Hugh2

Bichette is two years older but has played in almost 500 more games. He's also put up career WAR of 20 compared to Casas 2.2 Bichette has played the full season 3 out of the 4 years and still managed more games than Casas has in 75% of his MLB career in 2024. I'd be much more concerned with Casas than Bichette

Tristan Casas wouldn't surprise me if he puts up 0 WAR, geats healthy hits like a middle of the order bat and puts up a 4+ WAR, or never plays in a Sox uniform again. I don't think anyone can count on Casas for anything right now, but he's a real wildcard for 2026.

omg you were making joke weren't you. *sigh* slams head into desk

Agreed. That's just the arbitrary number I picked as an over/under. Trying to get a pulse of how people think the Sox will spend in here.

Why?

It's kind of funny that Bogaerts and Lester were brought up. Because what did the Sox do afterwards. Lester - literally the next season they signed David Price to a record contract. Bogaerts - literally the same season they lost him they signed Devers to a record extension. Not agreeing with or dismissing anyones point....just found that interesting.

that 246 is a hard number for LT purposes. They will, at a bare minimum pay tax on $2 million dollars. I think it will be even higher than that.

I'm just saying in a vacuum the team will grow with what they have. That is not anagolous with saying we should or will.

I don't either, I want the team to make moves. I'm just saying even with the roster they have I largely expect better play from the youth movement.

PEOPLE. Don't let any of this distract you from the fact that the 2026 Boston Red Sox will cross and go above the luxury tax threshold and that number will in fact sit ABOVE $246 million dollars.

Ryan would clearly be an improvement for the rotation. Bregman would be status quo. So you either believe young talented guys take a step forward, or they do not. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here, but I do believe thinking that guys like Mayer and Anthony can't add substantially more value in 2026 than they did in 2025 is a pessimistic take. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's not like the Sox haven't given us reason to be so in years past. But I put that on the FO not the players, I believe in a lot of these young guys. I believe in them a lot more if they do MORE than just add Ryan and Bregman back.

I mean I thought in my original statement we included adding Bregman back and Ryan. You took out Bregman, I think, regardless I went along with it so that's on me too. But even then I think the team does get better. I'll roll with that. Bregman gave us what? 3.5 and Devers 2.0? so that's 5.5 we are losing but Joe Ryan would have added 3.1 last year. so we lose 2.4 WAR Do we think the collective of Crochet/Bello/Narvaez/Casas/Mayer/Anthony/Rafaela/Duran/Abreu/Campbell/Tolle/EARLY and others on the way are going to better worse or the same as last year? Anticipating that list of stars combined with youth couldnt cross the threshold of 2.4 WAR is a very pessimistic take in my opinion. Literally just Mayer or just Anthony might do that.

I don't think we "stand still" but adding Ryan ISN'T standing still and yes I assume some of the young guys will take a step forward. I believe in ROmany Anthony and the others. I can't predict the future, neither can you. Comparing us the Orioles? I suppose that's fair. A lot of these guys could go in the opposite direction and take steps backwards. But I think that would be 100% on brand with my comment when I said that would be a "a very pessimistic take"

Ryan is a clear improvment in the rotation. A team that is flush with young talent, top prospects coming into their own is a good bet to provide more value this year. Is Roman Anthony 2026 not going to be better than 2025 Roman Antony, is 2026 Marcelo Mayer not going to be better than 2025 Mayer? what about Rafaela/Abreu/Duran/Narvaez? are those guys going to regress or take steps forward? What if Casas is healthy? heck, even Bregman who missed some time could conceivably be a whole WIN more valuable in 2026 if he plays a full season. The opinion that if we resign Bregman and add Ryan we have not improved is a very pessimistic take.

I'm not going to make up an arbitrary number that I don't really know....who am I kidding of course I am but I wanna say like 90% of what we here is always being spilled from the player side and not the agent side.

You won’t? Is that you Craig?

He wasn’t, but if he goes into a serious decline you lose a lot more in value in the long run if you had signed him to 6-7 years prior instead. thats the point of overpaying for less years

I mean, I remember David Price. That was ten years ago, before that when was it? yes I love Jurassic park, but just because you should or shouldn’t do something does is not an argument for the Sox not spending more. you want to be the Kansas City Royals? That’s fine, but I think most Sox fans would like to see their team throw their weight around and punch in their weight class. Saying spending to win is not good is completely subjective and you’re entitled to that opinion. I’d argue you need some kind of lopsidedness. Yes, teams like LA and NY spend more and win more is that bad? They have the market to support and drive love towards the sport, do you think Tampa Bay would ever bring in the same kind of revenue to the sport if they had the same success as LA? I doubt it. evil empires are good, you either root for them or against them. One thing that made 2004 so special was the fact we beat NY to get there. People love to cheer against the LA Lakers, the New England Patriots and now the LA Dodgers. I’m not even asking to be those teams, I’m advocating to be runner up, or next in line behind that and I just pointed out the Boston has the market to support that if they chose to.

If you gave me Marte/Schwarber/Joe Ryan I'd be in heaven.

I think this is subjective. Both Marte and Bichette were 21 years old when they started their MLB careers. Bichette has 20 WAR, when Marte was Bo's age he had only put up 15.4 WAR. Bichette is in his prime where' Marte might be good for another few years.....or not. I'd still roll the dice on Marte for the right price. I feel like he can still be really good for a few more years.

I think we can expect some big moves in the trade market this offseason. But they're going to spend the money too, I think the writting is on the wall with that. But will it be a big name? or 4 $10 million dollar men?

Exactly, when you think about it, we should be somewhere around the 3rd to 4th highest spender yearly. No reason why you can't do that, dip under the LT every once in a while and occassionally even swing big and out bid LA and NY.

It was also a one year deal and we didn't have to give up any assets to get him, but yeah I get it. Some of the old timers can still get it. Aroldis is also a physical freak of a humn being.

BTV accepts Kyson Witherspoon and Vaughn Grissom for Chris Sale

I'm done with pitchers over 35 years old. I don't mind paying for a few years on the back end of a contract if I'm getting a guy in his prime but I don't want to add AARP guys to our staff.