GreenSox

Yes, that's a concern of mine...giving Baldwin (and/or others) away to the Rays, while we keep the players that the Rays and others have been unable to squeeze value out of. I'd prefer not to have the older guys around at all, so as not to tempt. The older guys should be here for the purpose of trading in July (and not for more org guys, please). As for wins, last year the Marlins won 79, with a 72 win Pythagorean. The Sox won 60, a 15+ game improvement from 2024, with a Pythagorean of 71. 77 or even 82 wins isn't inconceivable. But players will have to show progress and this is the time to let them show it (or not). Baldwin, Sosa, Vargas, Cannon, Burke...it's "this is it" time or close to it.

That would really help. But the Sox still owe him $30 mill and it would probably take at least $20mill to move him. Madness!

Why trade him if he's good? He wasn't a "Sign-to-trade." That's what signing middle relievers is for. Plus, if he's good, the Sox will likely be .500ish and WC contenders (as long as the pitching doesn't take a step back, which, but for the Rule 5 guys, it kind of did last year).

Suwinski had an Eloy-like career trajectory. Hard to get anywhere when promising players do that.

Roch faces my Green Wave tomorrow night. Can't wait!

You just don't trade a young player with upside for a mediocre salary dump, even with proviso that 90% of the time, the young player with upside won't make it. Hahn was better about which prospects to trade later in his career; of course he had other weaknesses as well. This Getz situation to me is just another example of his naivete. He doesn't really know Acuna. He kind of knows what the Mets front office told him about Acuna. Switch hitting is a skill, and he was just talking of the top o his head about a player he doesn't really know. I think that applies to most of the out of options, aging prospects, org guys he acquires, which is the largest demographic of his acquisitions. Reminds me of Lance White: "Why would he lie, Jim?" (Rockford Files).

Those Rule 5 guys, if they show anything, are more important than Fedde, Hicks, etc. They need to keep them.

That would be interesting. Also interesting would be the comp pick that the RedSox just picked up. But until proven otherwise, I’ll expect the usual org guy.

I think they've signed enough veteran 5th starter types. Still have a lot of younger players they need to evaluate and make a decision on.

Yea, I wouldn’t dump Gilbert for Banda. Prefer Eisert to both as he is a lot younger, Ks more batters, and showed he could handle closing. Eisert’s stats are a bit behind, but he could become more than the last guy in the pen.

Given that Detroit’s number was silly-low, I wonder if Detroit intentionally bid low to let Skubal win, knowing in that in winner-take-all arb, his ask would not be absurdly high. As for JR, his failure to build infrastructure (i.e. farm and development system), given his reluctance to spend at the top of market, is one of his 2 biggest failings. Some of that may be on Williams and Hahn….holding onto those 2, is the other.

Sounds like a blast. I’ll probably call it a career soon, so I’ll have the time. Tooling around and seeing other teams, not just the Sox, appeals to me too.

Why not? He's only 23 and the Orioles got him for free. I still can't believe Sox DFAd him, as well as the guys DFAd for Hicks, with 30 year old Derek Hill and his career .624 OPS on the 40-man.

I guess Hicks was good in 2019 when he pitched 28 innings. He’s had a .9 BWAR in 2023 and 2024 (as a starter). His fWARs aren’t much better. And we’re stuck with him for 2 seasons including a cool 12.5 mill next season. Sox had plenty of iffy bullpen arms plus 2 Rule 5 guys to evaluate. So we did a prospect swap. But we got nothing for the salary dump. This was a far better deal for Boston (salary relief and 2 spots on 40-man!) than it was for the White Sox.

Hicks has never had a good season, so all the Sox got for taking on salary was a prospect swap. Boston got salary relief plus 2 open spots on 40-man. Somehow Getz sends Boston a prospect instead of an org guy (in the tradition of Hahn and Williams). And then he’s using the 40-man for Charlotte’s OF (how is Hill not DFAd?).

Last time, we got a draft pick + for just a reliever. Call up Seattle and see what they need.

Good discussion of lack of depth in the farm system, especially pitching. We missed on some pretty high pitching picks. (and punting takes its toll – that’s me, not them) Law ranks system #8; #20 per ESPN

But we have to give something. Shouldn’t be more than an org guy. Why do we want Hicks anyway? He has cumulative career WAR of .9 and he’s paid $12 million. Why would we want anything to do with him?

They’ve already decided to move Campbell off of the infield, even though they need infielders. Wasn’t super in AAA and he wasn’t good at all in his brief major league stint.

Meidroth could just as easily be underrated. He did nothing wrong his rookie year and he showed he can play SS well – that’s quite a floor. If they want to swap him for Kristian Campbell and dump Hicks, I don’t really see the point (Campbell was bad his first season), but okay. Sox being a salary dumpee and getting value (instead of being the village idiots like Shields and Edwin Jackson) would be surprising. We just signed Austin Hays. That’s the way to get an Abreu level player. I’ve seen Bello mentioned: he’s a mid/mid-back of rotation guy. That’s what Martin and Burke are supposed to be. It may not happen, but we’ll find out soon. Now Bello could develop into something more…only if they believe in something more, should that be considered.

that would be ridiculous.

And it was a young-for-old trade. Even if the vet plays up to par, it’s still bad business. But the Sox have a unique ability to find veterans who can’t play. This is a big year for the Sox to discover what they have and what they need.

Just no young-for-old trades. Now it would be insane to do it coming off of 60 wins and unwise to do it almost anytime without a top-tier farm system – but none of that ever stopped his predecessor. In that interview, Getz went on for a while about trusting other GMs – still naive. Boston didn’t ripoff Getz last time, and might be out to remedy that.

I guess. Anyway, McDaniel has a less favorable opinion of our prospects: Bonemer: 34 Schultz: 96 Carlson: 100 4 or 5 in his next 100 I believe Our drafting team certainly has gotten a pass in all of the reshuffling.

Taylor too, rotation-wise.