TedYazPapiMookie

The Duran haters never stop. FACT (CLUTCH FACTOR DEFINED BY BASEBALL REFERENCE) 2 out RISP - Duran .396 That fact alone makes all the bogus information in this article obsolete. FYI 2 out RISP - Abreu .233 This suggests Abreu is the player that needs to go since he is the weaker defender, can't hit LH pitchers and is missing the clutch gene. CAREER STATS 2 out RISP - Duran .304 and Abreu .289 So Duran is raising his clutch factor in 2025 and Abreu has dropped his clutch factor by 56 points. Isn't it fun to see facts instead of unsubstantiated conjecture? I still don't understand after all Duran has done for Boston (despite being screwed over by Cora) why there are so many haters in the ranks of the Boston Fan Base. The opposite is true for Abreu who has gotten every break in the book from Cora. Duran remains under rated especially by the haters and Abreu remains grossly overrated by a similar group of fans who simply can't accept Duran as the better player making the following true. ABREU SHOULD BE THE ODD MAN OUT IN THE OUTFIELD!!! RAFAELA SHOULD OWN RF PERMANENTLY. DURAN SHOULD OWN CF PERMANENTLY and ATHONY SHOULD OWN LF PERMANENTLY.

Again, cherry picking and insults. That's always been the issue with you. Your response has nothing to do with my comment it's just a cheap shot that is irrelevant and your ignorant friends who gave you thumbs up on your other cheap shot of me shows you are the primary instigator of the abuse. You should be removed as a moderator and frankly from the site too.

With all the injuries, risk tolerance should suggest he be packaged to some other team for a current need of the 2026 ball club. His value on paper doesn't bring home wins or division titles or world series rings. That's the harsh reality of an injury prone player. BOB HORNER always come to mind for me because he had awesome talent and couldn't stay on the field. Heck, Bryce Harper at a young age had injuries issues for years and ended up at 1B where he still had issues for a while. You have a guy with a bad wrist which impacts hitting and throwing since it's his right wrist. Even after surgery, it will take time to rebuild his physical health to be able to hit with the power he had when he was younger. He's a great kid, but how fair is it to others who also play SS for the team to hold his spot open for him when he's finally right? If Story returns to his previous Red Sox form in 2026 is the answer really the injury prone Mayer when you have a healthy SS named Campbell in the organization? Why isn't he working out at SS if he's not going to be promoted to the MLB in 2025? Afterall, the wasted effort at him playing 1B when the team now has Lowe and Casas returning next year is a joke. Campbell should be returned to his natural position of SS like in 2024 to prep him as a back-up to Story in 2026 because Mayer is not reliable enough to fill that position. The opt outs suggested are farfetched at best. Nobody is willing to pay Bregman more than $80Million over the next two years and we can extend him if it appears someone else is willing to extend him. Story IS NEVER getting $23.3 Million from another team after putting up a 94 OPS+ for four years in BOS. The left side of the infield will be Bregman and Story and Anthony should be in LF behind them. They are the three best hitters on the team based on historical performance. The team will guess incorrectly that Narvaez will be the Catcher in 2026 just like they expected Wong to be in 2025 and were wrong. Duran, Rafaela and Abreu will start the year on the 2026 roster, but Abreu really has no place to play since he's not replacing Anthony and Duran and Rafaela are both better defenders than Abreu and are not platoon hitters. Mayer likely will play ahead of Campbell at 2B despite being injury prone and not earning it and Casas and Campbell will probably be wrongfully traded (one of them) to make room for Nate Lowe. Basically, the hitting side of the team will probably look almost identical to this season so no opts are going to happen in my opinion and Cora will continue to make the same personnel mistakes. 2026 should look a lot like 2025 except I believe Breslow will significantly improve the pitching staff with some of the Devers money.

One injury is blown off with the statement that "it could happen to anyone." Two injuries in back-to-back seasons where you miss significant time and you don't hit like a first round pick is concerning. Three injuries in back-to-back-to-back seasons where you miss significant time is a HUGE RED FLAG especially when the player is finally hitting like he was supposed to hit his first three seasons. During this entire time fans love Mayer for his athleticism despite all his errors at SS. Then he gets a call-up and plays 3B and 2B, positions he didn't play much in the minors and for a small sample size looks like the fielder he was supposed to be, and then he gets hurt yet again for significant time. Here is his injury history: 2022 - Right wrist injury which impacts one's ability to hit and throw effectively 2023 - Shoulder soreness injury which impacts one's ability to hit and field 2024 - Lumbar strain injury which impacts one's ability to hit 2025 - Right wrist injury which again impacts his ability to hit and throw effective These injuries have been used as excuses as to why he was so mediocre at hitting and bad at fielding until 2024. The injuries may have caused his very average numbers in the minors, but the fact remains he can't seem to avoid them so is his value still his potential or is it his actual performance due to injuries? I've been arguing for the past several years that his performance is all about execution and that's the value of a player which made him no better than Meidroth despite his athleticism. People prefer to suggest his paper skills are more accurate than his actual performance, but I disagree. Until he actually performs at a star level his prospect rating is completely misleading. Only Anthony has proven his prospect rating to be correct so far. The key question for the front office is - "How many more seasons will you keep the SS position protected/reserved for Mayer? In 2024 Campbell was asked to play half his games at his normal position of SS because Mayer got hurt again in 2023. Now that BOS has two qualified SSs, someone needs to decide to the future of the position. Either keep Story at SS for the remainder of his contract and permanently reposition Mayer at another position like 2B so Campbell is free to pursue a long-term position as well OR keep Mayer as a utility player since he's completely unreliable and make Campbell the future 2B and ONLY 2B so he can get back to contributing to the success of the Red Sox. With the addition of Nate Lowe, the 1B position in 2026 can be Lowe or Casas so the wasted effort to convert Campbell to a 1B just shows the stupidity of the front office/Cora when it comes to planning the future. They forced the Minor League Player of the Year to be a utility player so the injury prone prospect could have a spot in the infield when Story finally lived up to his contract and Bregman returned from his injury. Somebody needs to get their ____ together and figure out where the long-term positions are for the top prospects that graduated to the MLB this year. Based on what's left in the minors (other than Garcia) it's going to be years before we see the same or higher level of talent in the farm system at any position other than pitcher. For me, it always comes back to firing Cora because this team just needs some good old fashion baseball logic to determine the batting order and the best defensive set-up. The fact that Anthony has proven to be good enough to stay makes him the weakest defender among Duran and Rafaela placing him in LF in the tradition of Ted, Yaz and Jim Rice. Duran clearly is outstanding in CF and Rafaela is the best defender on the team and should play the most difficult field - RIGHT FIELD. Abreu and his platoon issues needs to be outside the normal fielding line-up and focused on the one thing he does well and that is hitting RH pitchers as a DH or PH. Refsnyder can be the other half of the DH tandem and either of them can fill the role of 4th outfielder making the outfield one of the best in baseball. Mayer like Abreu is the piece of the puzzle that doesn't really fit anywhere. He could be the injury prone SS if Story was not here yet Campbell could be the more reliable choice for that position if Story was not available or Mayer could be the injury prone 2B when you have the player of the year qualified to play the same position 150 games a year not 110. His presence ruins things for Campbell just like Abreu's presence ruins things for Rafaela. If the front office prefers Mayer and Abreu, then give Campbell and Rafaela a chance to play for another team who will see that they are the two superior choices to the platoon guy and the injury prone guy. The misuse of resources continues to be a huge issue under Cora.

They picked him up and if Campbell gets brought back to play 2B and Rafaela goes to RF with Duran in CF the team has a shot at winning the division. No way that happens because the manager is a numbskull. Breslow needs to dictate to him, but he won't because when Boston fails with this much talent, he'll finally have the ammo to FIRE Cora!!! Oh, happy day!!!!

As a comparison, when Mookie got traded, he pretty much stayed the same all-star level player and got extended which further stuck the knife in the back of all Red Sox fans and the three alleged qualify prospects were exactly what I pointed out in 2020, crap. Verdugo was injury prone and inconsistent; Downs had 12 good games at the end of 2019 to go with his 298 bad games prior to being promoted to AA and that boosted his prospect rating from around 200 to 44 thanks to a bunch of bull provided by Friedman and Wong was the 6th best catcher in a fully loaded LAD farm system. They were NEVER going to equal one year of Mookie let alone 13 years of Mookie. Worst trade in Boston history. The Priester trade may produce better prospects, but Priester has already put us far behind in the balance of the trade. My belief is that the imbalance will grow as time passes but just the opposite could happen as well.

First, it's clear you are inexperienced in baseball and have some very naive beliefs about the game so I will be very specific about why your opinion doesn't support standard baseball thinking. If you had played, you'd realize what it takes to change positions mid-season and how frustrating it is to not be as good at your second position on defense as you are at your first position. That frustration eats into your hitting. Next, Mookie played 2B in the minors at ages 18 to 20 (12 years ago). Yes in 2011 he was a SS, then in 2012 split time at SS and 2B at LOW A, then in 2013 he played 2B at A, Hi-A and the AFL and only played 1 game at SS his 20-year-old season. At 21 he went to MLB for BOS and played 1219 games at OF including with the Dodgers. He then got moved to SS in 2023 for 16 games because Roberts is as dumb as Cora as a manager. The arm injuries that can stem from changing arm angles on throws mid-season can be devastating. Torn labrums, rotator cuffs and TJ surgery can result. That's why changing positions usually happens in the off season when you can make thousands of throws over a 6-month period. Mookie's full time move to SS in 2025 has resulted in his worst hitting season EVER. Yes, he was an infielder 12 years ago but it's not like riding a bicycle, hours and hours of practice to be as good at SS as he was a RF is the way Mookie approaches the game as a perfectionist. Clearly, his focus being shifted has impacted his hitting. By next year, I fully expect his hitting numbers to rebound as he settles in at SS with a comparable skill level to his RF skill level.

You might want to check the stats on the probability of a 5th round pick making the MLB, then making the all-star team. Priester has proven his skill level is high enough that he's a huge asset for Milwaukee and BOS received three guys that may never impact their team and are long, long shots to be equivalent to Priester. For me, that's a decisive win for Milwaukee. Choosing the horses at 99-1 odds is a fun risk even if the three that are coupled on the race card look good on the track. The fact remains, their chances of beating the favorite are slim to none. BOS needed SPs and gave an outstanding one to another team and got back 3 colts that at best have "potential" thus leaving BOS far worse off to compete in 2025.

Seems like this was a forced article since it makes no sense. First, Tolle just arrived in AAA and got clobbered then pitched well. The fact that he did well in AA does NOT suggest he's ready for MLB hitters. If the team is in the playoffs, you should not be looking for a AA pitcher to be your savior. It's not going to happen. Sandlin is getting clobbered in AAA so that's a joke of a suggestion. Nate Eaton has been up before and was an acceptable back-up that never played 1b or 2b the two places BOS needs help. He won't contribute much if he is called up unless he plays 1B or 2B. David Hamilton had 143 plate appearances to prove he simply can't hit!!! Unless he learns how to steal first base, his value is limited to being a pinch runner. That is a wasted roster spot during the playoffs. Your logic on Campbell is insane. You are as clueless as Cora when it comes to player development. Campbell should have been back in the MLB a month ago when he figured out how to play 1B and no longer let it impact his hitting. Now he's experienced at 1B where Toro has fallen off the table and 2B where the injury prone Mayer is out for the year and Gonzalez has fallen off the table. If Cora was smart enough to bring him up to play just ONE position, I'm sure he'll do well because unlike others wasting roster spots Campbell has the clutch gene and that's rare. Wake up and smell the coffee...... Nobody makes more sense than Campbell!!! Whoever suggested the lame approach to player development that you spewed about Campbell needs to be dropped from your baseball reference list. The Minor League Player of the Year earned more respect than you are showing him. The Red Sox missed their chance to get depth at 1B, 2B and C at the deadline. The team has 3 underperforming players and six that are performing well if Cora moves Rafaela to right field and uses either Toro, Gonzalez or Campbell at 2B and pushes the platoon hitters Abreu and Refsnyder to the DH position or uses Yoshida there. Without a solid catcher or 1B/2B BOS will struggle down the stretch but it will be worse than it already is if Cora keeps using Rafaela at 2B and not RF. Abreu is an adequate defender, but Rafaela is far superior, and Duran is an outstanding CF and Anthony is a staple in LF for a decade or two. Whether it is Yoshida at DH or the platoon outfielders the defense is maximized when Rafaela plays RF. That's a simple fact

Seriously? Did you ever play baseball above the HS level? Go look up how many players struggled when after playing one position for years they got moved to somewhere else and their hitting dropped off. Heck, it's happening to Mookie Betts this year. Cora is an idiot, and his moves hurt his players ALL THE TIME. He should be fired for lack of baseball knowledge and his inability to relate to prospects. He's damaged the performances of Duran, Rafaela and now Campbell. That's unacceptable. Throw in his inability to handle in-game situations as a manager, and he's the worst manager in baseball. I rank him below Don Zimmer and Bobby Valentine!!!

All we've heard about over the last couple of years are Mayer and Anthony. I understood the praise for Anthony based on his performance stats and watching him, but I have never agreed with all the hype about Mayer. His stats were far below expectations for a 4th pick in the draft, if you compare him to others in the first round of the same draft (like Cowser and others) he's been a huge disappointment. I watch him play and he has good athleticism but poor performance on defense. He's a showcase guy not a reliable shortstop. He proves it every year and that's why his fielding percentage in the minors was barely above Devers!!! Yes, the worst 3B in history and his minor league success rate at getting outs on balls hit to him was roughly 15% below league average but his athleticism made fans overlook all his mistakes because he's athletic and smooth with a solid arm. I believe performance is more important that athleticism, so I consider him grossly over-rated and when I saw Meidroth and his numbers I laughed at the fact that he was an ugly looking player from an athleticism standpoint but had outperformed Mayer as a complete nobody. Fans hated me stating the facts because BOS has marketed the crap out of Mayer. The NESN Clowns who get to market concepts to millions of BOS fans couldn't stop going on about how great a defender this .952 fielding percentage player is and how he will be the best infielder defender for the next 10 years. Horsecrap!!!! He had 928 total chances in the minors at SS and made 44 errors. He only had 15 total chances at 3B and 45 total chances at 2B in the minors so he was truly a full time SS ONLY. In the majors he's had 68 chances at 3B where Bregman plays so his performance is irrelevant since he won't be playing there while Bregman is around, he's been pushed to 2B by Cora where he had 29 total chances without an error after having 45 total chances in the minors with 3 errors. So the NESN Clowns bragged about how great a fielder this guy was at two positions without even having 100 total chances at the two positions together after he sucked in the minors at his SS position. That's complete horsecrap. That's why I highlight Mayer's crap performance so much. The propaganda about him is disgusting. The media is NOT telling the truth about his defensive skills; they are grossly exaggerating them. I just want the public to know the truth. That's all. Mayer doesn't control the BS spewed by NESN and the front office, so I don't blame him. They play down his annual injuries which is concerning now that it's happened 4 of 5 seasons. In the meantime, guys like Duran, Rafaela and Campbell don't get the Public Relations support of Mayers and Anthony. That's completely unfair. If ONLY Anthony was being shoved down fans throats, I would be fine with that because he is the best prospect by far but when other players like Mayer and Abreu get false support from the PR department, I constantly try to set the record straight by listing THEIR ACTUAL STATS not the crap the NESN clowns comment on during game broadcasts. So, no obsessive dislike for the player, just an obsessive dislike for the misinformation spread by the PR dept and NESN. The kid and his family seem like great people. Let his performance do the talking and let there be objective opinions about his performance by the media. That's all. Another year or two of injuries and he'll be a modern-day Bob Horner who was also a first-round pick that played 10 years and averaged 102 games a season thanks to injuries.

Injury prone is a label Mayer's earned before this season. Boston has put their eggs in ONE basket named Mayer for SS in the future and it's a HUGE mistake. The word unreliable comes to mind when I think of Mayer. He had a blah minor league performance since being drafted in 2021 until he finally broke-out in 2024 and promptly got hurt yet again and missed his AAA experience that Campbell and Anthony participated in. Mayer started 2025 doing well in Spring Training and then mouthed off about how he deserved to make the team. That's a great insight into who this privileged kid is. It's got to be killing him that Anthony has proven to be a far greater stud than he was supposed to be as the 4th pick in the draft. His performance in AAA this season prior to being promoted was no great shakes and now that Campbell has been in AAA as long as Mayer, he has better numbers yet remains in AAA while Toro, Gonzalez and Narvaez are all failing to hit in the second half. Campbell's future got screwed up by Cora when he converted a SS to 2B to OF and then 1B all while starting off on fire with his hitting. As we are observing right now, players don't hit as well when they are stressed out not playing their normal position. Rafaela can't hit when he plays 2B and Campbell stopped hitting when he got stuck trying to move to 1B because Story was playing well which forced the injury prone Mayer to 2B and wrongfully pushed Campbell out. The Minor League Player of the Year is being treated like crap by Cora and the fan base should be screaming to remove Cora for all his mistakes and prejudice. Campbell outperformed Mayer on defense at SS and 2B in the minors and would have in the MLB had he not been jerked around and asked to play 3 other positions other than the new one he was learning. Campbell is a great athlete and has accomplished so much more than Mayer since he was drafted just 2 years ago that it's a travesty what Cora is doing to him. Mayer should NOT be the future at SS in BOS and if Campbell is going to be forced into a different position based on the biased choices of Cora then let him learn JUST ONE position and leave him there so he can be the best possible player he can be at that position. He's not a utility player like Cora, he's a legitimate star as he proved in 2024. Stop messing with and let him settle in at one position that will help the Red Sox the most and watch him grow into an all-star.

Priester is a quality MLB SP and Rodriguez is a 19-year-old prospect that has not dominated at ROK, A ball or Hi-A ball. Great young players don't put up numbers like Rodriguez, they put up numbers like Anthony and Campbell did. With as many games as Priester has pitched, he's proven himself as a middle of the rotation starter on a team loaded with pitching. In Boston, he would be the #2 SP but instead we have a weak outfield prospect that won't surpass Anthony, Duran and Rafaela for many, many years if ever. Breslow has gathered talent for Boston in Crochet and Bregman and he's lost Sale and Priester. The Devers deal was by far the most effective deal earning back $260 Million of wasted future payroll and if any of the other parts provide value it's icing on the cake. I like the job Breslow has done but Sale and Priester will remain two of his biggest mistakes but he's so superior to Bloom it's not funny. It's like comparing Bonds as a player to Alex Cora as a player, they are not in the same stratosphere.

Lowe has post season experience with the Rangers. He scored 10 runs and drove in 6 runs while batting in the middle of the Ranger order in the 2023 post season. His OPS was only good in the HOU series (he was in 4 series with Tex). Houston is a likely opponent in October. We have no idea how the rookies will play during the playoffs so having someone with experience is a good idea. Who has tailed off in the second half? Narvaez 1st half .273 2nd Half .130 Toro 1st half .271 2nd Half .183 Gonzalez 1st half .326 2nd Half .242 Abreu 1st half .256 with 18 HRs 2nd Half ..240 with 3 HRs (HRs are his primary value as a hitter) Rafaela hitting as a 2B .136 as an OF .277 (Cora is clueless as to the impact of moving guys so he can force Abreu into the line-up while his production is falling off as it always does in the second half) WHO IS IMPROVING? Duran 1st half .258 with .749 OPS 2nd half .277 with .942 OPS Bregman 1st half .298 2nd Half .302 VERY CONSISTENT Story 1st half .257 2nd Half .260 Consistent but trending upward Anthony 1st half .264 2nd Half .293 TRENDING UP SIGNIFICANTLY Yoshida only up since July so his July number was .239 and August is .296 and he faces both LH and RH pitchers!!!!! Unlike Abreu. So the solid part of the batting order is: Anthony in LF, Duran in CF, Rafaela in RF, Bregman at 3B, Story at SS and Yoshida at DH. The holes projected for the post season are at Catcher where Narvaez is in a free fall, Toro who is drastically falling off, Gonzalez who is falling off and Abreu who is falling off in average AND HRs yet continues to force Rafaela to 2nd where he can't hit. Either Nathanial Lowe or Kristian Campbell needs to play 1B, or Campbell needs to play 2nd with Lowe at 1B and another catcher needs to be found to improve the overall hitting. The team can make the playoffs with the great pitching but will stumble in the post season with 1/3 of the batting order failing miserably in the second half. Narvaez, Toro, Gonzalez and Abreu aren't cutting it and Abreu is impacting Rafaela's success as well as the overall defense since Rafaela is far superior to the over-rated Abreu in RF on defense.

So you hate Story and chose to write a article on why he won't opt out while being one of the most overpaid players in baseball? The concept was so obvious I thought you were trying to find a reason he would opt out because otherwise you are simply pulling a Tim McCarver and stating the obvious. So you weren't trying to find a way he would opt out!! You simply chose to state the obvious. My bad. Clearly, I gave you too much credit. I thought you might have an angle on why he would which is why I pointed out how ridiculous that would be. The only guy less likely to opt out in baseball is probably Devers. Two of Bloom's finer contracts!!!

A reinvention of a player after just two starts? Hyperbole is the word that jumps out to me. A player develops a new pitch and the first two teams that see it don't adjust well to the unscouted pitch, and he has two good games. That's what actually happened. If he's dominant for another dozen games then we can start talking about reinvention but it's likely teams will add the pitching to the scouting reports and the success with it will significantly drop. BOS needs to be careful with it's evaluation of May because if they use a small sample to try to extend him before the season ends, the data won't be very conclusive so the guess as to his future value could match a very large spectrum of numbers. He might be a steal, and he might be an albatross or anything in between. His KC game wasn't great, but his HOU game was. He got rocked for LA in July so the success of the new pitch might prevent him from being rocked or it might simply delay him being rocked again until the opponents get the new pitch scouted. It's very hard to say. Extending him to keep him from being a FA at the end of the year all depends on his starts in August and September. Let's hope he doesn't drop off as teams scout his new pitch. He's always had good stuff, but his surgery was a huge setback. With Crochet and Bello locked in for 2026 adding both May and Giolito would significantly lower the off season needs.

So you don't think it's an overreaction to think a guy who has performed so badly for four seasons while making $23.3 million a year is likely to opt out because he finally had one decent season that isn't over and could still end with him getting hurt again or falling off in Aug/Sep? I think the season has to play out and we need to see if the guy who is keeping Mayer from playing shortstop will opt out when he has already been shown that he's going to get to play and his 33/34-year-old seasons at $23.3 Million are still on the horizon. Who in their right mind would pay more than $23.3 Million for an injury prone old guy? BOS is locked into paying him more than he is worth, nobody else would be as dumb as Bloom. Maybe Breslow can trade him after the season so Mayer can play but it probably would need be a paydown situation. Bloom paying him $23.3 Million with a 112 OPS+ in COL made absolutely no sense and now his BOS OPS+ is 94. He a solid defender but 94 hardly qualifies him for $23.3 Million or more a year so the opt out seems incredibly unlikely.

Nate is great and would be an excellent addition.

Story is not going to opt out without further incentives from the Red Sox. He's in his fourth season at $23.3 million and has produced a .242 average, .298 OBP, .406 SLG and .706 OPS when his non-Boston career numbers are .272/.340/.523/.863. Story is thanking his lucky stars that Bloom was such an idiot. He's going nowhere unless Breslow further incents him so Mayer can play SS next year (until he gets hurt again!). I don't see that happening and I don't see Story repeating his 2025 performance either. Fans overreact when someone has a good year. I'm guessing you were one of the fans that said Wong was our long-term answer at catcher after ONE good year since we got him in 2020. Guess what, he's a back-up catcher at best and his career numbers prove it. Taking temporary success and extrapolating it is not a way to project the future of a player. Narvaez is in the same boat as is Gonzalez, Toro and Abreu. Abreu is a bit different in that he simply repeats hot streaks and cold streaks over and over while not facing LH pitchers for the most part. That's not a long-term solution either but he swings for the fences and hits for power when he connects so he could be a late inning pinch hitter like Dalbec used to be. Ironically, Dalbec hit .253 vs LH pitchers and .203 vs RH pitchers, a mirror image of Abreu (.268 vs RH pitchers and .213 vs LH pitchers!!!) Dalbec was not a platoon-player, so fans hated his overall performance because he sucked against RH pitchers. Cora protects Abreu by platooning him. If he is played full-time, it's highly likely fans would turn on Abreu like they did on Dalbec because he simply can't LH pitchers. Also, Dalbec was a better fielder than Devers at his primary position and Rafaela is a far better fielder than Abreu at his primary position of RF. Thus, Abreu, at best, should be part of a DH/4th outfield tandem with Refsnyder. Or he can remain as one of the most over-rated below average hitting right fielders in the game if he ever gets full time status. Will Story jump ship? He would be insane to do it without further incentives.

Cherry picking. Meidroth in 2025 84 games, 349 PA, 310 AB, 78 Hits (.252) DBL 12 TRP 0 HR 3 RUNS 36 RBIS 15 SBS 11/14 Mayer in 2025 44 games (injured), 136 PA, 127 AB, 29 Hits (.228) DBL 8 TRP 1 HR 4 RUNS 20 RBIS 10 SBS 0/2 Meidroth .252/.330/.319/.650 OPS+ 85 Mayer .228/.272/.402/.674 OPS+ 85 The reason people don't bias numbers by cherry picking specific small segments is because it's a completely bogus way to do analysis. Put the players head to head and compare the longest time period possible and in this case it's the 2025 season. Same is true if you compare their performances in the minors. Selecting the ONLY time Mayer was good and claiming it makes him better has been a very, very weak analysis done by very, very weak fans who prefer to cherry pick. That's why Meidroth was completely under estimated as a player and Mayer was completely over estimated. Throw in Mayers series of injuries year after year and I have preferred Meidroth since 2024 and the numbers support that one should have not been unranked as a prospect while the other was in the top 25. Only Anthony and Campbell earned their spots in the top 25 of the prospect rankings.

The White Sox front office is much better than they have been in the past. Meidroth was a no name who put up comparable numbers to Mayer in the minors and wasn't injured like Mayers. Great move on their part to include our #1 pick, a no name instead of Mayer and a potential Fisk/Varitek catcher. A mediocre front office would have wanted Mayer who was over-rated, Blaze Jordan who was over-rated and Bello who appeared to be over-rated until he finally stepped up this year. If we could swap Teel, Montgomery and Meidroth for Mayer, Jordan and Bello, I'd do it in a heart beat. We have no long-term solution at catcher so Teel is by far the most valuable player lost, Meidroth is outperforming Mayer in the MLB already, Bello has looked outstanding this season but will it continue compared to the upside potential of Montgomery? Hard to say. Like I said before, give the CWS front office so credit, they picked the right prospects for the quality of Crochet. We needed Crochet so the deal was necessary but it sure would have been nice if Chicago used a more normal ranking system to request prospects from BOS.

Sure would be nice to have Teel!!!!!!! Great to get Crochet but Teel was the key piece that should have been another player like an injury prone Mayer or Abreu.

Completely agree. What about Maldonado who just got released?

Worse than Wong? Sanchez's current average is .235 compared to .171 for Wong. Both suck. We've seen Wong suck but not Sanchez so there is hope his change of scenery will help and maybe Breslow thinks he can improve him.

Brandon - Great article that represents the thinking of a major portion of the fan base. Campbell in AAA and the one-dimensional Hamilton on the MLB roster has never made sense. Also, the Ali Sanchez claim hopefully will allow Boston to dump Wong as well. Both players are career minor leaguer's from a talent standpoint. The Red Sox during the Bloom years needed to use guys like Hamilton and Wong but with all the talent added by Breslow this team has upgraded itself and fan expectations. The time for Hamilton and Wong has passed and its time for all 13 hitters to be MLB quality. Campbell has now surpassed Mayer's numbers in AAA and deserves to get a second chance by playing 1B ahead of Toro and others. He is the long-term solution and needs to rebuild his confidence before the post season begins. Likewise, Mayer needs to get healthy and rebuild his confidence prior to the post season. An infield with Bregman, Story, Mayer and Campbell and an outfield with Anthony, Duran and Rafaela with Abreu/Yoshida/Refsnyder at DH looks to be the best of two worlds; great hitting and great defense. Hopefully, someone in the front office can advise Cora on where the team's talents really lie and can force him to start logical line-ups going forward and to stop all the excessive bench play. Normal MLB players should be able to play 150 games a season and using the superior player at each position for 150 games has been a given for 100 years or more. Injuries happen and there is no proof that playing lesser players more reduces the chances of the better players getting hurt so all that results by playing the lesser players is lowering your chances of winning. That's NOT a winning strategy!!