Hugh2

One of the reasons why I'm not too keen on platooning certain positions is because we already have one in the outfield. Abreu is a + 3 war player who pretty much sits vs. LHP. If you get a good platoon partner for him then you can pretty much emulate all star production in one of your corners but you can only do so much of that on your roster. You probably find more teams that want 162 game guys than that, so it makes sense that more teams are in on Duran/Rafaela.

Yup, I know everyone keeps name dropping Duran as the guy to go. Personally I think they should be willing to move any of their outfielders not named Roman Anthony in the right deal but I get why Duran is the one whos name keeps getting brought up. I don't think it' s a slam dunk, but I'd be moderately surprised if he's on this team in spring 2026

I've always been a big believer that QTY never makes up for quality when dealing with high end players. Trades like that just don't happen. Now, given Skubal only has one year of control left I think it's fair to say giving them players like Roman Anthony is not up for debate. It ain't happening, but they can do better than 3 prospects in the 6-20 range. Someone, somewhere is going to give up more impact players than that, and Detroit would take that deal.

Lets reverse course. Lets say the Red Sox had to trade Crochet. Would you rather have 2 legit high end young MLB players? like Roman Anthony/Payton Tolle? Or would you rather have a basket of prospects, none top 50 guys like Clarke/Garcia/Sandlin/Phillips? ADD: I'm in no way shape or form suggesting Anthony would or should be part of any trade for any player with one year of control. That is not the point of my post at all.

After seeing what the Angels got for Taylor Ward I don't know how anyone could be against trading one of our outfielders now. Rodriguez was a top 10 prospect in all of baseball, looked like he was becoming a MLB starting pitcher last year and is still just 24 years old. If the Sox packaged Abreu or Duran up with someone like Arias they should get a kings ransom.

It may be more realistic for Skubal to be traded at the deadline, but Detroit may think they can get more from him now. I'm sure they will entertain offers but at this point it's speculation. It's the beginning of the offseason and for every guy that gets traded there are 5 that were rumored to be on the trading block. But if he's legit available, the Sox would be dumb to not throw their hat in the ring on this.

I think a lot of this is just depth moves. We are going to see guys added this offseason that will be dfa'd before the season even begins.

This is how I see a lot of these moves. The team has a couple big holes right now. 3B/1B/SP2/RP They really need two corner infielders, a #2 starting pitcher and I'd also say another high end reliever as well. The reality is, the Sox are not going to go out and and sign everyone. THey're not going to resign Bregman, sign Kyle Schwarber, Edwin Diaz, and trade for Joe Ryan. I think a more realistic scenario, best case realistic scenario is they sign one big guy, and they trade for another big guy. Either way, they're going to plug up some of those holes with premium players and a few of them.......not so much. My point here is this that depending on how these moves play out depth may be more important at some positions than others. Maybe we need more depth on the corners, or up the middle and how the rest of this offseason plays out could determine whether these guys stick or not. In other words, I think some of the guys we traded for yesterday will be DFA's before the start of next season.

You made the same exact mistake of attributing Durans defense in 2023/2024 to 2025. I'm sorry but he took an obvious step back and I think it would be a gave miscalculation to assume he would become a better defender by moving over to a more demanding position. And I don't want to sound rude here but you pretty much lose all credibility by lumping Durans outfield play of 2022 and 2021 in there when he was pretty awful in the outfield. Nobody cares about errors, errors are a judgement call and can vary wildly depending on the person making the ruling. You could have a guy with 3-4 more errors where's another scorer on another team might of had those ruled as "hits" but that dude has crap range and/or takes poor routes to balls and is an inferior defender. But you would call the person with less errors better, and you would be wrong. I happen to think Duran is an ok defender, but the only elite year he really had was 2024 and I'm not sure he gets back to that, and certainly not because he moves to CF. I think he would be ok in CF, and if I'm wrong and you're right, and everyone else is wrong and you're right then that just makes Duran an even better trade chip. Because he'd be more valuable to a team who would put him in CF than a team who is going to plug him in LF. We need infielders, like....maybe 3 of them, we need pitching. We have a TON of holes. I also don't buy the right field is harder to play than cf in Fenway argument either. Right field is certainly more important at Fenway park than other ballparks but I think people just assume that makes it more important. No, I don't buy it. On average 3-5% more balls are hit to centerfield than right field and 1/2 the games are played away. You're going to get more outs with Rafaela in CF than anyone else on this team right now.

I don't think it's fair to say no research was done and Anthony is a centerfielder. But here's what the research says. Soxprospects.com "Strong defensive instincts make up for only average foot speed. Takes efficient routes when moving laterally, but on occasion will be a step slow reading balls over his head. Has primarily played center field, but started playing corner outfield more often in July 2024. Profiles best in the corner outfield long-term, but could play center at least at the beginning of his major league career if needed. Potential above-average defensive profile in the corner and average in center field." mlbpipeline.com "He has handled center field better than expected and the Red Sox believe he can stay there, though most scouts think he's destined for a corner once he slows down." Baseball America " Defensively, Anthony has spent most of his time in center field and prides himself on his defensive work, but he lacks the elite range of a true center fielder. His range and arm will be an asset in right or left field" I think he'd be fine in Center field, but saying only this one poster considers him a corner outfielder and no one else is a little short sighted. In terms of Duran, he's range slipped and he made more erros. That just doesn't dissappear when you move to a HARDER position. Sometimes guys just take a step back and skills decline. I'm not saying he can't get better moving over to CF, but I think just assuming he would be better there than LF is wrong.

Maybe this signals ownership optimism for a deal in 2027? because that's a big spot to burn for a guy who is going to come back and only have one year of team control left and maybe not even be able to play if there's a lock out.

I think he says no to that. You have zero MLB ready players, zero top 100 guys in that group. One has to believe Minnesota would get a better offer than that.

I know what you meant by this comment but I still got the thought in my head of Minnesota calling up and asking for Justin Gonzalez and then when Breslow obliges Derek Falvey just does a 180 yells and hangs up the phone like a prank call.

Breslow says yes, I think everyone inside the Sox organization says yes. But the twins would likely want much more than that. At best he's 4 years away from the majors, I don't think you don't trade a guy like that because you worry about what holes you may have 4 years from now. FWIW BTV accepts the trade of Jarren Duran and Justin Gonzalez for Joe Ryan.

I mean, isn't that just conjecture? why make excuses for him? I don't think you just completely make something up like that, and the swing data doesn't lie. His bat speed drastically dropped off this year. We can measure that next year. It either returns or it does not.

You don't believe it because it doesn't make sense? I mean I don't have the story, you don't have the story, we don't have the story but that's a very plausible thing to happen. There are many, many different circumstances that would cause someone to lose a lot of weight. Could have been sickness, maybe he became sedentary when he was injured and wasn't consuming enough calories to keep weight on, maybe he was cycling on steriods and came off of it. I'm not saying that's the root cause of his struggles, maybe it has nothing to do about it, but I don't think that's something you make up and then the Red Sox go along with and then corroborate that story. To me, that makes zero sense.

I remember in the 2021 draft Lawlar being a top prospect and there was even a debate Mayer vs. Lawlar. Both guys seem to be in similiar situations career wise. Right on the cusp.

This is also a REALLY good example of why you don't just promot someone everytime they're batting .300 It's often about so much more than that with so many other variable to consider. This is why I'm often vocal whenever someoen comes out and starts calling a guy in A ball the guy who should come up and play at the MLB level. I think it was over a year ago that there were calls for Franklin Arias to come up and be the short stop because he could pick it. Lots of weird things were going on with Campbell, he lost a ton of weight and allegedly his bat speed cratered, which is concering but the weight loss adds reason to that. It makes me hopeful that If he can put the weight back on and keep it on he can return to the guy he was in 2024. Allegedly Campbell has put the weight back on and is back to where he was. Lets hope that translates to the 2026 season. Get that boy a trainer and a dietician.

The poor Henry's the must of starved last year.

agreed, but it's also 2026-2029 and he is an elite MOTO bat. If he was younger I'd be willing to pay less AAV and increase the years. It's still not my first choice for roster contstruction this offseason but I certainly wouldn't hate it.

One concern I'd still have with Schwarber is if we are bidding against Dave D then we all know when he wants someone he just throws money at them. How badly does Philly want Schwarber back?

I've had a full nights rest to think about this, and a full cup of coffee to start the morning. If under the right scenario the Sox could ditch Yoshida and his contract I would absolutely LOVE Schwarber back here in the DH role. I wonder if 4/135 get's it done.

I for the life of me, do not understand the Murakami hype. His K rate in Japan the last few years would have placed him in the top 10 in MLB for the higest strike out percentage. If that rate ticks up even a hair coming over and facing MLB pitchers then he's going to be the strike out king of baseball. We all know power is meaningless if you don't have the hit tool to access it. We don't need Japanese Bobby Dalbec.

I don't disagree, but I also don't know if Breslow has the balls to attach a prospect to dump his contract.

If they really liked Valera, I think they may consider it. Also, who does Arizona have to slide into 2nd? Blaze Alexander?