Hugh2

PSA Can we please stop throwing Giolito in the same camp as Paxton and Sandoval? Lucas was healthy when he signed and then got hurt. It’s not an accurate comparison.anyone you sign can get hurt, it’s not the same market and structure when going out and signing someone who is already rehabbing.

I would argue they didn’t overpay for Story but rather he got market value. the fact that he’s been injured and underperformed might make it easy in hindsight to believe it was an overpay, because it certainly turned out that way. yoshida on the other hand clearly seems like a gross overpay. And im not sure why a bunch of people weren’t fired over it.

Great move. if the Sox don’t add another GOOD starter who is ready for opening day 2025 then shame on them. but on its own, great depth move.

Yes, you're right. If you're paying all of his salary you would just release him before adding a prospect.

^^^^^ and use the prospect to trade for another catcher.

Yes it does, but that's still going to limit how many teams could actually find use for them on their roster. Pure conjecture and I'm just going to guess to illustrate my point. For the league minimum, perhaps there are 9 teams out there that would put Yoshida on their roster as a DH/pinch hitter type. Without knowing who those teams would be lets just pick two to further illustrate my point (regardless of actually need) lets say one was the Dodgers and one was the Pirates. The Dodgers could eat the money, the Pirates would want the contract paid down. My point is, out of those 9 teams, most are NOT going to want to take on the money. So you're left with a very small pool of teams to trade with. So the expectation should be nothing of value for Yoshida, you're probably packaging up a prospect to get him off your books and still paying down a significant part if not all of his salary of the salary. The value in trading Yoshida is to open up a roster spot; that's it. How much value is adding a bench piece going to make towards the 2025 roster better? Yoshida on or off the roster doesn't really stop you from signing a starter to play the outfield, whether that was Juan Soto or if it's Teoscar Hernandez. But lets say, with the Hernandez addition, you want a defensive utility player taking up Yoshidas spot on the roster, so you trade his contract. So what does that look like? They sign Bregman or Hernandez for $25-$30 million and pay Yoshida $15 million to play elsewhere? So you're now paying $40-$45 million dollars just to have that roster flexibility? Honestly, I think the team would be better by just giving TOP prospect Roman Anthony the job and using that money to sign a front line starter. I'd be very intrigued to see what the Sox do with a Yoshida trade if it happens, but I just don't think it's very likely. And the fact that he's injured only makes it harder, but if he can't start the season he could start the season off the 40 man....so they'd have that roster spot anyways. If a guy or two goes down a month or two into the season, you might want to see how he looks at DH.

I think this is a fact. He can’t field, he doesn’t have a ton of power and he hasn’t been able to stay healthy. Some teams wouldn’t want to make space for him on their roster even if we pay down the whole salary

Yeah, I mean Steven Cohen could pay 1 billion dollars for an ice cream cone if he really wanted too, it doesn't mean hes' going to do it. He's a billionaire. He's more likely to buy the farm that raises the cows and the company that makes the ice cream.

That's exactly my point, he's not going to spend into infinity just because he's rich. In a vacuum, the Mets haven't really signed anyone to an insanely absurd overpriced contract. They've just spent a lot of money. It's like, if you have two cars, and I'm rich and I own 25, I can still have paid market value for all of them and spend more money on cars than you. Just because I'm rich and own a lot of cars it doesn't mean I'm going to pay $250,000 for the $100,000 corvette.

no argument here, I'm not saying he's not insane. I'm just saying it's been more about QTY than just drastically overpaying for guys. Soto's 51 million per year. According to fangraphs the last few years he's been worth: $65 $48 $30 & $54 million; and most guys put up much better stats from 25-30 than they did from 20-25. Soto isn't arguably overpaid AT ALL, the worry is....you're paying him to keep that up for 15 years. But it's not like they're paying him $100 million a year. This argument that Cohen would spend anything on anyone....as if he'd go up to 1.6 billion on Soto is just unfounded.

But Cohen never really spent an unreasonable amount of money, he just bought a lot of players. Sprinkle in a few high AAV but short years E.G. the Verlander/Scherzer. Soto is out of the norm...even for them.

Destroyed the farm? The Sox have 3 prospects in the top 50 and he kept all three and acquired a TOTRS. I suspect the farm to take a steep step back in next years rankings....but it will be because 2 to 3 of Mayer/Anthony/Campbell have graduated.

Yeah well.....Rome wasn't built in a day.

If the Sox sign one of (Burnes/Buehler/Flaherty) or trade for a Seattle pitcher. and then sign one of Teoscar Hernandez/Alex Bregman. Would the offseason still look bleak?

Before Soto the largest contract Cohen gave out was $341 million to Lindor. I know $765 million is a lot of money but everyone has a limit. No way he would have spent $1.6 billion dollars on a player. That's literally more than double what he got now

Well, there's a reason why he's not going to get the same contract as Max Fried. As you said it's a different kind of risk. One I've only been opposed to other years because they've done so in lieu of making other moves. Augmented with higher end safer moves I'm with it. Bieber was my initial choice, as I figured you could sign a Fried or Burnes and have someone like Beiber ready to join the rotation mid season. You can almost predict someone is going to need to come out of the rotation by then.

It's ironic, one of Montgomerys biggest calling cards was how consistent he was, but in hindsight it doesn't seem like he really has the "stuff" to be that good into his 30's. I think the Sox dodged a bullet with that one. Good for Breslow for avoiding that one.

Symptoms are: Fear of old people, particularly pitchers Fear of doctors and hospitals allergic to giving out money. Giving out too much money at once can result in a massive breakout of Hives.

They got John Henry's disease.....it's very debilitating.

he had his first TJS in 2015 right after he was drafted, and then again in 2022. So......he should be good to go for 5 years.

They did sign 55 pitchers the past two IFA signing periods.....should have been 60

It's kind of crazy, but I wouldn't hate Jansen back here on a 1 year deal, maybe with a vesting option.

Especially when we have it. If we had Skubal and Wheeler at the top of our rotation but very little starting pitching after that Nick Pivetta would be the perfect offseason get for us. That is not the case.

Does anyone here really think we can elevate this club to something better than it's been the past several years by signing the same guys? Yeah, Pivetta is reliably a BOTRS and we got a pletora of those. We don't need Pivetta, we need someone who can raise the ceiling of the rotation. And you know, I don't really want to say this because if it were true you'd think you would of seen a dominant performance but Pivetta is an enigma. From a pure stuff perspective, he's really good.....he should be better than his numbers suggest he is.

Nah man, I call ******** on that I'm sorry. Kluber was 37. Father time beats us all, every single one of us. Most baseball players are either retired or a mirror image of their younger self at 37. Banking on a 30 year old to put up average career numbers is an entirely different thing than saying a 37 year old can. You're at that age where you're either IN SERIOUS DECLINE.....or any year you're going to fall off a cliff. Kluber ran off that cliff full throttle!!!! Kluber hit the wall that year, it's blatantly obvious he hit that wall. Buehler can be a lot of things, for better or worse, but this is not even CLOSE to being a comparison. Buehler ain't up against the wall. He's either back or he aint'. Sometimes guys need time to get back, and if that is him.....pulling it together at the end of the year and looking stronger as the season goes on is EXACTLY what you would expect. I could be wrong, Buehler could be an awful investment. I can admit that, I actually have no problem admitting that and for the official record he is not my first choice (I continue to want Burnes) but Kluber is an awful comparison, there's none to be had between the two really. Sorry.