Hugh2

And just talking doesn’t mean it ends in rainbows. But talking is talking at the very least.

No but it could have gone to arbitration. It didn’t go to arbitration because they’re talking. They’re talking doesn’t mean a deal gets done…but they are talking.

Devers was projected to get $16.9 in arbitration, the extra 600 is negligible. He got about what he was projected too. The fact that they got it done shows they’re talking. Who knows at this point. Devers holds all the cards and the Sox hate this game.

At this point, you're going to either have to grossly overpay for Devers or trade him. It's a lose-lose. The lesson here should be.......now go out and extend guys like Casas/Bello within the next year.

No, I just think teams are jumping on the agent bandwagon and using the Sox as fake interest to get another team to up the anti. Personally I was advocating for a trade with Miami.

As your King of s***** predictions this off-season I’d love to provide another one. Miami will trade Lopez (or another SP not named Alcantara) to another team that involves them receiving a top 3b/OF/1B big bat prospect in the deal. That will not be Tristan Casas and the Boston RedSox.

I think there’s a difference between excuses and a reason. There’s a reason for everything. Saying something like “The Red Sox misread the market” is fact. Perhaps it’s conjecture and not fact but it feels obvious to me. But! I do agree that if the people you hire are showing a track record of misreading the market, then start hiring people who can. In terms of Raffy, I think it’s a hindsight reaction to say “well if they aren’t going to get a return for one year then we should have traded him longer ago”. Well, you’re only one step closer to, let’s trade everyone before they get to arbitration years. Even if a guy is determined to get to FA (and many are and may chose to never sign extensions) having 2-3 years of a premium player is worth it to an organization that is expected to compete year in and year out. It’s like the old saying goes “a bird in hand is worth two in the bush”

Oh. A Yankees fan. Telling another baseball fan to not “live in the past” Oh the irony.

I don’t like banking on this, but I think it’s perfectly plausible that Verdugo bounces back in 2023 both offensively and defensively

Or two year

Pretty sure I defended it, at the time it looked like they could make the playoffs, and it looked like they would get healthier down the stretch. Holding onto JDM, and Eovaldi (as bad as it looks now) was a perfectly defensible position. It fits the “sustainable competitiveness” that is their plan. While one could argue in many ways this plan has been poorly executed in theory I’ve always been for it. This is why I’m generally labeled a bloom lover in here.

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