5GoldGlovesOF,75

No, but those clearance sales didn't include beloved fan favorites who were stars (except for maybe Lester, a guy fans respected for what he endured to become a homegrown ace). The Punto trade got rid of a disaster in Crawford, and complainers -- chicken-and-beer boy Beckett and I don't-like-Sunday-nights AGon. Of all the vets the Sox dealt in '14, most were on the downside: Lackey, Peavy, Dubront, Gomes, Vic. Andrew Miller turned out to be the prize, but wasn't yet a stud. The '14 purge helped win a ring -- four years later -- with staff additions like Porcello, Rodriquez, Kelly and Hembree. But besides Lester, none of the guys the Sox gave up were missed, bemoaned or as valuable as Mookie, or as prime-time special as JD's bat or JBJ's glove (assuming they're the next regulars to be moved).

The Red Sox still have to field a team, and a viable product, and good starting pitchers are the first priority no matter when they're ready to start competing again. Fans might accept trading one great position player if they know he's going to leave anyway -- and this remains to be seen -- but the Nation will never accept clearing the roster like the Marlins or Orioles. There's no need to hit rock bottom like small market teams if you're Boston, especially at the risk of losing your constituency.

If he's solid and healthy, you ride a horse at the top of the rotation. Question (someone could start a poll): who do you predict will have the most innings pitched in the next three years: Sale, Eovaldi or Price? I rank them in the order I listed.

JD for sure will be gone -- you know the Bloom regime won't let him opt out before getting "value" back in return. Nate you hold onto. A starter with his stuff under contract is what rebuilding teams need to build around...

Pete Rose should sue the MLB for selling a sponsorship to a gambling organization.

Shut up, Tex. He played on the Yankees' last title team with ARod, Cano, Melky and Pettitte -- and those are only the publicly-known PED users. Who knows how many others on the '09 champs were tainted... I guess Mark didn't know any, or he'd have outed them all. Hypocrite.

So, the Sox are paying Perez and their entire bullpen as much as they're paying Price just to go away. Makes you wonder when the Yankees will feel a similar need with Cole in the next nine years. Love the spotlight shift so far -- MLB.com's top story a few days ago hyped Cole throwing 98 in his first outing! I kept looking for a blurb on Eovaldi throwing 100, but it must have been deleted...

I like what I'm seeing from Duran, driving the ball more; early success can build two-fold confidence -- for his improvement, and for a Sox promotion (if mediocrity causes a mid-season sell). The Ellsbury comp that someone brought up earlier would be a good ceiling: 7 Sox seasons, .297 BA, .350/.439/.789 slash, 21.3 WAR (5 WAR avg. in four full years), maybe a little more pop but less stolen bases... Just don't expect instant glory -- remember Ells came up in a title run surrounded by stars at their peaks.

Nah, this actually works in their favor: now they can play Tauchman, a much better all-around play-- wait, Beltran's not there this year to tell him what pitch is coming!

I think we're going to see more arms getting early promotions from the minors. While it never made sense to rush a prospect into a traditional MLB rotation, expecting him to achieve or exceed an unrealistic workload, it does make sense in Bloom's world of openers and bullpen games to bring up a live arm and let it fly for an inning or two. We hear a lot these days of "putting a player in situations where he can succeed", and what could be better for a young pitcher than letting him unleash his stuff at the beginning of a game, with no pacing expectations, no high leverage late-inning pressure, and no overthinking? Then as he gets accustomed to the Show, slowly stretch him out into more innings and longer, more meaningful roles...

Not to mock you, but this concise and ironic post shows the perfect hypocrisy of this entire scandalous winter -- and also why I just cannot get bent out of shape over whatever "facts" are revealed in any investigations... ... by a sport that has always been defined by secret codes involving basically everyone in uniform: defensive codes from catchers to pitchers and infielders, who then communicate with their own codes, and also relay the signs to outfielders with different codes; as well as offensive codes from batters to baserunners, and vice versa -- with most initiated by managers and coaches from dugouts or coach's boxes. With all of them constantly trying to crack each other's codes. Technology has predictably brought in new sophistication, and it's not even plausible that the Yankees didn't delve... even NY fans would admit their club can afford -- and would expect their club to employ -- top of the industry analytics and IT experts. But the Yanks didn't win -- the Astros and Red Sox did, and so have the targets on their backs. And shutting down replay monitors isn't going to change much, because video is everywhere and it's not going away -- unless they put metal detectors with little baskets for cellphones and ipads at entrances to dugouts and bullpens. Even that won't stop tens of thousands of people in the stands pointing smartphones at the diamond -- and who knows how many of those folks are club employees?

Careful; you can't expect either to walk back on the mound into instant stardom -- on a team expected to win it all; one's coming off an injury, the other from injuring someone else....

I agree that was a part of it, but I never agreed they would suck being led by a future Hall of Famer. Henry can also afford the tax, and everything I see these days about the next CBA says the tax max will be restructured anyway. Plus, not only do I expect the Sox to add pitching in the next few years, I also expect some of the arms they already invested in to start earning their contracts. Beginning this season... But I have to confess I haven't been able to stomach watching any Mookie-in-blue videos; not in interviews, not in practices, not in games... so far. I'll probably watch him in the All-Star Game (in LA) and the postseason.

Ha, my point has always been that players of every era will always do whatever they can to get an edge, so "let them all in", as in all the best of each era -- and not just Bonds and Clemens... (wait, there are already bronzed contemporaries who were freaks of nature, like 45-year-olds throwing no-hitters or skinny third basemen who got really thick and played thousands of games in a row). I dunno about Rose, though. What would the MLB's sponsors say... like freakin' Draft Kings??????

I'm with you on that one; watching Mookie's salary drive lead Boston back into contention is what I campaigned for all winter. As for the salary dump, I still say Betts was included to get rid of Price -- because there was no other way anyone one else was going to take him off our hands without the greatest pot-sweetener in history. The owners can blab all they want about "the value" we got back, but they knew they weren't going to pay Mookie, and were glad to get even a bag of BP balls in return.

He'd get suspended for the chemistry, but only for using after the MLB banned it. Like PED users or video users... I always love when some writers say Bonds and Clemens should be in the Hall, since they were already great before they juiced. Ya, and Son of Sam served in the US Army before he started shooting teenagers in parked cars (that's the best notin analogy I can come up with tonight).

Whaddayamean? Haven't you been listening to Henry, Warner, Kennedy and Bloom all winter? We're going for it -- this year and every year!

I was impressed by him in the Boston series in July and was convinced they'd demand him in any Betts trade. After a good rookie year and better upside, Verdugo appeared to be the best replacement available. Other posters inadvertently agreed, when they mocked my insistence at his inclusion for one-year-of-Mookie. Obviously, the odds of a monumental, franchise-defining trade turning out positive go down when the centerpiece is damaged goods. Though young guys can heal quickly from muscle pulls (legs, even shoulders, obliques, etc.), two problem areas that can linger forever are knees or backs...

Bottom line: by trading Betts, they never expected -- or intended -- to contend in 2020. It was pretty obvious, but Verdugo's status further confirms it.

Don't worry -- this is exactly why the Yankees are safe -- despite the Beltran before-and-after connection (how is it even feasible his special talents weren't used or at least one of the reasons he was rehired after retirement?), not to mention incriminating words from Chris Young, Logan Morrison and even Girardi, himself. Of course there were/are many teams using tech to get any edge they could/can, because every club has an analytics department. All we know for sure right now about the Houston scandal is that it was not "player-driven" as reported by Manfred, but a system devised by non-players in the front office, and that Cora and Beltran were hardly masterminds, but maybe -- just maybe, since they were both gone and easy scapegoats for the Astros to blame -- master implementers.

That seems to be the prevailing theme: 2020 -- Nothing to get excited about. Sam Kennedy should send you a check for royalties (or in this case, peasantries). Just wait til next year, when our new coveted flexibility can put the likes of Trevor Bauer in crimson hosiery.

Strong calves, well-balanced, unreliant on fossil fuels...

You mean, can he stay on his feet and not twist a knee in a bullpen every single year like our top returning winner (just did again)!

That's quite an opinion. I might counter using those same words to suggest that anyone in a particular era is not tainted or under suspicion by the culture in question.

Don't forget (I wish I could) the Red Sox in 1990 with Larry Anderson, who was great for 15 games... except the guy he was traded for was great for 15 years.