SoxBlanco

I was thinking this exact same thing, and then it sent me down a rabbit hole of wondering how much teams would pay for other teams' prospects. If we eat some of the Kimbrel cash and then get a prospect in return, we essentially would just be "buying" that prospect (because we could have just declined the Kimbrel option to begin with).

Assuming this is true (which is what I thought was going on before Cishek posted it), take a tiny return if it means we can go get Conforto. But if we are done making other moves anyway, then take the better return and eat some cash.

Solid post. I don't really disagree with anything you are saying, and the frustrations are justified. My biggest gripe with the offseason complaints on this board (not just you) is the timing of them. People seem to talk in absolutes ("we didn't sign a RF", etc.) as if the offseason is over. Why weren't those same complaints being posted in November? Well, the answer is obvious...we still had a full offseason to make the moves. So when exactly is the breaking point? For me, it's April 8. I won't complain about the lack of moves until I see our opening day roster. But what is the breaking point for others? Is it a certain date? Is it when we've spent money on smaller free agents? Is it when our supposed top targets have signed with other teams?

This is a tough call. Conforto will make more of a difference throughout the course of the season, but I feel like we will win the division no matter what. A good SP will make more of a difference in a playoff series. For example, if we had Conforto for our series against the Astros, it wouldn't have made a difference at all. Our pitchers got pounded. One extra SP probably wouldn't have made a difference either, but you never know. All it takes is one pitcher to have a shut down game, and that series would have gone to game 5. At the same time, there's a chance that Cease and Kopech have great years and are lights out in the playoffs (assuming we manage Kopech in a way that allows him to pitch in the playoffs).

Funny you say that because I was just thinking, "Man, what happened to Ray Ray? He used to be one of my favorite posters, and now I want to strangle him." Turns out I'm probably just too positive/optimistic most of the time, so I probably agree with you most of the time during the season and get annoyed with you during the offseason. I look forward to being friends again starting April 8. Cheers!

Seems like that’s the story around here every time we have a good signing. Rodon deserves the credit, McCann signing was total luck, etc. And that’s not to say there haven’t been some horrible signings, because there have been. But if people are going to criticize every offseason, they should at least acknowledge the good moves.

Don’t forget they made one of the best free agent signings by any team last offseason.

That was my exact thought. And now that the Giants signed Joc, we should see another team pop up tomorrow as interested in Conforto.

I didn't say you gave a shit about it. You seemed curious what their reason was for signing him. I honestly think that was their reason (mostly due to TLR wanting that).

Oh, I didn't hear that anywhere. But reading all the Kimbrel comments around here, I figured if guys aren't traded yet, that must mean they aren't getting traded.

I can't believe the A's decided not to trade Montas and Manaea.

What if they wanted a mix of offense/defense and didn’t want to bring back a guy who looked like he didn’t even want to be out there? And instead, they preferred a guy who would show some emotion and provide some energy?

This is my favorite post of the entire thread so far.

Exactly. “You can’t make this shit up.”

Did the Sox even make an offer to Conforto after refusing his ask of 4 years? Or did Hahn try to get creative with a short term offer?

More importantly, which teams still might have interest in Conforto?

Absolutely. I would do anything that puts him on the roster for 2022.

How many years is our Conforto asking price?

Maybe nobody wants to commit 4/5 years. He could land a 2/3 year deal with an opt out after year 1. Or maybe even a larger 1 year deal.

James, what is your gut feeling regarding our RF situation? You think we sign Conforto?

Haha, I'm one of the most optimistic people on this board. I defend Hahn to a fault sometimes. I was referring to the "lucked into" part of your post. They absolutely have a championship caliber team. But they didn't luck into it.

This is absolutely insane.

@ChiSox59 The confusion happened with the part I highlighted above. Ray Ray meant that you named Sheets and the guy who is currently our LF (Eloy) as the DH options. He didn't mean that you were claiming Sheets is the LF.

I am very curious to see what kind of deal Conforto gets. It's such a mystery to me because of his poor year last year. Schwarber played only 113 games last year and put up 3.1 WAR (and a 145 wRC+). Conforto is coming off a season where he played 125 games and only put up 0.8 WAR (and a 106 wRC+). Conforto obviously plays better defense, but that is taken into account with the WAR totals. Obviously it was a down year for Conforto compared to his previous seasons, but how will that affect his contract? It'll be really interesting to see how it shakes out.

And Rodon last year.