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Volpe to AAA, Lombard up

I hope Doyle fucking mashed and flashes leather like no tomorrow just so that everyone upset will have to make a 180 on him. Will eat crow if I’m wrong on this one but I dig it. Just wish we would have got fucking Foster Griffin at the last minute. Really think he may end up being a major difference in the Central.

If that's the case they sold super low on him.

Big name. Big contract. Questionable results. (See Preller, AJ) Better hope they don't get Elias'ed.

The Castillo deal was very KW-esque

Kenny always at least made exciting deals at the deadline, you could count on it. Some of them turned out to be disasters but oh well.

Friend of mine is a huge Giants fan and he was pissed when San Fran gave up on Bart. He said that he was starting to figure it out in flashes. Maybe Bart will surprise us. He literally can not be worse than what we’ve had so far. 😆

At least they're "only" spending $1 million on Doyle for the remainder of the season.

Derek Hill just hit a Grand Slam to help the Phillies win. They could have Hill AND Adams and likely received more production at a lower cost than Doyle. Luis Castillo was clearly an "overeagerly jumping out in front of the market" overpay...hamstrung by JR wanting to offset salary by dumping Dominguez. They basically had to waste assets on Doyle because they didn't want to eat $2 million of Austin Hays' deal...AND didn't have Hill as a defensive replacement any longer, as Pereira also couldn't be trusted. Then also somehow lost Everson Pereira in this process...

Derek Hill of course hits a Grand Slam for the Phillies on the same day to win a game for them...

I actually kind of like the move for 2027 and beyond, but I don't like it for 2026. Doesn't offer enough as a hitter to PH late in games. That said, a Peters-Doyle-Montgomery outfield in 9th innings with a lead is pretty dynamite

as Tanner Bibee, Slade Cecconi and Joey Cantillo have been admirably durable but maddeningly inconsistent this season

"A 2027 qualifying offer for Griffin would be around $22-23 million, about four times the value of his current deal. If Griffin did not accept a qualifying offer from the Nationals, the Nats would receive a Draft pick should he sign with another club." (Doubt CLE exercises that option unless the FA/QO system completely changes.) That said, he's only costing them less than the Sox owe Austin Hays for the remainder of the season.

It's time to resurrect this thread after the abomination that was the trade deadline.

the next three games gets even tougher

How about this? Cleveland has not been known in recent seasons to be particularly busy at deadline time, but they were as active as any team in the wild-card mix over the past few days. Naylor no longer had a path to playing time, so flipping him for an intriguing strikeout artist in Yoho made sense to bolster the bullpen. Adell has not had a great year but brings rare bat speed to a lineup desperate for some thump and is under team control for 2027 as well. Lowe was crushing right-handers (.885 OPS) with Cincinnati, providing a veteran lefty bat to boost the Guardians' first-base production, which has been sorely lacking. Finally, the Guardians made a surprising swap with Washington, leveraging the depth of their farm system to add an All-Star lefty in Griffin, who gives them a much more capable rotation option behind their terrific top two of Parker Messick and Gavin Williams, as Tanner Bibee, Slade Cecconi and Joey Cantillo have been admirably durable but maddeningly inconsistent this season. All in all, it wasn't the splashiest deadline for the Guardians, but they got meaningfully better, which is no small achievement in a weak and winnable AL Central.

I wanted them to improve the current roster's biggest weaknesses and they did. I didn't want them to borrow too much too quickly from the future of a team that's arriving early and they didn't. Feels like SEA should have gotten Smith OR the Sox eating all of the money rather than both, but I've read that Smith had real approach concerns despite the flashy AA numbers so I get selling high if they see him as future LF/DH on a hot streak rather than a real C prospect. SEA was unlikely to eat all or even most of the contract and take Dominguez, so whatever I guess...Basically turned Houser + money into Luis Castillo (and Joey Bart), fine. Rather them flash a willingness to spend than add another/bigger name to get the dollars down. If Castillo gives them just Fedde-quality pitching but for 6-7 innings/start instead of 4-5, that's a healthy number of BP bullets saved down the stretch plus some playoff experience when/if they get to the dance. Any Fedde/Houser/Cueto/etc. style vet resurgence is obviously a plus. Watching the rest of the SP market play out probably made me higher on the deal. The pen, which has been solid as is, should be improved with the lower workload and Brazoban/Fedde replacing Ser and Schweitzer/Murphy. Don't love the Doyle deal, but more for the cost than the player. If he's a more reliable defender with a marginally better approach than Pereira, that could be helpful (though I find Pereira's hard contact and high motor intriguing to dream on). I'm also an Adams fan, who hates for his sake that he'll have to pitch at Coors (and it feels fated that we'll see him in that September series vs. COL...) I have other quibbles on the edges; I would have kept Quero up over Romo, and would have liked to see them resolve the Hays/Grichuk redundancy proactively. But not much overall that feels like something I'll look back on in two months with any real agitation. Overall happy that Getz didn't seem to force anything and very relieved they didn't try to get too cute in dealing from the current group. Could they have swung a bigger name with a top 10 prospect or two? Maybe, but it's not the time. Could you have done some kind of MLB for MLB moves with Newcomb expiring, Meidroth playing at a position of strength, etc.? Probably, but Getz talked about valuing and respecting the mojo the group has going, and I'm glad he stuck to that. The acquisitions having control gives flexibility to redirect them as/if needed. The Bonemers, Carlsons, McDougals, and Smiths of the org are more likely to have ceiling raising impact (and a team better positioned to capitalize on it) in 2027 and beyond compared to overpaying for the "bigger" names available this week, especially the rentals. And of course there's also the other bigger picture, where the deadline discussions that most expected a few months ago would have centered on whether a contender might come calling for Davis Martin instead of where the SP you acquired would slot in next to him in a potential playoff rotation...hard for me not to grade on a bit of a curve for even being here, especially when I'm not convinced there were realistic "A+" moves (from my perspective) available. TLDR: I'm content making some mostly floor moves to help this core start to figure out their ceiling. They're early, but they've earned a shot at the postseason, and they've got one. They took the offseason as a vote of confidence and can take this deadline as another. But any magic this year was always going to be up to those core guys rather than some mythical deadline savior coming in to make them a WS favorite, so I'm glad Getz rounded up some horses rather than go unicorn hunting.

We made a swap in the bullpen which was an upgrade, still could have used one more IMO. But this was by far the best move, still think we overpaid a bit though given his age. We might have gotten better at SP if Castillo can be tweaked and comes back to form from previous years but that might not be even good enough because his road splits were not good playing for Seattle. Also overpaid and now stuck with his contract next year with the worry he won't gain form again and we will have to drop him and eat the money. We upgraded half of the catching tandem by just a little bit but demoted the better of the two catchers we had on the roster We overpaid for a backup OF that we hope after injury and a down season last year we can tap into what he had in 2024 while playing for the most hitter friendly team.

Right. We need to demolish the Green Monster. We have a very dangerous team, with more power than many others.

Lots of rumours flying around that Eyanson AND Witherspoon are both not 100%.

@HeGetzUs get a game thread up before Ronald fucks it up again. Need a good start in Boston

I don't think Adams and Wolkow get you a decent rental starter.

Griffin is a free agent next year. Just saying....

Are you sure? In that interview I thought I heard him saying it WAS a possibility.

Four factoids today; August 4, 1985 - On the same day Rod Carew got his 3,000th hit in Anaheim, Sox pitcher Tom Seaver won his 300th career game. Seaver beat the Yankees 4-1 at Yankee Stadium. The Sox scored four times in the sixth inning to put Seaver in a position to get the milestone win. He got late inning defensive help when Harold Baines climbed the right field wall to rob Willie Randolph of an extra base hit with men on base. Seaver retired Don Baylor, on a fly to left for the final out of the game. The ball was caught by Reid Nichols as the capacity crowd at Yankee Stadium (many of whom were Mets fans) gave Seaver a standing ovation. August 4, 1992 - The White Sox set the franchise record for the most runs ever scored in the third inning of a game. Nine men crossed the plate against the Twins in Chicago. Wilson Alvarez got the win as the Sox won the slugfest 19-11. DH George Bell had five RBI’s in the game for the Sox. 13 men batted in the big third inning and nine straight reached base. August 4, 1993 - After years of getting brush back pitches thrown at Sox hitters from Nolan Ryan, Robin Ventura snapped in the third inning of a game in Texas and charged the mound. Ryan got the better of the fight but Ventura and his teammates found strength from the brawl and used it during the stretch run which would lead to a divisional title and keep the Rangers in second place by eight games. August 4, 2000 - Catcher Carlton Fisk was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Even though Fisk played more games and for more years with the White Sox, he went in wearing the colors of the Red Sox. Fisk explained to the Chicago media, that his choice in no way reflected any animosity towards White Sox fans but was based in part on his treatment by the organization and ownership over the years.