Hugh2

He's not a free agent this offseason, if they can sign him to an extension great, if they can't he's still on this team.

Well, I suppose it's a good thing we didn't empty the farm to compete for a 2nd wildcard spot this year.

WOuldn't mind Laureano, I don't think hes going to cost a lot either, I also wouldn't mind signing judge and running with Verdugo/Laureano/Judge. Resign Bogaerts and Vasquez and now you have a lineup you can believe in.

I think they're scared to death of him out there. Perhaps the better question is, who should our centerfielder be? We had one, but we DFA'd him because he couldn't hit, now we're stuck with a guy who can't hit or field. I'd take JBJ of Duran right now.

The last time everyone complained about no talent in the outfield was literally a year before we got the Benintendi/JBJ/Betts outfield that was outstanding. Things could look very different out there in two years, still, I don't see anything in the pipeline, we need at least one major upgrade out there to come from a trade/FA

It's not like they have options in the outfield. At best somebody gives you something marginally better.

With Plawecki gone after this season we need a back up. We need a starter as well, one of those three can stay in Boston.

I get that Bloom is getting harder and harder to defend, but I'm willing to bet he had almost zero involvement in moving Duran to the outfield. I could be wrong.

But at least Duran has some experience there, and this isn't saying much, but he was a much better defender at 2nd than he is in the outfield.

Nobody truly knows how these prospects will pan out, I like to think of prospects as lottery tickets (yeah, a bad example talking about actual people but whatever lol) with the higher end prospects giving you a larger chance of hitting. But hey, if you have a 90% chance of hitting it big you still lose 10% of the time, and if you have a 99% chance of not then 1% of the time you do hit it big. We have Lars Andersons and Rusney Castillos and we also have Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts too. It's just the way of prospectetum. One thing I recall recently is on a past Soxprospects podcast (I think about a year ago), the staff there talking about how they thought Duran was being over ranked by the national media, and they (who had the most eyes on him) where not as high on him. They always kind of pegged him as a 4th outfielder type, maybe more if he ever put it together and he could be a bat first LF type. They also compared it to the time when the national media was much higher on Lars Anderson than they were on him too. Even the best scouts are going to be wrong, A LOT, but I trust the guys who have the most eyes on players. I will say this, the guy who they think is being overhyped now is....Rafael Caddenne, who people think is going to be the next Mookie Betts, but I think a more appropriate ceiling for him might be Kike Hernandez, and that's still really really good. You're right about Casas, I do however have a higher degree of confidence he's going to pan out but nothing is guaranteed until they're there in the bigs doing it. I actually think Casas has the ability to hit better in the majors than he does in the minors, I think his true power doesn't show because he's so patient and pitcher seldomly challenge him. We shall see.

I think there's a real danger with having too many platoons, especially on this team, I'd rather have the extra arm in the pen...especially if they keep Whitlock there. I don't think DH is the position you should ever go light on, I'd rather have a plus defender at CF/SS/C hitting 9th. You either need a good bat, or use it as a rotation to rest players. I don't disagree that Casas and Hosmer play on the same team, but if Casas is hitting and Hosmer is not I don't expect that to last long. And if they're both hitting and the Sox have a viable DH, you trade Hosmer....and you get more for him than SD did because his salary is free.

Also, it's not like Daniel Nava and Johnny Gomes were lighting the world on fire and long-term options in the outfield in 2014 either. I think that's when they moved Betts to the outfield. With Pedroia as the 2nd baseman and no viable outfield options into the future other than JBJ (who was struggling), there were seemingly 2-3 open spots in the outfield for Betts. Betts might not be the best comparison because he was definitely moved to fit into the team, whereas Duran was moved because it was thought his tools would play up better in the outfield......again.....they were wrong.

I'm not entirely sure to be fair, but I do know at the time the Sox had a guy called Dustin Pedroia at 2nd, now he was riddled with injuries but this was at a point in time we were still hopeful he was going to come back and play for several more years. Duran was never a plus defender, but scouts had him pegged as an average defender at 2nd from what I remember. There was the belief his speed was wasted at 2nd and he might be better suited for the outfield.....sometimes scouts are wrong.

He was moved to the outfield because he was blocked in the IF, and the Sox thought his bat would be ready to help the team in 2021. Sox moved Betts off 2nd when he had all the makings of a GG caliber defender there. Duran was a much better defender at 2nd than he is anywhere in the outfield. Not a plus defender, but he would make the routine plays and not embarrass himself

I don’t think Hosmer and Casas are ever on this roster at the same time for a while. I’d rather give JDM a QO and keep him as DH. When Casas can play, Hosmer is a waste of space on this roster.

I think the Sox are calculating that Correa snd Turner are going to suppress Bogaerts market, and the money he thinks is out there for him is not. Xander is getting paid, if the Sox won’t budge someone will pay him more, but I suspect when they money they though was there is not the Sox could probably match an offer to keep Bogaerts, and that number is one his side would reject right now.

Well lets be fair, no one complained when they released JBJ. But honestly, I'd rather have him than Duran right now.

I know this sounds crazy, but as of right now it looks like releasing JBJ was the wrong move. Seriously, if Duran isn't hitting how much worse off are we? same black hole in the lineup except we go from one of the best CFers in baseball to the worse...by far.

Why not put Duran back at 2B? it's his natural position and he obviously has zero ability to play the outfield. Sox might have a need up the middle as well if Bogaerts walks.

If you're not resigning Bogaerts, I'm moving Story to SS and Duran to 2B. Sign Judge to play RF and let Kike handle CF. Offer JDM a QO and if he takes it great, there's your DH. Personally, I think Bogaerts gets resigned. That team above could be horrible.

There has to be some gap between what we know, and what they know. I have a very hard time believing that Bloom is ever operating without the approval or under the guidance of Ownership. In other words, I don't believe Bloom wanted a full-scale firesale with ownership completely in the dark and then John Henry came in and said "no don't do this" right in the middle of the trade deadline. I'm not going to say I know exactly what was up, but I don't believe there's that lack of communication between Bloom and the F.O. If there was he would have been fired last year.

I didn't say it doesn't happen, I'm just sayign it doesn't really stop players from being traded.....Hosmer was after all traded still.

And yet the Red Sox average more than double the Tampa payroll year after year. I agree, you have to keep some guys, otherwise why would anyone ever want to invest in a jersey? But if you know they're not going to resign then why wouldn't you trade them if you know you're going nowhere this year (Bogaerts at least)? This is for arguments sake, I think there's a decent chance Bogaerts resigns here.

I have no idea what the statistics are, but it seems that no-trade clauses are almost never exercised. Or perhaps, behind the scenes what we don't see is player x saying "yeah I'm not going there, trade me somewhere else". I have a hard time believing most players say not to go to a contender for 1/2 a season when their team is in the gutter.

I have a hard time believing that Bloom and ownership weren't on the same page leading up to the deadline. I'm not saying you're wrong, not at all, who knows.....but if that's the case that's on ownership. If anyone here can imagine having a job where your mandate is changed when you're right in the middle of a project you can realize how impossible it makes it to do a good job.