If I may ask, why do you believe Soto is still very unlikely? You don’t think with Epstein back and our Dominican history and promise of a ballpark which he will rake in the Sox have a better shot?
Agreed. I just think when it comes to the pitchers, they are going to walk away when it gets over 5 or 6 years and then desperately trade away too much for a SP. especially the way these contracts have trended for likes of Snell, Kikuchi and Severino.
My fear is we could very much have another 22’-23’ offseason where there was a lot of talk of spending then. Then the Padres made Xander a ridiculous offer, then they punted. I hope that’s not the case here with Soto.
Someone else made the point the other way, Padres missed out on their big target, then overpaid Bogey and the deal looks horrible. Hopefully the Sox don’t do similar.
If they do, at least overpaying for a starter is better than overpaying for Bregman (though Sean Adams article makes it sound like that’s been downplayed?)
A fear would be they don’t pay for pitching, dump prospects for someone, and then inject the lineup with free agents bats on the downside. If they miss on Soto, I hope they spend cash on pitching, and if that’s it’s, fine.
Agree with you there, I guess I’m a little more optimistic they’d pursue Fried and Burnes if they whiff on Soto. Considering they have so many young controllable bats I’d hope they wouldn’t waste money on FA bats not named Juan Soto.
I feel like if Red Sox don’t get one of Soto or fried, it’s gonna be a really bad look after all the talk. Curious why you still think it’s very unlikely? Obviously odds are against it but feels like we have no idea what Soto is thinking. we haven’t see Boston go after a player like this in years
If Boras cares one ounce about his clients, he's telling Juan to join Boston. All we miss is an ace and our farm comming up. That AL East won't be decided without the Red Sox next year (depending off-season) or in the very near future.
My concern is really growing that they're genuinely going all in on Soto, at the cost of not being as serious on Fried/Burnes to this point, and when they lose out on Soto they'll be behind on those two, and make a panic trade to make up ground.
Nah, stay positive, Theo’s influence is coming through(go back to guys you had success with like Chapman) then do some of everything. Trade for an Arrietta type that you can transform, sign a Lester like stud, and move away from arms that dont give what you want in exchange for those that do.
You and me both. Said the other da how Im so unstable about baseball right now. Can’t ever remember feeling this way. I’m starting to fear the Sox try super hard but inevitably will do nothing. The Fried “having a good meeting with the Yankees” story sent me SPIRALING
If ownership doesn’t dole out the cash to put out a team with a reasonable chance to win the devision I’m going to try to make a point not to follow them (and I love watching Sox games) I can’t be the only one thinking like this.
Cause we are morons and didn’t extend him early and didn’t want to get taken to FA and pay full retail price. Especially since we were entering a self imposed rebuild.
Basically Henry did not want to do a mega deal and Dombro had no care for the long term future of the team, only short term winning.
To the best of my knowledge, they were never remotely in pre-arb and early arb negotiations, like $100M apart. Then they were certain he wanted to hit the open market. That led to the owner thinking they should trade him in 2019, a year and a half before free agency,
Mookie said in an interview that his plan was to finish his contract and then test free agency, and that he was surprised when he was sold; it seems to be that Henry et al took a very European football approach and decided if he wouldn’t renew might as well get some return
those negotiations were reportedly for Will Smith. The Red Sox got hot just before the deadline, Dombrowski didn't want to deal him, so he stayed. Sox went cold, Dombrowski fired. Bloom hired, the group met with Betts again around December, were sure he wanted to be a free agent.
In January, the team announced both sides were just looking forward to the 2020 season. Soon after, he was traded. After the trade, Betts said he was still looking forward to being a FA. Then the pandemic hit.... and all of a sudden he was re-signing with LA for present-day value $306M.
I'd at least be intrigued by: trade for Crochet and Robert (not giving up Casas or Roman); sign Fried. And then follow up trade resulting from the OF surplus.
Getting Soto would make me a lot less nervous because then I can accept somewhat more trading someone like Duran, Abreu, Mayer or Casas for a SP. But if they don’t get Soto I’m not convinced they will go to 7 or 8 yrs for Burnes/Fried/etc, and then have to trade an Anthony/Campbell/Casas/etc for SP.
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If they just signed Burnes or Fried and like, brought in O’Neill, that would be fine IMO.
Do you think they are more likely to just roll with the prospects and kick the can down the road, or do some big stuff just to do big stuff ?
Basically Henry did not want to do a mega deal and Dombro had no care for the long term future of the team, only short term winning.