Offensively? not many in baseball will match Soto/Judge.

It's the same people complaining about the Sox being connected to everyone and not signing anyone that trust the "trust me bro" sources on Reddit.

There are a very few circumstances when a guy chooses less money, it happens, but not very often. What is more likely to happen is a guy choses to stay with a team or go home for even money. Or for the same reasons they may take less money but a higher AAV. Or sometimes they take less years but a very high AAV. There are other motivations at play there such as wanting to re-establish value. But this narrative that nobody wants to come here to play is just....false.

Look, Red you make a lot of good points around here and don't get enough credit for it. This is not one of them. Don't try to rewrite history. Everyone knows the vast majority of free agents follow the money. Does it not happen that way sometimes? of course, but lets call a duck a duck here. Unless of course John Henry isn't a cheapskate after all. He offers the most money and everyone just turns him down.

The significanly high amount of free agents go to where they're paid the most. No matter how much their fans think the teams sucks.

I haven't heard anything on Snell, but I easily could have missed something. I just question how much they're really interested in all these guys. Odds are they saw the decline in Teoscars bat, and didn't want to go 4 years like he wanted and probably didn't want to go more than 12-14 a year. Teoscar took the one year deal I think because it had a much higher AAV than what he was being offered and figured he could make more money in the long run. Pure conjecture on my part here. Remember, Teoscar is horrible on defense as well. Strike out, doesn't walk a lot. Soler is just a Teoscar with slightly worse defense a little less average but more walks. If we WERE talking about a DH position, I actually think you could make the argument for Soler. Personally, I don't really want either.

They could, and I don't hate that, but trying to read in between the tea-leaves here it really doesn't look like they're starting the season with both Abreu and Rafaela on the roster, Rafaela likely in AAA. Solers best fit is as a DH.

I mean....I PERSONALLY don't want to see either one of them in the outfield.

THere's also how us fans take these reports. Often agents leak interest to build up price but often time there is no real interest. Teams check in on players all the time and then fans go rabbid rabbid because they "lost out again" I'm sorry, but I just get a laugh when someone thinks we lost out on SETH LUGO. The reports are we are heavily into talks with Soler, to me that's different. I still don't think it means we sign him, but I think the probability that we do is much higher. Lets just remember this if they actually do sign him. THere's a difference between checking in and genuine interest....the Boston sports media will never differentiate between the two.

Not if you view Soler as a DH mostly type of guy. However, I thought the Sox didn't want to approach the DH position like that anymore and that also means Masa is a full time LFer. Which isn't highly improbable. They also could be looking to Trade Masa as you said. Who the eff knows. They haven't even signed him.

To me, that's 100% a strength and conditioning issue, not that I'm downplaying it, but I'd feel a lot better about him if he's DHing more and not playing the field.

We should also find out who we came in second place to for the Imanaga sweepstakes any day now.

(assuming the Soler deal happens) I love how the Sox address atrocious offense by going out and adding horrible defenders. I think Grissom actually has the ability to turn into a good defender at second. But still, it's the same old same old IF, MAYBE, COULD, we tell ourselves every year with this team.

I'd hate it less if he was more of a DH, maybe that's why he had a really good season last year. He was primarily a DH. If you get that version Soler, he's a better bat than Teoscar. Not saying I love it.

What about what other teams were offering him?

I can't blame you, but Solers highs and have been higher, and he bounced back really good last year when he started DHing more. I wonder if the Sox view Jorge more as a DH now.

Houck too, if he could get better stamina or develop another pitch to get thru an order a third time he could a really good starting pitcher. The time for these two has certainly passed. At the absolute very least one of them should be moved to the bullpen permanently.

I’m just not sure Fenway gets enough sunlight to go Solar.

Looks like we are going Soler anyways. Who knows where he plays

Did we really need another left fielder with a declining bat?

It’s all connected people. When you don’t have young pitching and you have to go out and buy it you can get burned by the hot stove. David Price, Jacob Degrome etc etc. When you can draft and develop young players, particularly pitching you can afford to make a mistake or two when you’re a big market club. Haven’t the Yankees made mistakes? The Dodgers? There’s no silver bullet, there’s risk with anyone. Yamamoto never pitched an inning in the bigs and carrys significant risk with his size. Maybe that doesn’t matter. Snell has two CY young’s and a lot of durability concerns and mediocre seasons sprinkled inbetween. Montgomery is going to be paid like an ace for pitching like a 2/3. But he’s been absurdly consistent. That could drastically change after 30. Risk is mitigated by not having to rely on your free agent signings having to hit. Sox are in a position now where they have to hit. I would have been ok with them taking that risk, but a better run organization built towards sustainable success is going to have to start with young pitching. Notice how we are always talking about the guys a year away from free agency being traded? How often to ACE pitchers with 3+ years of team control ACTUALLY get traded? Sure it happens, obviously, but it’s insanely rare. Which is why the price is insanely high. Teams don’t just trade those guys away, everyone wants them, abs when they get them they keep them. If people are upset we haven’t made some big moves to bolster the pitching then I’m 100% on your side. I too, am dissatisfied. But the long term sustainable solution is to draft, trade for prospects, and develop these guys. We just plain and simply don’t do that. But what would it look like? It’s not just drafting guys, it’s having the ability to identify and develop talent. For example, Dick Fitts is a nice young pitching prospect, not elite, but could develop into a middle of the rotation starter. Probably won’t but could. Roger Clemens once was scouted and said to have the potential to be a mid rotation starter. It’s more probable that Fitts is not that good, but it’s having more moves like that (with using more draft capital) that ALLOWS for that to happen. Sox are essentially fishing in a pond with a dozen fish, where teams like LA stock their pond with fish. I really really hope that one day the ghost of baseball past/present/future visit John Henry and convince him to start acting like the Boston f***ing Red Sox again. But investments they’ve made in development and scouting are welcomed.

One reason the Yankees are good at spending smart is because the amount of scouting they do at the big league level. That’s an investment you don’t see show up in payroll. I’d also argue that recently the Dodgers are a better example. They spend, but they still manage to draft and develop their own guys. Red Sox have shown they can draft and develop position players. They just can’t do it on the other side of the ball. And have failed to not only address the issue, but fill in the blanks via other routes

If I could control the front office. I’d have both Montgomery and Yamamoto in here (maybe not Yama), but I’d certainly open the check book I’m not the front office, but if I was, on top of that I’d still be making the personnel and financial investments too to bottom to try and identify and develop more and better young pitching There’s nothing wrong with both. I think a wise man would agree it’s actually optimal. The reality is we can’t judge those things for years. We can definitely say for the past couple decades they’ve done a poor job. Have they improved in those areas? If recently only time will tell. Separate from that, there are other failures at the big league level. Failing to trade for those guys to fill in the hole, failing to sign big names to fill in those holes. They deserve all the strife in the world for not doing all of these above. Haven’t we been complaining for years that they don’t draft and develop pitching? Maybe that’s it. If they did, we couldn’t complain about it I suppose

I didn’t realize we were stock piling young pitching depth. I get you were probably talking about prospects in general. But I didn’t think this what we were talking about. I thought we were talking about getting young, talented, high upside pitching into the system. These guys don’t grow on trees. They can trade for pitching, or buy it now, which I’ve been a proponent of. But if you want young talented arms, you have to do a better job of developing them. That takes time. That’s a fact.

See my post above. Just because they could or should be trading for pitching, or signing quality free agents, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t try to start getting better at developing them too. This team is in a big hole. If we want long term success. It will take a multifaceted approach. I feel perfectly comfortable being happy that they’re investing in more scouts and development personnel and also being upset as a fan that they can’t trade and sign the guys they need now. To me it’s not a zero sum game.