Hugh2

I hope we see a deal like that every single year

No they weren't, they also weren't advocating him moving to the pen permanently. But It's obviously a testament to how high they are on him.

SP was also making the argument for him pitching in Boston this year. That's how high they are on him. I'm certain they would agree that if he looks good when he comes back that he's going to fly thru the system.

They definitely wanted to offload that contract and I think they thought Raffy was becoming a cancer to the team (certianly the F.O. shoulders some blame for that). I do think they like Harrison. Here is a guy who was a top 100 prospect just a year prior and still just 23 years old. I think the Sox like his stuff and think they can tinker with him and figure it out. If they do that and he's legit next year.....that's pretty much Quinn Preister, who is 1 year older than Harrison, a top 100 prospect, and struggling before he put it all together last year.

While I certainly want to see more trades that are going to improve the big league club next season, I would certianly welcome a move that strengthens the catching depth at the top of the system.

Without a doubt the Giants were sour on him, 100%. Still, I don't think you take on that money if you don't somewhat believe in his arm. Or maybe they just really really like Harrison that much?

Oh, rooting for Canadians I see?

Sox need to sign or trade for a good pitcher this offseason. If some of those other guys take the 5th spot great, if they work their way up to Boston and stick in the rotation, great. As we've learned this past season.......you can have all the depth in the world and it's still not enough pitching.

Maybe, I'm hopeful of just that. Yet I'm still very concerned by the depth in the system. What is Naraez? does he take a step forward or a step backwards? The system is really feeling drop off from dealing away a guy like Teel, but......I'm certainly NOT going to complain about that one.

18% is certainly reasonable. I do wonder how much that goes up when he comes to USA. It's been said that the K rate goes up 5-6% which I decided to lazely studied this morning and appears to be BS. Some players K rate moves much higher or not at all (Ichiro Suzuki). Seiya Suzuki saw his K rate jump over 50% if we see that in Okamoto he'd have a K rate around 30%. That might be too high for him to tap into his power. He concerns me, but yet I'm intrigued still.

I never thought I'd be rooting for the Seattle Mariners.....but here we all are cheering with Harmony. Get it....eh ehhhhhh?

JFC I need to stop smoking so much weed. My first reaction to this post was "WTF would they DFA Campbell?" Then I remembered there are two Campbells on the roster. I think you're right about Hicks, he's on the books for 3 more years. The Sox obviously see something in him they like and think they can tinker with. They probably believe they can get him right with a full offseason in their program.

I mean nobody can predict the future with pin point precision but scouts were rather impressed with him before his injury, he was on his way to being a top 100 prospect after making multiple BA hot sheets. Scouts who have seen him pitch since he's come back are still impressed with his stuff and he's hitting over 100 MPH. So yeah, he could be a dud but "who knows" well.... I think he's in a different category than other prosepects. (E.G. most prospect people would probably agree Perales has much larger shot at making the majors next year than Myles Patton) When you have it you have it, not everyone has the ability to go from A to MLB but some do. Payton Tolle didn't even throw a single pitch in A ball the year prior and he ended the year in Boston (same age as Perales). Also, increasingly, the Red Sox (along with other teams) have become much more aggressive in promoting pitchers. There's a sense that you're just wasting their bullets in the minors. If he can't find the strike zone he probably won't move as aggresively, but I won't be surprised when he's knocking on the door at the end of next year.

If he's pitching well I don't think that's an issue, they've been very very aggresive with pitchers who perform in recent years.

I think he is going to be eligible for the 4th option, if he's optioned in 2026. It's a little convaluted but that's what I'm hearing. Full disclosure it's soxprospects forums and google ai. I read the rules, it looks like he could get it but again...it's a little convoluted. I think there's a real chance, that if Perales is as good as we all hope he is, it won't be an issue. He be looking MLB ready and we will be talking about him having a rotation spot to start the year in 2027.

Perales might have the highest ceiling in the system. I mean, he very well could end up in the pen but he's our best shot at the moment of developing an Ace, with all respect to Tolle, but It feels very premature to advocate moving him to the pen. I could see him in the pen at the end of the year for a playoff run the same way we saw Tolle this year. Maybe, he's coming off TJ so he hasn't pitched in a while, so if he goes a fulls season it's kind of hard to see him available for anything by the end of the year.

I doubt they plan on having Mayer on the bench. I think if Bregman is resigned it negates the need to trade for Marte. If that's the case, you're trading one of the outfielders for a #2. That comes without saying in the absence of a Bregman resigning I'd totally bite on a Marte for Duran deal. 1B is funky. I want to believe in Casas, and I do, I think if he can come back and stay on the field he's eventually going to hit consistently (career .800 ops despite his struggles). I think he would have last year, as he got off to a slow start and then just got injured. He has 4 years of team control left and he has the potential to be the middle of the order bat they need without going out and spending $40 million or emptying the farm YET how long can we wait around for this kid? This was two years in a row he couldn't stay on the field, maybe it's a fluke...maybe it's not. I think the Sox could eliminate this problem if they were to find a way to get rid of Yoshida. If you do that you can then get a guy like Hoskins like you suggested and if Casas stays healthy and hits then you got your DH. Actually the more I think about that the more I like it. Doesn't have to be Hoskins, I would love for them to go big and get Alonso but I'm not going to get my hopes up this offseason.

It's very easy to cherry pick a lot of short term contracts and neglect ones that have worked out great like Arodlis Chapman. I actually and am a big advocate of the rehab contract or the short term contact. As you even said with Perez, he'd be on a completely different list if they signed him a year later. One of my biggest stances last year was signing someone like Shane Bieber for that very reason. That would have worked out pretty great for us as he was good down the stretch. Those contracts aren't the problem. They stand out when the team doesn't make other moves and the team results are terrible. That's why they got so much critisizm. If the Sox signed a few studs and won a 100 games in 2023 nobody would really care that Kluber sucked, and he wouldn't even have sucked that much because he would have been cut much sooner.

Red Sox have caught on to this trend in recent years too: Rafaela, Bello, Campbell, Anthony, Whitlock, Crochet.

Actually I think there’s less and less bidding wars because there are less premium free agents. I also don’t think the bidding wars for a relief pitcher gets the same press coverage that Juan Soto gets; that’s not to say that his bidding wars wasn’t intense. I think it’s about teams locking guys up, more and more you’re seeing teams come in and extend guys before they reach free agency. You give them some more money up front and save in the future and don’t worry about paying them into their mid 30’s or beyond

It’s amazing how free agency has evolved over even just the past 6-7 years. It’s not what it once was, it’s weak and lacks depth. Sure, there’s always a few guys at the top and sometimes that guy is an elite level player destined for record $$$ but aside from a few stars or two free agency sucks. The vast majority of GOOD players are often in decline. in suppose the reason for this is obvious, but scouting certainly seems more important now than ever

I think we can all agree we’d like to see a Seattle vs. Brewers World Series. two teams who haven’t had it. That would be pretty cool

Agreed, I don't want to see Story at 3B.

Story probably could play 3B, in which case the team needs to go out and get a 2nd baseman. Still, In a perfect world we would have a stronger arm on the corner. Bregman didn't have great arm strength so saying Story has just as much zip on his throws is not saying much.

Yeah, I went with the paid version for 1 year then figured I just don't care that much anymore.