SoxBlanco

Jose wants to be with the Sox, and the Sox want him back. If he gets insulted or impatient, he really doesn't have any other options. His offers from other clubs will be lower than ours. He will either take the QO, or he will end up signing for something like 2 or 3 years at 12 or 13 million per.

Yeah, not smart. I’m hoping we make enough improvement this year where next offseason we can throw a blank check at Betts as the final piece to push us over the top. I really want Castellanos this year. He can play RF in 2020 (with some DH sprinkled in) and then move to DH in 2021 and 2022 if we can grab a legit right fielder. A realistic scenario is that we sign Wheeler and Castellanos this year (Grandal would be a bonus). Then we sign Betts next year, and we are looking at this for 2021: Lineup: 1. Robert CF 2. Moncada 3B 3. Betts RF 4. Eloy LF 5. Castellanos DH 6. Vaughn 1B 7. McCann/Collins C 8. Anderson SS 9. Madrigal 2B Rotation: 1. Giolito 2. Wheeler 3. Kopech 4. Cease 5. Rodon/López/Dunning

I assume Collins would be part of the trade for Joc?

Agreed. I didn't ask the original question. I was just pointing out that the reply "because their payroll is 20 million dollars" was not an answer to the question asked by YouCanPutItOnTheBoardYES.

That answers the question, "Why would the Marlins want to sign Abreu?"...but it doesn't seem to answer the question, "Why would Abreu want to go to the Marlins?"

An infield of Moncada/TA/Madrigal combined with an outfield of Jimenez/Robert/Betts would be pretty cool fucking awesome.

Pretty interesting quote, in my opinion. I don’t think we have much ammo if we don’t want to move Robert, Madrigal, or Vaughn. We’ll either have to package guys like Walker, Stiever, and Dunning together, or we’ll be taking on some bigger contracts and won’t have to give up much. Or perhaps someone like Collins gets moved.

The Astros are the MLB version of the Patriots.

Agreed. I think the most realistic scenario where I would still be pleased would be something like Wheeler, Grandal, Calhoun, 5th starter, bullpen piece.

Which of these offseasons would you guys rather have: Option 1: Cole, Hamels, Encarnacion, Calhoun, Will Smith Option 2: Wheeler, Hamels, Grandal, Castellanos, Will Smith

No worries. Cheers!

Then how come that word shows up in the quoted section of your post?

Perhaps you’re not familiar with the word “seemingly”?

Merkin has gone out of his way several times to say that we shouldn’t expect guys like Cole or Rendon. And that NBCS article above includes quotes from last winter...it’s nothing new. Nobody is talking big in terms of the big three free agents. They are talking big in terms of spending money to fill several holes.

Who is talking big? What quotes are you referring to?

The quotes are from last winter. What exactly are you upset about?

If we are willing to spend that much money on one player, spend it on Cole.

Agreed. This is how I envision it at some point... 1. Robert CF 2. Moncada 3B 3. Eloy LF 4. Grandal C 5. Castellanos RF 6. Abreu 1B 7. Collins DH 8. Anderson SS 9. Madrigal 2B

It feels to me like Stone, Merkin, and now Levine have been told to go out of their way to temper expectations with the fans. I’ve counted numerous times where they have either stated it’s unlikely we will sign one of the big boys (Cole) or they have listed some lower tier options.

That career wRC+ factors in 2014 and 2015 when he had a wRC+ in the 90's. I think it's more important to look at his last few years. He's only 27 years old right now (28 when next season starts).

You should hop on board the Castellanos train. The guy can hit and is steadily improving. He even improved his defense from 2018 to 2019, which is important to me when a guy has not been an outfielder for his whole career. He's never going to have great defense, but he can play RF for a year and then move to DH. I know you don't think he hits well enough to be a DH, but I see him as a guy who puts up a wRC+ in the 120's/130's, which is good enough for me.

It’s not a terrible plan, and the lineup looks great, but I just can’t get behind it. If we are willing to spend that much money on Rendon (and lose Madrigal in the process), why not just spend all that money on Cole?

I guess I just don’t see him as an underwhelming DH. But I definitely understand the hesitation.

I completely agree. The only thing I wouldn’t mind is Castellanos. This is what I posted in another thread about him... I like the idea of Castellanos because we can sign him for 3 or 4 years, but he could still fit the one year stopgap idea for RF. Let him play RF next year, and then he can move to DH in 2021. This is assuming Vaughn is ready and Jose just signs a 1 year deal. Then we could still shop for a RF next offseason with guys like Betts (long shot) or Pederson. Or we can hope one of our five OF prospects will be ready in 2021 or 2022. I’m liking the idea of Castellanos more and more now that JDM isn’t in the mix for DH over the next few years.

If I could either take that right now or let the offseason play out and hope for the best, I think I’m taking that. But I’m still hopeful for a bit better than that.