JUSTgottaBELIEVE

Oh, you were talking about Newcomb. Yes, that’s what they’re saying because they have no one else right now. But if you sign Giolito or another vet he’s easy to bump to the pen.

Sure along with Pereira, Acuna, Hill, Baldwin, Kelenic, etc. Throw a bunch of these guys at the wall and see what sticks. Hope to find two mlb players out of em, even if they’re simply non-negative WAR players it would be a small win.

MJ on a minor league deal would be nice

Sure but the nice thing about adding a vet SP like Gio is you can bump Newcomb to the pen where I think he is best suited.

Option, not QO. Big difference as signing him wouldn’t cost the Sox a draft pick.

I’d be happy with Bader 2/$20M and Giolito 2/$30M to round out the offseason. Addresses two big holes and doesn’t block anyone in the near term. Both could also be future trade pieces if they perform well.

That has nothing to do with the comparison. If we’re comparing apples to apples, the alternative is as I described and that’s a superior option imo. Go sign Giolito.

In theory, the alternative is Acuna + another $19M player

I made this analogy a year ago, aka sunk cost fallacy

Bader and Robert are a wash and I assume Bader won’t cost $20M AAV so I’d rather have him over the next two seasons.

Funny enough, Acuna’s base running and defense appear to be elite. Obviously, it’s the bat you worry about. Sounds similar to Robert the last couple years but without the injuries. Robert clearly has more upside but the floor on Acuna might actually be higher, particularly since we know Robert can’t stay healthy.

Exactly right. If they spend the money and it’s Acuna + Giolito vs Robert + whatever scrub they throw out there as their #5 SP, I’m taking the former over the latter.

Might not make them better but does it make them worse? I don’t know. Robert has produced a combined 1.9 fWAR over the last two seasons. Acuna has produced 1.1 fWAR with far less playing time. Those two alone might be a wash in 2026. “If” the cost savings motivates them to sign a decent SP, which is sorely needed, overall they could end up being better in 2026 as a result of this trade.

Honestly, it’s better than nothing

Remember when we argued last winter about Robert’s theoretical free agent value? And you said he was easily worth as much as Bellinger or more? Yea…