Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow met with the Boston beat on Monday to discuss the team’s offseason. MLBTR has already relayed Breslow’s notes on Lucas Giolito and Roki Sasaki, respectively. MassLive’s Chris Cotillo and Alex Speier of the Boston Globe were among those to cover Breslow’s other comments.
Most notably, the CBO pushed back against trade rumors swirling around first baseman Triston Casas. “I’m not totally sure where it comes from. We’re not shopping Triston,” Breslow said. “We see him as a guy that can hit in the middle of the lineup for a really long time here in Boston. I’ve seen some of the speculation about what deals may or may not have existed, or what may or may not have been proposed, and there was nothing that was remotely close. We’re certainly not shopping him.”
Reporting has generally characterized the Sox as being open to a Casas trade without suggesting they’re actively trying to deal him. That has been most prevalent in the context of attempting to line up a deal with Seattle for a controllable starter. Ryan Divish and Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reported during the Winter Meetings that the Mariners had rebuffed interest from the Sox in swapping Casas for a young starter like Bryan Woo or Bryce Miller. Boston has seemingly not had interest in a Casas for Luis Castillo framework. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand wrote last week that the Sox would’ve wanted Seattle to take on the underwater Masataka Yoshida contract in that situation.
In any case, it looks increasingly likely that Casas will remain on the Red Sox going into next season. Boston has added Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler to a rotation that already included Brayan Bello, Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford. Giolito is shooting for an Opening Day return from internal brace surgery. That gives the Sox at least six viable starters, while Cooper Criswell and Richard Fitts are on hand as depth options. Garrett Whitlock is likely to kick back to the bullpen once he returns from his own elbow surgery.
While the rotation may no longer be a priority, Breslow highlighted two longstanding target areas: a right-handed bat and the bullpen. They’ve made progress in the latter area, bringing in Aroldis Chapman and Justin Wilson to strengthen the left side. Whitlock and Liam Hendriks could step in alongside second-year pitcher Justin Slaten in the late innings. Whitlock, Hendriks, and Wilson all come with some durability question marks. Chapman’s scattershot command makes him something of a wild card. Slaten, who is just one season removed from being a Rule 5 selection, might be the team’s safest reliever.
Relief pitching is tough to project, and the Sox have a more volatile bullpen than most contenders. There’s a decent amount of upside, but it’s not surprising that Breslow indicated they’ll look for another addition. The free agent relief market has barely moved. Only three relievers — Clay Holmes, Blake Treinen and Yimi García — have signed multi-year deals. Holmes is stretching out as a starter after signing a three-year contract with the Mets. Chapman and Nick Martinez (who accepted a qualifying offer from Cincinnati) are the only other relievers to sign for a guarantee above $10MM.
The slowly-developing relief market in part reflects a weaker than average free agent group. However, the top two relievers, Tanner Scott and Jeff Hoffman, remain unsigned going into the new year. Carlos Estévez, Kirby Yates, A.J. Minter and David Robertson are other relievers who have yet to sign. Ryan Helsley is the top name on the trade market, though the Cardinals seem to prefer to hold him until the deadline.
In contrast to the bullpen, Boston has yet to make a move for a right-handed hitter aside from a trade for backup catcher Carlos Narváez. The Sox lost Tyler O’Neill from a group that was already very left-handed. Breslow reiterated that the Sox wanted impact production from “a right-handed bat out of the middle of the lineup.” He left open the possibility of internal improvements but noted they’re “certainly also engaged in conversations for players that aren’t yet in the organization.”
The top remaining free agent, righty-hitting infielder Alex Bregman, has been linked to the Sox in recent weeks. Asked whether the Sox are still involved on Bregman, Breslow pointed back to the need for right-handed hitting generally. “As you probably can imagine, I’m not going to speak about specific pursuits. I can say that right-handed bats that we feel like could play well at our park are certainly of interest to us, and we remain engaged on a number of fronts.”
Breslow added that the Red Sox aren’t looking to move Rafael Devers off the hot corner. That doesn’t rule out Bregman, who’d be a massive upgrade over Boston’s internal options at second base (i.e. Vaughn Grissom, David Hamilton, Romy Gonzalez). Switch-hitting outfielders Anthony Santander and Jurickson Profar are speculative possibilities. Pete Alonso may be the best unsigned right-handed hitter, but he’d be a tough roster fit unless the Sox deal Casas or can offload most of the Yoshida contract.
I don’t want to pay for Bregman’s declining years and he has possibly started declining. I wouldn’t go past a 4 year deal with him.
That is how free agency works. You want his next few years, you have to put up with the dregs when he’s 37. If you don’t, someone else will.
Yes and I hope someone else does.
Allin – I hope he signs in the NL. IMO, Campbell or a healthy Grissom are two options I would love to see the Red Sox give an opportunity to. A controllable, low cost, Minor League Player of the Year is a good shot to be a solid contributor.
his bb% dropped by almost half in 2024. his next few years might already be bad
That’s a big presumption over a single hitting area that can have a lot that went into it and other doesn’t directly tie to many other areas. It isn’t as if he saw other worrisome quiet hits to his profile. Check out his statcast data – most things are in their usual spot with him, with some stuff (e.g. Hard Hit %) actually reaching a career high.
It looks like he maybe was trying out some things with his batting approach, as he put up:
-A career high (other than his first two seasons) in first-pitch swing %
-A career high swing %
-A big spike in chase %
-An easy career high in chase contact %
-A career LOW in whiff %
It would be more worrisome with other decaying skills. but he actually saw a hold or rise in a lot of batted ball quality measures, and he didn’t suffer a hidden hit in the sort of thing that portents badly such as speed (he’s well below average there, but was in the same area he’s been in for 4 straight seasons now).
So, TBD with this just being a one year, isolated deal. WAY too early to conclude that he’s going to be a “bad” hitter any time soon.
bad was a poor choice of words. he should be a solidly above-average hitter for the next few years. the issue for me is paying him like the player he was when he knew what pitches were coming (cheap shot from a still-bitter yankee fan). higher chase rate combined with career-low whiff rate is really interesting. maybe slower bat speed leads to more guess-hitting leads to more chasing but elite bat-to-ball skill overcomes this?
I agree, Suit. I would shy away from Bregman & Alonzo, personally. I don’t believe either will be worth what they’re going to get.
Alonso might end up an ok deal. His market seems to be much smaller than some had anticipated. His limited skill set just isn’t very appealing to most teams imo.
The Sox heavy spending is probably over unless they sign Santander or go after Scott or Estevez. They need a backup Catcher, or at least a veteran to compete with Narvaez for the backup job and probably some depth pieces and call it an offseason
This is why I think the decision to include Teel in the Crotchet trade was dumb. Obviously Anthony and Campbell were untouchable, but rumor has it that Chicago would have taken Mayer instead of Teel. That would have allowed Teel to have been the backup catcher this year and the starter in the future, and then they have Arias coming in a few years to replace Mayer at SS.
Isnt Arias regarded as a glove first guy? Ive read cespedes is the real prize vs arias or mayer
I also like teel and think he will be solid mlb catcher but hes not adley rutchman and real curious to see how the bat plays vs better competition its no surprise a season college 23 year old ripped up the low minors but triple A for a time will be a nice test
That was when they were signed, Arias hit another level last year and should be a top 100 guy soon.
Kevin if you guys need a backup catcher up C how about this deal. You get Castillo Garver ( due for bounce back year) Haniger and can pick from 9 back from our prospects a few names will be off the board like Evans. We get Casas Yoshida ( maybe) depends on how much money you will eat. Then I forget who else I had in mind but one of your top prospects. That is what I get for watching sports while writing this. There will be some other lower level minor leaguers to even it all out. You will have too many pitchers you can send the youngest pitchers back down and or trade them. There has to be a deal worth doing. Not 190% if Casas is the real deal if Jerry thinks he is then go for it. We could also sweeten the trade by throwing in the comp rnd A pick in. You would have to blow us away with what you sweeten the pot in coming to is. There are a lot of ways to get this done. Maybe add in another team.
I don’t know that the “heavy spending” we were expecting based on the comments at the start of the offseason ever really happened. The spending was similar to what they have done the last few years, a bit more on Buehler but for just one year. No huge contracts, which may not be for lack of trying. I do hope they are not completely done with the roster as they have made some positive moves to be more competitive but seem a couple of steps away (RPB and bullpen).
RSox- “heavy spending” probably over? when did it begin?
Generally, I don’t want to have to pay for any player’s declining years. However, the open market generally requires that for any player on the higher end – as a price of doing business, teams really can’t just write off a willingness to do that.
So the question really becomes: how worth it would it be to add said player for the shorter term, and how much will the projected decline of the player be workable or not workable?
You’re looking for a Mike-Lowell-type outcome, one in which the full list of things the player brought to the table made him worth having around (even at a not cheap price) even declining and even with a final drop-off at the end. Naturally, a Bregman brings a bigger price and longer commitment but also a skill set that should hold up longer.
Personally, I’d be willing to take the chance on Bregman. The team is ready to add someone in his prime who should also fit well in the clubhouse. “Knows how to win” can be overblown at times, but to some degree that matters too and he brings that. More importantly, his defensive flexibility makes him helpful for getting all the pieces to fit in the short term while also setting him up to have a place longer term that doesn’t require DH. It isn’t hard to imagine him being able to continue to hold down 3B in the medium term, which raises the floor on his value.
As for his bat – he’s never been a superstar bat to begin with, but his type of bat-on-ball, low-strikeout (without being a no-walk contact guy) hitter tends to decline more gracefully on offense. On top of that, there is something to be said in the current age of baseball for hitters who are able to make solid contact against strong pitching and pitcher’s pitches – over the course of the regular season, maximizing exit velo and launch angle and such is better for scoring the most runs possible, but for playoff series you want a mix of boom+bust types who will trade some easy outs for blasts with guys who can make good pitching work. I think Bregman is that sort of type.
In other words, Bregman is the sort who can be good on and off the field, help make it easier to put an entire lineup and roster together, and even when he is definitely past his hitting peak should be able to bring a key element to the table while the bulk of the lineup focuses on younger players who are more about doing the damage however they can.
Pretty much everyone of reliable value is getting overpaid, so few signing options feel like slam dunks. If the team wants to make a real upgrade (maybe it would rather remain patient, which is fair and makes this goal not a given), then it has to look for the best fit out of imperfect ones, and I think Bregman might be it.
Wow, you have a brain. How odd in the comment page. I still believe Arenado is wiser choice.
spudchukar – I think you can’t go wrong adding either all-star quality player. Both players would be the best non pitcher on the team in 2026. Devers is one dimensional and his hitting isn’t elite it’s just good. 141 top OPS+ is very replaceable if you sign an all-star. Arenado had a 151 in 2022 before the Cardinals stopped hitting as a team. His career is very similar hitting wise compared to Devers. He has hovered between 115 and 151 if you throw out the COVID season and Devers has hovered between 107 and 141. The .972 fielding % compared to .944 is obviously HUGE. Bregman has hovered between 113 and 162 so his ceiling has been higher on offense. On defense his .968 fielding % is close to Arenado and it’s 8 points over league average and 24 points higher than Devers.
Arenado is a bit more of a leader in the clubhouse whereas I think Bregman might be a tad better in the clutch situations.
BOTH ARE GREAT PLAYERS but Arenado’s contract fits the current ownership limits (under $21Million) at age 34 and it’s for 3 years. Bregman at 31 will cost nearly twice as much but he’s only 31 so his contract would need to be 6 years for him to end their contract at 36 like Arenado’s.
The idiocy of playing Devers at 3B needs to end this year.
He’s very replaceable as a bat so moving his contract will be impossible because he’s paid nearly twice his value. The least the team could do is relieve the pitcher’s of the burden of trying to avoid having the ball hit to 3B, that’s incredibly distracting for a pitcher..
Would rather work a trade for Vlad Guerrero Jr as a Pads fan but depending on what the Sox would want for Casas maybe a deal could be worked out.
From a Sox fan’s perspective who would you want for Casas?
I don’t think the Red Sox improve their situation by trading Casas. (Yoshida you can have for free.)
Why trade for one year of him? He will be a Met next season anyway.
I dont think you shop a guy like casas..you make a team entice you enough to deal him ..in other words very high price
They can give Bregman 5 or 6 easy. He plugs into 2b now as Grissom and Campbell season, as they find a trade partner for Yoshida, then at some point Devers takes the DH role, Mayer joins Campbell and Grissom and Anthony, Story’s deal ends…Bregman at 3b, Campell or Grissom at 2b, Mayer at SS, the other 2b becomes the UT infielder. OF is Anthony, Rafaela, Duran, Abreu and Garcia. Life is good, sign Scott to close games. Extend Crochet try for Susaki
baseballguru – Sorry but Devers at 3B even 1 year is a monster waste. I say cut him if he has an issue. His bat isn’t that great. Both Arenado and Bregman have better bats and are FAR FAR superior defenders.
If they don’t want to spend any more money, put Campbell at 3B and be done with it. His defense will be far superior to Devers and he’s a minor league player of the year which usually commands great respect. Devers’ offensive numbers will be dwarfed by both Campbell and Anthony. Devers’ top OPS+ is 141. That’s above league average not great. Mookie in LA has put up 147, 126, 140, 165 and 145. That’s an elite hitter. Devers has never made the 10 in MVP voting yet makes over $30Million a year. Time to stop genuflecting over this guy and put him in his place as a typical 4th or 5th best hitter on a championship baseball team like in 2018. With him being the star this team has gone NOWHERE. They need to add real stars and they need to stop trading away their better prospects and give up guys like Mayer, Bleis Garcia and Romero NOT Teel, Montgomery and Meidroth.
Question. I’m not quite up on Red Sox affairs. Why did they let Tyler O’Neil walk as a FA? He led the team in hrs.
They let him walk because paying him might be a fool’s errand. Injuries are prevalent with him and his strikeouts jumped up. Red Sox are thinking his best is behind him, and they have outfielders that will need playing time. This combo makes him expendable, especially since his defense isn’t a big part of his game.
O’Neill is a good defender he can move well for a big guy
He was. Now he’s meh. Plus if he’s not out on the field this also is a defensive liability.
No doubt about the defense. Plus he can run. However, until he can show he can get 550 ABs, his worth is diminished.
He’s a 2 time gold glover. Defense isn’t part of his game? Ok fella……
He was not a plus defender last year. You could say this was in part due to adjusting to the monster or an injury prevention strategy but in any case this was not a part of his game in 2024
Yeah that was one year and the reasons you just gave are exactly why. So to pretend he’s no longer a good defender is silly.
Back in ’20 and ’21. LOL
O’Niell could only manage to play in 113 games in a contract year. Health is his biggest issue.
What does that mean it didn’t count?
He still led the team in homers in 113 games.
Yes injuries are the biggest concern with him. That is true. But he’s a really good player when healthy.
yeah, when healthy. This healthiest season since ’21 was last year’s 113 games. It’s not a winning recipe if you’re best hitter is out a third of the season.
The Red Sox traded away the pittcher who went on to win the Cy Young award. What do they know about winning recipes? And why did they trade him away? Because he couldn’t stay healthy. Until he did. And won the Cy Young.
Early on in ONeills career he sat on the bench healthy because the Cardinals were trying to prove the Dexter Fowler contract wasn’t a mistake and that Dylan Carlson was a good player. Thats a fact.
No doubt. But I always argue what are the total stats for a team and his position. You have to factor in his replacement, when he doesn’t play. If you have a decent replacement who hits from the left side, can play decent defense, who can run little, hit OK, probably doesn’t have the power but is a good teammate, then you have a winning combo.
Who cares about the past when he didn’t play but was still healthy, it’s irrelevant.
Sale succeeded when others doubted him is a great story. It’s a shame the Sox made the move. But no one from the outset knew what type of results would happen, everyone had watched his change up suck from ’21-’23.
O’Neill’s FA is clear it won’t make the Sox miss out on a Cy Young or MVP/sliver slugger season. He’s not that good.
You do know he’s won a silver slugger before right? Good gosh man…..
Bit – That was 4 years ago, time to wake up from the coma and actually WATCH him attempt to play the field. He was brutal defensively last year.
And if you’re one of *those* people who ignores the eye test, his Range is -3 which makes him 56th out of 74 (min 750 innings).
And he made some of the worst throws imaginable.
Bit – Perhaps if he cared more about baseball than bodybuilding, he wouldn’t have all the mysterious injuries and wouldn’t be so stiff and uncoordinated.
He just signed for 49.5 million dollars. 2 time gold glover. Has a silver slugger. You got some weird hate coming from somewhere fella.
Dumb argument, almost everyone agreed they were OK to trade Sale after many years of injuries. If he were projected to win Cy they wouldn’t trade him
I actually agree with fpg its not hate..watch the guy play ..and yes wierd injuries are a thing..the leg infection in texas is just one but cora had to rest him alot to keep him off the il and there is a reason he only played lf for boston no way he could hold down rf or cf there these days. And sure the bat plays but hes streaky and will k alot
The dumb argument is yours for thinking projections are reality. Sometimes guys who have injury problems get healthy that’s the point. If the Red Sox were so smart they wouldn’t have traded Sale.
Hes not a center fielder or right fielder. I know he played there in St Louis but he shouldn’t have hes a left fielder he has a weak arm.
I watched him play more than you have you can bet on that.
Bita.. hes had injury trouble his entire career in what world do people finally get more healthy as they age? Let alone a pro athlete entering his 30s . Please enlighten us so we can all drink from the fountain of youth and you dont need to watch too many games to see the decline in defense…its not hos arm he just cant get to balls like when he was younger hes not running nearly as well.
Just because he’s had injury problems in the past doesn’t mean he will continue to in the future. And his contract reflects the fact that he might miss some games.
Like I said Chris Sale had injury problems. Then he didn’t and if the Red Sox had kept him they probably make the playoffs last year.
The last time he won a gold glove was 2021 ..its now 2025 the most games hes played in a season since 2021 was last year , only 113 . Its obivous to anyone watching him play he is no longer a gold glove caliber defender and..hey “fella”
.you cant play defense if you cant stay on the field
He wasn’t healthy enough to win a gold glove the last 3 years. He still has 2 for his career. If you watched him in Boston only which sounds like is the case you haven’t seen him at his best. He wasn’t healthy last year and he still had a productive season.
Yea its been 4 years since hes been at hos best..2021 looks like an outlier kn his baseball card…dude you shouldnt have to try this hard to convince ppl if hes so great
Who said he’s great? He has the potential to be great. And that’s worth something. Like I said Chris Sale had that potential too and the Red Sox let him go. If ONeill has a good healthy season in 2025 then what?
If fs and buts were candy and nuts we’d all have a merry christmas..sale winning the cy young was totally unpredictable and unexpected teams cant make decisions based on events that have never happened before like sale winning a cy young or oniel staying healthy
Well the Red Sox certainly messed up by trading Sale right?
And if ONeill has a good 2025 it’s gonna look like they messed that up too right?
Lol sure whatever you say..but lets play your game they tradeed sale for 6 years control of grissom..sure sale won the cy young post trade but the sox have 5 more years on grissom if grissom wins the batting title in any of the next 5 years and sale just pitches out the next 2 and retires..”then what”?..point is the jury is still out ln the sale deal what exactly did the braves win last year with cy sale? …also trading aging vet coming off multiple years of injury for a prospect is completly different than giving someone 50 million dollars as a free agent who hasnt stayed healthy for a full season in his entire career and before you mention the 21 mil qo keep in mind he was not even one of the top 3 defensive outfielders on his own team last year
Sale was hurt for 5 straight years (2019-2023). It made sense to unload as much of his contract as possible. O’Niell could only manage to play in 113 games in a contract year where he will never have a larger incentive to be on the field. It made sense to let him go without a QO.
Bit – One team overvaluing him doesn’t mean he’s worth the contract.
League executives and analysts called him a $12M annual player, he got $16.3M annual, that’s $5M less than a QO.
The Red Sox made the right decision and I will always defend them when they do so.
You got some weird caveman crush on O’Neill coming from somewhere, lady.
Perhaps you have a muscle fetish?
Lol so that was a good trade when they gave up Sale???
Really???
I stopped reading after that……
If it made sense to trade for ONeill then it didn’t make sense to trade away Sale. Because they are very similar players.
If ONeill had accepted the qualifying offer they could have kept him for a year and let him go once the prospects were ready. It was a mistake to not make the offer.
Ok homer
Pool – I’m bookmarking this. Haha!
Bit – Yes, but the point is you don’t give out a big contract until they PROVE they are finally healthy. O’Neill hasn’t done that. I don’t give a damn if it’s from roids or not, one thing we do know is baseball players who lift weights too much tend to have a lot of muscle strains/pulls. That’s exactly the case with O’Neill.
And don’t think you can ignore all his other issues … massive K%, extremely unclutch, can’t hit RHP, can’t catch the ball or throw the ball. He’s freakin’ Gabe Kapler on the field.
Go back to last year when they traded away Sale. I was on this site saying how stupid it was. What were you saying? Heck I can look it up. My name is Joel btw.
Bit – His throwing is horrific, he would miss the target by a country mile.
You watched him but didn’t pay attention to how he played. You can bet on that, lady.
Extremely unclutch?
That’s garbage. Thats small sample size nonsense and since you are such a big fan you would know he didn’t have a lot of at bats with runners in scoring position.
Can’t hit right handed pitching? Yeah you made that part up.
His dad was a professional bodybuilder. Thats why he trained like one in the past but he’s made some changes to try and stay healthy.
The trade was fine and I would do it again after watching Sale be injured for 5 years.
You traded away the Cy Young winner bozo. Thats not fine that’s incredibly stupid.
How could they have missed Sale’s potential to win a Cy Young while he was sitting around hurt for 5 years? What were they thinking?
Sale hadn’t done anything in years.
Making decisions in the rear view mirror is fun, isn’t it? You can never be wrong that way.
I said it at the time. With Sale and ONeill the Red Sox had a shot to be a contender. It wasn’t hindsight.
I am saying it right now Boston letting ONeill go was a mistake. So you understand that’s not hindsight right?
Are you really this obtuse? No one is saying it was a “good trade”. People are saying it made sense.. Sometimes things don’t work out, then you move on. Other times, things do work out, like when you don’t sign Boegarts to a 10 year contract,.
Sale himself admits he was a huge disappointment in Boston. It was time.
Sale would disagree with you.
They should have just known bro.
It was obvious. I mean BITA knew.
I said with Sale the Red Sox MAYBE could be a contender. Without him they wouldn’t be. And that’s how it played out.
Bit – Adults know there’s more to hitting than just homeruns.
Try looking at more important stats such as OPS which measures his ACTUAL Slugging Percentage and On Base Percentage. You can find the information on a great site called Baseball-Reference.com
O’Neill batted just .209 with a putrid .290 OBP and .403 SLG against RHP. What you do is add the OBP to the SLG to get what’s called OPS, his is .693 which is mega-putrid.
He’s a decent PLATOON player against only LHP, but what you don’t realize is only 26% of all MLB pitchers are lefties. And THAT is a big reason why the Orioles were fools to give him that huge contract.
Bit – Just because the Red Sox screwed up big time with the Sale trade, it doesn’t mean every decision they make is horrible.
Yes the Red Sox are highly incompetent and dysfunctional, and have made a TON of mistakes since Dave left. But they do get some things right and I will always defend them when they do!!
Adults also know to look at CAREER numbers not 1 season. In his CAREER he has a 751 OPS against righties and again 2 gold gloves. He sure isn’t a platoon player.
You are a weird homer
Bit – Part of maturity is not living in the past and being cognizant of the here and now. Many players have strong outliers early in their career, then fade into oblivion for a plethora of reasons …. injury, pitchers adjusting to them, etc.
I suppose you want DJ LeMahieu on your team too because of his CAREER numbers and GG, MVP votes, etc?
I can’t even believe I need to point this all out to you, but you do have a weird obsessions with the guy.
Calling me a homer is hysterical, considering all the abuse I get from people who can’t handle the few times I disagree with the team.
He’s not 40 years old knucklehead. Career stats matter. They matter a lot more than 1 season you watched him play when he was banged up pretty much all year.
Lemahieu is old. And he sucked the last couple years.
You are weird
Bit – I already knew who you were, I know what BITA is an acronym for. I muted you on at least one of your old handles, just goes to show I believe in giving second chances.
I was saying what every Red Sox fan with at least half a brain was saying.
1) The ONLY thing keeping Sale from performing like a Cy Young candidate during his last few years in Boston was injury.
2) He was due to eventually be healthy, and he finally was healthy heading into last offseason. It was his first normal offseason in several years.
3) He has a HOF-caliber track record
4) Trading him before his final guaranteed contract year was the epitome of buying high and selling low. And for what? $10M in savings so they could blow it on Gio?
5) He pitched great at the end of 2023.
I give you credit for criticizing the trade, but only the dumbest of idiots thought the trade was a good idea.
Bit – Name another player who, despite batting from the middle of the lineup for nearly all his PA’s, had 61 or less RBI despite hitting 31 homers.
That means he drove in LITERALLY (not including himself) 30 runners in 473 PA’s – again, name another player who has driven in so few despite batting in the middle of the lineup.
Bit – You are totally missing the point.
Can O’Neill have another great season like he did in 2021?
Yes, of course.
But he would need to work on his plate discipline, work on his defense, and start training like a baseball player instead of a bodybuilder.
That’s an awful lot to expect of him, but at least I’m saying there’s a possibility he can do it.
What makes it an awful signing for Baltimore is it’s very, very high risk.
Look at the stats baby huey. He didn’t have a lot of plate appearances with runners on base. You are a fan you should know that. Hitting with runners in scoring position has never been a problem for him look it up.
It’s not that risky because he’s not getting paid like his potential would suggest. He’s basically getting paid like he repeats his 2024 season and he didn’t play great defense or stay healthy in 2024. If he improves those things he’s worth far more than he’s making and he will opt out after 2025.
BITA the Red Sox just don’t need O’Neil when they have both Anthony and Campbell coming. At some point this season I think we will see an outfield of Campbell in left, Duran in center, and Anthony in right. This more then any other reason is why the Red Sox didn’t even consider bringing back O’Neil. This doesn’t even consider that the outfield also has Abreu and Refsnyder. There was no room in the inn for O’Neil.
What the Red Sox should have done is signed ONeill then traded away a lefty outfielder like Abreu or Yoshida. Thats what they should have done. And ONeill has an option out after 2025 so there’s a decent chance the Orioles are only keeping him for a year. That would fit just fine with the Red Sox.
Fever for the record I thought the trade was a great idea. Sale had burned us for many millions, but I will accept It’s not his fault He got hurt.
But I couldn’t get the guy out of town fast enough. Bring in a guy who could play second for the Sox and was considered a great hitter by many? I was all for it.
Don’t really appreciate the idiot tag you’ve dished out because I don’t agree with your opinion.
Gary – I didn’t mean you personally, not even sure I’ve seen you write about Sale (if you respond to people I’ve muted, I don’t see your response).
Well we all know how last season turned out, no sense in beating a dead horse.
All – Look at the years Sale was hurt. Were any when he played for Ventura (minor injuries only), Farrell (NOPE), ATL (One minor injury after carrying the team).
We need to stop blaming Sale. It’s all on Cora. END OF STORY.
The right move would have been to fire an incompetent manager not give away an elite pitcher so he can win a Cy Young elsewhere. You know he wins that award in 2018 if Cora hadn’t messed with him. He was more dominant to the all star break in 2018 than in 2024. Can’t blame Sale must blame Cora and ownership for hiring him the first time, the second time and most recently renewing him. That level of blunder by ownership is inexcusable.
Paying another team to take your player is NEVER a smart move, it’s a lazy move. There are a million ways to skin the cat when you need to move a player. Reducing your payroll is an unacceptable action if the ownership cares about staying under the CAP. If you are New York, then the Sale move would have been simply stupid but in Boston it’s unforgivable just like the Mookie and Price giveaway.
Bit – Wow, ignorance immaturity AND laziness … what a great combination you have!! I just provided a bunch of his putrid stats against RHP and you call it garbage?
I politely pointed out nearly all his PA’s last year were while batting 3rd thru 5th behind Duran and Devers, and you say he didn’t have many PA’s with RISP?
And I even nicely gave you the source for the FACTS I presented.
Sorry lady, I’m here to have adult conversations with adults. Not with juveniles who childishly refuse to acknowledge facts.
What’s your New Years resolution, to not get banned again before spring training? Hahaha!!
What Red Sox should have done with O’Neil is exactly what the did do, let him go. He probably accepts the QO and then Boston has another outfielder in the mix. On this team the reality is defensively he’s a DH and since I don’t think Breslow is going to be able to trade Masa he’s going to be the DH for Boston. It just made no sense to keep O’Neil from a true roster build. If they didn’t have Masa then maybe but being stuck with Masa they had no room Breslow made the correct call on O’Neil.
All – Stop bashing Sale. Cora screwed him. Just look in the record books. Performance under Ventura, Farrell and ATL is outstanding. Under Cora there were constant issues. So why in Cora’s 5 years were there so many issues but not the other decade of pitching he’s done. Ignoring facts skews perception. CORA is and always will be the problem. Just like Devers playing 3B. They can’t win anything with those two clowns. Fire one and trade the other and watch how fast Boston wins the AL East.
Claydagoat – Seriously, are you that clueless?
You give up the Cy Young pitcher rather than canning the horsecrap Manager? That makes no sense.
Sale obviously was fine it was Cora who is the PROBLEM and always has been the f in cheater.
BITA is far from obtuse. You are .
Your heads up your hind quarters about Bogaerts. Dombrowski gave Bogaerts a 3 year check point in his contract because it was a home team friendly $20Million per year. Bloom screwed the pooch but it was by design because he was busy destroying the 2018 Champs.
If Dombrowski had been GM the plan was to evaluate Bogey’s performance and give him an appropriate bump the the next 3 years. The long term deal wasn’t in the cards, that happened because Bloom was stupid and could have given him a $5 to $10Million dollar bump for the next 3 years so worse case it’s $30Million more to keep him happy and a Red Sox. SD’s contract has nothing to do with what Bogaerts was going to make in Boston. That contract allowed clowns like you to skew the truth about what happened as if you were saving Boston a ton of money. They lost an all-star over $30Million for 3 years and paid a total clown at 3B over $300Million. Those are the facts jack.
Sale never needed to go. Cora has needed to go since he was hired to meet a need for diversity but had no qualifications for the job. He’s screwed up so many things AND he’s a f in serial cheater, a liar and a former lazy player who never understood how to play the game.
BITA – Don’t listen to this tool. You are 100% right. He’s a poser. No baseball acumen whatsoever.
Sale was never the problem and never will be. He criticizes himself because that’s the type of self deprecating guy he is. He always falls on the sword and doesn’t blame others but anyone with a brain can see how incredibly bad Cora has been as a Manager. He screwed Sale, Price and so many other SPs it’s not funny. I fully expect him to screw over Crochet and Buehler so don’t get your hopes up too much because you watch Cora will mess with them like the others.
He’s a menace. I just wish someone would have reported him to the FBI or someone in charge of federal cases related to gambling. If he had been turned in for tipping results related to the garbage can banging and the money unfairly made by gamblers he’d be sitting in a federal prison right now and Sale might have 3 or 4 Cy Young awards!!!
Fever Pitch Guy – Can I jump in on this one? Is the answer Abreu? hahaha I don’t think anyone was less productive batting out of the 2 hole than Abreu. If the 9 hitter out produced him just think what might have happened if the idiot Cora batted Abreu ninth and Rafaela 2nd? Rafaela stops chasing since they would need to pitch to him and Abreu starts chasing out of desperation for a good pitch. The only difference is Rafaela wins ROY and Abreu gets crapped all over by guys who currently pick on Rafaela.
BITA – Let me jump in on this one. There weren’t runners for him because Abreu got to bat 2nd and was highly non productive as well as Wong who belonged at the bottom of the order.
The only issue with O’Neill is health. He’s a great player who can’t stay healthy. If he was willing to prorate his contract to an average of 120 games a year, then Boston could have paid him $15Million to $20Million knowing he was only good for 120 games. I loved watching him hit. When healthy he along with Duran were the two best hitters except Duran played 33% more games.
Sag – I know you hated the Sale/Grissom trade just as much as I did !!!
BITA – No way what Bruin1012 said will happen.
The outfield in Boston won’t include Campbell and if it does the whole front office should be fired for incompetence.
Campbell is the best SS, 3B and 2B on the team and was Minor League Player of the Year. That’s an honor that has gone to players like Mike Trout and more recently Gunner Henderson. He could take over 3B and be far, far better than Devers and help the team most. He should be the SS of the future because he’s so much better than Mayer it’s not funny. Both offensively and defensively. He played 2B the most in the minors so he could step into that role any day but he’d be so much better than the SS that it would be a total waste. Playing him in the outfield is just a BS opinion of a guy trying to influence fans to think like him. It’s completely illogical. It defies the actual skills of the roster and it’s a perfect example of how some people try to mold the team to be set up as they see it not how performance statistics show it should be set up.
O’Neill had no place on the roster for 2025 because he really had no place on the roster for 2024. He’s an excellent player BUT you have to have two players when you have him. One will play the other 40 games he misses. With most of Boston’s young talent in the outfield, ANY outfielder not home grown is a mistake at this point.
Sag – Happy New Year!!
Of course, I always welcome your thoughts :O)
Sag – I totally agree, health is a huge concern with him.
Maybe he should take advice from Krapler. Hahahaha!!!
BITA – They should still dump the platoon outfielder Abreu who is the weakest defender despite being wrongfully given the gold glove. Yoshida never fit in Boston and nothing has changed since he was contracted.
When we play the Orioles we’ll need to fear O’Neill if he’s in the line-up. It’s the if that makes him expendable now and before we contracted him. But he’s great fun to watch when healthy.
Gary – Lets be real fair here and specific. Sale got hurt by Cora. The 2019 choice to change his mechanics mid season led to the elbow tear that caused the TJ surgery. Cora was negligent in his unqualified behavior in advising an elite pitcher like Sale on how to pitch.
Firing Cora was the correct action not giving away Sale.
The Sale deal never happens if Cora is fired at any of the many, many appropriate times he’s deserved it.
The reality is Kristian Campbell is not a long term shortstop on the infield he’s best suited for 2nd base and it’s where he played in college. He can play shortstop in a pinch but he’s not really a shortstop anyone that has watched him can tell you that.
Campbell is likely to be a super utility guy as long as he hits especially when he starts out. If he hits you find a place for him to play but his defensive footwork is choppy especially at short I’m also not sure he is full time third baseman. He has good instincts in the outfield and if Grissom hits he’s most likely going to get some playing time in the outfield. His speed would play well out there. Point is he is a hit first prospect who they will find a place for him to play as long as he hits.
LOL! KD17 is the only person I have ever seen blame Cora for Sale’s problems.
Well written Cleveland. That about covers it.
Cleveland – So true! It’s funny how O’s fans have been complaining about not spending this winter …. well, they’ve spent a lot more than the Red Sox, thanks to that ridiculous contract they gave O’Neill. The dude cannot hit RHP, cannot drive in runs, cannot play the field, and cannot stay healthy because of his bodybuilding.
O’s will most likely regret that contract bigtime.
You sound like a dumb homer
He remained injury prone throughout the season, declined considerably on the defensive front and the Sox appear to staying away from anything multi-year in the outfield given two of their top prospects (Anthony, Campbell) are outfielders and they have no space to move anyone to DH because it’s blocked by Yoshida and eventually Devers
The problem isnt ONeill it’s that the Red Sox have outfielders already. With Abreu, Yoshida, Durran with Anthony and Campbell on the way there is not a need. Thats the reason all this other stuff is nonsense.
Paying 17M is different than $6M. It’s the difference between a full time and a platoon guy. O’Neill is talented enough to be a full time corner, but it rarely has happened. Sox gambled to see if he could produce, he did. But to pay that huge jump plus 2 more year when they have those guys in the wings, together, it just doesn’t add up. It may have added up if he could’ve been the full time DH.
If ONeill was healthy for a full season he would be worth far more than 16.5 million a year. He got paid with the assumption that he would miss a good chunk of games. The Red Sox have outfield depth but their lineup leans heavily to the left side. He will be missed the Red Sox have not replaced his production.
They are looking for a right handed hitter.O’ Neil is right handed.
If “ifs” and “buts” were candy and nuts, wouldn’t it be a Merry Christmas?
Red Sox will be fine. There aren’t that many left starters in the AL, and the guys that need platoons have guys off the bench that hit lefties well. The Sox can still add more platoon guys if they really want to because like O’Neill last year, the cost isn’t prohibitive for Henry’s pennypinching. And if they don’t the Sox can address whether these are concerns at the trading deadline, assuming they’re still in it.
Big picture is that letting O’Neill go isn’t the end of the world. His homers can be replaced. Casas can easily fill in that gap.
Abreu, Yoshida, and Hamilton all need platoons. Refsnyder can handle either of the first two but not both. Hamilton isn’t a starter anyways so he’s not an issue. But they don’t have enough roster slots to platoon both Abreu and Yoshida.
Yes they really need or needed to trade one of the lefty hitting outfielders but that hasn’t happened.
Hamilton does not see the field last year if story and grissom both dont miss extended time
Hamilton might have ended up as the primary MI off the bench. He should be solid in that role.
Bit – That is blatantly false. They have replaced his production with a healthy Story, a promotion for Campbell, and more PA’s for Ref.
O’Neill had just a 2.6 WAR, Story has averaged DOUBLE that for his career.
Campbell isn’t ready yet, Refsnyder isn’t any good and Story is who knows what. Good luck with that plan.
What makes you say Campbell isnt ready yet?
BITA – Campbell is ready. Check his numbers. There is nothing left to accomplish at AAA. He’s the Minor League Player of the Year like Trout was and many other previous studs. You start him in the majors and if he fails initially you teach him how adjustments happen in the MLB. He’s got more talent than anyone else on the roster. He will be better than Duran if his past performance is an indication of his future performance compared to Duran. He’ll be far better than Devers because he can field and his hitting suggests a far higher upside than Devers.
Campbell is ready.
Wait – None of the three mentioned should be starting and Boston would be better off moving them to other teams.
They are not above league average players if they must be platooned.
Pool – Actually, Hamilton doesn’t make the roster if he didn’t create a relationship with Cora when he was bench coach in Houston and Hamilton played at UT.
Wait – With Meidroth gone, Boston will be hurting because he was either going to win the 2B job from Grissom or be the utility infielder. That’s why it would have been nice to keep both Teel and Meidroth and give Chicago the over rated Mayer.
Agree hamilton seems like kind of a one trick pony with the speed but otherwise nothing special..didnt know about the previous relationship
The reality is I think, baring a huge spring training, Campbell starts in AAA. The pitchers in AAA adjusted and he struggled to end the season. I’m not sure how many people watched Kristian Campbell play this year but his hitting style is a little unorthodox and my guess they will want him to hit in AAA. He reached AAA on August 20th and took off right where he left in AA but after a week pitchers started to make adjustments and he struggled somewhat. My guess is they are going to want to see him in Worcester to start.
Even if Campbell tore up spring training he would be third in the depth chart defensively behind Story and Rafaela. His best chance would be at second and even he said he’s most comfortable at second base on the infield. He’s also looked pretty decent in the outfield he’s still learning out there but his athleticism should play well there if need be. As a defender he’s a utility guy can play a lot of positions but doesn’t stand out defensively at least not yet.
My guess is we see him sometime in May especially if Grissom struggles or there is an outfield injury and he is taking in Worcester.
Bruin – I totally agree Campbell could be the super-utility guy that Rafaela failed to be. I see Campbell as possibly another Mookie, he can do it all.
FPG I want to see him hit against AAA pitching a bit. If you watched him they made some adjustments and his K percentage went up. I would like to see him hit AAA pitching for a month or two before getting called up. He’s a really exciting prospect and he made the leap from High A to AAA but it appeared the pitchers made some adjustments and if I’m remembering correctly he seemed to get a little flustered after that first week in AAA when he tore the cover off the ball.
Roman Anthony otoh just got better and better as the year went along imo he’s ready to take over an outfield spot. The dude can just flat out play and when he got to AAA against the more advanced pitchers he just kept getting better. He’s the real deal. He’s a Florida boy and I expect he will hit in Sprng Training this year might even win the job out of spring training but I could see similar scenario to Casas he will probably struggle in the colder firsts month or two then take off as he adjusts and the weather gets warmer.
Bottom line the Red Sox have some really good prospects that are going to be big leaguers it’s just a question how good in the bigs.
Hamilton never played for Houston. He was acquired from the Brewers
Money, age and length of contract is why.
@Mad
29, 3 years, and $49 mil? That’s seems like nothing for a major market team.
Very reasonable cost if you don’t mind penciling the guy in to an OF spot for the next 3 years, but too expensive for a team that is already feeling an OF numbers squeeze. Boston already is set up to not have OF holes, so any additions there need to raise the floor/ceiling. O’Neill is more the “fill a hole solidly” type; it wasn’t about the cost so much as that’s too much cost for a guy who wasn’t likely to fit for long (he obviously would have fit very well for 2025 alone).
Because he wasn’t going to sign a one year contract
Outfield is crowded. So in addition to Duran, Rafaela, and Abreu, the top prospects Anthony should be up early. Yoshida is entrenched in the DH role. Campbell could also earn his way on the roster and can play the OF.
I’d rather have O’Neill than Yoshida, but it is what it is.
a Campbell abeu left right combo might work.
Alan – NO. Bad idea. Campbell is better at everything than Abreu. Better fielder, better hitter, better base runner. Campbell is the team’s best SS, 3B and 2B. The outfield has plenty of qualified players. The help is most desperately needed in the infield at 3B then SS then 2B.
Knicks….A lot of Strikeouts and a history of injuries
You have to pay extra for a winner to come to Boston! John Henry is to cheap and Breslow will be like Bloom, used as a scapegoat and get fired! Boston has a bad reputation in the FA market and John Henry is to cheap and doesn’t have the balls to go all in! This team is ready for the next step but we need a couple of proven winners to lead this team! If John Henry was serious about winning he would sign both Bregman and Scott! Wonder who is going to replace Breslow next year! Someone needs to have a heart to heart talk with Devers about his defense.
Some of you fans need to come to grips with your over focus on spending. The fact that Duran made less than $1M last year didn’t diminish his provocation one bit. Same with Houck. It’s not all about what a player is making and more about what they could contribute between the lines.
I’m pysched the Red Sox haven’;t been paying a ton of overpriced veterans.
It isn’t about the pay, it’s about the talent. Signing stars as FA is one way to add top talent to the roster. If you don’t work that channel successfully, it makes it hard to compete at the top of the league.
The Red Sox are working a “mid market” strategy these days, with mid-market results.
Yeah? Seems to me they’re going to have a really good team for years because of all the young controllable talent.
No one wants to be the Yankees.
So essentially Breslow is blowing smoke. Regardless, I like Casas and think he could carry the team a couple times a year.
I imagine it’s not ideal when a player finds out you’re shopping them. This is that corporate bs to pretend like never happened.
No, he’s speaking honestly and in real like GMs don’t operate in simplistic ways like “spend for the sake of spend”, “spend whatever is needed to get the target guy”, or “100% like this guy or 100% be out on him”. Every potential addition becomes more or less appealing depending on the acquisition cost, and the required acquisition ask can and does change over the course of the offseason. That’s why we hear about “negotiations”.
“Do or do not; there is no try” sounded great as a movie line, but the way some fans and media members apply that to justify their diatribes is foolish; it doesn’t apply well to pro sports front office work.
ha a guy who thinks a corporate leader speaks honestly. the world is funny place, all at different points in life. corporations must love you.
Unless you are trading Yoshida or Casas, signing Bregman simply blocks Campbell and Vaughn. I just don’t see what sense that makes. And still you have to get Devers to move off third! Everyone seems to be pacifying Devers, by saying he is staying on third. I think Boston being in play for Bregman is just wishful thinking by his representation.
There’s really no reason to break the glass on a Devers position change until it’s decided on. With Casas and Yoshida, no reason to broach that just yet. Bregman actually suits well because he presents a non-OF opportunity to get the specific profile of hitting help the lineup needs without having to force any hands. If he *begins* at 2B, the front office can hold serve with the rest while letting things develop. If Casas or Yoshida end up moved, it could domino with everyone shifting around to different lineup spots; if the other 2B options flop early on, Boston wouldn’t be left having to endure a lineup hole creating negative value. Etc.
Bregman doesn’t “block” Vaughn or Campbell in that short-term the team can’t pencil either in AND for the medium term (and maybe shorter term) he’ll be ready to head to 3B when the time is right and 2B will then call for filling. It actually fits pretty elegantly when it comes to creating contingencies!
There are definitely times when a team is largely set, with just a simple fixed spot that demands upgrade – in that case, the search is for plug-and-play. This isn’t one of those situations, so a piece who brings appropriate flexibility to the table actually makes plenty of sense.
Has Bregman been the same player since the good astros beating the trash can days?
Nope – two seasons then as an 8 and 9 WAR player, and since then he’s settled in as a reliable 4 WAR type. Not a superstar and the rebound to that former ceiling that we used to wait for is just about gone, but there is also value in high floor. Unquestionably not the same guy as he was in those two years, though.
He’s been ok. Like Alonso, declining and not worth a huge contract, imo.
No on bregman – not at 3B and not at 2B. Sox can get their RH power by working a trade for Vladdy. Casas, Yoshida and, Crawford should get it done. If not, include Hamilton.
But – only if they can work an extension out with him beforehand. 10/500 sounds about right.
Casas and Crawford are not getting you Vladdy while also dumping Yoshidas contract.
Maybe – maybe not. If not, that’s why I included Hamilton. Face it – the jays are losing Vladdy – they can either get something substantial for him now or at best, get an additional draft pick with he rejects their QO and walks next year.
Dude, you should pace yourself on the New Year’s Eve drinking.
Bless your heart…
Gotta say that well intended humor makes me laugh out loud.
@Papi’sGhost
The Jays would never trade Vladdy to a division rival.
Given Boston’s operational behavior of late, what makes you think they would offer 10/500 to Vladdy, or anyone, really?
Well they broke $700M for Soto. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but the open market tends to revolve around flawed players, and having to pay inflated open-market prices (especially these past three offseasons, which have seen inflated deals beyond projections all over the place) for flawed guys really only makes sense if you’ve completely arrived at an open window and are aching to fill a pointed need.
Boston has a lot of flexibility (so, not aching to fill pointed needs, more like general ones such as “starting pitching” as it already has and “right handed hitting”) and only just is entering a projected period of an open window. No reason to force the issue just yet and prior to now there’s been ZERO reason to take on overpriced flawed-profile guys.
Nobody is going to bother acquiring Vladdy (now in a trade-and-sign or as a FA in a year) if the team doesn’t 100% see him as a core franchise hitter, as some teams will and bidding will be priced appropriately. IF Boston feels he is that sort of thing, yes, it would be willing to pay, because he would be worth it.
Their biggest recent free agent signing was Trevor Story, 6 years, $140 M.
Their biggest all time free agent contract was David Price, 7 years, $217 M.
They extended Devers 10 years, $312 M. (and most thought that was an overpay)
You think they’re shelling out $500 M for Vladdy? I don’t think anyone will, but it certainly won’t be the Red Sox.
Past numbers don’t mean much in that average and top salaries have risen; only a few teams have touched the sort of numbers a superstar is going to see now and going forward (barring a market collapse).
And Boston has been in a big-market-team rebuild mode for a handful of years now, so they haven’t been in a position to go for the biggest fishes (or be in much demand for them without big time overpaying for them) until just about now.
Anyway, putting all that aside, I was giving my thoughts on whether Boston would be willing to consider such a price tag for “anyone, really”. For Vlad specifically, I have no idea, because I have no idea whether they love him in a Soto sort of way. Given his inconsistencies and low positional value, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t see him as the sort of superstar who merits that level of commitment, and seeing as I think at least a handful of teams will they will be the ones bidding up his market to whatever eye-popping deal he ends up getting.
But IF they saw him as a guy who will be a David Ortiz hitter for the next decade, then yeah, I think they would be willing to make him a huge offer. I just figure that they won’t see him that way.
The Sox offered 700M for Soto so yeah, I think they could definitely offer that to lock down Vladdy for the next decade.
Canuck – If the Mets don’t keep Alonso, I can see them dishing out $500M for Vladdy.
Ghost – It was proven the Red Sox offer to Soto was a scam.
They were the 4th team to offer at least that much, they knew it wouldn’t be accepted. It was all for show to entertain the delusional fans and lure people into buying tickets.
@Fever Pitch Guy
You could be right. Cohen is kind of an outlier. He is willing to spend beyond reason when he wants to.
“I don’t know where that came from”; Craig Breslow on shopping Tristan Casas.
Sean McAdam, Ken Rosenthal, and Jon Heyman threw it out there as a possibility to pursue a trade for Nolan Arenado and moving Devers to First Base, making Casas redundant. Breslow gave some credence to it by saying they “wouldn’t do it without asking him (Devers) first.
That’s where it came from craig, that’s where it came from
Rsox, were you on the Zoom call? It sounds like Breslow was fielding questions, and the quotes shared with us doesn’t define the “that” he refers to. If it was just the possibility of Casas being traded, your comment makes sense. But if it was about Breslow “shopping” Casas or outright looking to move Casas, then everything he said makes sense.
It’s eminently clear that Boston would consider trading Casas, as any front office should be willing to do for a guy like that. He isn’t so untouchable or embedded in the culture of the team that it should be unthinkable to move him, but he’s talented enough and not so “sell high” that it’s better to hold him unless the absolutely right deal comes along.
So, it’s most likely that Boston isn’t planning on moving him but is fully willing to do due diligence on worthwhile moves that might require him to be moved, no different than how the team surely didn’t “want” to move Teel or Montgomery but was fine to not have them as untouchable.
So, unless he’s fibbing about the clear understanding that Casas has been involved at times with some talks, what’s the problem? Do you know that is that “that” he’s referring to? Because I don’t, and I doubt that you do too.
Okay so this means somebody was lying:
Is Breslow lying that there was never a deal for Casas on the table??
Is Jude/Divish lying about the Mariners turning down a Miller or Woo for Casas deal??
Is Mark Feinsand lying about Boston wanting the Mariners to take Yoshida in any Casas deal?
Everywhere I look, liars liars pants on fires. And prevaricators.
Breslow said he is not shopping Casas. Does bringing up Casas to one team constitute shopping? Not sure of the answer.
No, it doesn’t. “Shopping” is generally understood to mean that a team is motivated (not necessarily desperate; it can mean that they feel a guy is sell high and they hope to do just that, but will only move him if they get that price) to move a guy.
A lot of Boston fans are resistant to the idea of trading Casas precisely because they feel he is going to do better going forward than his present market value due to his hobbled 2024. Breslow seems like a smart guy, in which case he probably isn’t motivated to move Casas either – in which case, that means he isn’t shopping the guy.
But Casas is talented and proven enough that there was always the chance that a team could feel bullish on him and be willing to offer a return that suits Boston, so Boston always should have been ready to listen. I think that’s the deal here.
Nobody is lying. Teams ask about guys whose teams aren’t “looking” to deal them specifically all the time.
Here’s one possible way all this could have gone down: Seattle and Boston start a conversation around the common sense understanding that Seattle could deal pitching from their position of strength and Boston could deal hitting from theirs. At some point, a serious proposal of a deal built around a young Seattle SP and Casas is put out there by Boston; Seattle says Casas isn’t the right sort of centerpiece it would want to give up one of its young guys. Then, at another point, Seattle tries “if you’re willing to give up Casas for SPing, how about Casas for Castillo?” Boston counters that Castillo isn’t the sort of controllable young pitching it would give up Casas for – but Boston also adds that, if Seattle were willing to pivot to a different sort of deal, it could package Yoshida with Casas for Castillo. But then doesn’t accomplish Seattle’s goal, and talks soon wrap.
This fits ALL the various reports we’ve gotten with nobody being a “liar”, and heck, with everyone operating pretty sensibly. And this includes Boston not “shopping” Casas; isn’t and shouldn’t be untouchable and so should always be open to be discussed, but Boston isn’t outright “looking” to deal him.
By contrast, reports paint a clear picture that Seattle is shopping Castillo, and I doubt they would try to refute that outright. They have enough other SPing that they would like to move his entire contract while also getting something positive in trade value on top of that, and they’re hoping they can find a team in enough SPing need to check both those boxes. They WANT to make that move, if they can find it.
Too sensible!
General managers lie to the media all the time.
As they should. Telling the truth about what you’re planning to do would be dumb. His job isn’t to make you feel good.
Post of the day!
Bregman at 31 is right on the edge of decline. There’s really no precedence to say that he isn’t. I think the most recent examples of this would be Nolan Arenado, who is a couple years older. Evan Longoria is another great example . Both Arenado and Longoria were perennial All-Stars 3B who began to decline at age 32 or so. Bregman is already showing signs of decline, particularly at the dish – the lowest OPS of his career was this past year. So if you’re going to pay for him, be realistic about what you’re getting.
I’d be fine with that cheater if he got the Christian Walker deal.
Look at Adrian Beltre’s stats starting at 31. I’m not saying Bregman won’t decline but there’s been other 3B who did well after age 31.
That’s true, There are always exceptions to the rule. I personally would not be willing to bet that Alex is gonna be one of those
If you go to baseball-reference.com and bring up Bergman’s page go to the Similarity Scores section. They do a pretty good job of pegging who a player is similar to over their career. Bergman’s are guys like Anthony Rendon; Eric Chavez and Nolan Arenado, not Beltre. And looking at what happened to those players not far into their 30s doesn’t bode well for Bergman.
Longoria is the wrong comp here. He actually had something change overnight, taking a big hit to his ISO after age 27(!), with only a single dead cat bounce ISO year after that for as long as he was a full-time player. Looks like the sort of thing that happens when a guy suffers a shoulder or wrist injury that affects him to varying degrees the rest of his career, but know that it neither came at “32 or so” nor was it a “beginning to decline” but rather a sudden tier drop in his hitting profile.
Arenado is a tough guy to analyze given the mid-career move from Colorado and all that that brings. We should note that he had a short-season collapse to his profile in the pandemic 2020 season, and in the 4 year since then outside of Colorado 3 have been only above average. Did he start to decline at 32, or was he always more just above average with his 2022 being just a lock-in year, or something else? Tough to say.
What part of, “we’re not shopping him,” is hard to understand?
He’s available and they’ll trade him at the flip of a hat, but they’re not dying to get him off the roster.
They’re not calling other teams so they can unload Casas. Breslow strictly said, we are not shopping him.
Yoshida, they are shopping him. Casas they are not. They want Yoshida out of town yesterday.
They’d be fine if they didn’t trade Tristan Casas, but they’ll include him in any deal to improve the team. Not tough to decipher this entire thing.
But the way I read it is Breslow being totally beside himself about how on Earth did Triston’s name become so centered in these hypothetical deals that were never discussed: “I’m not totally sure where it comes from.” That just sounds disingenuous coming from Breslow. Obviously these deals were talked about and discussed, maybe they didn’t get very far along, but they happened.
Yeah, lots of ideas get tossed around, though it does seem they’ve gotten blown out of proportion. Discussing Casas in a single trade that we’ve heard about is very different from “shopping” him.
He might also be asking, “who snitched”?
Conversations do not equal shopping.
It is disingenuous.
So what?
Ignorant – With the Boston writers, I believe Breslow not the media. The media fabricates constantly. The proof is in the pudding.
How many people have the media associated with the Boston front office and how many have actually been verified by a legit source?
If a writer doesn’t like Casas or Duran they are on the block. If a writer likes guys like Bello, Whitlock, Abreu or the most over rated of all MAYER then things are suggested about what’s going to happen in the future that have never been discussed. That’s how the media personnel try to show how powerful they are in setting the future for a baseball team. Ken Rosenthal did this crap 20 years ago and now every two bit web sports writer is trying to prove his skills by being the influencer that stands out most among one organizations beat writers.
Gary – That’s kind of contradictory. If he’s available and they wouldn’t hesitate to trade him, that’s considered “shopping” him.
I’ve got no desire to get into a debate with anyone about wordplay, but “open to trading” is the PC way of saying “shopping” …. it’s the same damn thing.
And yes the Red Sox DID call other teams and take the lead on trade proposals involving him. It’s detailed right here in this MLBTR article:
mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/red-sox-reportedly-open…
“While that infatuation with Casas’s skill set may be true, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reported earlier today that the Red Sox have been “open” to including Casas in a trade that achieves their goal of adding a pitcher to the front of their rotation. What’s more, Speier goes on to report that one executive from a rival AL club noted that the Red Sox had offered Casas as the headliner in a package for one of his team’s pitchers”
So there you have it, the Red Sox APPROACHED a rival AL club (which obviously wasn’t a reference to the Mariners) offering Casas for a specific pitcher of theirs.
And here’s the important thing ….. things change over time!!! Breslow is probably telling the truth that Casas isn’t being shopped NOW that their rotation is set, but he conveniently failed to mention that he was clearly being shopped earlier. I do agree that at no point did the Red Sox feel like trading him this offseason was a necessity, because it’s not. Same as last year when they were shopping Duran.
One more thing …. where are you seeing they are trying hard to trade Yoshida? Link please ….I can’t imagine any team being interested in him until he proves he is healthy.
Why do you think that wasn’t the Mariners? They are very much in contention with the Red Sox for that last Wild Card spot.
And I agree that things change.
Wait – No offense to Mariners fans, but they are not a “rival” by any stretch.
is it possible the writer used a poor choice of words? Yes.
I would consider them a rival… Guess we see the implications of the word differently.
Wait – Yep it’s perfectly fine to have different interpretations.
You believe every AL team is a rival because the Sox could be potentially competing with all of them for a WC.
But think of it this way, the Sox could also potentially be competing with every NL team for a World Series championship … correct?
To me you’re a rival if you are competing for the same division title, playing a lot more games against said team, or are located in the same area (ie: Mets/Yanks, Cubs/ChiSox, etc).
The solution is trade Casas, Yoshida w/3MM per yr and Grissom for Reynolds. Move Mayer to 1B until Story leaves. Move Devers to DH. Use Cambell, Hamilton and Romy at 2b/U. Sign Bregman. With a 2d C that makes 14 Pos. players but lots have options.
there’s no way the Pirates would do that and I doubt very much the sox would as well. . Also shifting Mayer to 1B makes zero sense. as he’s an above average defender at SS and possible 3B so he’d be wasted a1 1b
When you think neither team will do the deal — you think it’s a fair exchange. As for Mayer at 1b for a yr or two, as long as Story is heathy SS will be OK.
No. When you don’t think either team will make the trade it’s not because it’s a good deal. It’s because it doesn’t help either team.
Also Mayer being at 1B is a complete waste of his talents. and makes no sense at all. Story is more likely to be playing 1B than Mayer and there’s not chance Story is playing 1B this year.
Definitely, there are many deals that shouldn’t happen.
acell10 – Mayer doesn’t have any talents per se. If he does, he hasn’t shown them consistently since he joined the Red Sox.
Minor League Fielding Percentage – SS .949 3B – .875
Minor League Hitting Line –
.274 AVG, .362 OBP, .465 SLG, .828 OPS 46 SBs 242 Games
Campbell – Minor League Player of the Year by comparison
Minor League Hitting Line –
.325 AVG .439 OBP, 546 SLG, 986 OPS 27 SBs 137 Games
Minor League Fielding Percentage – 2B .979, SS .971, 3B – 1.00
This comparison shows Mayer isn’t in the same league as Campbell. He should be given a starting spot out of Spring Training, the only question is should he be their SS of the future or 2B of the future. If Story outplays Grissom then I guess Story gets to play until his ridiculous contract is over but I would install Campbell at SS and let Mayer see if he can come back to beat out Grissom who hasn’t been terribly impressive either. OR I would put Campbell at 3B and fix the biggest problem the team has by moving Devers to DH.
You can’t go wrong with Campbell He’s their best 3B, SS and 2B and quite a bit better than Abreu in the Outfield. He’s the prize that should be getting the love from the front office but isn’t. Mayer’s is like Swihart many years ago when he was the darling of the front office and Mookie was just a chump until he blew everyone away with his numbers like Campbell just did.
This conversation wasn’t about comparing Campbell to Mayer. Both are extremely talented players in their own right. I’ll indulge you though and the following. There are far better ways to rate players defensively and measure than fielding percentage which many have point out to you before KD17. As you’ve said before assigning errors is extremely subjective. (you’ve pointed out numerous times in your posts against the Fenway score keeper vis a vie Devers and others)
That said Mayer’s talents are obvious. I’ll defer to universally regarded industry leaders such BA, MLB.com, ESPN who are used for determining prospect compensation and others who rate prospects vs Rotowire (an outlier for sure) who are less reputable.
A gentle reminder that just because the BA’s MlB.com etc of the world don’t agree with you doesn’t make them wrong or useless just like ignoring consensus doesn’t make one smarter that others.
Lol – You lost any credibility when you said put Mayer at 1B.
The Red Sox don’t need anymore outfielders and they don’t need to trade Casas.
The Red Sox are not going to put Mayer at first that’s ridiculous. More than likely Mayer is going to spend quite a bit of time in AAA showing he can put together a fully healthy season.
Why does Devers get to dictate where he plays? He is not a good 3rd baseman. Put him at DH. Let him have some games at 1st. Pay someone to take Yoshida. Trade some prospects for Arenado. They have a dozen infielders and outfielders that will never see the majors with Boston with Duran, Rafaella, Abreau, Anthony, Campbell, Grissom, Mayer, Cassas already there for a few years.
I don’t think he dictates his position; I think Boston has zero interest in jerking him around and want to make any position move be a permanent deal, something that their current roster doesn’t set up. They won’t play around with him off 3B even some of the time until they move him off there for good.
Arenado looks ready to be a major negative value player (counting contract) and a negative value hitter, so no appeal in him.
redsoxu571 – How can you possibly suggest that moving the worst 3B in history (Base on the actual numbers) would be jerking him around? That’s insane. It’s the most obvious move in all of baseball.
Devers should have been moved at age 14 when he fielded far below league average at the Dominican Republic Academy. Then when they signed him they should of moved him off 3B because he was fielding at a .930 pace. He had at season at AA where he finished only 25 points below league average and it moved his career fielding to .935. He went to the majors with the at fielding percentage and after several years in the majors his fielding percentage was still below his minor league number. It’s been 14 seasons since it was documented that he had no ability to play 3B. That is completely inexcusable and so incredibly arrogant of him to dismiss what’s best for the team and take the DH spot like an adult would who cared about his team mates. SELFISH that’s Devers in a nutshell. Oh yeah, and a pathetic fielder whether it’s a 3B or 1B. He shouldn’t be allowed to own a baseball glove.
Arenado had one of his best fielding percentages last year. It was higher than the year before and for a guy who won 10 straight gold gloves the misconception about his defense getting worse with his numbers improving simply means some other player moved him down from 1st to 2nd in the defensive effectiveness category. That’s not a DIG on Arenado, it’s a wow somebody got a lot better.
The Cardinals didn’t hit last year so just like when Devers lost both JD and Bogaerts and dropped dramatically in productivity, so did Arenado. He has 2400 more chances at 3B than Devers and less career errors while his average the last three years is .293, 266 and .272 last year. Devers last three averages are .294, 271 and .271. Yep, nearly identical. So, Arenado would do two things for Boston’s success – 1) He raises team defense from bottom 5 to top 10 if Devers is the DH, 2) He provides the right handed power bat that Boston desperately needs AND with a short term contract.that only costs $52 Million in cash for the next 3 years (average payout of $17.3Million which is damn cheap for him). The AAV will be $25.3 Million but the cash flow will be much less.
Getting Arenado should be a no brainer except for selfish Devers.
Arenado is a perfect fit.
In fact, if STL would take Devers for Arenado the Red Sox would have a huge payroll dump and Devers hitting numbers could be replaced with someone who could add even more to the team by playing defense far better than Devers or by being another all-star level pitcher. The Red Sox would have 3 years to find a new future 3B with Arenado playing there in 2025-2027 at $17Million a year..
Casas for Woo or Miller made me giggle.
Not happening lol
casas for Castillo strait up made me laugh out loud. No way the sox would make that trade
Made me laugh also, I wouldn’t make that trade either!! Casas ain’t that good.
Woo and Miller have horrendous road splits. M’s might regret not making that trade when they had the chance.
I would target Sandy Alcantara and Jhron Duran in trades. Leave the hitting alone and bring up the non-traded kids.
Nobody has ever clarified that Boston suggested that as a clear 1-for-1. Clearly, Woo or Miller don’t bring back Casas and another major prospect or piece, so whether it was Casas or Casas and whatever secondary piece would be needed to balance the deal doesn’t change the general nature of the proposal.
Seattle didn’t want Casas as the centerpiece of a Woo or Miller deal, but there is nothing laughable about such a consideration, just as there was nothing screwy about Seattle not being interested in it. You don’t deal a Woo or Miller unless you really like the centerpiece of the return (or you for whatever reason feel you must trade one of them and you’re left accepting the best offer on the table).
Casas is clearly not being traded to the Mariners, so you have nothing to worry about.
If Casas can stay healthy this year, Mariner fans will see why Breslow offered him for Woo. Casas is a legitimate 30-30 guy (HRs & Doubles) and he has a very good eye at the plate. A healthy Casas in Seattle would instantly become their second best offensive player behind Rodriguez and would probably outperform Rodriguez is a couple of categories (RBI, OBP, BB, OPS). As a former 3B, his defense is more than passable at 1B too.
Of course… I can understand why the Mariners wouldn’t want to trade Woo, but I’m equally reluctant to trade Casas. Sometimes the best deal is the one that doesn’t happen, from both sides.
I do get tired of the whining from Mariners fans that the Red Sox should be offering them Casas for nothing.
As a Mariners fan, totally agree on all the upside potential on Casas, and kicking the dirt that nothing could be worked out on a pitcher trade. That being said, I also sympathize with Boston fans who know Casas is a special player, one who belongs there and will excel there for many years.
Trying to fix last years roster is not going to result in a WS run. There’s this thing called a “championship window” and 2025 just flat out is not in it. Hence the short term contracts and fliers on guys who could potentially produce. It’s not that they don’t want to compete next year. They’ve added a couple guys who could actually win a few more games for the team compared to who they replaced.
Crochet is a long term move. I assume he gets a hefty extension at the end of the year if he is who we want him to be. But the fact is we have two top 25 middle infielders and the best OF prospect in the minors. These guys need playing time. Bregman makes zero sense. We would have to replace him early in the championship window and when he’s the most expensive he’s ever been in his career.
I would think that if Rafaela and Abreu continue to improve, the prospects come up and play well, and some pitching emerges, this could be a very young, very good, very affordable team for the next 5-6 years. And during those years (the window), is when you go after the big expensive pieces to “fix” the roster. It’s a pretty admirable position to be in, similar to Baltimore. But Boston might actually land a superstar FA when they need one as opposed to whatever Baltimore is doing currently.
There is nothing to “fix”. The roster is filling out and on the up and up, so you keep looking to add the right additional pieces. I agree with you that the team isn’t in a place to try to build an on paper championship “favorite” yet – that comes once the roster proves it has a reliable 90ish win core – but this is a roster that with the right couple of breaks an/or the right in-season moves very much could make the playoffs, and if you make the playoffs in MLB you can make a run.
Because the playoffs are in range, the front office should (as it seems to have done) focus on eliminating weaknesses and holes. Eventually, a team trying to be a championship favorite should try to outright boost spots, and I’m very much with you that Boston isn’t there yet. Buying WAR upgrades at major cost should not be the thing yet.
redsoxu571 – I really like what you have written but I am confounded by why Devers plays 3B knowing how incredibly bad he is and how 1/3 to 1/4 of all errors shouldn’t come from one guy.
I can’t accept big improvement happening from the moves that have been made because the single biggest issue was not resolved. The defense will continue to suck because such a high percentage of the bad play comes from ONE guy.
The hitting didn’t improve in the off season but could if Campbell is given a starting role Day 1 and Anthony is brought up fairly quickly if he starts AAA with big numbers.
The pitching issues this off season were to find 2 top of the rotation pitchers. Crochet and Buehler is an actual attempt to solve the issue. It’s not what I think was best for the club since they won’t be around long if ownership doesn’t change their spending patterns, but at least an effort was made. That’s the good news for 2025. The pitching could improve significantly if 2 key pitchers bounce back from TJ surgery and not fall off after being over worked after TJ surgery for the White Sox. If they both do well, Boston should move in wins by a few if the injury bug doesn’t hit key players.
Pitching continuity is the key to 2025. Boston could either extend two guys that have great years in 2025 (Crochet and Buehler) or they could lose both along with Giolito and Sandoval by 2027. To fix the pitching going forward, we still need two top pitchers to sign multi-year extensions or find new FA pitchers before 2026.
Despite giving up 3 great prospects in the Crochet deal, the future of Boston hitting looks very good. Potential all-stars include:
1B – Casas
OF – Duran, Rafaela and Anthony
2B/SS/3B – Campbell
The loss of Teel was huge since he would have been on this list and probably a team captain within just a few years.
Montgomery would have been hard pressed to make the starting line-up in a couple of years so his loss doesn’t hurt the future like Teel. Meidroth was flying under the radar but could have been the 2B of the future if Campbell is allowed to start at SS or 3B.
Got any ideas on how to fix the Devers situation? Knowing that a guy like Arenado had less errors in roughly 2500 additional total chances should be an overwhelming fact that immediately moves Devers but it doesn’t and that’s concerning with respect to winning.
Just keep in mind not to count too many chickens before they hatch in regards to your three stud-muffin blue chip prospects. Temper that enthusiasm and sort of expect only one of the three to pan out, and then just feel pure gratitude and joy later on if it actually is 2 outta 3, or 3 outta 3. (I admit I’m suffering from recency bias with the catastrophic failure of some Mariners top prospects Kyle Lewis, Jarred Kelenic, and Evan White.)
I wouldn’t call Kelenic a catastrophic failure just someone who didn’t live up to the hype. The mariners knocked it out of the park with J Rod Gilbert etc so I’d say they’ve done pretty well in that department.
Enthusiasm is tempered but the kids do need MLB experience. Blocking them with high priced vets nearing the end of their prime, hoping for a magical run, is a mistake.
Sean – I totally agree, it was inexcusable to not promote ANY of CAT last year … it would have helped them develop by getting their feet wet, and would have provided a much-needed spark in their playoff chase.
As most have said, that decision to not promote (and to call up the likes of Gasper and Sogard instead) absolutely reeked of management not believing in the team and they were probably trying to intentionally delay their service time.
FPG: it was inexcusable to not promote ANY of CAT last year
=====================
The opposite is true. Mayer, Campbell, Anthony and Teel were promoted to AAA in August last year. Promoting them after only a handful of games at AAA would be inexcusable. In addition to rushing them, they would need to be added to the 40 man roster and would need to be there this whole offseason. 40 man roster spots are valuable. You don’t waste them to gives guys a cup of coffee.
Fever, that doesn’t even make sense…
First, by the time any of them reached AAA, the Red Sox were already completely out of contention.
Second, a few days of service time in September makes no difference one way or the other. (If Anthony or Campbell doesn’t start the season in the majors, then THAT would delay the service time clock.)
The guys they promoted were ones who would have needed to be added to the 40-man roster anyways. If they had added any of the Big Four, it would have cost them roster spots and additional players would have been left exposed in the Rule 5 draft.
But yeah, pretty much nobody believed in the team after the August collapse. Management was not alone in that.
Remember that they are in a bit of a bind with the 40-man roster, with Perales on the roster but nowhere near being ready to pitch in the majors (he is still rehabbing). Once the season starts, guys like Perales and Sandoval can shift to the 60-day DL and there will be at least two open roster spots to promote guys.
If they earn it in Spring Training, they should be activated. If they don’t, then they wouldn’t quite be ready yet and there is no hurry.
Wait – Campbell was promoted August 20th, Anthony/Mayer/Teel were promoted August 11th …. when the Sox were only 3 games out. I remember you giving up on the team early, but a 3-game deficit in mid-August means they were very much alive in the playoff chase.
Service time is cumulative, every day on the active roster last year would have shortened the amount of time they can be held down this year. The clock doesn’t reset after every season. Haha!
Yeah I know all about the 40-man and Rule 5 …. not nearly as important as giving the kids some MLB experience and likely sparking the team as well.
No way to prove how many people believed in the team’s chances back in August, but I can say with certainty that plenty of fans did and Rich Hill did (playoff race was a big reason he signed with the Sox) and Hendriks did (he was trying like crazy to come back and help the team).
They were eliminated September 25th, they had a realistic chance until they lost 3 of 4 in Yankee Stadium mid-September.
FPG: instead of tripling down on your bad take you could just admit you were wrong about calling up Campbell Anthony etc. In or out of the race was like the 4th reason not to make that move and if you’re trying to make the argument that the sox were still in the race it’s even less of a reason to rush unproven rookies who may or may not get consistent playing time to the majors.
It wasn’t the deficit, it was the state of the pitching staff. They were run into the ground within three weeks of the ASB (which is about the length of time it takes to destroy a bullpen).
Assume for a minute that once these prospects are promoted to the majors, they won’t be sent down again. If Campbell had been promoted in August, he would have finished the season with 40 days of service. He would have finished next season with 1.040. He would be arbitration eligible after 2027. Eligible for free agency after 2030.
Those arbitration and free agency dates are the key (at least for the team). And those are the same if he is on the roster on Opening Day.
You need at least 172 days on the roster in a given year for a “full year” of service time. So if he isn’t promoted until mid-April, the arbitration date would be the same (as a “super two”) but free agency would be delayed. If he isn’t promoted until June, then both are delayed by a year.
Thus the service time difference only matters if they screw with his service time in 2025. And if they do that, then I’ll join you in outrage.
Regardless of how many people believed they had a chance, the bullpen had a 4.95 ERA from August 10 onward, third worst in the majors. Was totally predictable too, if you were following the games and the bullpen usage carefully. I was screaming about it daily in my home forum, beginning in early August, as the bullpen management was awful.
I guess maybe they could have somehow overcome that if they scored enough runs? Just very hard to win without a bullpen.
Bringing up Fitts, Priester, and Guerrero in August MIGHT have made a difference, and all three needed a roster spot anyways. It wasn’t the position prospects who were needed (and the pitchers had a lot more AAA seasoning anyways).
Ignorant – I hear you. Kyle Lewis was a shocker because folks didn’t look close enough at his numbers. They listened to the BS. Boston has Mayer as the Kyle Lewis equivalent. We had Jeter Downs before him. It happens all the time and I totally agree. Teel’s numbers suggested an above average hitting catcher but his make-up suggests a catcher who will be a captain on the team That’s really hard to find. Montgomery both looked excellent in person and on paper but a lot of outfielders do so he is maybe a 50/50 guys and Meidroth, he’s the sleeper. He’s the guy nobody talks up and suddenly people start noticing he’s a lot better than they thought. I constantly compared him to Mayer and I preferred him and nearly nobody heard of him. I like his chances of flying under the radar and surprising lots of White Sox fans.
Also with Lewis he had two horrendous knee injuries, both blown out I believe. That really hampered him going forward. With Teel, surprised Sox let him go with their own dearth at catcher and also the WS have at least two quality catcher prospects coming up, so it seems like they would have been okay with a different prospect.
Wait – Sorry but that doesn’t make sense.
You’re saying service time DOESN’T accumulate from Day One?
You’re saying a team could keep a player on the active roster for up to 171 days a year, every year, and he would never gain a year of service time???
That isn’t even remotely what I said.
If a player gets 172 days of service time in a single season, that gets rounded up to a full year. Otherwise they are credited with the actual days from that year.
What I said is that there is no practical difference between 1.000 years of service time and 1.040 years of service time. (The latter being 1 year and 40 days.) That 40 day difference does not impact either arbitration or free agency.
Abreu has a little more service time than he would if he hadn’t hit the majors until the start of 2024, but it makes no practical difference.
Wait – I already knew what you said in the first paragraph.
So let’s say Anthony was on the active roster for 30 days last September.
That means if he is on the active roster this year for only 142 days, he has accumulated a full year of service time and therefore is under team control for only 5 more years …. right?
Yes, I believe you are correct, that 30 days in 2024 plus 142 days in 2025 would give him a full year of service time (not totally positive what happens when the days are split across two seasons). But the scenario you envision has him coming up in September and playing well, then getting sent back down for a month and a half despite a successful 2024 debut, before getting called up again?!?
I’m thinking it is more likely that he is up to stay once he reaches the majors. There isn’t really any point in promoting him before he is ready. In that case, bringing him up in September and bringing him up in April end up the same — though if they wait until the end of April he would end up with less than a year of service time and if they wait until the end of May he probably wouldn’t be super-two eligible.
I want both Anthony and Campbell in the majors from April 1, assuming that they earn the job in Spring Training. If that happens then the lost service time isn’t meaningful.
Anthony wasn’t going to outplay their outfielders anyways. Campbell would have been helpful at 2B (Valdez was getting PT around then) but they really needed pitching. The pitchers I mentioned were added anyways by the end of the month and could have been brought up in mid-August without meaningful cost.
Still doesn’t make a difference as long as Cora is determined to torch the bullpen. I honestly don’t know what got into him last year. He announced that he was going to be “aggressive” and then he proceeded to burn his arms. Why did nobody stop him?!?
Wait – Thanks, I know there’s been a lot of rules changes so just wanted to ensure I didn’t miss anything.
Not necessarily sent down to start the season, by not calling up Anthony etc for 30 days last year that gives the Sox an additional 30 days to evaluate him at the start of this season before possibly sending him back down (as the O’s did with calling up and then sending down Jackson).
As for Cora, I haven’t heard of any discord between him and Bailey …. and we know Cora has a lot of power. He likes to have ALL of his relievers available every game, he has been very vocal about that. The fixation with matchups will not go away. Too bad there’s no longer a Town Hall, I’d like to see someone ask him about it.
Anthony and Campbell need to be in Boston on opening day. They need to be given an opportunity to play. Neither has anything left to prove in the minors. At this point confidence from the organization could be the biggest factor in their development and making the next step to full time MLB starters. Bringing them up last year would not have been a poor choice necessarily. However, bringing them up and putting the weight of making a playoff push squarely on their shoulders could have been. Baseball is such a mental game that a “soft launch” with confidence behind them could be the difference in 2025 and beyond.
Jeter Downs didn’t forget how to play baseball. My guess would be that he probably felt the pressure of being the next Mookie Betts from the org/fan base and it wrecked his confidence not having any kind of immediate success. Downward spiral.
Again, adding expensive vets nearing the end of their prime is a win now move. Maybe we make those moves mid season because the team is firing on all cylinders. That would be fun. But more than likely we are a mid level team, hopefully one with a roster of 6-7 homegrown starters under 25 all progressing and adjusting to MLB pitching and hitting.
If 2 of the “big 3” hit, we have hit the jackpot. Partner that up with Rafaela, Casas, Abreu improving and we become the envy of the league (see Baltimore). This is a position the Red Sox have rarely been in, so the fan base isn’t used to having to understand patience. Next year guys, that’s when the championship window begins to open. Don’t sacrifice potential prolonged success by spending freely on older guys roadblocking real potential in order to make a push with a team you know is not ready compete.
You guys are all arguing semantics but seem to be agreeing on the thought process.
Jackson Holliday spent just two weeks in the majors in April, then went down and didn’t return until the end of July. Even if he had 30 days of service time in 2023, he would still be over two months short of a full year.
There are very few scenarios in which that one month makes a meaningful difference to Anthony’s or Campbell’s service clock. Thus I believe it is far more likely that the decisions were motivated by other factors, including possibly:
(1) Limited 40-man roster spots this winter. The Red Sox lost one prospect in the Rule 5 draft, and if they had added additional prospects like Teel, Meidroth, Anthony, and Campbell, then they would have lost more. They might not have been able to protect Garcia, for example, or Dobbins.
(2) The need to evaluate second-tier talent before they get passed by the top-tier talent. Guys like Sogard and Shugart are never going to be anything more than bit players, but you want to see how they look against ML competition before you commit that off-season roster spot to them. I thought they handled themselves pretty well.
(3) The level of the minor leagues is watered down these days, making a jump from AA to the majors far more challenging than it used to be. Teel struggled a little with the AAA promotion and would have struggled more if he had been jumped to the majors. Most players can use a few months at AAA to adjust before they take the last step — and of course none of the top Red Sox prospects had a chance at that.
(4) The Red Sox on paper had a 20% chance of making the playoffs, as of September 1, but the rotation was short after Paxton went down in mid-August and the bullpen was burnt. The Red Sox would have needed to play .615 baseball in September (rather than the actual .423), and they didn’t have enough of a bullpen to even manage .500. Toast. Total toast.
While the field manager can be a rah-rah guy who puts on a good face and pretends that the team is in it until the final elimination game, the GM needs to take a more dispassionate view of things. Any GM who looked at that team on September 1 and saw a potential playoff appearance should be fired. So whatever moves he did or didn’t make should have been with talent development and 2025 in mind, not in a futile pretense of contention.
Largely agree on Anthony and Campbell, but Jeter Downs was badly overhyped. Bloom originally traded for Graterol, until the medicals fell through, and had to renegotiate the deal at the last minute. Downs was the best he could get.
Downs had just 56 AB above A-ball when the Red Sox acquired him. His composite minor league line for 2019 was .276/.362/.526. A solid 11% walk rate vs. 20% strikeout rate, but the most exciting part of his game was those 24 HR (in 535 PA). He missed 2020 due to the pandemic, and the Red Sox rushed him to AAA with essentially no time in AA. That was a bad mistake, as his strikeout rate spiked to over 30% and never really recovered from there.
Possible that Downs would have washed out anyways. Plenty of guys look good in A ball but can’t succeed at higher levels. But rushing him through AA like that was the death knell. Did we *really* want Anthony and Campbell rushed through AAA after just 12 games at the level?!? Probably easier to skip AAA than to skip AA, but if the jump goes wrong they get messed up and end up losing half a year of development time.
Agree
Agree. Using Jeter Downs may have missed the point but I really don’t think I needed to. Can name dozens of other hyped prospects that were missing the mental makeup of going from the guy everyone came to see, to the guy getting passed around from team to team as a reclamation project until he ages out.
I tend not to attribute performance to psychological matters. It isn’t that I don’t believe it makes a difference , but that I don’t believe it is possible for somebody to properly assess them from a distance. Thus they become a facile explanation for almost anything. An explanation that can’t be tested and verified is a rhetorically weak explanation.
Teams are reluctant to trade prospects they believe will become stars, so the fact that the team trades somebody already suggests that there may be some flaws in their game that might not be apparent in the numbers. If a prospect is traded multiple times, that is an indication they don’t have what it takes.
I totally agree, however, it is stressful to debut in the majors. The game is a LOT faster than in the minors and players need to adjust. It is unfair to expect too much from a rookie, especially in the first month or two, and a slow start does not doom a player to obscurity as long as they don’t get discouraged.
Wait – Unless the manager isn’t a fan and shove you in a crap spot in the order like Cora did to both Duran and Rafaela. It’s hard to go from the best player on your minor league team to the bum in the 9 hole especially when you out played the guy in the 2 hole your whole minor league career but he’s from the right country.
Sean – I’m pretty sure Jeter’s issue was a lack of talent, not a lack of confidence or a lot of pressure. He wasn’t the centerpiece of the trade, Verdugo was ….. and it was Verdugo who had to respond to all the Mookie related comparisons and questions.
Jeter has had plenty of chances with 5 different organizations, he’s just not cut out to be a MLB player.
I love point #2 in your post above and many people don’t understand this. Great post.
A trade revolving around Castillo, Yoshida and Devers would make more sense
The Sox will not spend anymore. Breslow said they are looking to raise the ceiling of the rotation in getting a front end pitcher. They were supposedly looking to sign 2 out of the top 3 pitchers available and they signed none of them. Sam Kennedy said they would be investing big on the team and we’re not afraid to go over the lux tax. That was complete BS. They wasted prospects on Crochet, the white Sox couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. They know this guy can’t put together a full season as an ace so they quickly sold high and suckered the Sox. It shows how dumb breslow is to trade catching when they have no depth. The season is over and it hasn’t even started yet.
The only BS is every whiner who conflates “we absolutely will and want to spend on the right guys” with “we’re definitely going to spend even if it’s for stupid overpays and if we don’t you can call us liars”.
Actual front office guys look at available options and set a price they’re willing to pay for each. If drunken spending teams take the limited number of most-appealing options (e.g. Fried) and overpay them to a ridiculous extent, oh well, let that tainted fish go. And just because the most appealing guys got badly overpaid doesn’t mean the team should be obligated to spend on whatever is less or else deal with your empty accusations of “complete BS”.
No, dude…keep trying to negotiate better deals with the flawed remaining guys and/or hold your assets for better future opportunities. Options can emerge before April and in-season, so no need to box oneself in with tepid big commitments now.
Then again, you’re the sort of person who sees trading for Crochet as a “waste” and thinks that the long-from-contention White Sox wanting to move a guy who WILL be gone in two seasons while he can bring a big return somehow equates to just wanting to “get rid of him”. That’s a clueless take, and you should be aware of that so you can maybe save yourself the trouble of throwing time away sharing other clueless takes.
I’m not saying they should spend for the sake of spending. I wouldn’t have given sotto or fried those stupid contracts. However, I think the Corbin burns deal wasn’t bad he proved he can pitch in the AL east. Your telling me they couldn’t out spend the Diamondbacks? How about last season when they could have signed Wacha and Lugo to reasonable deals? Oh no can’t out spend the royals. The fact is they needed rotation help prior to last season and all the do is waste money on injured players or guys coming off bad years so they can hand out one year deals. The Sox used to sign those deals figuring if they worked out then great, but if not we already have a good team and those players would be a luxury. Now they depend on those players, because of being cheap and poor drafting of pitching. You think they should have given up that much prospect capital for a injury prone pitcher that has never started a full season? If you do then I’m glad you’re not a GM. I personally had no interest in him and if I did make a trade for him I would have traded from our surplus of outfielders. You are clueless if you don’t see the difference between the way the Sox operate now and how they did from 2004-2018. Fact is Henry stopped focusing on the Sox and started to see them as a piggy bank to buy other franchises. I’m a big sox fan so I take no pleasure in having to criticize them. I just don’t drink the Kool aid like you.
This whole article is non factual. When writers makes stuff up it’s really crappy that we have to wade through the BS he’s shoveling.
Example – He ranks the Boston pitchers Bello, Houck and Crawford. Bello is the weakest link in that group but there is a huge gap between Houck and the tandem of Crawford and Bello. This guy is trying to change people’s perception on the skills of the three incumbent pitchers. That’s horse crap. Bad writing. Trying to create bias thinking by embedding it in his article. That’s horse crap.
Next, he completely screws the order of the bullpen. There is an elite closer in Hendriks who is coming back from TJ surgery with a very long run way so he will be at peak form on Opening Day as the ONLY closer on the team. Here again the writer is trying to change perspective on the quality of players creating bias.
Slaten is a NOTHING compared to the good bullpen pitchers yet he acts like Slaten is a stud which is the farthest thing from the truth. He’s maybe the 13th pitcher to make the roster if he does. Chapman should be #2 on the pecking order and Whitlock is a complete unknown and he treats Whitlock like Bello with great bias. Whitlock would be a nice surprise if he EVER pitches well again. He’s fragile and resembles Giolito from a recency of good performance. Guys like Chapman or Wilson are ahead of Whitlock in the pecking order. So lets set the record straight, the people the writer focuses on are NOT the guys that should have focus, they are at the bottom of the pecking order.
Next, It’s hard to believe Breslow is so incredibly stupid as Franco suggests. Devers staying at 3B pretty much assures Boston of 10 to 15 less wins. I simple refuse to believe Breslow would make that statement. Probably a representative of Devers suggested he slip that BS in his article. DEVERS is the BUTCHER OF BOSTON and hurts the team EVERY GAME.
Last point, no way if Boston is even the least bit interested in Bregman that they would play him at 2B. Bregman knows he’s far superior to Devers so that’s simply not going to happen. Complete BS once again.
Puff pieces to bias people to think like him. That’s a bad way to present information to the fan base. Facts ARE NOT frivolous things you want to sprinkle in articles. Your opinions on players are all biased and show a lack of understanding of the talents of the players on the team.
Next time stick to the facts and quit trying to insert your own opinions as if they are ideas from the Red Sox. Maybe it generates lots of comments but it shouldn’t because it’s not true.
I hate when there are slow transaction days so crap has to be made up to generate comments.
“Next time stick to facts and quit trying to your own opinions”…
Maybe take your own advice. Suggesting that Raffy COSTS the RS 10-15 wins a year is perhaps the dumbest thing anyone said in 2024.
Craig Breslow said he’s looking to trade for relievers and 2B?
I’d let Grissom or Campbell have 2nd base and see what happens. One of those two will work out and provide some pop from the right side. You could also throw Campbell in the Outfield..
Yoshida has to be let go, take whatever you can get. Also either Duran or Abreu will have to be traded eventually to make room for Anthony and Campbell.
There no friggin’ way i’d trade for Luis Castillo, well maybe Yoshida for him.
Yaz – With all due respect, “Yoshida has to be let go” is the equivalent of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
The outfield of Anthony, Rafaela, Duran, Abreu and Garcia is fine as Yoshida and Refsnyder go…that should be our OUTFIELD and versatility with Rafaela and Duran being able to spot start at 2b… or 2b/SS for Rafaela. The infield should be Casas, Campbell or Grissom as the 2n and UT, Story at SS, Devers at 3b. If Bregman comes Raffy can move to DH, Breg to 3b, Story leaves, Mayer, Campbell Grissom take the open spots. Hamilton and Gonzales traded
baseball – No offense but not a chance in hell Jhost makes the opening day roster.
“As you probably can imagine, I’m not going to speak about specific pursuits” Translation: We aren’t signing anyone high-caliber. We prefer to stick with pitchers who have had or are going to have TJS and can’t play for 18 months.
I’m indifferent if they do or don’t get Bregman. I don’t want any of the other right handed hitters that are available and I also think the offense will be fine without adding the right hitter.
I do think they should concentrate all of their remaining free agent dollars on high end relief.Scott or Hoffman then a guy like Yates and the bullpen suddenly becomes pretty scary. The starting rotation looks pretty good assuming health and really quite deep deeper than it’s been for years. So let’s get a couple more back of the bullpen arms and see what happens.
The real problem I see with adding Bregman on the contract he is going to get is twofold. The first unless you are moving Devers off third the move just blocks a player who’s best position is probably second and who will probably hit better then Bregman within a year or two. The second is how will this limit other free agent acquisitions in the future when the competitive window is wide open. He might add a win or two as second baseman this year and since it appears Devers isn’t moving off third at least not this year then really why add Bregman. I’m fine seeing Grissom and Campbell battling it out during spring training for the second baseman job.
along with everything you said in your last paragraph I think Bregman’s contract will be underwater within a year or two of him signing. Therefore I’m out on Bregman
I agree. I’d like to see a righty bat, but I wouldn’t make a bad deal just to accomplish that. IMO, an addition like Hoffman could go a long way. And I’d like to allocate some of our existing cap space to extending Crochet, and maybe 1-2 others.
I’d be fine with either Scott or Hoffman and signing Crochet to an extension. Same with extensions for Casas and at least get the ball rolling on talks with some of the minor leaguers.
I’m more iffy on Yates though. Bruin was there something you may have seen in Yates that I’m missing?
The dude just misses bats out of the pen when healthy. Yates is getting older but he was excellent last year I’m sure Father time will catch up at some point. His fastball is only in the 93 mph range but it must play up. He was outstanding last year.
I’m concerned about his ability to hold up but on a one year deal why not. I’d still rather scott or hoffman which I think is the consensus at this point.
I want Scott or Hoffman and Yates.
seems like there’s a lot of chatter about Hoffman starting.
Bruin – If forced to wager, I’d say the Red Sox are done making any significant acquisitions unless they trade some players currently on the roster. They have a boatload of bodies already for the pitching staff, and they could be replacing just one position player (O’Neill) with three top prospects.
They are hellbent on going with a Closer by Committee again.
FPG- there’s just no excuse for ownership to not add another player or two. My money would be on the bullpen. I do think Boston has potentially a good pen but it could be a great pen a game changing pen with a couple of high end additions. Imo this would be the best use of money and there is room.
Bruin – To your point, yes there’s still several relievers available and they do tend to get signed last.
You’ve seen my list, if they add two relievers …. who goes?
Definitely not Slaten, Whitlock, Hendriks, Chapman, Criswell or Weissert. I’d say Fitts should make the team too, considering how good he was last year at the MLB and AAA levels.
if Fits makes the team it’s as a starter. Probably Criswell will go.
FPG you have to look at who has options. If they add Scott and Yates let’s say they should be right up against the lux tax possibly slightly over. The Bullpen would be imo
Scott
Hendricks
Slaten
Chapman
Yates
Whitlock( if healthy) if Whitlock can’t go then I think Weissert makes it.
Wilson or Fulmer possibly both.
That’s a really good bullpen with good depth pieces in the minors. This is a big time bat missing strikeout pen. That’s would I would do with the money they should be able to spend.
Criswell has options and would start in the Worcester rotation. Weissert and Guerrero would start in AAA Worcester as well
Bruin – Yeah I understand about the options, just seems like a waste to demote someone like Weissert who had a pretty solid ERA and Criswell who had the lowest ERA of everyone in the rotation not named Houck.
I know injuries are expected, but I can’t picture Fulmer or Wilson starting the season on the Opening Day roster.
The way Cora mishandles the bullpen there has to be overkill in that pen. He needs to have a lot of high quality options and personally I don’t think Breslow signed both Wilson and Fulmer, who don’t have options and can’t be left down in AAA, to watch them walk. My belief they will get every chance to make the teams 26 man especially Wilson. I guess Fulmer isn’t on the 40 man so he could start in AAA and it appears he signed a minor league contract. The bottom line can’t have too many relievers for Cora he will go through them.
Burn, Baby, Burn!!!
Make it simple. Keep casas at first and devers at 3rd. Sure casas must bounce back but the sox were bad a couple years to rebuild the farm so now just bet on the young guys and hope it works.
Go with
1b casas
2b Crawford
Ss story
3b devers
Abreu, Anthony, Raffaella, Duran in the of.
Either it works or you hope for 2026.
Great set of comments despite the articles’ intention. Read them all and never saw one mention of Cora. As a former utility infielder, he has no feel for handling a pitching staff, starting or relieving. Studying his moves, day in and day out, he is the standard bearer for incompetence.
There is no quotable statistic, except wins and loses, that can define his lack of common sense when it comes to pitching. Bring in all the help you can and he will still “butcher” it.
Titles aside, he is the in-game pitching coach and fear is a definable emotion when he leaves the dugout.
Maybe he should let his pitching coach do the job? I agree that he has at best a poor concept of how to manage a bullpen. He talked about being “more aggressive” down the stretch, and started mixing and matching more than he had before. Shortly after the entire bullpen collapsed from overwork – too many short outings, too many times getting up without getting in the game.
Wait – Cora won’t even let the POBO/CBO do their job, and you expect him to let the pitching coach do his? Haha!
Bee – Great post, I totally agree!!
BeeCarbo = Wow do you get it!!! I’m so happy to see someone else who recognizes how incredibly incompetent Cora is. Thank you!!!!
Managers never take an at bat so they can only influence wins and losses. Some of the key things that influence losses are:
1 – Choosing to play back-ups more often than they should in the leverage game of a three game series. Cora almost plays to lose one of every three games in a series. A bad choice of sitting O’Neill when you can only expect about 120 games from him so sitting him while healthy is a terrible move.
2 – Putting a catcher at 1B is one of Cora’s famous bad moves. It weakens the defense and plays a guy who isn’t that good and should rest to be effective when he does catch.
3 – Giving multiple all-star players off when Sale pitched because he was by far the best pitcher. That led to errors and unearned runs and eventually pulling him too soon so all inherited base runners scored and raised Sale’s ERA artificially. A simple pick of the wrong reliever can add one to many runs scored that shouldn’t have if the right one is selected, the obvious right one!. Those moves often cost Cora wins!!
4 – Cora has loaded his line-ups with lefty hitters because the starter on the other team is right handed. But the right hander was an opener not a starter. That’s just pure stupidity.
5 – In baseball, the reason the best hitters bat one through four is because they come to the plate most often in a game and bad hitters with speed bat 9th. Cora violates those rules nearly daily when assembling his batting order which significantly drops the teams chances of scoring runs. There was a reason Mookie hit #1, Benny #2, JD #3, Bogaerts #4 and Devers #5 in 2018, the four highest OBPs led to an efficient run scoring order while the failing Devers in 2018 batted 5th while hitting a miserable .240. His bias towards Dominican players has existed since he arrived and like with Abreu the former Astro he’s still doing it today costing Boston many runs and in turn wins.
6 – Your in game comments about him managing pitchers are just as ineffective when he manages hitting. How many times did Cora pull JD Martinez in the 7th inning after he got a hit and replaced him with a crap hitting speedster as a base runner just to have the other team come back and in the ninth JD was nowhere to be found when an RBI was present for him had he not been pulled? The sad part is, the speedster didn’t attempt a steal, he was simply a bit faster in case someone hit an extra base hit which seldom happened. More games not won thanks to poor timing on substitutions.
Cora finds ways to lose games and seldom finds ways to win games. The laughable part is when he plays a hunch and is right 1 out of 10 times the post game interview is him talking about his genius!!! hahaha How ironic that he actually believes that!!!
Alonso is a tough fit but could rake at Fenway. I like him better than Sand or Breg – Use him as DH and to spell Casas at first. Also Casas still needs to prove it – JMHO
Yoshida isn’t a FA until like 2029 …. They have to trade out of that too many outfielders. They want a right hand hitting power bat for the outfield. That kind of makes that issue worse. I have a feeling they are working on some trades on the QT because of the who end of the spectrum. Could they be adding some star power to that list?
Yoshida has three years left on the contract. Not sure he”ll last on a roster that long, but some believe he’ll rebound this year.
Wait – Tough question is how many games will we lose with Devers at 3B so Yoshida can DH? Is it worth it?
How many extra innings will be pitched due to 50 plus misplays at 3B by Devers? How many additional runs will score? How many more pitchers will have to be used? 50 misplays in 150 games played by Devers is one every three games he’s impacting the pitching staff negatively. That’s a lot and if it’s from Yoshida being DH then DFA him and eat the money to move Devers. I don’t think Yoshida is the reason. I think someone high up protects Devers and allows him to ruin things for the whole team. Whoever is Devers’ sugar daddy needs to be identified so the fans can get in his face big time.
I believe your “50 plus misplays” is an exaggeration. While his defensive cost is certainly greater than the 1 or 2 additional errors (compared to the average starting 3B) that he makes, I would estimate it at ~10 plays. Do you have a factual source documenting that 50?
You are correct that the defensive problems the last few years have strained the pitching staff. It isn’t just extra pitches and extra outs, but putting guys in scoring position and creating high-pressure situations where the pitcher has to throw max effort to escape..
The bigger issues defensively last year were Wong giving away strike calls, Rafaela struggling a bit for the first month as he adjusted to a position that he had barely played in years, and Valdez — who is even less competent than Devers defensively.
SPEND THE MONEY ON BREGMAN ALREADY AS A 2B! When Yoshida is gone Raffy Moves to DH Bregman goes to 3b. Also fits perfectly for when Story leaves Campbell, Mayer, Grissom and Anthony arrive. GO SPEND ON BREGMAN if he’s not a fur Nobody is! Also sign Scott we need a lock down closer
Um no.
Money Spent$$$ in free agency By Boston: a measly Meek, paltry 52.3 million dollars
Money Spent$$$ in free agency By The A’s: a stout 70.95 million dollars
Boston Front Office and Ownership Lied to Redsox Nation yet again. I think we should remain “interested” in attending games at Fenway and “in on” all Redsox Merchandise and Steaming Services until they actually spend money as well. 6 years we’ve waited and without a BREGMAN & SCOTT additions, We remain “interested” & “in on” the 2025 Redsox Season
this thing again? Instead of speaking for others by writing comments on a website that no one from red sox ownership reads why not actually do something that will get their attention.
also saying the A’s spent a “stout” 70 million was funny for how ridiculously off base it was and then especially when compared to the sox spent 50 was meek.
Is Campbell or Grissom ready? Campbell has only played 19 games at AAA. What I’d like to see is the Red Sox to offer an over the top AAV but only offer 2 years with player option next year for Bregman. It’s a short-term overpay and ya get Campbell a year more seasoning. We have the payroll space and if ya blow Bregman away he won’t turn down the money. He’d get a big payday and another bite at the apple later. It’s what’s best for business now and later….
There’s no such thing as a bad one year contract so if Bregman wanted 35 million for one year I’d be fine with that. It’s not remotely possible that Bergman does
Why not? Get 35 million this year, bet on yourself and see if next year you get something more to your liking. Players make this mistake all the time in thinking guaranteed years is what is best. Teams will overpay on 1 year deals or 2 year deals just to fill a hole until a prospect is really ready. Bregman might be on the downside but he isn’t the future, Campbell is at 2nd. Campbell just needs more at-bats just so he can verify to management he’s ready. It could be he has a killer ST and this conversation is mute, but with no track record it’s worth a pursuit.
Why not is it’s a very risky especially for someone in their age 31 season like Bregman. There might not be something out there to his liking and what he mind find is even less desirable contract offers..
I’d venture a guess to say guaranteed years is what’s best the majority of the time and taking the up front money isn’t as big a mistake as you think.
BOSTON FOR THE LOVE SIGN BREGMAN FOR 5 OR 6 175 185 AND SCOTT! YOU’VE SPENT NEXT TO NOTHING THIS WINTER AFTER 6 LONG YEARS REDSOX NATION WAITED. GET REAL QUICK OR WE’RE NOT SPENDING
do you honestly think anyone from the red sox is reading this or takes your all caps rant seriously? Also stop speaking for other people.