TedYazPapiMookie

I did a full comparison further down between Mookie and Anthony over their 7 years of control but what you are saying is correct. If he's not close to Mookie in talent, it's a HUGE over pay. On the other side of the coin, if he's better than Mookie and contracts continue to escalate over the next 4 seasons, his CASHFLOW which is significantly less than the CAP number per year will likely be very unsatisfactory if others get paid more traditionally and reach free agency. What will a star OF in Free Agency be paid in 2030 when Anthony's cashflow finally exceeds the AAV he's costing the Red Sox? He'll only be at $20 Million while FA OFers could be making double that. Thus, if he's very good, I think renegotiations will be in the FO's future in 4 to 5 years, as crazy as that sounds now.

This contract is incredibly risky. Mookie was a great player, and I doubt Anthony will provide numbers like Mookie did in his controllable years. Here is a comparison by year and in total. Betts in 2011 received a $750K signing bonus. Anthony in 2018 signed a $2.5Million signing bonus Year 1 in 2014 Mookie got $500K Year 1 in 2025 Anthony will receive $760K Now here is how the two will compare over years 2-7 for both players (controllable years) YR 2 Betts $514K Mookie finished 19th in the MVP vote making $514K YR 2 Anthony $16.25 Million against the CAP and $2.65 Million CASHFLOW YR 3 Betts $566K Mookie was an all-star, GG, Silver Slugger and 2nd in MVP vote to Trout YR 3 Anthony $16.25 Million against the CAP and $4.62 Million CASHFLOW YR 4 Betts Pre-Arb 3 $950K was an all-star, GG and 6th in the MVP vote for less than $1 Million YR 4 Anthony $16.25 Million against the CAP and $8.625 Million CASHFLOW YR 5 Betts ARB 1 S10.5 Million was all-star, GG, Silver Slugger and MVP YR 5 Anthony $16.25 Million against the CAP and $15.625 Million CASHFLOW YR 6 Betts ARB 2 $20 Million was all-star, GG, Silver Slugger and 8th in MVP vote YR 6 Anthony $16.25 Million against the CAP and $19.625 Million CASHFLOW YR 7 Betts ARB 3 $27 Million COVID YR TR TO LAD no AS game, GG, Silver Slugger and 2nd in MVP YR 7 Anthony $16.25 Million against the CAP and $23.625 Million CASHFLOW. THESE ARE THEIR CONTROLABLE YEARS Betts was paid including signing Bonus $60.03 Million prior to Free Agency Anthony will cost the Red Sox $100.076 versus the CAP over his first 7 seasons. $40 Million more than Betts cost (Nearly 6 Million more per year on average). Anthony will actually receive $78.03 Million in CASHFLOW versus Mookie's $60.03. Since Anthony's money comes 7 years later than Mookie's inflation would raise Mookie's up to close to Anthony's cashflow based on Net Present Value (time value of 7 years of inflation). The big difference is the CAP money of Anthony's contract versus Mookie's normal progression through pre-arb and Arb years. It will lessen team payroll by close to $6 Million per season as stated above. While payroll limits will be rising, this is just ONE contract for a young player. I guess Anthony can come close to making good on the contract if he can come close to Mookie's achievements during his controllable years: Mookie over the 7 seasons had 4 consecutive All-Star games thanks to COVID eliminating one in his 7th season, 4 Silver Slugger awards, 5 GG awards and finished with one MVP, twice finished 2nd in the MVP, and a 6th, 8th and 19th in the MVP voting. If Anthony comes close to that, I think the contract would have been worthwhile. FYI - All those accomplishments by Mookie and people thought his desire for a $9 Million dollar raise when he hit free agency so he could make $36 Million a year as one of the two top players in baseball was considered too much by many Red Sox fans. I hope fans today are a bit more open minded. If Anthony does anything close to what Mookie did, he's worth this contract and with the actual cash payments back-end loaded the owners are the big winners and Breslow will need to make do with less money available for the team during the pre-arb and arb years of this contract. He's the only one truly challenged by this contract.

Great team friendly contract. Hopefully, as he performs, they consider redoing the deal because he looks like a Mookie-type player from the standpoint he could win a MVP in the next two years which would make this deal a horrible deal for him.

Breslow spent next to nothing on the deadline deals. Each resource was blocked and since Cora only plays his favorites and none of the 3 were favorites, the blocked status was never going to change. It is precisely why Cora needs to be fired. His close-minded approach to the prospects is disturbing. In a country where performance is supposed to be the criterion for success, Cora distorts it by being heavily biased in all his decisions. Whether it's Kike Hernandez who he baby sat or Hamilton who he met while cheating for the Astros, his perspective on players is not performance based and that's a huge problem. Observing his treatment of Duran, Rafaela and Campbell and his favoritism of Abreu, Hamilton, Robles and Kiki Hernandez is sickening. It's hard to respect an unqualified manager who plays favorites and is above the law when it comes to cheating. He is the biggest blemish on this organization in its history!!!

How about we give it a year to see if they use the $260Million and the player create a performance record that we can evaluate. I was not a fan of the players, just the money returned.

Dustin May is a gamble. He's a calculated risk. I think it was an excellent use of resources. Breslow spent next to nothing on a player who was trending upward at age 25 before hurting his arm. He comes back and has a freak accident that was life threatening and survives it but it costs him recovery time. Now in 2025 he starts like most TJ surgery pitchers with unusually bad control. As the season progresses his consistency is crap as he tries to find his way back to his 2023 performance level, 2.63 ERA, 0.938 WHIP and 5.4 H/9. The last number is key because it shows dominance as a pitcher. The three seasons prior to his arm injury in 2023 he put up 6.3, 6.3 and 5.4 H/9 numbers. His dominance as a pitcher was trending up and his ERA showed his run prevention was improving. These are all great signs for his future, then his injury derailed him. The big question is can he come back to form. Why not pick him up and have him work with Breslow's pitching coaches to see if they can get him back on track over the last few months of the season. If not, he did not cost much. If they can, he could be a SP2 rather than a SP3 or SP4. Lots of upside and worst case, 3 months of downside at a small price. It's not a flashy solution but it may be a surprising solution going forward. An excellent pitcher at next to no cost. Let's hope the coaching staff can get him back to an ERA+ of 165, a sub 3.00 ERA and continue to lower his WHIP from the 2025 1.13. It wasn't a home run trading for Dustin May but it was a very solid gamble that could pay off very well in the future.

May has played 11 seasons in the minors and majors and is pretty consistent. He puts up a 4.00 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP normally. He strikes out slightly less than one batter an inning. His ERA+ is usually good and he's coming off surgery in 2024. His 165 ERA+ in 2023 suggests he was trending up before his surgery. In 2025 his ERA+ of 84 means we are buying low but the upside potential is very good once he's fully recovered from his surgery. The cost was low and if the pitching staff can help him the rest of the season he was a decent pick-up. If he performs well in the next month, they can extend him as a solid SP3.

Come on, the HAUL for Raffy was $260Million not wasted on a guy who is a slightly above average hitter and the BUTCHER OF BOSTON. The icing on the cake was everything else and if it's butter creme and a bit rancid, we still got the cake and that's what matters!!

I did what I could to educate you, but some folks refuse to be enlightened!!

Seriously? Bloom destroyed a Championship team and Breslow added Crochet and Bregman and dumped $260 Million of a Bloom albatross contract. We need to keep things in perspective. The trade deadline is an expensive time to buy compared to the off season. He still has the money and a plan, but I think he wants to prove how incompetent Cora is because this team has the talent to be in the playoffs and I think he wants the owners to see just how inept Cora is. Cora didn't need more talent; he needs to use it more effectively. He needs to STOP over-playing guys like Hamilton and Abreu and start setting a consistent line-up that the players can get comfortable with. Whether it's Anthony or Duran batting 1st and 3rd, pick one and stick with it. Play Bregman daily and if he needs a day off, DH him don't sit him so Hamilton or some other slug can play. I believe Breslow knows how hard it will be to get Cora fired and replaced with a manager he wants so he's doing this the politically correct way to show his incompetence. He didn't waste much money at the deadline. I'm not a May fan but if his pitching coaches believe they can significantly improve him for the very low cost they paid for him, great. My suggestion is to let this play out. I NEVER thought he could get rid of Devers, and he did. The team only needed two things prior to this season to significantly improve. They needed to lose Devers and Cora. The two changes should have brought at least 10 additional wins to a .500 team. So far, losing Devers is improving the team just as I suspected. Now let's see if he can double down and clean house by proving Cora's incompetence. We need the organization to change. We need to eliminate the bias carried forward by Cora and start letting the performance of players dictate who starts and we need starters to play 150 games a year. Bench players (like Cora) are LESSER players. That's why they should only start two times a month at two positions so four games a month. They can be used as pinch hitters. They can be used as pinch runners, but their skill level is significantly lower, and they should not be starting as often as Cora starts them. As he continues to over play his bench, the team will increase their losing despite the excellent roster Breslow provided. At some point, it should be obvious to the fans, media and ownership that the hap-hazard approach that Cora uses is like an individual trying to play the stock market with no experience. Sure, they might guess right occasionally but for every right guess there are a dozen wrong guesses. It's like Devers playing 3B. The lack of consistency in success will catch up with you and the team will fail. To remove Cora, his lack of consistency needs to happen otherwise this disaster of a manager will carryover another year and Breslow will be blamed for Cora's ineptitude. Breslow needs his own manager and then he needs to be held accountable. Right now, his ship is being run by the equivalent of a deck hand.

The idea is to trade for at least one MIA starter among Alcantara, Perez or Cabrera. Valdez may be a long-shot but he's a free agent and if he wants big bucks, he will go to the highest bidder. That's not to say NYM, NYY and LAD won't make huge offers but the task being difficult doesn't mean don't do it. Try and if you fail, no harm no foul. The FA pecking order should define who to bid on. We need SP1 and SP2 type pitchers for the one remaining slot. Houck needs to get healthy and Bello may be having a career year but maybe with some luck it will be a new plateau for him and a non-repeatable performance. The problem with most fans is they don't picture the future; they spend all their time justifying why the team can't do something rather than creating a pecking order wish list. I say Breslow needs a prioritized plan to fill out the 2026 roster and go after hard like he did with Crochet and Bregman.

I think Cora misplays what he is given. I think Henry has made unforgiveable mistakes that have ruined the franchise since he fired Dombrowski. I would love to see his group sell the team. I think Breslow is trying to replace the talent level given away by Bloom. Crochet and Bregman have been HUGE wins. Sale and Priester were HUGE losses. In the end, dumping Devers has been Breslow's single greatest feat so far. It was a masterpiece in politics. He needs to use that unique knowledge to dump the cheater (CORA) so this team can start fresh, build from within and use the rest of Devers money in the off season to fill the holes after Cora is gone. Personally, I hope he balances the roster by trading pieces that are redundant to gain great talent for the 26 man roster. I hope he works with Miami to add Alcantara in the off-season. I hope he can sign Valdez or Suarez in the off season with the Devers money. I hope he signs Realmuto to a 2 year deal so Narvaez can be the back-up catcher because I think he is having a career year and is better suited as a back-up. The 2026 team could look like this: C-Realmuto, 1B-Campbell, 2B-Mayer, SS-Story, 3B-Bregman, LF-Anthony, CF-Duran, RF-Rafaela and DH-Yoshida or Abreu if he learns to hit LH pitchers. Starting Staff - Crochet, Valdez, Alcantara, Houck and Bello Plus a Manager who has worked with Breslow in the past and is on the same page like Chris Young and Boche in Texas. Add a new ownership group with big market money willing to go to the CAP and more if necessary to win the Division and take a shot at winning another ring. BOSTON can resurrect the Red Sox which became the Titanic of the AL East when they fired Dombrowski.

The message I received from this deal is that Breslow wants to see if Cora can maintain the status quo and get this team into the playoffs. If not, Cora needs to go. Watching all the bad managerial decisions has to be frustrating to Breslow so he's hanging Cora out to dry to see if he can finally hire a manager he would want that would be on the same page with him. When a team streaks up and down like the Red Sox in 2025, it's clear all the tinkering Cora is doing isn't creating momentum. That's understandable since the best players don't play daily and the defense isn't being maximized and the batting order as inconsistent as the team. Lots of instability for a very young team makes for inconsistent results. The team needs a manager with experience not daily guesswork. The team needs equal treatment of the players based on performance so guys like Hamilton need to be in AAA and Abreu on the bench for late inning pinch hitting not forcing Rafaela out of his logical position in RF. So many mistakes daily are being covered up by good performances from guys like Bregman, Duran, Anthony, Crochet and others. This reminds me of 2021 in that Cora is "winging it" and the crap shoot managerial approach renders very mixed results. Young players are being offended and stressed out by his idiosyncrasies. It's obvious he has no master plan of attack; it's simply daily guesswork. I say hold Cora's feet to the fire because this team has enough talent in the MLB and MiLB to make the playoffs and maybe win a series, but it looks like Cora will invent ways to lose. Breslow played the long game on removing Devers and it worked and now I hope he is playing the long game for removing Cora and I think it will work too. Cora is the Barney Fife of managers and at some point, he'll put his one bullet in his gun and shoot himself in the foot and BOS will have a chance to reclaim excellence in 2026.

Nick, completely disagree on one outfielder. Abreu is a platoon player who should be the first guy traded to solve multiple problems he causes. 1 - He CAN'T hit LH pitchers. Fans can argue this season he's not as bad in the past, but the sample size is far too small compared to his career where he is hitting under .200!! Remember, with his slightly higher average this season his career number is STILL below .200. That's very bad. He's a late inning pinch hitter at best who only shows well on defense when he's against the very weak competition in RF in the AL. Otherwise, he has no shot at a GG. 2 - To be fair, his GG is a joke. He finished behind both Duran and Rafaela in 2024 in defensive metrics but won a GG because his biggest competition was Soto who is a very average outfielder defensively. Put Rafaela in RF instead and he probably wins Platinum Gloves for the next decade. 3 - Team defense is important and to maximize outfield defense Duran needs to play CF, Rafaela needs to play RF the most difficult field for 81 of his games and Anthony needs to be the next great LFer after Ted, Yaz and Rice. 4 - By carrying Abreu on the roster, you also have to carry Refsnyder for the 40% of the games when LH starters face BOS. That's a huge waste of a roster slot. There is no room for a platoon hitter when you only get 13 hitting slots on the roster. 9 starters and 4 reserves at Catcher, Middle infielder, Corner infielder and Outfield. 5 - The only way to salvage Abreu and his streaky home run hitting talent is to use Refsnyder and Abreu as the DH and 4th outfielder. That eliminates the $18Million a year Yoshida who is a better all around DH than Abreu since he hits both LH and RH pitchers. In the end, Abreu has less talent than Duran, Rafaela and Anthony and they should be the starting outfield. Abreu swings for the fences all the time like a young Devers but with far less ability to consistently hit for average and his hot streaks and cold streaks are frequent while only facing RH pitchers. His .212 average in May and his .222 average in July offset his .295 average in April and his .271 average in June. He is a model of inconsistency. He's grossly over-rated by fans, the media and especially by Cora. Unfortunately, people around baseball see him for what he is and that's why in comparison to Duran, he has next to no value as he should. Trading Devers was addition through subtraction and Abreu being traded would be the same thing, addition through subtraction. The future outfield would be set with Anthony in LF, Duran in CF and Rafaela in RF. Yoshida cand finally get time to prove his worth as a DH. Campbell can return to play 1B while Mayer returns to play 2B, Story SS and Bregman 3B. The only hole right now is at catcher because nothing in Narvaez' past performance suggests he can maintain his hot start to the season. He's a back-up catcher at best as the Yankees realized. It's great that he's had a career year like Wong did last year but that doesn't change the fact that his past performance like Wong's is below league average at the MLB level and at the MiLB level. Teel was our answer for the future and now we need a new one. Narvaez has the skills to be the future back-up catcher.

Joe Ryan isn't a great pitcher so Bowden is full of crap. Prior to this year his highest ERA+ was 116 at age 28. Houck put up an ERA+ of 133 at age 25 in 2021, a 134 the next year and another 133 in 2024. So why are we spending prospects on a guy who is having a career year after 4 mediocre seasons? Minnesota is NOT the answer. Heck, Ryan prior to 2025 most closely resembled Kutter Crawford with respect to his performance numbers in the MLB. What prospects would you give up for Crawford? Duran was the only worthy player to trade for and it's too late now.

A solid left-handed reliever but nothing special. He's been struggling with his control as of lately. A bit surprised but he's got a decent record vs LH hitters so he has a role where we were short. Hope Breslow in on the phone with Miami.

Thanks for the update. I have been following him too and he's been on fire and Toro is stair-stepping down each month. He hit .296 in May, .279 in June and .238 while BOS was hot in July. A second half regression should happen for Narvaez, Toro and Gonzalez and now it might happen with Rafaela not playing outfield. Cora needs Rafaela in RF so he's set for the next 10 years. BOS needs to use Gonzalez and Toro at 2B until Mayer returns. Guys like Campbell don't have years like 2024 and then suddenly suck. Players who are rookies should focus on one thing at a time when joining the MLB. Cora had him learning 2B, CF, RF and 1B. His fast start was halted when he was asked to start learning 1B because Story was looking good so Mayer got pushed to 2B which sent a loud message to the rookie that he's the odd man out after being player of the year. Cora has no personal skills when it comes to dealing with great young players. He screwed Duran a couple of years ago, Rafaela last year and now Campbell. We all knew Mayer is injury prone so pushing out Campbell at 2B to make room for an injury prone player seems like a bad move. He and Story both struggle with injuries and Mayer was slotted to be a SS so stop messing with all the prospects and let them learn their jobs at the MLB level. Mayer should be the utility player since Story is healthy but he should get his shot when Story gets hurt so the future line-up can be intact. Now, with Campbell comfortable at 1B, there is room for Campbell, Mayer, Story and Bregman with Anthony in LF, Duran in CF his best position and Rafaela in RF where he will likely win Platinum Gloves versus the weak competition in the AL RF position. That leaves a competition between Abreu and Yoshida for DH and frankly since Abreu can't hit LH pitchers (.199 average) Yoshida should get the nod unless Abreu comes out of his current cold streak and starts one of his hot streaks. Yoshida can face the LH pitchers when necessary.

Most people don't know Perez so I didn't want to speak too highly of him if we are going to trade for him because I don't want to drive the price up. My personal opinion is he's better than Alcantara but history suggests Alcantara is a more proven pitcher. Cabrera while nowhere near as good as Perez he is far more proven and far more likely to part of a deal than Perez. If I ranked the BOSTON staff versus the MIAMI staff, I would put Perez above Crochet but that's my bias. I would rank Alcantara close behind Crochet so that's why I keep pushing for Breslow to spend whatever farm system he needs to spend to get at least two if not all three Miami starters. The comparable comment related to how seasoned Cabrera is while lesser in talent. I completely agree with you.

Miami has Alcantara, who is a stud starting to return to form. Miami has Eury Perez a young stud who will be a strong SP3. Miami has Edward Cabrera a comparable pitcher to Perez. Back up the truck of prospects and go get at least Alcantara and one other and if possible get both Perez and Cabrera. WOW would that make this staff tough down the stretch and in 2026 and beyond. Most of the prospects in the farm system now that the big three are MLB players, are solid but not great so the deal needs to be volume for quality. Empty the top 10 for the three players. The two years the team would have to wait for the lower-level prospects to rise won't hurt this organization because the team is so young. Seldom are there 3 great pitching prospects available from one team that is the lowest payroll team in the MLB. Take advantage of the situation like the Yankees did when Jeter ran the Marlins!!

This team isn't like most teams. Their identity is still being defined. Hot streaks, cold streaks, injuries and a really bad manager makes this team hard to predict. All we can do is hope Breslow talks to Cora about his hap hazard use of the bench, his horrendous batting order and his misuse of players like Rafaela, Chapman and Mayer. Just because Cora had no stability as a utility player, that doesn't mean your best prospects can think like a loser like he did. These guys expect greatness, and he can't relate so he sticks round pegs in square holes daily. Fire him and watch the team win the division. Breslow needs to deal with Miami and get Alcantara if he was a shot at the division title. They have the best pitchers to deal for and they have 3 of them. Our prospects are not good enough to not go after the Miami pitchers.

What are your thoughts on the Cora merry-go-round. Am I the only one who sees all his substitutions as ways he is impacting players success? Example - Duran is an outstanding CFer and since moving to CF he's flourished as one would expect. On the flip side, Rafaela is now going through what Campbell went through when he was learning 1B instead of just focusing on 2B. Rafaela has gone into a slump that aligns with him playing 2B. Just put the guy in RF and go find a temp answer at 2B at the deadline that covers for Mayer's newest injury. Anthony, is even better than I expected him to be in his first season. Put him in LF and let him grow in the shadow of Ted and Yaz. This time, don't treat him like Mookie, treat him like a generational player like Ted and Yaz. His upside looks huge. Been following Campbell, he's hitting again in AAA. Raised his average a lot recently with some power. Bring him up to play 1B and move Toro or Gonzalez to 2B if a trade isn't in the cards. Mayer will be back soon enough and having the big three prospects with Bregman, Duran, Story and Rafaela is a very potent offense and defense. Too bad Cora won't go for doing things "normal". He's going to over-play the bench and keep the team around .500.

I agree but based on hype, I see no reason Mayer would have been worth less unless their analytics group is just much better than most teams. Maybe they had insight into Teel's personality and other intangibles. Smart move by Chicago. They had Quero and still did the trade expecting Teel to be the future catcher.

Trading Teel was a huge mistake. Mayer would have made more sense long term. He's hurt all the time, he had higher trade value so we could have cut back in other areas of the trade and our future Varitek wouldn't be playing in Chicago.

Would you rather have Cease or Alcantara? My answer is Alcantara and if you can double down and get either Eury Perez or Edward Cabrera and make this a quantity for quality trade that would be great. Give Miami several top 10 prospects from Boston and we'll upgrade with a SP 2 and SP 3 starter and Otto Lopez 2B. Crochet, Alcantara, Perez, Giolito and Buehler makes for a very tough rotation and Lopez goes to 2B and becomes a far superior player to Hamilton who then goes to Miami. When Mayer comes back we'll have both Mayer and Campbell as depth in case of injury. I don't dislike Cease, I just like Alcantara and the Miami staff more.

To anyone who witnessed Devers at 1B on July 29th, this is why he should have burned his glove. He has severely limited defensive skills and could easily get hurt and the fact that he can hit baseballs at 100 mph doesn't mean those skills translate to fielding. They don't as he has proved for 8 seasons at the MLB level. Buster can humor the guy all he wants but sooner or later he's going to lose his hitting due to defensive injury. He has no idea how to play 1B as we all saw from his time not knowing what to do at 3B. I like Devers but he embarrassed himself at 3B and he looks to one up that embarrassment level at 1B.