Jake

I guess this was a big vote of no confidence on Pereira's defense. Wonder if there's a concern about EP in the clubhouse or something too.

If you were pushing the chips in, you'd be doing uncomfortable things like trying to upgrade LF, CF, and DH. I don't think that makes much sense for the Sox right now. See how far the power of friendship can take you.

Sox will go as far as their young core will take them and that's how it was always going to be. So far, my feeling is we aren't going to look back and say the main problem was the Sox not doing enough today.

Foster Griffin to Guardians. Nice pickup, but underlying metrics on him are Houser-like (i.e., suggests a useful player who isn't going to stay in the low 3s/high 2s).

I assume they aren't writing Teel off in general, but I'd be surprised and frankly a little disappointed if they were making plans based on confident predictions of Teel playing at a high level this year. I say that as a major Teel booster. It's just been a tough year, even if he was going to return on the fast timeline it would be hard to tell, and if you're a little bit wrong about the timeline you've missed the whole season.

Drew Romo since May 15th: .126 AVG, .173 OBP, .194 SLG (-0.6 WAR) ... .167 wOBA, .188 xwOBA Quero since May 15th: .238 AVG, .267 OBP, .310 SLG (-0.1 WAR) ... .254 wOBA, .300 xwOBA Bart since May 15th: .188 AVG, .316 OBP, .375 SLG (0.2 WAR) ... .313 wOBA, .334 xwOBA

This is found money. Anyone within a sniff of replacement level makes the team a lot better. They did it.

Confounding factor is the Sox have a team philosophy of having their catchers be super aggressive. So a guy who is usually accurate operating under orders to never let the game end with any challenges left will become less accurate.

AFAIK, either player can still be sent down. If I was in charge, I'd DFA Romo to make the space for Bart. But alas, I'm not even a little bit in charge

People watch Romo bat .100 with no power or walks for months and suddenly you're not happy with a guy who is a little below average at the plate

Don't worry about the platoon splits IMO. He had normal splits the past couple years. Statistically speaking, you shouldn't buy into surprising position player platoon splits unless he's kept it up for years.

I don't really feel that much urgency for the Sox to get a starting pitcher. Get one if the price is right, but to me the only thing you need an answer for is catcher. Even if the answer is Eric Haase, tbh.

What, was LaMonte Wade Jr. not good enough for the Astros?

Probably the dumbest thing to happen on MLB Network's program was the decision to read out fan-submitted mock trades out loud. Somehow even Dan O'Dowd, who was participating in the gimmick of evaluating the mock trades, fooled himself into thinking one of them actually happened. Any half-attentive viewer had no chance

Yeah I'm not writing off Basallo, he looks okay and is so young. I kinda see him as part of the "new Orioles" and not the core that was going to take them to the promised land.

For those wondering about whether Castillo's contract is an abomination that he'd never get on the open market, apparently the Reds would like to offer Brady Singer a 1-year $23Mish deal after the season.

Still the single most important catcher skill (besides hitting of course). Challenges can help you right up until the ball gets outside the zone. Then you want your framer getting those pitches called strikes, knowing that hitters rarely get them overturned (and if they know you have a good framer, they're more likely to waste challenges). That being said, Stephenson is a top shelf challenger, so it certainly helps mitigate his issues. I wonder if he'd be amenable to the Sox "let it rip" strategy.

They've had their share of disappointments/underperformance/busts from their presumed core too. Holliday looking like a big leaguer but perhaps not yet even clearly better than the likes of Chase Meidroth. Gunnar has shown MVP talent but I know they're getting nervous over there about whether he has regressed. Coby Mayo not an everyday player anymore. Cowser a marginal player. Kjerstad complete bust. Westburg looked solid but always hurt. Grayson Rodriguez never got it together. Mountcastle just a guy. Adley is hard to complain about but an injury and a little bit of a slide on offense knocked him off the Hall of Fame highway. Of course, some of that should have been expected and that's why you try to keep piling on and patching holes, which their management was always afraid to do. Traded a couple guys for Trevor Rogers, that was about as far as they went. And Rogers has been a rollercoaster ride for them. Started throwing a little money around as the ship was sinking.

"We got Detmers at home"

I certainly remember when the White Sox were the stupid franchise who couldn't rebuild right like the Orioles who were filled with sweet-swinging blonde boys en route to a World Series. Oops! Turns out everybody is stupid

Let it rip Buster!

It's a lot. I assume Witherspoon's stock is down a little bit.

Adam Engel is the comp. Just my opinion. And that could make you like him or not like him

FWIW, Stephenson is a pretty bad defender. Great at blocking, terrible framer, so-so thrower. Sox seem to care about that stuff.

Stephenson has top-notch plate discipline, no surprise that Getz would like him.