Hugh2

To be true, I defended the position at the time for this very same reason. They took a similar strategy In 2021 and it paid off, but they also had a lot more luck on the health front. Which oddly enough seems to be this team’s strategy. They’re banking on being healthy. It still looks horrible in hindsight, but that’s the key word there….hindsight.

At the end of the day the Sox still net two picks from Losing Bogaerts/Eovaldi. Being tax payers doesn’t change that, with me it’s the reduced bonus pool money that stings. They will have 1 million less to spend than they otherwise could have. It’s always worth it to go over if you have a shot at winning a World Series. Sox guessed wrong and paid a steep price.

Valdez would be the worse SS in all of baseball on day 1. I don’t even want to see the name Valdez, and then afterwards I don’t want to see the word Short Stop unless it is at least 10 words after one another.

No, I'd be fine if he was here as a 4th outfielder making that.

I don't agree on JBJ. At that point in time he had two back to back .800 OPS seasons, and his struggles was looking entirely due to being rushed to the majors. I'm all for signing early extensions, I think the Sox are stupid for not to have jumped on board here sooner, but that doesn't mean you're not going to get burned sometimes. Still, I'd take the lumps of coal here and there all day long with that strategy.

In hindsight? Yes. But at one point in time JBJ looked like a 4 tool player with GG defense in CF and plus .850 OPS in your lineup. Benintendi was the #1 prospect in all of baseball and quickly came up and became an everyday staple in the lineup. That’s the issue with extending guys (which I’m for). To save money, you have to get them while they’re young and their career has more uncertainty to it. we almost have to put ourselves in a time machine for this experiment and pretend we don’t know the rest of their careers. One could be forgiven for thinking those guys were going to have just as good careers

I think it's fair to put JBJ in there.

Yeah, it's two years, so that's whatever. I think the lack of a big blockbuster move doesn't take away from good less appealing moves the Sox have made. They did well in the bullpen.

Now sign Andrus

You can't really complain what they've done with the pen. I think between Barnes/Schreiber/Martin/Jensen we should be fine late innings, and if the rotation is healthy there's a good chance we see a lot of Crawford/Paxton/Houck in there too. Mid year additions such as Mata could really help down the stretch as well. The rotation has a lot of question marks, but technically you could say there's a ton of upside there as well. Optimistic view; Sale comes back, and is a comeback player of the year. Pitches just a hair below elite. Ranked 5-10 in Cy young voting Paxton comes back and gives you a sub 4.00 era and 120+ innings Kluber gives you 150 innings + as a solid 3/4th type of guy Bello wins ROY, the first homegrown capable starting pitcher out of Boston in a LONG time. Whitlock shows you why he's so great and why the Sox moved him into the rotation. Houck answers the question about being able pitch deep into games, because of a viable mid-rotation starter. Pivetta - is good old reliable 4th starter Pivetta. MYSTERY MAN? a mid-season trade, a pre-season trade, or perhaps a rookie from the minors answers the call. Sox don't need all of that to happen to be great, and each one is perfectly plausible on its own. But man, it's really hard to be optimistic after the last few seasons, health issues, and this off season.

I mean, the Sox finally went out and signed the best free agent available. From a certain point of view, I call that a success.

Do you think we will be worse at 3B? No love for a 26-year-old Rafael Devers having a career year???

If healthy, why not roll out with a 6 man?

I think it's obvious they miscalculated the market, and they seemingly royally messed up the negotiations. I don't think that means they didn't want him back, I think they really did

If Bloom actually pulls off some kind of roster heist it will have to primarily be via the trade market. This team still really needs SS/SP and a bench bat that can cover Cf. If the shortstop (who doesn't even exist yet) or Story goes down and you move Kike in to play SS/2ND you have no Cfer, unless Duran is your guy. I suppose Arroyo can be that guy now, but I'm not sure if I"m comfortable with him during a potentially long stint and that still leaves Duran or in CF or if Kike goes down, or Verdugo. The pitching is more tricky because if healthy we technically have 6 starters going into camp (Sale, Paxton, Pivetta, Whitlock, Bello, Houck) but you still like to see another name on that list because you know what they say about pitching. Adding a name to that list with a relatively good bill of health should actually make for a decent rotation. Perhaps it's a little bit easier to take an optimistic outlook on the starting pitching with some young arms in there and a better bullpen to help them along the way. But the position side of the ball is clearly not set. The odd thing is the Sox traded away from the DEPTH of the very thing they need. A shortstop. Now I don't think anyone here seriously expected Hoy or Downs to be the starting shortstop on this team, but I'd figure those are the guys you call up who can field the position for a week or two. Depth like that matters and right now they don't even have that up the middle. Unless of course, the Sox are fine with Arroyo there periodically and figure both Kike/Story can back up as an emergency. That still leaves them short a Centerfielder. Ironically I think the Sox have a prospect in their system who even if he performs closer to his floor would be the perfect elite defense plus speed Cfer/SS type, but if giving Rafaella another year in the minors helps his bat develop then I say you forget about the kid until 2024, if he plays his way up this summer then great.

I think it's obvious at this point that they wanted to bring Bogaerts back.

I think it’s probable we sign one. Possible we sign two, but certainly not if we trade for a SS/SP

The 3 year plan becomes a 5 year plan, and if that team stinks it will be a 10 year plan. This is Blooms year, and I have to say at the very least I’m interested to see how this blows up in his face yet I’m leaving the door open to be surprised in 2023. This year will make it break Bloom.

This also reeks of the David Price situation. I was the only person in the world who thought the Sox were going to make a serious run at him in 2015/2016 and was criticized for it, people used the Jon Lester situation as precedent and my argument was with these Sox the past is not a predictor of the future. Maybe Devers isn't the guy, but if you think the Sox won't eventually pivot and give out a top dollar contract at some point then you're living in the now, clouded by your emotions. I think what Warren Buffett used to say about investing "be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy". The fact that NO ONE THINKS this can happen right now is what leads me to predict it will. Lets see if I eat crow.

Think of it this way, why would you have traded for Devers this off-season and give away your version of Marcelo Mayer when you could have just signed Bogaerts or Correa? They just cost money, and you’re trading for a guy who you’re about to pay a boatload of money too. There’s a reason Betts got you Downs. If he had multiple years of control you probably would have got 2-3 Jeter Downs, and in a perfect world all three of them are not busting.

In the end we are just repackaging the concept of trading him to the highest bidder. Which is not a new concept and I’m sure the Sox will do regardless. Teams know what they’re trading for, you can’t eliminate the fact that he ONLY has 1 year of team control. You’re on going to give up so much talent for one year of a guy. If you want a higher return, then we should have traded him this past deadline or even last year.

Those penalties have compounding effects. It will be interesting to see what the Mets system looks like in a few years. I’m sure Mets fans could care less if they buy a couple WS here. But they could get caught with their pants down if the new CBA puts in harsher penalties or even a hard cap and they’re sitting way over with no farm system in 4-5 years from now. They pretty much have to win a World Series or it’s going to not be worth it. For all the talk about DD ruining our farm (a lot of those guys have busted anyways) at least we have something to show for it. That makes it all worth it.

Should the Sox resign Devers at any cost? Should they offer 350/10? And walk away if he wants more? At this point, you either pay Devers price, or you're banking he gets less on the open market. That strategy failed miserably this year. Teams that missed out big this offseason, and have money, will be competing for Devers next year. SF/LA and I'm sure others will push Devers contract much higher than we think.

Will the Mets lose out in revenue sharing rebates however? That can knock of a few hundred thousand of revenue. Steve Cohen doesn’t care, this is a hobby for him

Yeah, Mets aren't resetting next year. I'm losing that bet.