The Blue Jays had some largely “exploratory” trade talks involving Bo Bichette early last offseason, TSN’s Scott Mitchell writes. This isn’t exactly new news, as multiple reports last November indicated that the shortstop’s name indeed come up in trade discussions, though those talks were portrayed as other teams checking on Bichette’s availability. Mitchell, however, specifies that “the Jays did indeed shop Bichette.”
As always, there’s plenty of gray area when parsing hot-stove terminology, as the distinction between actively trying to move Bichette and listening on Bichette trade offers could be pretty thin. Executives routinely discuss scores of players in trade talks with other clubs, just as a matter of due diligence in gauging interest. For instance, if Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins had learned that a rival club had a particular interest in Bichette and had a player or players that the Jays liked, Atkins might have been more inclined to “shop” Bichette in that particular direction in order to swing a favorable trade for Toronto. In any case, as Mitchell observes, revisiting any trade talks involving Bichette this winter could be difficult because the shortstop is coming off an injury-plagued down year, so the Blue Jays aren’t likely to land a premium return even if they did look to move Bichette.
More from around the AL East….
- “Some clear discord” developed between the Red Sox and Masataka Yoshida last April, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo writes, when Yoshida was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left thumb sprain. Yoshida chose to seek out second and third opinions on his sprain, which apparently didn’t sit well with the team, who felt the initial assessment (that Yoshida wouldn’t need surgery) was enough. Yoshida ended up not needing surgery, and spent a little more than six weeks on the IL before returning in mid-June. Between this situation and Yoshida’s displeasure at being a DH-only player who mostly faced only right-handed pitching, Cotillo wonders if both sides would benefit from a trade this winter. Such a move is easier said than done, of course, as Yoshida is owed $54MM over the 2025-27 seasons, and has been good (112 wRC+ in 1001 plate appearances) but not great over his two Major League seasons. Yoshida was also playing through a shoulder problem for much of 2024, which could represent another red flag for any interested trade suitors.
- Nestor Cortes is slated to throw between 20-30 times during a game of catch today, the Yankees left-hander told The Athletic’s Brendan Kuty. This represents the first time Cortes has thrown since suffering a flexor strain in late September. Cortes said he was “feeling good” in his recovery to date, and “if my body responds and if my arm responds, we’ll try to be as quick as possible” in charting out a potential return to the mound. The Yankees would naturally need to advance to at least the ALCS in order to give Cortes any chance of pitching again in 2024, and even if New York does get deeper into October, it remains to be seen if Cortes will be able to be healthy enough to merit a roster spot.
What would the Blue Jays want for Bichette
When healthy he is terrific
Orioles trade for him put him at Shortstop
Switch Henderson to Third and Westburg to second
That would mean to trade Holliday obviously but it would be interesting
Then again …
Bo is one of the worst defensive shortstops in the majors. He is probably better off at 2nd. Henderson is a way better SS.
At this point, I have no idea what the Jays would want, but I can’t imagine they’d be willing to trade him because they’d be getting pennies on the dollar for what he should be worth.
In division would also make that trade hard to do.
Then it would make it easier to trade Holliday for Bichette
Keep Westburg at third and trade and move Bichette to second
Then again Blue Jays won’t want to trade with a divisional rival
Except the Orioles and Blue Jays are not really division rivals. By the time Toronto is ready to be good again, Baltimore will probably be ready to start rebuilding again. Neither team is the Yankees that have the budget to compete every year.
I would take the 5 or 6 years of control for Holliday plus for 1 season of Bichette, let the Orioles overpay for his services
The Jays would take Holliday in a heart beat for 1 year of Bo.
They would never offer that. Holliday had a bad debut season, but he’s still only 20 years old. They wouldn’t sell him this quick or for that cheap a price. He still has a good chance to be a great one. They wouldn’t trade that for 1 year of a potentially still injured, good but not great SS.
Hiflew, the O’s and Jays have a history of bad blood. From a Baltimore perspective, they are absolutely rivals.
Seward – That’s true, but they are rivals in the dislike sense instead of the competitive sense. The Rockies don’t like the Diamondbacks either, but I wouldn’t call them competitive rivals right now either. Some years, yes…right now, no.
Well maybe trade someone for Bichette….the Orioles need a hitter and Bichette qualifies
Hiflew, as recently as last year
But this year, no. And going forward, it is hard to see the Jays as anything but a rebuild about to happen. Especially if Bichette and Vlad Jr are traded.
In this scenario, I don’t think the Jays would care about trading to a division rival. It would be the Orioles that would be hesitant. Bichette is in his last year and Holliday (or any other more realistic prospects in the deal) would be facing the O’s for many years.
Lefty_Orioles_Fan
Well maybe trade someone for Bichette….the Orioles need a hitter and Bichette qualifies
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The Os finished 4th in scoring, and 17 in runs allowed. Are you sure you are reading this year’s stats?
Am I sure…no…but the second half of the season was a complete Dumpster Fire and they have gotten swept out of the playoffs two years in a row and I refuse thank Elias or Hyde for this
Smh
JoeBrady – O’s offense went from 1st or 2nd in every aspect of their RISP slash line to between 19th and 23rd depending on which metric you’re looking at.
Anyone trying to claim the O’s offense is fine is totally out of touch at this point.
Keep in mind, we’re talking about Ross Atkins here.
I have faith a fair deal could be done here if both parties are interested
Why talk about Bichette in a article about Yoshida?
So since you are talking Holiday, we’ll give you Grissom for Holiday.
There is no way the Orioles are trading Holiday.
@Yaz So you read neither the article or the headline?!?
Bichette is mentioned in first paragraph as well as named in the headline.
“Bichette” is the first player mentioned.
At this point, I’ll take a bag of balls for Yoshida. Free up the DH spot and leave the door wide open to start the Holy Roman Empire.
I agree. Yoshida is a decent player, but the flexibility of not having a full time DH would be more beneficial than what Yoshida offers imo
Nobody is taking Yoshi. He merely isn’t worth dealing a prospect or a solid player for and Boston would have to eat at least half of his contract.
It’s not like the Sox haven’t picked and chosen when to have a liability in the field in the past. SS, Lugo and rent-a-wreck. Jim Rice, because he complained, even tho Yaz was still GG calibre as a LF. lets not forget cora allowing kike hernandez to butcher SS for over half a season when Story was hurt cpl seasons back. Anyone pretty much could have done better, but not just everyone was tight with cora, which counts a lot with cora..
letitbe:
“Nobody is taking Yoshi”
and
“isnt worth dealing a prospect or solid player for”.
Those two points are different.
Eat $30M and he’s gone. A change will do him good and he will probably flourish somewhere. Other teams arent blind and know he’s a very good hitter and for $8M a year, he’d be well worth it, even as a DH.
Move Yoshi and eat a large portion of the contract (Sox have done it before). Then shift Devers to DH. Get rid of a lefty bat and find a new home for Devers. It makes too much sense.
Feel like trading Yoshida, Abreu, and cash to Minnesota makes perfect sense for both sides.
Helps the Red Sox get rid of two expendable pieces and two lefties out of the lineup. Opens up 2 40-man spots and clears room to start calling up some of the kids. Won’t totally clear out his salary since they’ll have to pay some of it down but it will provide a little bit of relief that they can hopefully pour into pitching help.
Abreu is a young, cost controlled asset which is hugely valuable for the Twins, and gives them a lefty bat with some pop to replace outgoing Carlos Santana. They also have a gaping hole in RF they were trying to plug with Manny Margot, so there’s another problem solved for them. Yoshida immediately becomes their best contact hitter which is a skill many of their hitters are sorely lacking.
Miranda (1B), Lee (2B), Correa (SS), Lewis (3B), Castro/Buxton/Abreu in the OF with Yoshida and Julien as options for DH at-bats or to play some games in the field to let other guys DH for a mini off-day wouldn’t be too bad of a lineup. Given Margot and Santana were making close to $15 million combined plus the value of Abreu still carrying multiple pre-arb seasons, might only need to throw in about $5 million per year ($15M total) to be able to get the deal done if Breslow just wants to clear the roster spots and doesn’t care what he gets back. If they up the cash to a larger number, they might even be able to buy an interesting prospect.
I saw an interesting proposal of Yoshida to M’s for Haniger. It would effectively be a bad contract swap. Haniger is owed $15.5M next year and likely would just be released by the Red Sox or used in a weak side platoon role. Yoshida would be an overpayed DH (due $54M, but probably only has ~$35M in market value over 3 years now) for the M’s for the next 3 years, but gives them more contact which they could use.
Wouldn’t completely hate that since it would provide an earlier exit date from this money pit, though it would sting a little bit turning a semi-useful guy into a mostly useless guy. But I suppose that would raise the question to me of why would Seattle want to do it? I’m sure they can find a contact hitter or two that wouldn’t require turning a one year bad contract into a three year bad contract?
The Mariners have less interest in spending money then Boston does. They have one year left at $15.5m. Why would they trade that for 3 years of $18m each for a guy who may not be much better then Haniger?
Well thought out dirty water.
The one thing I would push more is: Lets eat a lot of Yoshida’s contract (Minny wants to cut budget, at least last year they did). Then ask for a bigger return for Abreu and Yoshida in the form of pitching.
Fine by me! Every intriguing arm they can get in the system, the better.
I definitely wouldn’t mind trading Abreu and Yoshida for pitching, but I am not sure how much trade value they have. Yoshida is not great in the field and I believe Abreu is not great against LH pitching (need to look that up, but I think he was mainly starting against RH pitchers).
Haniger is awful. He’s been a below average bat the past two years and can’t move in the OF. The only positive is his contract is up after 2025, but no playoff hopeful should have him on their 26 man roster.
The M’s, however, are too cheap to eat that loss this year and still spend the additional cash needed to get someone like Turner to fill what would be Yoshida’s role. It’s not an ideal trade by any means, but replacing Haniger’s 85 wRC+ and 30% K rate with Yoshida’s 115 wRC+ and 14% K rate would be useful.
If the Red Sox want to eat more of Yoshida’s contract to purchase a prospect like Logan Evans or player like Emerson Hancock, I’m sure the penny pitching M’s would be very interested to discuss an amount.
Except history says Yoshida won’t put up a 115wRC+ when he gets to Seattle. It’ll be closer to 100.
It definitely isn’t risk free for Seattle, but it gives them a narrow opportunity to potentially kill 2 birds with one stone. Otherwise, it ends up being an added burden in ‘26 and ‘27.
for a guy who may not be much better then Haniger?
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Yoshi is a much better player than Haniger (and I use to be a Haniger fan). It’s more a matter of how much money the extra talent is worth.
But to that extent, it still wouldn’t be worth it for the Mariners.
I agree, I think the Sox would need to eat a bit of additional salary (e.g. $7.5M – $2.5M a year), such that Yoshida’s contract is equal to Haniger’s this year.
Yoshida’s contract ending after 2027 (same year as Castillo) would work out well for the Mariners who need the cash freed up to extend Gilbert (entering FA), Kirby (entering last arb year) and/or Cal (entering FA).
Further, if the Mariners want to move him in 2026 or 2027 to make room for someone like Laz Montes, 2yrs/$31M or 1yr/$15.5M wouldn’t be overly hard to move (especially if the M’s eat a small portion).
Throw Mitch Garver in to balance out cash!
Yoshida for Jordan Montgomery.
Rockies will give you Kris Bryant for him.
Seems like the Red Sox org. is finished becoming genuinely annoying. Play Yoshida in OF more frequently and keep him in the lineup everyday as DH. I don’t care he’s bad defensively, they need to play him so he can do want he does in the box. There are a few more seasons and the lemon needs to be squeezed.
There’s better hitters and better defenders who belong playing the field before Yoshida ever sees another defensive inning.
I’d be fine sending him down to AAA.
I’m hoping for them to rebuild his value, and you want to destroy it. hmmm.
Cleveland – I agree with your thinking but we need to acknowledge the Boston Red Sox way of doing business. It’s common place to put players on the IL to roster manage rather than legitimate injuries. Cora put Sale on the IL in 2018 when nothing was wrong but he wanted to rest him because he had a history of dead arm. There are countless examples of players “conveniently’ being placed on the IL to help roster situations. To give the young outfielders more at bats, Yoshida go shelved for a very long time. They know he is not a good fit anywhere on the roster so they sat him to evaluate the skills of Abreu and Rafaela and to see if O’Neill could stay healthy. Next time a pitcher gets hit hard and suddenly goes on the IL consider whether it’s a roster move to open a spot for someone else or a true IL situation. I think you will find there is a long history of this activity under Cora, Bloom and now Breslow. The question is – Who dictates these moves? The GM or the manager? I believe it’s a subtle way of cheating so I believe it ties to the cheater in the organization. I believe he thinks rules are nothing more than guidelines that you find ways around. 3 more years of blurring the lines and not winning. The team just can’t stop making personnel mistakes. Winning will come when the mistakes are fixed.
Sagacity: I think you will find there is a long history of this activity under Cora, Bloom and now Breslow.
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I think there is a long history throughout baseball of putting players on the IL with phantom injuries to give them a rest or get a better player on the roster. I don’t think this just happens in Boston.
All – I agree to some degree. I’ve lived in many cities and I’ve never seen it happen as often as I have in Boston. Also, I think it now happens far more often in baseball as you suggest than it did 20 years ago.
The Red Sox have MUCH better outfield options than Yoshida (offensively and defensively)! It is time to move him and erase Bloom’s mistake.
I said they need to play him. Some OF, more DH. The goal is to rebuild his value. If the team can rebuild his value then this won’t be an issue. Plus he’s good when gets on a roll.
There’s no *need* to rebuild his value when the process to do that means you are making the team as a whole worse.
Despite what Henry wants you to believe, Boston has LOTS of cash available. It’s not like you’re working on a TB revenue stream and you need to rehabilitate the contract to move him. Boston could flat release him, eat all the money, and still have revenue to burn.
Fact is it was a gamble signing and bloom overpaid by a wide margin. You don’t hamstring your roster and put a subpar product on the field just so you can avoid eating a couple extra million on the deal
Yoshida is a sunk cost. The book is written on him, he just is what he is at this point. He’s an okay but not special player who is not good enough defensively to belong in the field (especially for a team whose defense was already nightmarish to begin with). He can hit a little bit, but he’s not strong enough of a hitter to justify being limited to DH-only.
Bloom overpaid him significantly, the money has been wasted and nothing they can realistically do will change that. He’s okay enough that there are other teams out there he could actually help, but the Boston Red Sox are not one of them. They do not need to waste more time and the continued development of more valuable younger players by trying to chase after some theoretical unlocked value he has yet to tap into – if he ever does at all. Most guys don’t magically learn how to start hitting lefties, so the assumption that you can just project the same level of performance over a larger number of at-bats by playing him more against lefties is dubious at best.
It’s the throw away mentality which is sorely breached entitled fans’ brains. Yoshida doesn’t make the team worse, he simply makes it hard for fans to understand how the team is going to even out this mismatched roster. Yoshida’s under-performance on expectations from the size of his contract makes moving him just the easy answer because superfans would rather keep Abreu and O’Neill. I’ve merely pointed out that it is easier to rebuild his value when there is little risk of hamstringing an already likely mixed bag season for ’25. I also don’t mind a come back story and then turn him into a pitcher as Seattle needs hitters like him.
GASoxFan says Henry can afford sunk costs.
This season, thumb and shoulder issues hampered him. Those injuries will make hitting lefties harder. ’23 he did fine against lefties, so this book isn’t closed.
I agree with the argument about his defense, but even if he’s a DH he does enough to bat runs in and get on-base. Especially since we’d be using his spot for a short side platoon bat. I’d much rather the team had regulars than this rigamarole the Rays introduced.
Cleveland – Yoshida has many redeeming skills but he’s not used effectively by Boston. He is the perfect guy to hit behind Duran in the second spot in the order but they put him farther down in the order where you need more power and less OBP. Picture Duran getting on and stealing while Yoshida scatters hits all around the outfield. Duran goes to third at a minimum and Devers comes to bat with no outs and a runner on in the first inning. Yoshida has a role he could play on any team but he’s not a power hitter he’s a hitter that belongs with a team that likes to move the runners from station to station like KC. Boston needs a big bat at DH so if Devers is not the DH in the future, a big bat preferably right handed needs to be the DH. So the choice of having a bad defense with Devers at 3B needs to be off-set with a guy like JD Martinez a half dozen years ago. A young, power hitter that primarily hits doubles and home runs and hits for an average over .300.
Yoshida was never a good fit but management has made him look a lot worse than his real skills – hitting. His defense was well scouted and he needs to be a DH somewhere.
Yoshida really just has one skill: he’s a decent OBP contact hitter, but with little power, poor defense, and no speed on the basepaths.
His defense is bad for 2 reasons: 1) he has a weak arm, but 2) he’s also pretty slow. At his age neither will be improving. It’s made worse when you’ve got Devers with his own range and speed issues at 3B. If you had a 3B in the mold of an Adrian Beltre you could hide and cover Yoshida’s limitations and positioning on the grass somewhat. But, as it is the combo leaves a bunch of hits falling that should be outs because neither guy can cover enough real estate not to leave gaps.
His lack of speed carries over into base-running challenges. He knows it’s not his game to the point he’s zero threat on the base paths, but, at least he knows not to be trying stealing and generating giveaway outs.
Boston’s roster isn’t built around old school grinding ABs and small ball to move runners around anymore. When you look at things, Yoshida is a square peg for a round hole. He’s not valueless, but, other players in the organization *would* be more valuable than him in the DH slot on this team with this coaching ataff…
Yoshida doesn’t make the team worse, he simply makes it hard for fans to understand how the team is going to even out this mismatched roster.
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Spot on correct. He isn’t a bad player. He has a career 111 OPS+.. He is basically the LH version of Justin Turner.
The issue is being LH and being more expensive, not his hitting ability.
Sagacity – Yes, I agree with the entirety from how the team has misused him and your thought on what to replace him. In an ideal world the Red Sox swap out Yoshida for this prototype hitter. However, I recognize how far from ideal things have been in Fenway. The options for a better hitter simply aren’t promising especially considering the criteria.
This simply isn’t the hill to die on. It’d be easier to head into next season leaving this unsolved. And figure it out more naturally than forcing a move without a better solution.
LH is a problem to a degree. Expensive isn’t a problem. It’s just a flaw. Henry is capable of affording it.
yeah they value him enough that’d the Sox would need to pay for the privilege to trade him. I’d rather pay him to keep playing for the Sox and make a move at a latter time, when a more natural solution arises.
I don’t think think we’re seeing eye to eye on the framing of the issue here.
When we say that continuing to spend time and money hoping Yoshida becomes more of an impact bat makes the team worse, that’s not because it means Yoshida is a bad or useless player. It means to give him that spot requires blocking prospects who are all at present expected to be far better and more well-rounded players, as well as committing to keeping a “minus” defender such as Devers or Casas playing in the field.
Right now for three outfield spots, second base, shortstop, and DH they have to figure out how to deploy O’Neill (assuming he’s back, as he should be), Duran, Abreu, Anthony, Rafaela, Grissom, Mayer, Story, and Yoshida. That’s 9 guys for 6 spots. It gets even hairier if they finally decide to accept that Devers belongs at DH instead of the hot corner. If they don’t, then it becomes even more paramount to have a monster bat at DH because they need that position to create more offensive value than Devers’ defense destroys in defensive value. A singles hitter is never going to do that.
Yoshida is about a 1-2 WAR player at best. Almost every one of those other guys I named could realistically double that. over a season if healthy and given the opportunity, and at a fraction of the payroll cost. Taking the most recent figure I’ve seen for the market value of WAR which is $8 million per WAR, Yoshi is at best a ~$15 million player getting paid $18 million. His actual performance so far has been worth closer to $10 million total over two seasons. So you’re underwater on the contract no matter what, at his pay rate there is no level of value you can rehab him to that would turn him into an economic positive and a trade asset.
Thus continuing the development of the young guys is far more valuable than trying to recoup anything out of Yoshida. If just one of them manages a 5-WAR season you’ve got $40 million worth of production that you paid a pre-arbitration minimum salary for. For a team that has been knocking on the door of the playoff picture but still isn’t exactly close to being a real contender, developing that kind of upside is much more important than wasting another year hoping Yoshi plays well enough that you can ship him off for 60 cents on the dollar instead of 30.
Dirty – You make a lot of good points but I think improper use of Yoshida slots him in the 1-2 WAR category. I still believe if he batted behind Duran on Boston or another speedster elsewhere in the MLB he could be twice as good as you are suggesting. The problem has always been that we have 5 bright young players who are probably more talented as outfielders. So his cost far exceeds his usefulness. That’s why it’s a win-win to trade him for a power hitting 3B that bats right handed and can field well. That would maximize Yoshida’s value through a trade. I’m not sure there are any great candidates or Devers can be moved but ideally Yoshida is most valuable to Boston in a trade.
I think you should take a hard look at Campbell too. You left him off the list and he may be the player with the highest upside among the group you listed. Anthony and Campbell look to be exceptional based on their performances in 2024.
Also, Story is a similar problem for the roster going forward. The young shortstops need to be developed because Story hasn’t proven to be reliable. Trading him would also be the greatest value to Boston. My ideal trade would be to move Story to Toronto in a deal for Bichette. Bichette is a legitimate future all-star and all the prospects with great potential could vie for a starting spot at 2B or possible 3B. Boston desperately needs to clean up their defense but if Devers is acceptable at 3B then Bichette should be acceptable at SS.
So dead weight on this roster includes Yoshida, Story, Giolito and Devers playing 3B. Breslow needs to address those issues if he wants to seriously compete in the future. Most importantly, he needs a top of staff starter to lead the young players. Burnes was last year’s best chance and we passed on him. In 2025, I think Snell, Fried, Burnes, Flaherty and Bieber all qualify for the job in that they are close to 30, excellent past performances and have performed in the clutch. I’m not sure any fit in ownership’s financial direction but it’s what Boston needs.
I disagree on Yoshi’s WAR ceiling being limited by misuse. He is never going to be a good defender because he is a slow runner and has a weak arm. He is never going to add value as a baserunner because he is slow. He is smart enough to not be a big minus on the basepaths because he isn’t foolish enough to run himself into outs, but he is never going to have the wheels to go first to third on a single, score from first on a double, or to be a stolen base threat. Even if his hitting numbers hold up to the rosiest of projections over a full season as a non-platoon DH you’re still not ever going to get any plus value in the field or on the bases, and he is not a power hitter so there is only so much more production you can squeeze out of him. You might be able to game his RBI numbers by putting a great OBP guy with speed in front of him, but he’s only ever going to hit singles or draw walks. He’s not going to magically start cranking 25+ long balls or raking a ton of doubles. Considering he has created 1.4 fWAR over his first 1,000 PA’s, calling his upside at 2 for a season is being pretty generous to him already.
No need to worry about Campbell yet, he still has more to work on. Mayer and Anthony and Teel all proved in 2024 they’re ready for the call next spring. Campbell I think needs another year of seasoning – he doesn’t have a definitive defensive home yet and still has some kinks to work out with his swing. I would like to see him spend the year in Worcester to be groomed as a third baseman, so he can take over the position in 2026 and Devers can slot in where he belongs at DH. But yes, you are correct he is absolutely part of the big picture. Just not someone we need to immediately worry about for the 2025 roster imo.
Completely agree on Story. Hated his contract from the second they gave it to him and as most of us predicted it’s been an abject disaster. That’s another one that’s never going to have any positive economic or trade value, but he can have a longer leash for now because we’ve had such a miserable time trying to get healthy and productive players to stick up the middle. Yoshi is a different case because we have too many better options who can/should be ahead of him in the pecking order for either OF or DH time, so our hand is forced to do something with him right now. Mayer hopefully has us covered at shortstop starting this spring, but second base is anyone’s guess. If Story can stay healthy for a full year for once, he could potentially still be our best second baseman. If Mayer proves unready and needs to go back to AAA, Story is our next-best shortstop option. He’s also untradeable with his injury proneness whereas someone would take Yoshi with a modest amount of salary relief attached. So those factors all give Story a longer lease on life with the team than Yoshida’s got.
Also disagree with your stance on Bichette. If Devers is going to stay on the field, we need to put a great defensive shortstop next to him. Putting another minus glove next to him only compounds the problem.
DW –
I’m not sold on Mayer making the jump *yet*….
He hasn’t even taken a single AB in AAA and he hasn’t shown the Mookie Betts level of sustained performance that inspires me he’d make the straight jump and have it turn out well.
But the better pitching prospects are all mostly at AA these days. Being nearly 3 years younger than the average at that level he had a terrific season there. Now he’s young, so I understand there’s a chance he could have to go back for more seasoning. But I think he’s done enough to at least get the look and see. To me it’s a win-win: he’s either ready to go, or at least if his first stint doesn’t go super hot, it may at least be more informative as to what he needs to work on than just insisting on holding him down to continue to rake minor league pitching.
Dirty – Yoshida has ONE big strength and that is OBP. The book on making OBP guys most effective is to bat them behind speedsters because their ability to hit to all fields or walk makes them far more productive, in that part of the batting order especially when it comes to the shortcomings of the WAR estimate which is order dependent..
The trick to winning is keeping the merry go round moving and putting a guy like Yoshi in an RBI spot in the line-up is counter intuitive. It’s simply bad managing of your resources. WAR is dependent on where you bat in the order and a poorly placed skill set is hit hard by its impact on WAR.
As far as Campbell having issues. I completely disagree. You want issues, it’s Mayer. Even Teel, who had done nothing wrong until he got to AAA struggled. Campbell was outstanding at many levels in 2024 and Anthony took a minute to adjust but then took off at AAA as well. Baseball America named Campbell Minor League Player of the Year. So I have no idea where your opinion on him is coming from. His numbers were stellar since he got drafted in 2023. He’s a college player who has risen like a college player should. Teel was the same way but stumbled a bit at AAA but is still by far the best catcher in the Red Sox organization. Anthony has put together back to back great performances in the minors. These are the players of the future in Boston based on what they have done to date. There are a few others who are farther down in the minors who might join them but they haven’t even faced AA pitching so it’s too early to be confident in their potential but we have had a glimpse of it.
If you believe Devers stays on the field, then you don’t see the team winning in the future so you might as well put a all-star quality hitter next to Devers. If the Red Sox ever return to winning Devers will need to be a DH and then your argument holds for Bichette since he’s not one of the top defensive shortstops. I simply don’t believe Boston has a Division Championship in their near future with Devers at 3B and ownership/Breslow not competing for top talent. To me, you are either all-in on defense or you aren’t so Bichette becomes viable if the answer is not all-in on defense and it appears that will be the case for many years.
It’s ok that we disagree on Bichette, Campbell and Mayer but help me understand the Mayer component. Other than the fact he was picked fourth, what has Mayer done to impress you more than Campbell, Teel or Anthony? I see great performances from Campbell, Teel and Anthony and very average performances from Mayer, I believe Meidroth has shown more potential than Mayer but he’s not a high pick, he’s just a guy performing well at each level. Meidroth was drafted a year after Mayer and has played in 17 less games than Mayer despite have a full season more of available playing time. There are a lot of minor league players who have completely outperformed Mayer to date yet people keep hanging on hope he will change his performance history and play like the fourth pick in the draft.
I got off that train after 5 stops at different levels where Mayer couldn’t hit .300 at the lowest levels of the minors. I’m sure the prejudice built into the Red Sox selection process for who makes it at the MLB level will keep Mayer in the running until he either makes it or is DFA’d but what they might miss out on will hurt the organization for years to come. We’ve seen it in the past and we’ll see it in the future. Let’s hope they don’t screw up on guys like Campbell, Anthony and Teel. They didn’t like Mookie initially nor Hanley Ramirez so this is not a new trend. As long a people like Swihart can be preferred over Mookie by the front office, it makes perfect sense that guys like Campbell or Meidroth can be overlooked thanks to Mayer. Players need to be judged by their performances not their reputations.
I think we are at the point where we are arguing basically the same thing on Yoshida. I granted you that I think he’s a 1-2 WAR guy at best. His best season so far has been 0.8, so to say I think he could get close to 2 is already baking in all of the improvement you’re arguing for in the RBI department. And as I said, that’s the only potential value being left on the table, which is going to severely limit the potential for him to create much value beyond that. He will never create any value through defense, baserunning, or slugging. We agree he could potentially drive in more runs depending on who is in front of him. Never said he can’t be a baseball asset, but the way they are paying him he will never be an economic asset and to dedicate the DH spot to him is still going to hold back the development of younger, likely better players who would be both baseball and economic assets. Yoshida can still be a useful player but he would be a lot more useful for someone else than he would be to the Red Sox right now. Not sure why we need to keep going on circles on this.
And RE: Campbell, I am not arguing against him. I think he’s an impressive young player. He’s also 22 and has 283 at-bats combined at AA and AAA. I don’t need to be sold on his potential or his numbers, I think he’s a very good prospect and has a nice future ahead of him. Why I still don’t think he’s quite ready yet, per Sox Prospects: “Swing is unorthodox, but seems to work for him. Runs a solid in-zone contact rate, though it has gotten slightly worse against more advanced arms. Works counts and will take a walk, but needs to improve his recognition of breaking balls. Will always face questions about how he will handle velocity given his swing, but so far it hasn’t held him back. Versatile defender who has played second base, third base, shortstop and center field. Looks most comfortable at second base, where he played in college. At short and third, shows solid athleticism and range, but is a little unorthodox with his movements. Fringe-average arm. Passable on the left side of the infield, but best suited for second base. Potential above-average regular. Ceiling of a consistent all star player. Still has some variance in his projection due to his unorthodox swing, but is a plus athlete who has taken a major step forward in 2024 and established himself as one of the top prospects not just in the organization, but in all of baseball. Might initially struggle with the adjustment to major league pitching, but has shown the ability to quickly adjust to new levels in the minors. Future defensive home remains to be determined, but shows the most promise at second base. Has the athleticism to handle short, third and center field potentially, but needs more reps at those positions and will have to show that he can adjust to the speed of the game there, especially against major league competition.” Again – no argument from me he’s got all the makings of an exciting prospect. But from all that I’ve read (this scouting report in particular) he still has some kinks he needs to work on to prepare for Major League pitching, and again since I would prefer to see them try to groom him for third base he needs to spend some time down there to get a season’s worth of reps at the position. For a team that hopes to be in the wild card mix next year, you can’t have him learning on the job at the MLB level.
With Mayer, there are several things you are not accounting for. One, pure “production” at the minor league level is not the end all, be all. Tons of guys put up numbers down at lower levels and it means nothing because they don’t have the tools to play against higher levels of competition, so they flame out. Mayer has elite tools, and remember that he has also been several years younger than the guys he’s playing against. At High A in 2022 he was 3 and a half years younger than the typical competition, in 2023 at AA his age differential was closer to 4 years. Mayer struggled for several months last year due to a shoulder injury he was playing through, not because he was overmatched by the competition. His performance was dramatically better before the injury and dramatically worse after it, so pretty obvious causal effect. He showed that this year when he came back to AA and hit .307/.370/.480 with a ton of doubles, plus some pop and speed. While still being almost 3 years younger than the guys he was playing with. His defense profiles to be excellent at shortstop with potential for both above average hit and power tools, not sure what’s not to like about that but to each their own I guess.
DW – lots of good stuff in what you write and again, I 90% agree.
However, I dont think Campbell should be the answer to Devers at 3B (as much as a defensive problem as that is.)
Simply put. I don’t think he’s got the arm to be the best option there. I think he would both be susceptible to wild throws because he’s trying max effort to get the ball across well or in from shallow left, and, I think runners would be legging out some hits that a stronger arm would zip in accurate throws to your 1B.
Let Story/Campbell/Mayer sort out the middle infield mix. Notice I left out grissom, I was never impressed with him in ATL, and he has not shown the growth yet to be a good option. See what 1 to 2 years in AAA can make of him
Long term, by the sound of it you’re likely right. But the middle infield mix is extremely crowded right now and we don’t really have anyone knocking on the door who looks like a good long term third baseman. If they can spend ’25 focusing on getting him reps there so that he could be prepared to give them even just a year or two with passable glovework at the hot corner, I think that’s the quickest and most obvious path to getting his bat into the mix for the big club. Then you can slide him back over to his more natural position after Story is either gone or becomes unplayable, and hopefully a better long term solution has emerged for third by that point as well.
And sadly I am with you on Grissom. I wanted to be excited by him at first but I didn’t see anything in his albeit limited action this year to maintain that excitement. Hope he proves me wrong, but we’ll see. Though considering what they gave up for him, I think he’s definitely still going to get every chance to get a crack at the job, this year included.
Cleveland that is a terrible idea. Who do you sit? No way you sit Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, or Anthony. Your idea to play a terrible defensive outfielder and turn perhaps the best defensive outfield in baseball to probably average because that is how bad Yoshida is makes no sense. Yoshida is an overpayed DH and nothing more he hasn’t earned 1 minute defensively in that outfield.
Playing Yoshida 150 innings in the field isn’t much, but its enough to prevent complete erosion of skills. Doing it early and when there are injuries would be ideal. Idk how Anthony will do in the bigs; his AAA success was late summer and he hasn’t had the most even success especially not during colder springs, so a hiccup isn’t outside reality. Abreu is RF and platoons because he can’t hit LHP, and Rafaela is CF/SS. Duran will be primary LF and get reps in CF and RF.
There will be some innings for Yoshida in the cracks, and the team should use them as they did for JD Martinez seasons past, to keep the player engaged and maintain his defense from completely eroding. It’s about managing him instead of whatever they’ve been doing to alienate him.
I fully expect Roman Anthony to break with the team. There is simply no room for Yoshida defensively. They will also probably bring back Refsnyder a far superior defender to Masa. Masa is as bad defensively as Manny Ramirez without being able to hit nearly like Ramirez.
Masa simply doesn’t have a spot on this team defensively my guess is we will also see Campbell fairly early next year and he’s a far superior outfield defender to Masa. There is no room he was a big mistake and I’m hopeful that Breslow works out a bad contract swap and moves on from Masa.
If the Red Sox eat a significant portion on the contract, Yoshida can be traded. Almost anything can be sold at the right price whether real estate or players. The Red Sox may have to eat $30,000,000, but it might be worth it to free up the DH spot and some salary cap space.
MLB – Agreed. The money is meaningless to the owners. They made a far bigger mistake with paying to have Sale move to ATL. They can do the same with Yoshida and create voluminous rationalization for it just like they did with Sale.
The key is moving Devers to DH if he does go. If that doesn’t happen with Devers then clearing Yoshida from the roster just means someone else hits in that spot and the defense doesn’t improve.
The Mariners would make quite a bit of sense. They could use another lefty bat and have the perfect dead money swap with Haniger heading the other way.
Mariners Receive Yoshida (3yrs/$54M) + $9M ($3M per year)
Red Sox Receive Haniger (1yr/$15.5M)
The Red Sox would then immediately DFA Haniger and have Yoshida off their books for ‘26 and ‘27.
Mariners would get Yoshida to split DH and LF with Randy Arozarena, while not adding to their ‘25 payroll, so they’d still have room to add Raley’s 1B platoon partner and address 2B or 3B.
So we give up .285/.345./.435 hitter because he’s expensive and not exactly what we want at to play at DH. FOR a roster spot?????? Not to replace him with anyone. Just because he’s costly?? And who is it that this roster spot goes to?
Cleveland = The suggestion of the swap is a good one based on lengths of contracts but Haniger is worth keeping IF he proves he can return to form as a hitter. In 2021 after COVID he hit 39 HRs and had 100 RBIs. So the skills are present if you can get them to come out again. If not, he is completely expendable if he starts out 2025 like his 2022 to 2024 seasons. Think of it like we did with O’Neill and Giolito, a gamble but not an expensive gamble.. One year to prove himself, it not maybe by then Devers is the DH or Anthony is up and the DH spot is used to rest players..
You can also use the future $35M payroll savings now by signing players with backloaded contracts like the Cardinals did with Sonny Gray.
Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell,…. there are lots of options who can actually improve the defense (something Yoshida absolutely can not) AND the offense.
Haniger recovering is wishful thinking. You’d be better off picking up Garver. He’s more likely to bounce back. As he seesaws every other season.
I guess what bothers me is that we are dumping a contract to clear a spot and pretending to dump the money but still paying a sizable portion.
If this deal was a net negative on our cap, maybe you could justify it by signing someone equally useful. However, the likelihood is nil to get both of those conditions.
It feels like playing musical chairs against yourself. I’d rather the team push forward and make the best of an imperfect situation. It seems more responsible than hoping Hainger or Garver can revive.
Let’s assume those guys are fill in the new open spot of dumping Yoshida. Anthony will need OF reps and will fight with Duran, Abreu, and Rafaela. Campbell will work out at 2B and avoid dealing with OF logjam, and fight for 2B with Grissom and Hamilton. (There isn’t a huge incentive with the logjams to get these guys up). Then, who becomes the DH? Mind these two guys are rookies and aren’t remotely projected to be as effective hitters as Yoshida in ’25.
This distancing is for uncoupling long-term commitment and getting a short-term righty-bat to balance what has become invaded by lefty-bats.
Reasonable suggestion. But a lot of work when shopping Abreu could get a better pitcher, right?
Cleveland = Why did you pigeon hole Campbell at 2B not SS? Until Mayer can stay healthy, he’s not really an option and the same is true for Story. Someone needs to step up and play defense at SS while carrying an above average bat. Rafaela and Campbell are the best candidates until some of the other slotted SSs prove they can stay healthy. We don’t want to have to worry about health like we did with O’Neill this year.
Your last comment really hits home on the problem. The GM needs to consider the depth of each position and the balance between right handed and left handed batters along with their ability to play defense.
Cleveland…
If you saw grissom with ATL and Gwinnett you’d understand why Campbell wouldn’t need to be fighting him for 2B playing time. Grissom needs AAA development to see if he can fix his flaws, which, may not be fixable.
As for Hamilton, he should be a utility sub/bench depth piece. He’s OK, but nothing to stand in the way of a strong prospect and claiming playing time.
You don’t hold Anthony or Campbell in the minors to give Yoshida or Hamilton playing time. You also don’t trade one of Anthony/Abreu/Duran/Rafaela to make sure Yoshida can have ABs.
The strongest team is if your DH spot is giving rest to the 4 OFers where a VERY good player slots as a DH/4th OF who is capable of being an everyday starter. Then when the injury(ies) hit every year you’re not using a patchwork lesser player like so many teams. Even Ref has a role in that situation.
You want to trade controllable OFer, get me a young elite controllable 3B coming back, and still boot Yoshida away to put one of devers/Casas in the dh slot.
It doesn’t matter what happens with Bo or Vladdy, shapiro will screw it up …Horrendous GM.
You forgot his puppet Atkins…whatever…they know that Jays fans are wise to their ineptitude. We can only hope that the day after the World Series has been won, there will be a new GM, and front office.
CTS – I wonder if the Jays made any effort to hire Tito Francona. Maybe it wasn’t a fit for Tito, but I certainly hope they inquired.
@ 30 Parks, Francona was instrumental in getting rid of shapiro in Cleveland.
… interesting. Any specific reason, CTS?
If the Jays are smart, if they can’t get a haul in December at the meetings, they play Bichette until the 2025 trade deadline and try again to move him.
It’s not rocket science but I don’t want Shapiro, Atkins, Click and Lecava doing this deal.
They wouldn’t get a haul, unless there was some sign and trade deal made…or if it was to somewhere Bo would go to anyways like the Dodgers…
It feels like the trade deadline would be a better bet, but what is your idea of a “haul” this offseason? For me, the bar isn’t that high to flip the decision from hold until the deadline to good enough to make the deal now.
Given the longer track history for Bo, I would be asking high at the start of the shopping Bo….One top 100, one top 200, and a near ready reliever type.
The umpires are doing everything they can to help the Yankees beat the Royals, so there’s that.
That “review” of the Chisholm steal to second was clearly wrong. He was out no matter how you look at it, and the fact that he then came around to score means the wrong call was costly for the Royals.
you need conclusive evidence to overturn a call. he was probably out but there was no conclusive replay angle
it was conclusive. just not conclusively good for the league’s pockets.
Actually you DON’T need conclusive evidence. You need the umpire to make the RIGHT CALL.
The right call was made.
whyhayzee – The league’s wishes as you suggest is for the big market team to prevail but if history holds true the Yankees haven’t been able to get to the promised land for a very long time with that same advantage. KC fooled me a decade ago and this team could do it again in 2024.
Soto and Judge can’t sleep for long or they will wake up watching the AL Championship series from their home.
Living on the East Coast, people here think the world revolves around the Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, Phillies. Everything gets an overblown amount of attention. And MLB cow tows to that mindset. But some of the best and most entertaining baseball is played elsewhere. It’s America’s pastime, not the myopic vision of the typical East Coast fan. And so much of the rest of the country seems inconsequential. Sad.
The right call was made. It’s ok to admit.
Atkins botched another players value, they now have to either overpay on an extension, trade him for less than he’s worth in the off season or hope he has a great first half and still trade him for less than he’s worth at the deadline.
And obviously they will keep him and he will walk and join the Giants as the first big free agent they have signed in years.
My guess is he goes at the deadline, assuming he’s healthy and productive and the Jays are out of it.
The interesting/annoying thing is what if the Jays are in the hunt at the deadline? They may have a hard time trading him if they’re trying to get a playoff spot. In that case, he probably just walks for free.
In fairness to Atkins though, once Bo started with the injuries, he couldn’t be traded. And prior to the injuries, he was the better extension candidate. The injuries really threw a monkey wrench into the Jays plans.
Atkins has made his share of blunders, but he can’t be blamed for failing to predict a string of injuries to a key player who had been the picture of health and reliability.
That’s my guess also, but there is also no reason to think the Jays can’t win 86 games to sneak into the final wild card spot.
Up until this year, Bo was a pretty consistent really good player, even after getting hurt during the short season he was a valuable asset. He should have been extended after 2020, or 21 or 22. If he wasn’t willing to sign, he should have been traded prior to this season when his value was still at its peak.
The injury this year only exasperated the situation for the FO, it didn’t create the problem. Even if he didn’t get hurt, I’m not sure the Jays would have traded him at the deadline, because this front office doesn’t seem to know how to think outside the box and only believe they can compete with Vlad and Bo
The jays aren’t the rays, they don’t have to sell players early to ensure max value.
The idea that the jays should have traded him in 21 or 22 is ridiculous.
jays can still trade him this year, it’s a weak SS market, he has a long track record with one injury riddled poor season, he still improves a lot of want to be contending teams. They will still get a nice package if they decide to sell him
Thanks. No one said he should have been traded in either 2021 or 2022.
Reading comprehension would help you out a bit
And not being overly emotional in all your opinions would help you have better ones.
Rather be a bit emotional, over too stupid to comprehend a couple of short paragraphs.
Not being stupid, would help you give intelligent replies
Hahah yes, we’re all stupid, that’s why no ever agrees with your idiotic rants. I didn’t realize the 13 at the end was your age, clearly it’s your IQ level.
Enjoy the offseason little boy
Except for literally the other guy that replied to me.
I get it, I’d be upset also if I was an adult with a learning disability
Hey….just a thought…how about Bo to the Reds for Elly De La Cruz?
You do know that De La Cruz leads the whole of baseball in fielding errors don’t you ?
De La Cruz is destined for a position change w/the Reds when McClain is healthy next season. He should already be an of’er. He’s still worth a lot more than 1 year of Bichette.
Somethings can be taught…..speed can’t.
I expect Cruz will follow in the footsteps of O’Neal Cruz and is destined for centerfield or maybe right field with his strong arm.
Why would the Reds give up 5 years of control of De La Cruz for 1 year of Bichette? They’d laugh the Jays off the phone. Probably think it was a crank call.
Bo to the Reds for Elly De La Cruz?
==================================
Not remotely close.
How be the Jays toss in some $1 hotdogs and a water boy dude named Atkins?
and here we go again with the Boston Red Sox. You want to know when management is trying to run a Red Sox player out of town? Leaks. Why would anyone be talking about it to a reporter?
A player wasn’t comfortable with how he felt. BTW, his entire living. He got a couple of opinions to make sure he didn’t have an injury that could worsen and ruin his living, just in case. Whose feelings were hurt? The team doctor? I don’t care about Yoshida being on or off the team honestly, but this crap every time from the team is making the Red Sox look terrible, and more importantly with players in the league. Just STFU and build another losing roster.
I can’t recall the specifics, but I do remember this stuff happening before with Boston, a few times, at least.
When they do this stuff, Boston management come off as a petty ex-girlfriend.
It seems thoroughly unprofessional. Any players treated like that on the way out are going to have future teammates who they’re going to talk to about it. At some point, it has to have an effect on Boston’s ability to bring in free agents.
Canuck – It’s happened a lot with the Red Sox.
Shortly after Bloom was fired, the announcers said on-air that he was foolish to turn down a potential trade of Sale to the Rangers.
And a week ago when Kenley left the team while on the IL, the announcers made it a point to say on-air that he wasn’t injured.
You can call the Red Sox front office many things, but definitely not classy.
This could also be a Boras play to get his dissatified client traded quickly. Yoshida sees the writing on the wall that he may lose more playing time. “I’m going to throw you a bone for a story. Ask Breslow about Yoshida’s thumb injury and why he’s been relegated to strictly DH duties. My client would be happy to give you some quotes.” Breslow is compelled to speak bc he doesn’t want a one-sided story coming out.
YBC: Good point. The MassLive article does not say who leaked that the Red Sox were unhappy that Yoshida got a second and third opinion about his thumb. It could have been the Red Sox or Yoshida/Boras.
Bo Bichette’s injury history to his legs goes back farther and is more extensive than I think most people realize. He’s only 26 now, but what’s his health going to look like a couple years into a big contract extension?
July 2020 – left hamstring (DTD)
Aug 2020 – sprained right knee (IL placement)
Aug 2021 – bruised left shin (DTD)
June 2022 – right foot (DTD)
Aug 2023 – right knee patellar tendinitis (IL)
Aug 2023 – right quad (IL)
June 2024 – strained right calf (IL)
July 2024 – right calf (DTD)
July 2024 – strained right calf (IL, after returning for one game)
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his SB totals went from 25 (in 26 tries) to 13 to 5 before this year.
So if he doesn’t run and doesn’t provide defensive value, it’s not a shocker the Jays didn’t like the offers they received a year ago. And they’re definitely not going to like any they receive this winter.
Rollie – Excellent documentation of his injuries but Bichette isn’t as bad as you suggest with this list. His first full season was 2021 he played in 159 games. I believe that is more than any Red Sox player that year. In 2022 once again he played in 159 games at age 24.
In 2023 is when his problems really started. The patellar tendinitis reduced his games played from 159 to 135 during the months of August and September. 135 is still a decent year. It’s about the same number of games that Devers played in 2022 and 2024. The real problem for Bichette was 2024. He played 81 games due to his right calf. That’s an injury that will heal over the off season. They shouldn’t consider trading him because his talent level is extremely high and he’s going to be paid off of his worst year by far. His 6 year career stats are .290/.332/.466/.798. But his pay will be linked to his 2024 stats of .225/.277/.322/.598. Talk about a huge discount that will be expected by any team signing him.
Buy low and sell high. Bichette is one of the best buy lows available in baseball in 2025. His defense is a bit better than Devers but if you let Devers play, there is no reason to turn away a potential all-star quality player who is a legacy. He is a $25MM a year SS or more if his legs are healthy after one off year. You can probably get him for under $20MM. Even if he plays 3B and Story or Campbell play SS with Devers at DH, he’s worth it. I don’t think he is injury prone, he simply got a nagging calf injury that was rushed and multiple setbacks happened.
If the Red Sox are smart and he is available, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy low and expect high performance in the future.
The jays aren’t trading Bo to the Red Sox
Yeah I’m a bit confused by all the Red Sox comps. It’s possible Bo doesn’t re-up in Toronto and signs as a free agent in Boston but a trade there feels extremely unlikely.
Rollie = I thought Bo is signed for roughly $17MM in 2025 and then a free agent in 2026? That’s why I suggested trade so they could have him at a reasonable price in 2025.
Personally, if I was Toronto I wouldn’t trade Bichette ever. He has a huge future.
Yeah about $17.5 million. Maybe the Jays do go the trade route if extension talks don’t go anywhere, just hard to believe they’d move the guy to a division rival in a season when they’re trying to compete.
I agree – if both Bo and Vladdy want to stay it should be a no brainer. Re-sign the guys.
Yoshida and $6 million for Montgomery sounds good for all. AZ will need to replace Joc and Grichuk. They’d also love to move Mont.
On the Bichette reporting, it would be so nice to have names that were discussed. I know the Cubs and Dodgers were teams involved in some of the discussions and there’s so much to like about what could have been on the table from those two clubs. Some names floated at the time were Horton and Caissie but that was largely just speculative. No matter what was on the table, it’ll look good in hindsight, but there’s no way to go back in time. You certainly aren’t going to revisit the same names if you opened trade talks back up with the same teams from a year ago.
Yoshi for Robbie Ray and the RS throw in some money or a decent, non-premium prospect. If SF thought Soler was worth $42M/3, the Yoshi + salary relief should be close.
I don’t think SF would go for that. They have a new guy in charge, and wouldn’t make such a rookie move…
Time to pull a Rusney with Yoshida and banish him to Worcester. Maybe some coaching and a dose of humiliation will turn things around d for him.
“a dose of humiliation will turn things around”
Like it did for Rusney?
Abreu, Crawford, Valdez and Zanetello for Garret Crochet.
Resign Tyler Oniell, Chris Martin.
Casas, Yoshida, Yoelin Cespedes & Wincowski to Seattle for George Kirby and Andres Munoz
Sign Walker Buehler to 1 year deal.
Whitlock to pen…. he is not a starter.
Rotation:
1. Kirby
2. Crochett
3 Houck
4 Bello
5. Buehler
6. Giolito
7. Fitts
8 Priester
Lineup:
1. Duran LF
2. Storey SS
3. Devers 1B
4. Oniell DH
5 Anthony RF
6 Wong/Teel C
7 Campbell 3B
8 Grissom 2B
9.Rafaela CF
Bench:
Hamilton
Romy G
Teel/Wong
Chase Meidroth or Sogard
Bring up Mayer when ready.
BP Slaten, Whitlock, Penrod, Murphy, Kelly, Guerrero, Martin, Hendricks and CP Munoz.
Cooper – IMO, I would like to trade Abreu, in a package of players, for someone with more than 2 years of team control. Do we know Campbell is a better defensive 3B than Devers? His best defensive positions are OF and 2B.
MLB – The hot dog vendor can field better than Devers!!! Campbell is eligible to play 3B, SS, 2B and all outfield positions. He and Rafaela have similar fielding skills but Campbell has a better track record in the infield but is unlikely to get a fair chance to prove it.
Devers at 3B, Story at SS until he gets hurt then Mayer and if he gets hurt yet again then maybe Campbell or Rafaela and Grissom at 2B until he gets sent back to AAA after his first adversity. That’s how Boston will likely handle their infield. It’s as if there is no room for any player other than the chosen ones to get the opportunity to start and stay in a position they weren’t pigeon holed for. It’s unfortunate because that keeps the fielding ranked near the bottom of the league and severely punished the pitchers who have to absorb the errors counted as hits in their ERA, WHIP and pitch counts.
Why don’t pitchers go more innings for the Red Sox? The defense. Too many misplayed balls counted as hits. Fix the defense and the team ERA and WHIP will fall, the runs per game will go down and wins will go up.
Mariners would block your number if you proposed this.
Kirby is an All-Star/Cy Young caliber pitcher with 4 arbitration years of control left. Munez is an All-Star closer with a super club friendly deal ($3.5M next year into escalating options of $6M, $8M and $10M over the following 3 years).
Casas is a great, not elite, offensive player who ideally would be a full time DH. Yoshida is an overpayed DH with negative trade value. Cespedes is a long term 19 year SS prospect who isn’t even considered top 100 and the M’s already have Emerson, Young, Arroyo and Celesten as stronger middle infield prospects. Wincowski is a 5th starter who probably wouldn’t have a job by the end of the year.
If you replaced Kirby with Castillo, then it would be a more interesting conversation.
Any conversations for Kirby would start with at least one of Roman Anthony or Marcelo Mayer in addition to Casas (and even that probably doesn’t work for Seattle).
Cooperdooper7 – Nice dream team. If only baseball worked like you suggested. We get to trade weak guys to get great players. Also, if only the organization would get behind the Devers move but they won’t.
Look the current team is good enough for another 3rd place finish in 2025.
C – Wong (hopefully doesn’t regress) and Teel (if he can raise his game)
1B – Casas – A cornerstone of the team for a decade or more
2B – Up for grabs but some decent candidates
SS – Defaults to $23.3 Million Story but I prefer Campbell
3B – Devers – Albatross contract and defensive disaster needs to move
LF – Duran – all-star caliber player
CF – Rafaela – Plenty of spectacular plays – needs consistency
RF – Anthony – May not be ready in April but will get there
DH – O’Neill if affordable, Abreu if no O”Neill or Campbell utility man
SP1 – HUGE HOLE
SP2 – Houck
SP3 – Crawford
SP4 – Bello
SP5 – TBD (Giolito at some point based on recovery)
SP Depth – TBD
Relief – Whitlock, A bunch of TBDs
Closer – Hendriks
The key is Breslow and what he can do in 2025. The holes need to be filled but so far, he’s collecting resources without regard to the holes. That needs to change to take the next step up and compete for the division.
braves have a huge hole between 3rd and 2b that bo would fit nicely in. But it would be cheap, as bo wants out and jays want him gone on top of AA isnt going to trade much for him