TedYazPapiMookie

There are core players that need to be in place if they are to have a chance at fighting through the rough schedule and making the playoffs. All others are expendable but not to be given away. Fair market value must be received for each trade. Keepers include: Anthony, Duran, Rafaela, Bregman, Story, Campbell, Mayer, Crochet, Giolito, Chapman. Remember, these key players make up the CORE players for 2026 and beyond. Any non-signed player for 2026 needs to get signed now or in the off season prior to the World Series since it's likely BOS won't be participating in it and they need to beat teams to the punch. NOW HERE IS THE KEY TO MAKING THE PLAYOFFS: 2 SPs that are SP2 skilled if possible and no less than SP3 skilled. 2 relievers - 1 RH and 1 LH and one of them with closing experience A starting catcher!!! Narvaez stats by month: Mar-April - .218/.274/.385/.658 Below average-to-average month May - .356/.427/.534/.961 OUTSTANDING MONTH!! June - .254/.357/.434/780 Solid Month July - .197/.242/.361/.603 HORRENDOUS MONTH Here is the thing. Narvaez has no previous MLB experience. He was a very average minor league player for the Yankees that was easily overlooked based on performance. His MAY numbers are such an enormous aberration you can't think he can repeat the numbers. His June numbers can be hoped for, but they are better than his minor league numbers too. Past performance suggests Narvaez is at best a back-up catcher going forward. Trading Teel was a huge mistake. Don't make the same mistake we made with Wong and think he has a future that resembles his peak performance. Let's hope Breslow makes it happen, and this team can make the playoffs in 2025.

Rafaela is most valuable as an individual if CF BUT he is even more valuable for the team in RF with Duran in CF. They must maximize total defense as a team. Campbell is starting to hit again and Hamilton is only a pinch runner so he belongs in AAA. Either go with Campbell at 1B and Gonzalez at 2B or go with Campbell at 2B and Toro at 1B. Both Toro and Gonzalez are on the decline as expected. A second half regression seems to be in the cards for Narvaez, Toro and Gonzalez.

Many Red Sox fans sell Duran short. I blame Cora for the mishandling of Duran. He took a player from the minors who was promoted too early and messed with him emotionally. It was documented in the Netflix series and frankly Cora has also done it to Rafaela and now Campbell. The guy should be fired for his behavior toward certain young future stars. July 17, 2021, Duran gets brought up to play CF at Yankee stadium as his first game. Remember, this is the season before the balanced schedule, so he got tossed into a frying pan by being called up in the middle of the roughest part of the team's schedule. He went 1 for 6 in two games in NY, then went 1 for 6 in a make-up game in Toronto and then came back to play in BOS vs the Yankees in a four-game series. In fact, 21 of his first 24 games were against the AL East represented some of the best teams in the AL that year. On top of that, he needed to learn the intricacies of playing CF in Fenway overnight which is an impossible task. 13 of his first 24 games were at Fenway and he clearly was a rookie navigating a whole different environment than he was used to. He looked silly on some plays and that's what stuck in fans' heads. Eventually, at the start of September he was sent down hitting .215 with a .538 OPS. He had no business being promoted but Cora was struggling to keep the team winning while trying to make the playoffs. In 2022, Cora was up to his same old antics. He called him up for one game on May 6th then sent him back down for a month. The next time he was called up was on June 4th, the team was in a weaker part of their schedule and Duran was excellent and won the lead-off spot in the batting order. By June 26th he was hitting .327 with an .886 OPS. BOS was about to start into a major portion of their AL East schedule on July 4th with Duran hitting .317 and Cora had his usual brain cramp because he was about to play the NYY on July 7th. Much like his brain cramps from earlier years like 2018, he likes to get CUTE with his line-up against the Yankees. In 2018, it was swapping JD Martinez the season-long 3 hitter who was in a battle for most RBIs in baseball while hitting .330 (OBP .400) with a recently acquired player named Steve Pearce, a .260 hitter (OBP .340). It made no sense, but Pearce had a great series, Cora thought of himself as a savant and JD lost his shot at the MVP while going head-to-head with Mookie. After Duran led off during his entire hot streak, Cora decided to cool him off by leading off Refsnyder and sitting Duran after losing the opener versus NY. Duran was hitting .325 at the time and because Cora never played much in his career, he didn't comprehend that you don't sit a player who is hot, it breaks their momentum. Duran went cold and his average dropped from .325 to .237 by the end of July roughly 3 weeks later. By the end of August, he was hitting .220 and was sent down again. It's pretty eerie how similar that is to both Rafaela's experience last year with Cora and Campbell's experience with Cora this year. The unqualified manager has a way of ending hot streaks and taking away a player's confidence. He should not be managing a young team, heck ANY TEAM!! He's at best a bench coach and nothing more. Duran worked on his confidence as outlined in the Netflix story and 2024 he rebounded and finally got recognized again as the lead-off hitter and made the all-star team. This year, after putting up huge defensive numbers in CF in 2024 Cora chose to move him to LF and created yet another setback for Duran. He was the best defender in 2024 on the team with Rafaela a close 2nd and Abreu 3rd despite winning an unwarranted GG. 2025 should have begun with Rafaela in RF and Duran in CF and Abreu in LF since he is now by far the weakest defender at both CF and RF. If that had happened, it's highly likely Duran doesn't struggle with learning how to play the green monster and simply puts up big CF numbers for the second season. In the meantime, Rafaela playing RF the weakest AL defensive outfield position would have probably been in the running for a platinum glove because he is so much better than any other AL RF. As can been seen by these facts, the problem is Cora loves Abreu the platoon RF who didn't earn his RF spot he was given it by a biased manager. If the team wants to win, Cora needs to be told by Breslow to start playing his assets in their rightful positions or be fired. There never should have been any discussions about trading the second-best hitter on the team behind Bregman and the second-best defender on the team in the outfield. There is no obsession with Duran, there are just some smart fans that have observed how badly Cora has treated him and tried to make him look bad so Abreu can play more when he's a platoon hitter that hits under .200 versus LH pitchers. Duran is the second most talented hitter/fielder on the team and has the potential to return as an all-star in 2026 if he's allowed to lead-off and play CF.

Yandy Diaz at 33 is on the downside but is a quality player for at least a couple more years. Not sure why TB would want to trade him to Boston, they prefer to move players to non-divisional teams. While solving problems we need Breslow to clean-up the situation not just add. We have several lame duck players right now that need to be moved: 1 - Abreu - The not so talented platoon outfielder who has excellent power but limited overall skills. 2 - Casas - A guy who got injured and now could be replaced by a trade or by Campbell who has been transitioned to 1B. 3 - Campbell - Not liked by Cora, he's as iffy to get a fair shake at his SS position as many others under Cora's biased choices so he's a square peg that will be hammered into a round hole or traded. He's highly likely to end up like Priester, developing into a stud somewhere else. 4 - Yoshida - The over-paid Japanese player who is not a prototypical DH but has hitting skills better than any other DH on the team including Abreu. If BOS can trade for Suarez and put him at DH, Yoshida becomes expendable immediately. If Cora new how to manage we could hang on to several of these players but he'll work them into the rotation at the expense of the better players on the team. He still over sits his star players just like he did in 2018, the last time he had talent on his roster.

Absolutely not. He's proven himself as both an excellent lead-off man and an outstanding Centerfielder. He hit .295 in over 100 games in 2023 and then continued to grow as a player in 2024. You have to realize, COVID hit his development significantly. He was a .300 hitter in college at Long Beach State in 2018 then came out in 2019 and hit .387 at Hi-A got promoted to AA a little over a year after he was drafted. AA was a challenge at first in 2019 at age 22 and then COVID hit and he scrambled to play out of country until he returned in 2021 at the AAA level where he hit .258 for 60 games before being promoted prematurely to the MLB in July and he struggled because he wasn't ready to be in the MLB. In 2022 he hit .283 at AAA and got called up the last day of May and hit .333 in June until the opposition built a book on him and he started to struggle just like Campbell did this year. Instead of going back to AAA to work on making adjustments he played in July and August and wasn't good again just like Campbell beginning in May. In 2023 he had a huge April hitting .396 then teams adjusted and he hit .236 in May. Then Duran adjusted and hit .286 in June and .384 in July and in August he got hurt and missed the rest of the season. In 2024, he started slowly with a .268 and .236 average in the first two months then put up .360, .306 and .299 months on his way to making the all-stars. in 2025, he has hit .279, .258, .210 when he was slumping, then .262 in July. His .279 in April is typical of what we should expect out of him and we will see if he rebounds from his June swoon to finish the season with another .285 average. His 2025 WAR for 103 games is 2.7 and in 2023 his WAR was 2.2 in 102 games. Considering he's lost Devers and Bregman for a good chunk of the season, his WAR is better than expected. I believe Duran profiles as a .285 hitter with an OPS+ of roughly 125. His defense in CF is above league average and his speed will yield close to 30 SBs a year along with 15 to 20 HRs and triples. Not many lead-off men can claim the same skills. I say he's a keeper and we have through the 2028 season to determine if we extend him. At 31, he probably won't age well with respect to his speed and that's a big part of his game so he leads-off until age 30. Then a tough decision must be made. FYI - For perspective Devers OPS+ is 128 compared to the 125 I am suggesting for Duran. Not quite as good a hitter but an ELITE defender compared to Devers. I rank Duran higher than Devers as a total player.

Larry, you give up the only effective lead-off hitter since Mookie and you get a pitcher having a career year that is likely to regress to his normal performance? You are buying high on both pitchers and giving up your best outfielder and a couple of excellent prospects when there are better prospects to part with that are blocked by guys like Mayer and Campbell. What do you love about the deal?

The only thing I like about this trade is the moniker "the Duran Duran" trade. The trade itself is so imbalanced it's hardly worth discussing. Ryan is not a Crochet or a Wheeler, he is just a slightly above average SP who would slot in behind Alcantara, Perez and probably Edward Cabrera. To give up our best outfielder and two quality prospects like Tolle and Garcia is WAY TOO MUCH. In the end, PHI wins the deal by a lot, MIN comes in second thanks to Tolle, Garcia, Arias and Abel. Boston gets the short end of the stick with Ryan (mid rotation pitcher having a career year that is 2/3 over), Vazquez (a huge upgrade from Wong but that's not to suggest he is good at his age) and Jax (a college pitcher in the 2016 draft that took until 2022 to get to the majors and hasn't done much except in 2024, his career year). The deal chases numbers but doesn't use the career of the player as a realistic foundation for his skills. Ryan is NOT as good as he's pitching this year, Jax isn't as good as he pitched in 2024. Vazquez would be an excellent back-up to replace Wong but can be gotten easily by simply offering Wong and a go nowhere prospect. Trade proposals with Duran in them make no sense. Cora needs to leave Duran in CF where you can see how much better he is than in LF. He needs to stop messing with Rafaela to benefit Abreu and just start Rafaela in RF for the next decade. Anthony in LF rounds out the outfield leaving Abreu as the platoon guy without a position except maybe splitting time at DH and 4th OFer with Refsnyder. Abreu is a model of inconsistency and has been since he arrived in the MLB. His April avg was .295, then May was .212, then June was .271 and now July is .196. Add to it he's hitting .252 vs RH pitchers and .214 vs LH pitchers this season. How does he get so many starts with those numbers? ONLY ONE ANSWER, he has hit 20 home runs. For me, that makes him a reserve who comes off the bench against RH pitchers late in the game. His defense is nowhere near as good as Duran in CF and Rafaela is FAR better than him RF so he adds very little value so trade his 20 homer strength and let someone else deal with all his weaknesses. Yoshida is a better all around player and he's like Devers in that he can't play defense BUT he can play DH better than Abreu since Abreu needs to sit vs LH pitchers.

Cease is a bad choice due to his high walk rate and his inconsistent dominance. When a guy throws up a low H/9 he is considered dominant. If his walk rate is high then he must produce a very low H/9 to keep his WHIP near 1.0 to 1.1. Cease alternates years where his dominance is present. In 2021 and 2022 it was excellent but in 2023 it was very average. In 2024, it was good and in 2025 it's average again. Giving up a Duran to get an inconsistent pitcher makes absolutely no sense especially since he is the critical lead-off man and Center Fielder. It's easy to understand why Breslow gave an immediate no. I keep suggesting putting Abreu in deals since he's a platoon player and Rafaela should be the RFer since he's far better than Abreu on defense and Duran is a far better CFer than Abreu so he's basically the odd man out if we are going to use Anthony in LF. Maybe Abreu could beat out Yoshida as DH but since he can't hit lefties as well as Yoshida, he is nothing more than a late inning pinch hitter on a regular basis since he can't hit lefties. There is a lot of hype about him in BOS but I'm not sure any other fan base would see him as anything more than a platoon hitter so maybe he isn't going to have much value in a trade. But that's exactly why you don't trade the actual "valuable guy" in a deal if you are trying to win a pennant and world series.

I have an issue with the whole premise of the story. 1 - To help the bullpen you get better starters who will pitch longer not a closer. 2 - You don't trade Chapman then trade for a closer. That makes no sense. If Chapman is not asked to re-sign which would be a mistake, then get a closer in addition to Chapman. A deal for the 3 Miami starting SPs (Alcantara, Perez and Cabrera) would make the rotation awesome, lower the relief innings needed which will keep the good relievers we have much fresher. This team needs a serious upgrade at SP2, SP3 and SP4 we don't need another closer. We just need Chapman to stay healthy and continue dominating.

First we need to trade for Alcantara to give them financial relief and he's worth it. He's got a fair price for the next two years. Next, the trade needs to include both Eury Perez and Edward Cabrera. Our future pitching will closely resemble our future hitting if Breslow can make this deal. For compensation, we back up the truck of prospects at lower levels of the minors but top quality players. For the 3 pitchers it will cost just under $20Million annually. In return we give them most of our Top prospects: 1 - Arias SS 2 - Garcia OF 3 - Clarke LHP 4 - Perales RHP 5 - Tibbs OF 6 - Valera RHP 7 - Romero SS 8 - Cespedes SS Ask yourself if you think any of these 8 players will be stars on the Red Sox in the next 5 years. Now ask yourself which one of the three Marlins (Alcantara, Perez and Cabrera) won't be a star for the Red Sox in the next 3 years. The farm system is nearly empty of talent that is close to the MLB level except for Tolle so we hang on to him and our first pick this year and we populate Miami's farm system while adding 2025 value that is very cost effective. This deal almost assures the team a playoff spot and could win them the division.

Bregman is the best player. They might want to extend him and lose the opt outs. The face of the franchise is still Mookie to me. He was the generational player that got away (throw in garbage by ownership).

Crochet left the game losing. That's why he was lucky to get the win. Normally, when he wins he's ahead when he leaves the game. The Cub bullpen collapse for that one game was lucky in my opinion.

Clase is owed $4Million, $10Million and $10Million over the next three seasons. Trading Duran is tough but with all the fair-weather Duran fans and the ridiculous support for a far lesser player in Abreu I would think the fan base would love this deal. I don't want to see Duran traded but if you keep the really bad manager who plays him LF where he can't play defense to his full skill level, then trade him and let him flourish elsewhere in CF where he belongs. This deal would be a huge upgrade for the pitching staff AND it's incredible to get the best closer in baseball for these prices. The prospects can come from the over-rated blocked players in AAA and the reliever needs to be one of Cora's favorites who doesn't deserve to be a favorite like Kelly or Winckowski.

You like to argue without respect to making sense. The CUBS are a much better team as is PHILLY. Against teams at that level, only Crochet stands a chance to win and if it's someone else, it's lucky.

Not one injury that is significant except potentially Bregman's. The others were out when they won 10 in a row. Mayer's .228 average shouldn't be too hard to replace, and his defense is no great shakes at 2B either. It's the weakest of the 3 positions (3B, SS and 2B) at the MLB level. Sogard can be recruited to fill in for him for now and frankly Campbell seems to be turning the corner and regaining his hitting confidence, he already has a HR tonight after being on base 4 of 5 times in the last game. The Red Sox are out of excuses since they won 10 with Bregman out for 7 of the wins. Dobbins and Tanner would be great adds but they weren't playing during the 10 wins. Let's face it, WAS COL and TB just aren't that good and CHC and PHI are that good. BOS lucked out on both road wins. The PHI manager must have dozed off in the dugout to allow his starter to get pummeled that badly. The injuries to stars are the only injuries that need to be worried about as referenced in my first comment.

Seriously? Because I was stating what was needed. Was that supposed to be a trick question? I missed the trick. I think Breslow needs to read the room. With Cora throwing out ridiculous line-ups daily, he's got to wait and see if the team can stay competitive in the second half. The losing isn't over because the team isn't back to .500 yet. I prefer Breslow prepare for 2026 and hire a real manager and start looking at potential batting orders for 2026 and fielding positions. If they make the playoffs, great but they are not likely to go anywhere since they don't really compete well with good teams like they will face in the playoffs. So, focus on a manager and bring him in now and change the clubhouse in a positive way then start setting the table for the 2026 run. The batting order needs to be Duran CF, Rafaela RF, Anthony LF, Bregman 3B, Mayer 2B, Story SS, Yoshida DH, Campbell 1B and Narvaez C. If Casas beats out Campbell at 1B move him behind Bregman in the order and slide Story behind him then Yoshida then Narvaez. If Abreu is kept and can beat out Yoshida at DH or split time at DH move Abreu into Yoshida's spot. The pitching is set at the top with Crochet. A SP2 and SP3 would be nice to add before ST in 2026 with some of Devers' money. Giolito and Buehler may or may not be back depending on how they finish this season. The pitching staff is really Breslow's primary need for focus right now. The hitting is ready to go forward into the 2026 season with just some small tweaks that Cora won't do because he insists on playing his favorites and playing his bench too much. I don't know if Breslow can find the right two SPs but he can't be looking at 2025 he must be signing extensions with the worthy SPs. My preference would be Alcantara and Cabrera with Gallen as a third option if one of the first two won't sign an extension as part of the trade.

Boston needs a few things to go their way if they hope to make the playoffs: 1 - NO KEY INJURIES 2 - As the pretenders start to fade the prospects must hit more and the veterans need to finish with career years. Campbell needs to return to play 1B, Mayer must play good defense at 2B and not get hurt, Story needs to stay healthy and stay clutch, Bregman needs to get back to where he was hitting-wise prior to his injury, Anthony needs to finish above .275 and play LF, Duran needs to hit over .300 and play CF and Rafaela needs to hit .325 and play RF. Yoshida/Abreu/Refsnyder together must be the equivalent of an excellent DH. Narvaez needs to stop his skid and Wong needs to be replaced. Toro and Gonzalez both need to slow their regression so Campbell can come back when he's ready. 3 - Crochet, Giolito and Buehler need to pitch at exceptional levels. Breslow needs to find two effective starters and one set-up man who can close along with Chapman. 4 - Cora needs to be replaced with a real manager who understands the game and doesn't play games with the batting order, the pitching substitutions and stays positive when things downturn like in past AUG/SEP time frames while facing the AL East who they dominate early but not late.

The article ignored the elephant in the room. DEVERS CAN'T FIELD. He was the worst 3B in the history of the Red Sox (players with 4 seasons or more at 3B). His numbers were nearing epic proportions because the accuracy of the errors were highly questionable after 2020. Baseball reference recorded 52 misplays by Devers in 2022 but he only got credited with 14 errors. Had the 38 misplays not counted as errors been counted as errors his fielding percentage would have been one of the worst in history. As it stands, if half of the errors were counted his fielding percentage would have been around .880 which is roughly what fielding percentages were for average 3Bs during the dead ball era when the infields were rough and the ball often wasn't round by the second inning of the game!!! THAT'S HOW BAD DEVERS WAS!!!! He was an embarrassment for 8 years so trading him was one of the greatest deals of all time for Boston because they got back $260 million and gave up nothing to get it back. It was a perfect salary dump of a slightly above league average hitter who couldn't field. MLB fielding isn't a given like many fans seem to think. If he was the worst of all time at 3B why would ANYONE assume he might be ok at 1B? He can't scoop, he can't backhand, he can't charge balls and throw accurately, he constantly went after balls he had no business trying to make plays on so he could expand his range and improve his defense metrics. He missed easy routine ground balls but occasionally made a good play and fans forgot the dozens of mistakes and remembered the ONE good play. It was brutal to watch Devers vs Arenado, Chapman, Bregman and so many others. He was a clown on defense and killed the pitching ERAs and WHIPs. Just think if the 52 balls in 2022 were only 20 like most good 3Bs. Could we have won many more games with 32 less base runners? And that's just one season. He will always be remembered as THE BUTCHER OF BOSTON on defense. Wait until SF sees his footwork, his imbalance, his inability to scoop, his inability to start double plays from 1B, his slow first step on balls half way down the 1st base line and his poor judgement on balls hit to the hole between 2B and 1B where the pitcher is forced to cover even if the 2B catches it because he can't get back to the base. Good luck SF you got taken in this trade and all Boston fans should be thanking you for the money that appeared to be wasted by Bloom that was recovered by Breslow. Nobody should feel sorry for Devers they should feel sorry for Sale and the other pitchers who work the inside corner at the knees to RH hitters. A major portion of those balls are hit to the 3B and were not fielded from 2017 to 2024. Bregman shows us what a good 3B can do for a pitching staff.

Much rather have Cabrera, Alcantara or Gallen. What would be great is if the Astros didn't resign Valdez and we could use some Devers money on him but that is highly unlikely, but it never hurts to dream!!

Other than Tolle, I honestly don't see any reason to keep an eye on them. They are either too young or blocked by a better prospect. Heck, I half expect Bleis and Romero to be DFA'd in the next couple of years due to their lack of progress. Neither hits me as a MLB level talent. Arias has some decent trade value because there is no way he gets a shot with Mayer on the roster. Tolle is of course of huge interest as you suggest and Cespedes is a check back in a year prospect. I like him but I have no idea where he'll play. Garcia and the resurrection of Blaze Jordan are interesting players. Frankly I dismissed Jordan long ago and I'm waiting for another regression but maybe this time it doesn't happen. Garcia seems like the most talented of the remaining prospects not promoted. As soon as Campbell gets comfortable with his second new position not counting the outfield brain cramp by Cora, I'm sure his hitting will return and there will be two excellent under-rated hitters in Rafaela and Campbell. Then if Mayer actually hits consistently without getting hurt this team will be fully loaded on offense for 2026. Using Abreu and other prospects to land a SP2 at the deadline would be great.

Excellent commentary. One of the best analyses of the Red Sox I have seen. I agree the buying / selling decision is premature and while the 10 win then 10 loss theory won't be precisely true, it was fairly predictable that they would swing back to .500 after their hot streak. I firmly believe they should be playing for 2026, and Cora should be let go so Breslow can take full accountability for the 2026 results. The way Cora is constantly messing with the daily line-up it's almost as if he doesn't want to win. Duran CF, Rafaela RF, Anthony LF, Bregman 3B, Yoshida DH, Story SS, Mayer 2B, Narvaez C and Toro 1B (for now). The bench should be Wong (for now), Gonzalez, Refsnyder and Abreu. At some point soon I hope Campbell returns as the 1B and makes Abreu or Yoshida obsolete, so they trade one of them, preferably Abreu since there is no room for a platoon player even if he has good power. All players need to be able to hit both RH and LH pitchers. It doesn't have to be equal but Abreu is over 70 points apart with his average vs LH pitchers is below .200.

Duran will always be a better fielder but Abreu has a better arm. You can't put Abreu in CF like you can Duran with great success so I consider Duran a significantly better hitter based on what he's ACTUALLY done so far in his career and a better defender based on the numbers. Weighting recent at bats is not really a valid approach to comparing anything other than recent games. Players get hot and cold throughout the season and Abreu is known for his first halves so his numbers are very likely to fall and the more he bats against the LH pitchers the worse his numbers will become in the second half. Lets verify things when the season is over and see how big the gap is then. My guess is it will be back to where it was at the start of the season or it might be greater since Duran is improving as the season goes on and Abreu's trend is usually down.

The difference in the analysis is yours is a short time frame and I consider the player as a whole. It's like judging a month of defense by Devers and concluding he's a decent third baseman comparable to a guy like Bregman or Arenado who is having a bad month. To me, that's not a valid comparison. Abreu in his short career has 645 at bats versus RH pitchers with 174 hits and a .270 average Abreu has 111 at bats versus LH pitchers with 22 hits and a .198 average (72 points lower) Duran in his slightly longer career has 1266 at bats versus RH pitchers with 355 hits and a .280 average Duran has 457 at bats versus LH pitchers with 107 hits and a .234 average (46 points lower). ALSO, note that Abreu has 645 at bats versus RH pitchers and Duran has 1266 so Abreu has 51% as many at bats versus RH pitchers compared to Duran. Abreu has 111 at bats versus LH pitchers and Duran has 457 so Abreu has 24% as many at bats versus LH pitchers. I'm not the one declaring Abreu is a platoon hitter the Red Sox are based on their splits. I am simply confirming what they are doing. They treat him like a platoon player because his average vs LH pitchers is under .200. Why keep beating this dead horse. The facts are the facts and you simply can't accept them. That doesn't make them wrong!! Next time blame the Red Sox not me.

Bowden is clueless. Nobody should consider a platoon hitter as part of the best outfield and they don't. His reporting days ended years ago.

Still don't get why the platoon hitter who can't start close to 40% of the games and plays the weakest defensively skilled outfield position in the League is rated better than Duran in the eyes of some fans. A quick check of the metrics data that everyone is so enamored with shows the following: Rafaela RAA = 27, WAA = 3.0, Rrep = 12, RAR = 40, WAR = 4.2, oWAR = 2.4, dWAR = 2.1, oRAR = 24 Duran RAA = 9, WAA = 1.1, Rrep = 15, RAR = 24, WAR = 2.7, oWAR = 2.0, dWAR = 0.1, oRAR = 20 Abreu RAA = 15, WAA = 1.6, Rrep = 11, RAR = 26, WAR = 2.5, oWAR = 1.6, dWAR = 0.8, oRAR = 16 Funny how this suggests Rafaela is the best, with both Duran and Abreu close BUT Abreu is playing in RF not LF and Duran after putting up a dWAR of 2.5 in 2024 playing CF it appears Duran has an edge on the platoon guy if he plays in CF where he belongs and that would make RF Rafaela's position where he should win PLATINUM GLOVES for years since the competition is so week in RF in the AL . That means LF should either be Anthony's or Abreu's. I vote Anthony and trade Abreu NOT Duran. As far as Bubic goes, he's never been excellent as a whole but has had excellent moments. He was rushed to the MLB then got an arm injury after some below average years when he should still have been in the minors. Now he's back from surgery and he's performing inconsistently across time but the main reason for it is his schedule. He cleans up on bad teams and struggles with good teams. Here is what concerns me. Since his excellent starts up to 6/1/2025 he's not been good. In six consecutive starts he's given up 5, 3, 2, 2, 3 and 3 Earned Runs in games where he's only averaged slightly over 5 innings per start. He had good success against a weak schedule early in the season but his last six bad starts were against NYY, TEX, TB, LAD, ARi and PIT but his last game against MIA went well!! He seems to slot in more as a SP4 and is that what we need right now? He has no history of dominance because he was rushed to the majors and even in the minors he never dominated once he was at the AA level. KC just needed him in the majors since they were so thin and it led to his surgery. I think there are better pitching candidates that can slot in at SP2 or SP3. Edward Cabera is one.