bighurt574

It's not Menechino's fault but I'm not opposed to shaking things up. Wish it would start at the top though....

Some hindsight there. It was still a good deal for the Sox at the time, even if they only got 1 year of extra control. There's always a risk somebody doesn't pan out but it's still not a ton of $$$ in the big picture. I'll take the risk to lock up top prospects just about every time. These are generally very club-friendly deals.

When are you suggesting they should have traded him?

I'd be shocked if that's the way it played out, but if it did, you operate by telling your players that you can't fire a guy because he's gay. And I'm not going to pretend that homophobia doesn't exist, but no clubhouse is "revolting" over that in 2022.

Isn’t putting him on first the obvious call? Yikes.

I sort of doubt that’s a big issue, especially for a 4-5 year deal when hopefully the politics of it will long be forgotten by the end of it anyway (knock on wood, I sure hope we’re not having the same pandemic debates in 4-5 years).

Start negotiating with OAK, see which prospects they want, then don't trade those guys....

Bellinger made $16M last year in arbitration, is due to make $17M this year, and has 1 year of arbitration left. That's a fair amount of money for what he's done the last 2 years, but obviously you'd be hoping for a bounce back. I don't know if that counts as a bad contract but it's about what Kimbrel is making.

If his market was way lower than expected he'd probably be back in ATL and ATL doesn't give up a prospect package for Olson.

Which is why sports contracts often prohibit higher risk activities like motorcycles (but not driving).

I imagine they can’t make players show up for a physical, which would be required for just about any trade, but I’m sure there’s some talks going on that could turn into something official once the lockout ends. It’s not tampering for two front offices to talk and they’re not locked out….

Graveman made himself a lot of money in his one year as a reliever.

MLBTR and ESPN each projected $27M/3 years, so we came in a bit under that.

I'd want to give them both at least 3-4 months to see what kind of progress they can make in '22 before even thinking about trading them.

I’d take that Harper contract of their hands…. 😉

Ah, I was wondering about that. Even better, get his good month or two then flip him! 😀

If he can pass a physical, they should have just offered him the QO, and if he accepts, trade him if you don't really want him. Basically the same thing they're doing by picking up Kimbrel's option. Heck, Rodon on a QO almost certainly has more excess value than Kimbrel's option year (again, assuming he can pass a physical). Fangraphs, MLBTR, and ESPN are all projecting Rodon to top a QO in free agency.

Meh, even if he gets you 3 WAR (vs. 5 WAR this past year), it's worth the money, which isn't a crazy bet. But yeah, the Sox must not feel too good about his arm.

I hope Abreu has a few productive years left in him but this team is too good to keep him around just for sentimentality reasons. That said, his trade value isn’t much either. He’s clearly back next year and then they can reevaluate what sort of contract to offer him after that.

I have a hard time seeing any excess value on that contract. $16M is elite closer money and it's a mighty big gamble to count on Kimbrel still being an elite closer. Another team would have to be pretty desperate to give up much of anything, especially in the offseason when you have your pick of FA relievers. Though I admittedly haven't studied who else is out there.

Yeah, if I'm the Astros, I'd pitch McCullers on normal rest in G4 too. You can't hold back for a G5. That said, I don't think it's terrible for the Sox either.

Same here. When we named him our Game 1 starter, I didn't realize how much he'd struggled against HOU. Last handful of starts (going back to his time w/ TEX too): 10/7/21 - 3.2 IP, 5 ER 6/19/21 - 4 IP, 6 ER 9/24/20 - 5.2 IP, 9 ER 9/3/20 - 6 IP, 6 ER I'm fine not seeing Lynn again in the ALDS. Save him for Game 1 in the ALCS if we advance.

Meh, I kind of like throwing it out there. HOU has plenty of fire already. Maybe it will throw them off.

No doubt. Just trying to understand the (crappy) thought process. That’s all I can come up with. Though I wouldn’t think pitching a few outs on Friday would preclude 2-3 innings on Monday anyway.

I wonder if they’re planning on starting Kopech in Game 4 (if we get there). That’s really the only way not using him today makes any sense. (And even then he probably still could have gone an inning.)