5GoldGlovesOF,75

I didn't go out of my way; I just mentioned LA because they have two rotations -- no one can ignore a club so rich it can basically rest Snell, Glasnow and Ohtani all summer so they'll be fresh in the postseason. They could care less about regular season WAR... as long as they win all the playoff wars.

The A's have talented young position players, but their rebuilding has a ceiling with no cellar; in other words, they rebuilt from the top down -- opposite of most of the successful blueprints that pour a foundation with... ... Starting Pitching. The frequently last place Red Sox did it that way by finally acquiring their Crochet. Even the Boston champs from earlier this century knew the value of trading for a Pedro or Schill or Beckett or Sale. Start with an ace, then add another ace to put you over the top. Ranger Suarez anyone? Sonny Gray? It's folly to say they're the best when they haven't even played together yet, and the Dodgers have Cy Youngs from all over the world. But Boston's Big Three Arms -- if they can just maintain their past professionalism, will be tough to beat. Here's a spin on your team-for-team trade proposal: while most of us (you and I, at least) would trade the Red Sox regulars for the A's regulars, would you swap entire 26-man rosters? I would venture to guess 99% of Talksox wouldn't... but maybe 98% of A's fans.

It's great you're that optimistic, but Honus Wagner isn't available. Seriously, I thought my post based on last year's returning bats was being realistic. We'd all love the handful of decent returnees to repeat their '25 stats, and the young guys to improve, and the hurt guys to come back better than ever. But is all that realistic?

I'm on record here that Duran won't be a successful full-time DH. Too much energy to waste sitting in the dugout waiting for another at bat. Plus, I sense a guy like him is better sprinting all night all over the diamond -- on and off to leftfield, moving on defense on every pitch, running down balls in flight or bouncing in the gaps, backing up plays... rather than thinking too much about doing the one thing in sports with the highest rate of failure.

It still comes down to this: the offense isn't good enough. It's not good enough to win 90 games, it's not good enough to win four consecutive series in October, and it's not even as good as last year. For OPS fans, Boston lost four of its top six batters from 2025: Devers, Refsnyder, Bregman and even Lowe. You can look it up. The Sox have added one bat: Contreras. So unless you're UPGRADING the batting order, there really is no sensible reason to trade an outfielder -- when that quartet and Trevor Story are the best returning hitters based on '25 (nod to drewski).

I saw a good one on another site: Caminero for Rafaela, Early, Witherspoon and Arias. The thinking is that Tampa just acquired Ben Williamson, a third base prospect from Seattle in the Donovan three-way deal. Junior hit 45 homers as a 21-year old -- something Roman Anthony has yet to approach at the same age. But the Rays are always willing to deal quality for quantity. Caminero had a negative dWAR at 3B last year, while Williamson's strength is his defense... wonder which one Breslow would prefer.

We have to keep our cats indoors from lions, coyotes and bears -- the first two would eat them, but the bears knock over our big green trash can on pick-up day and pull bags out, which the rescue cats would then scatter all over the mountain.

I hope the pythons all freeze. Or do they go into suspended animation and come back to life when it warms up, like garden worms?

A year ago, after being outplayed in Spring Training by two other top prospects, Campbell was handed a job as a starting big leaguer. A year later, he could go all Fitzy and hit half a dozen homers in Florida and still get cut. Ironic... (I'd say moronic, but it's still February and the Red Sox are still missing at least one starting infielder).

Ya, that swap sounds more reasonable than what I read this AM: Donovan for Tolle... and Harrison... AND Valera. I wouldn't trade Tolle straight up for Donovan... but I might do Harrison OR Valera.

The one thing I remember and liked about Baty that I saw in person in the minors is that he always tried to hit to the opposite field, which kept his head on the ball... and would play well in a home ballpark with a 37-foot high leftfield wall that is 310 feet from home plate.

Even wanting him gone?

Sure, but perch are often confused in name with pickerel, which are from the pike family and known as walleye in Canada. As long as they keep all the carp out of our waters, because carp are an invasive species. If only the DEP (Department of Environmental Pollution) could hire a school of masked piranhas to patrol lakes and ponds... though I've never known fish to wear masks before this year.

Everyone should speak the native language of their country. So all English speakers that live in the U.S. should learn how to speak Algonquian... but wait, didn't their ancestors once enter the continent across the mythical land bridge to Alaska? That does it, anyone east of the Mississippi needs to speak brook trout -- not rainbow trout or brown trout, because those were imported -- but brookie: the one true indigenous freshwater species.

SECOND BASEMAN. More importantly, what's the latest word in the Chicago area about trading Nico Horner to Boston? It's Febrooary -- the first month of Spring Training 2026. Sorry, I'm looking for reputable sources, most of which have become extinct since flip phones (though those are making a comeback because they have to be opened to use -- and won't automatically call my sister any time I'm near my dumb phone).

It was a big gamble at the time, but before testing. My patience. But back then, most frauds saying not to believe your own eyes and ears were in the shadows with Mulder and Scully.

I think Betancourt is the only one originally drafted or signed by Boston. Javy Guerra, traded by Dombro in the Kimbrel deal, was one SS converted to pitcher. But like Duran said: out of about 400 (this century). Then there was Frankie Rodriguez, who all the baseball card mags in the 1990s touted as a mighty pre-Ohtani two-way prospect. He never played shortstop in the bigs, but did have one single for Seattle in 1999, and tied me for zero MLB homers.

All we ever heard is that shortstop prospects can move anywhere on the diamond. Still waiting for one to convert to pitcher. Wakefield and Tolle could hit homers, but they were first basemen...

February is in three days. But it will always be "still early" on Red Sox message boards, all the way until the trade deadline every summer when nothing you hope for ever gets added.

Ya, I don't wanna be a downer, but then I looked at the thread title: "A Realistic Look at 2026"... It's great the starting rotation looks deep, but I always feel a team is defined by position players, the regulars who play every night and not just once a week. Argue all you want about pitching, then again the Sox starters may not be better than even Texas: deGrom, Eovaldi, Gore, Leiter, Junis. I really like Ranger Suarez; he reminds me of Luis Tiant coming off the '75 World Series. And that team with so much promise went into 1976 with a rotation of Looie, two other All-Star pitchers in Wise and Lee, and a winter acquisition headed to Cooperstown: Fergie Jenkins. The '26 Sox have a handful of pretty good guys on the field and in the batting order, but no stars. That '76 Boston club had Hall of Famers like Yaz, Rice and Fisk, plus MVP Lynn, Dwight Evans and Cecil Cooper (Most Similar Batter on bb-ref: Don Mattingly). They won 83 games.

This is what most of the forum has been saying all winter. But when you post it, it sounds like... most still agree. And Jimmy with a "y" is still pickin. The dogs of doom are howling more.

Thanks -- some strong quotes: extremely advanced hitter... rarely swings and misses... such a smart hitter... If he is indeed all those things, then I bet the pop-up issue is from taking his eye off the ball while trying to show extra-base power. At some point in the minors, all position player prospects try to homer their way into the big leagues.

Boston certainly needs a good starting second baseman or third baseman from outside the org, and a righty-swinging outfielder/DH for Cora to carry and sometimes platoon or pinch-hit for whichever lefty-swinging outfielder isn't traded. In the playoff batting order, Refsnyder led off and Romy cleaned up -- those are the two hitters I'm removing, except your proposed '26 order has Duran 1st and Abreu 4th -- which is ironic, because one of them has to go. Your order isn't bad, and Cora loves the alternating L-R-L-R set-up, but I can't see any way the Red Sox will keep three lefty bats like Duran, Abreu and Yoshida to share DH, a corner outfield spot, and a seat on the bench. Duran is just too antsy to sit around the dugout as a full-time DH, and Abreu is a two-time Gold Glover that Cora already said needs to bat against both righties and lefties this year...

I don't get The Athletic so didn't see Law's complete quote that included the year. I just read NESN.com's recap of his opinion on Arias, doe a deer a female deer.

Second and third in the batting order.