Hugh2

Yeah, ok so we mostly agree on this. If you're not going to sign a guy, you should trade him (unless you have serious playoff ambitions) but how serious the Sox were about trying to resign him, and were they draw their line in the sand is objective and open to criticism. That's fair. I forgot that he was traded so late in the offseason, Was that when it was initially reported or finalized, because I do seem to remember the trade got held up for a little while due to some medical concerns.

Roman Anthony hasn't played in the field since 4/11 he's obviously going through something. There's absolutely ZERO reason to rush him in haste and make the roster log jam even worse than it already is. His time is coming, it will be this year at some point without doubt. I think we see him by the end of May, and as you all know I'm always right. 🙃

Rafaela is on pace for about a 2.5 Fwar season, mostly tied to his defense but that alone makes him a valuable player. I don't think he's ever going to be an offensive stud, but I've always hoped he could take enough steps forward to not be a complete black hole in the lineup and you feel fine about him hitting 8th 9th. It's early, the sample size is small, but the K% is down from 26.4 to 18.9% the BB rate is up to 6.8% he's actually making a little bit more contact this year, but his BABIP is lower around .250% but overall he's still chasing way way way too much. I think there's enough there, underlying to see a guy who can take steps forward and be a .650-.700 OPS guy, but the approach is not there, and there's not enough power to overcome the approach to ever be much more than that. I really really really like Rafaela a lot, but I never understood the extension. Guys with his profile just aren't well paid in arbitration, and his skill set probably does not age well once he losses a step.

That's kind of the new trend. Your elite closer may be the 8th inning guy if you have 2-3-4 coming up. Makes more sense. Still, that makes someone like Slaten the "set up" guy. Which is well deserving, hopefully the youngster continues to grow and shine.

I really don't think two weeks has erased Story's inability to stay healthy the last 3 years. And if he's this good all year why would we even want to trade him? Mayer doesn't strike me as the guy who is going to hit the ground running but rather a guy who needs a year or 1.5 years until he really reaches his own. Bogaerts and Duran weren't instant stars, most guys are not. If Story is good and healthy he's helping you get to the post season. If anything Story plays to opt out and that solves everything.

I was saying over the offseason how Slaten has elite stuff and could end up sliding into the closer role. One reason why I wasn't that down on the moves they made in the bullpen this offseason. I don't care how bad they are. 3 out of 4 is a good.

When you're talking about extensions it certainly does. If a guy is getting record setting money like that it's because they want to go to free agency and you have to offer them something higher to stop it from happening. That kind of money 2-3 years shy of FA is a lot different than offering it in a walk year. Your last sentence is why I make this stand, again and again and again....The Sox f***ing up the Mookie Betts situation should never be a point of criticism of them making smart moves in the future. I think Lou Merloni said something exactly like this in a section 10 podcast and I'm paraphrasing "Just because the Sox didn't sign Mookie Betts doesn't mean they aren't allowed to go out and spend big money ever again" but yet people will bring it up every time they pay a guy money. I'm not saying the Sox did the right thing, that's obviously subjective and Betts is an immense talent. But if you know you can't or won't resign a guy it's best to get something rather than nothing from him. Perhaps a better way to phrase my point is this. If you could definitively know the Sox would not spend what it takes to keep Mookie Betts should they have traded his last year of team control or kept him for one more season? To be fair, you have to pretend like you don't know how s***** Jeter Downs turned out.

DFA'ng Yoshida and assigning him to AAA is a consideration if someone is considering doing it.

No it's not, not alone but lets be real honest and candid here - Turning down the 3rd largest contract extension of all time is effectively saying I'm going to free agency. We could play semantics all day on this, but I'm saying right now that I'm not disputing the difference between definitively saying "I'm going to free agency" and eluding it by saying I'm turning down record money. But like I said, lets be real honest and candid with each other. Turning down record money, coupled with rumors and reports you're going to free agency is saying you're going to free agency. If we are being honest here. Betts saying he wanted to stay isn't evidence of the contrary. Judge wanted to stay in NY, and still chose not to sign an extension. Went to free agency and then came back to the Yankees to give them an opportunity to match/beat. Which they did, if people remember the SF Giants had Judge in the bag until NY swooped in. Maybe Betts stays if the Sox don't trade him and he goes to free agency, but again, if they're not spending the money and he refuses to sign a team friendly deal I can't really blame them for trying to gain assets by trading him.

Yes, he didn't. He's a stud.

A lot depends on what a player does after they leave. If Betts fell off a cliff last year, the Betts talk would have started to subside. A great example of this is Xander Bogaerts, you see VERY little people complaining about the Sox not keeping him here. I get it though, that it's always going to be part of a conversation here. It just irks me when people bring up the Betts debacle as some kind of contention about the Sox making future moves. E.G. people complained about signing Soto because they didn't sign Betts. Even if trading Mookie Betts is the worse move to have ever of been made in the history of sports it shouldn't exclude the Sox from trying to make other moves in the future. I don't think that's what happened here in this conversation so I'm not trying to point anyone out on this board today for this but....I'm just saying.

I'm sorry but that's just an inaccurate reporting of events. The Red Sox offered multiple contract extensions to Betts and he turned them down according to multiple outlets such as CBS and Masslive, as well as talked about over and over again in previously by podcasters who have inside connections to the Sox front office.

I mean, Blake Aita, Luis Cohen, and Austin Ehrlicher are all 21, although to be fair I think they will all be 22 in a few months from now. Aita has great stuff, might end up in a high leverage role in the bullpen if he can't develop another pitch and put it all together. Brady Tygart has some intriguing stuff as well. I think there's a log jam holding up pitching promotions right now. That may be partially relieved once guys like Giolito/Bello get back up to the majors. A few of those guys probably could be moved up to Greenville right now. Then they'd be 21-22 year olds in high A.

I feel like this has been beaten like a dead horse.....because it has. Betts had told them year after year he was going to FA. One might be able to deduce a negotiation tactic at play to get a certain dollar amount the Sox didn't want to meet. That's fair, and to state "because they didn't want to pay him what it took" is accurate. Unfortunately the only evidence we have is that Betts signed an extension before reaching free agency. That anecdotal evidence alone is pretty compelling but the world was also clouded with much more uncertainty in July 2020 than there was in July 2019 and prior. When the world is seemingly falling apart, Every country is shutting down their economy and markets are in a tailspin and they're playing games in empty stadiums....$365 million dollars looks A LOT DIFFERENT. In a alternate reality without an such an unprecedented global pandemic in the modern world does Betts go to free agency? if so, trading him may have been the right thing to do at that point in time not being able to predict the future. Unfortunately we don't live in that world and we will never know for certain. Which is why the Mookie Betts conversation will never ever ever die....until we all just let it go.

The Sox will not be able to hold Anthony down in AAA if he keeps this up, not all year. But can they for a little while? The can, and they probably will. He's a little sore now anyways, so they will have the excuse of giving him some extra time to return to the field and get his defense in order. And this gives more time at the MLB level to see how things will shake out. Eventually someone is going to have to be traded. Duran and Abreu are not bench bats, and the Sox didn't pay Rafaela $50 million dollars to be a bench bat. There was a lot of talk of Campbell ending up in left field. If two out of the three of Bregman doesn't opt out/Story stays healthy and plays well all year/Grissom mashes and becomes who we thought he was all happen the Sox have a similar conundrum in the infield with Mayer (although they probably have a little bit more time here). All this, and we haven't even considered Yoshida yet. Gun to my head, they can move Rafaela to a super utility role and call up Anthony. Feels weird, because you expect Duran to slide into CF where he was elite last year, but this year not so much in LF which should be much easier to play. Which again.....time to shake things out. Even if Anthony continues to do nothing but mash, I can see him staying down in AAA for at least another month. EDIT: how long until #promoteRoman becomes a battle cry in Boston? We are on the cusp of the Roman Empire.

I wouldn't put Bello in Houck boat just yet. This is Bellos spring training, so I don't care so much about the results. I mean, obviously you want to see better results, but I won't panic until he's had a few mlb starts and doesn't look as sharp.

Story is looking good, and healthy so far. Now every shut their darn pie holes and don't mention his name again. Don't jinx this....go find some wood and knock on it.

Tristan Casas actually does have great judgment on the strike zone. The issue is, when you have two strikes on you and you take a borderline pitch. You're going to strike out on that pitch often where's another hitter might foul it off. It's very frustrating, but it's very hard to change habits, Casas might benefit greatly from the inevitable robo umps more than most.

Gilberto Batista, Eddison Paulino, and Cutter Coffey were the three given up. All were middling prospects at the time, I don't think any would be top 20 guys now, I think all three of these guys might have dropped in this system, maybe not Batista as much who is still very young.

Pipeline has already slotted Rodriguez into the #11 slot in the Red Sox farm system. That plus the #33 pick in this years draft is pretty darn amazing. Now imagine if that PTBNL ends up being a stud. I know I know.....now I'm just getting greedy.

My point often is that the money is always crazy, and will only get crazier. I don't think that will change with or without a LT, I'm sure it certainly won't be moving down.

I would too, for now.

Doesn’t Newcomb have to clear waivers?

Looks like Casas is still the 1b next year. And ya’ll thought I was crazy for saying vladdy would get at least $500 million. Devers at $300 doesn’t look so bad now. One thing we forget is what the LT will be at the tail end of these contracts. imagine what paying Cambell only $7.5 million a year 7 years from now will look like.

For all those who freaked out, it’s still just April 7th and Devers OPS is up to .825. Glad he’s right, this lineup is starting to show you how dangerous it can be this year.