Not sure if we should reroute all the Montgomery discussion to the SP thread rather than here. I put up a post summarizing the discussion to this point over there, hope that helps. No biggie either way I suppose.
If they could go all Simpsons and have a Montgomery-Burnes front of the rotation, that could be excellent.
FWIW, I've been advocating acquiring 3 starting pitchers, two in the top half of the rotation for a long time. Montgomery would be piece 1 (because I think there is no plausible scenario that YY ends up here).
It could well be, but they were not hearing any talk of moving him from SS even before he came back last year.
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
I love Ohtani to Tor and Soto the the MFY. Why? It compels the Sox to step the eff up to compete. Spend the the cash Brez !
Spending a lot of money is only good if you spend it on the right guys. If the musical chairs stop and you haven't spent on the right guys, you do dumb stuff.
My larger, less trite point, is that when you have good competition, it compels you to improve as well. I want the AL East to be the best, like it used to be. This way the Sox have to put a far, far better product on the field. Sox fans are loyal, but they will easily walk away if the product isn’t competitive.
I understand your point, but Ohtani in Toronto makes things a lot more difficult for the Sox, given the core they already have in place, and the current state of the other teams in the AL East. A little competition is good, but I'm not sure it's a good thing if the five best teams in the league are all in our division.
OK but you seem to think they need other teams to help them understand that? They have a plan, I'm pretty sure. They aren't announcing it to the world. But it doesn't depend on Soto going to the Yankees, like suddenly now they'll pay more.
Oh yes I do. 4 years of nibbling at the edges (except for the Devers and Story signings) combined with the MFY and (maybe) Tor adding big has to ignite something in ownership, otherwise what are they, like the 9th best team in the AL? I get that just because you win the offseason doesn’t mean that you win it all, but I don’t think that the Nation will have interest in watching a team that nibbles. Could just be me and my want for FSG to bring some actual fun back in watching their product. It’s entertainment, right?
A little hot stove entertainment is fine as long as it's smart for both the short and long term. Splashes for the sake of entertainment, pass. Anyway, all indications are that they are hammering away at the pitching market, so we'll see.
Next winter could include Roki Sasaki, who is like Yamamoto++.
He can come over next year if his team agrees, but he can't get paid much if he does. If he wants a Yamamoto-size deal, he needs to wait until after the 2026 season, otherwise he can only get a tiny fraction of that.
I think by "product" Eyebob meant the team on the field. They were suggesting make the TEAM entertaining, not the off season entertaining. Like, go ahead and acquire some of the best talent in the sport, like the organization has largely had for the last 25 years but not so much now. I suppose Devers with Casas trending (to possibly surpass Devers). Who else? And when was the last time the team - as has been mentioned - acquired an all-star caliber player who was both healthy and in their prime? It's been since Sale, pretty much. That was 6 years ago. 6 years without trading for or signing a healthy all star caliber player in their prime. That is a long damn time for a rich organization like the Red Sox, with a storied tradition and passionate fan base. When you think of it that way - 6 years - sure seems like something's rotten in the state of Denmark.
I never ever think of it that way. That’s some super entitled script you’ve got running. Nobody owes the Sox a trade for their all star player because of our storied tradition or whatever. There are 30 teams and like 25 of them aren’t fucking around anymore. Go to some other parks and see if they have traditions or loud fans.
What a weird reaction and way to interpret that post.
Respectfully, @chrisfont9 that was not my point. No one owes the Sox a thing. What I want is to be entertained. It helps a lot that the team is good and wins much more than it loses. It also helps to have likeable characters (for me) and intriguing talent. I personally love the narrative that usually comes along with a home grown player (Casas, Devers, Bello, etc). I have grown to dislike only nibbling to improve. Buy the damn filet mignon and not the just the stringy, slightly grey sirloin. It’s way better.
I get where you're coming from and believe it or not I feel the same frustrations to a certain extent. At the same time I try to understand that each season is not the same and while you want to build toward something better you also need to do that in a way that can sustain the organization over a period of time. There are different ways of getting there, but much of that depends on different facets of the game. The farm system, the construction of the 40 man roster, payroll flexibility AND how each of these facets affects the other at any given time. IMO, it's misguided to react to every move being made by your competitors until you have the majority of that aligned in a way that best allows you to follow the course that you see to be optimal for the present AND the for future. I hate the results of the past few seasons as much as most folks, but I also look at the things that seem to have the team moving in the right direction. The farm is in better shape than it was a couple of years ago. There are some exciting, young players on the MLB roster with some others that look as though they will contribute this season. Breslow seems committed to building a completely new culture top to bottom when it comes to pitching. I feel the we are going to see young, cost controlled talent extended sooner rather than later. And while it pains us to see the competition in the East getting tougher and tougher, ask yourself these questions. If Ohtani goes to Toronto, what do they look like under the weight of that contract in a couple of years when Boston might be better able to compete? Yankees got Soto. Good for them, GFIN mode. Are we there yet? Would it have made any sense to put together a trade deal that might have hamstrung us in the future when we're not in a position to GFIN? We also need to keep in mind the that The Sox are one of 30 and don't have absolute control over their obit. There's fine line to walk at times when it comes to being proactive vs reactive and in knowing which serves best you at any given time.
I don’t think a package of all five Red Sox players and prospects mentioned (Houck, Yorke, Rafaela, Walter, Valdez) comes close to getting that deal done.
Ha - thanks. A case of looking so closely I forgot that that context was missing!
If we indeed sign 2 starting pitchers, at that price for 1 year, I would rather use a lesser number of those prospects to get a quality 2b.
People keep complaining because the lack of big signing (even though it’s a frozen market)
Agreed. He’s
Without having any experience being in charge of baseball ops, let alone GM experience, I’m already impressed.
For one year of Corbin Burnes? Moving all five of those guys would be a massive overpay. Massive. Like unfathomably stupid overpay. If that doesn't come close for the Brewers, they're delusional.
Because he has success attacking the zone? Movement? Stuff? Which of his traits are most predictive for the new Breslow crew? Thanks! Edit – or maybe is it just the four years?
Houck has proven the ability to miss bats at the major league level and the underlying metrics of his fastball and slider back that up.
I can’t see Breslow parting with Houck. He seems like a prime candidate for his pitching lab and he’s one of our best cost controlled pitchers.
The Sox aren’t on even financial standing with Milwaukee though. They have budget constraints that we do not have. I absolutely would be willing to deal with the Boras headache on Burnes. He’s tremendous and you have to pay up sometime. The Yankees will be doing it next offseason with Soto. The Red Sox need to leverage their competitive advantage here.
I guess my question is how much of an advantage does having a Boras client for one year give a team in the subsequent year negotiation. Doesn't history say it's not much? I have absolutely no issue dealing with Boras on any FA the team wants. And if they want a one year test drive to see how he fits in Boston, then I'm fine trading value for one year of him. But I don't think that trading for one year of a Boras client gets them big advantage versus just dealing with him in a year.
