JUSTgottaBELIEVE

Come on, Benintendi has not been in the same stratosphere as Alonso or even Kim. Santander, maybe. But Santander also fills a hole that the Sox haven’t been able to fill for nearly a decade and as far as I know don’t have any prospect that’s mlb ready to block there. I’m on record for a very long time as not liking the Grandal signing. Always thought he was very overrated. I took a lot of heat for that opinion too but I stand by it to this day.

Ok, so who are you signing next winter? And won’t the Sox lose a 2nd rounder and international money then? Or are we going to keep playing this game for another 4-5 years so we can rebuild the “right” way?

Huh? Hahn didn’t do that. What premier free agents did he ever sign? Andrew Benintendi? Yasmani Grandal? Come on man. Aren’t they one of like two franchises to never give out a $100M contract? You previously mentioned waiting until next year to start signing good free agents. Who do you like in next winter’s class? I included a link to the players above. Won’t the Sox be forgetting a 2nd rounder and international money?

You could probably skip the Torres signing to get payroll a smidge under $200M and that’s still a top contender in the ALC.

It’s the chicken and the egg. Relying solely on drafting and development will assure the Sox remain uncompetitive for years. This isn’t a well oiled machine like the Rays and even the Rays are losing their edge with the rule changes and the way top teams are spending now. So how long are you willing to wait for them to be better?

I get it but won’t the Sox be in the same predicament with fewer free agent options the next two winters?

Sox hit 133 homers last season, dead last in MLB. I bet adding two guys that hit a combined 78 homers to the lineup would help a bit. I doubt it would be a great offense but I bet it would be close to average, which certainly beats worst in mlb.

The implication in that exchange is that the Sox shouldn’t sign top free agent players, among other reasons, in part because they’d also lose draft picks. You all keep making excuses for Jerry operating at a $60M payroll for the next few years. I bet he’s happy.

And for everyone that says, just wait until winter 2025/26 or winter 2026/27 before you sign any free agent of value, look at this list. Tell me who you would target on the position player side because god knows the Sox would never sign an impactful starting pitcher in free agency. https://www.mlb.com/news/baseball-s-next-free-agent-classes

So the solution is never sign any premier free agents? Just continue to sign a bunch of mid players like Kuechel, Benintendi, Grandal, and Pollock instead? I wonder if teams like the Dodgers or Mets worry about constantly losing second round draft picks.

You really think Alonso is on the same level as Benintendi and Grandal from a marketing perspective? Yikes https://www.mlb.com/news/most-popular-mlb-jerseys-for-2024

The pitching would be why the ceiling would be ~70 wins in 2025. But there’s a lot of hope there as the young guys progress to where you can start to squint and see an 80+ win roster in 2026 if they do.

Exactly why they should be signing quality mlb free agents rather than running a $60M payroll in 2025 and 2026. They’ll still end up with a top 10 pick in 2026 most likely even if they sign a few guys this winter. Or maybe they get lucky like Cleveland did in 2024 and end up #1 overall anyways.

Haven’t ignored, I disagree. There’s plenty of ABs to go around. You must think all the young guys will stay healthy 162 games AND perform well enough to remain on an mlb roster.

MLBTR projects Santander at 4/$80M. And yes, I would do that deal as well as Alonso and Kim. Everyday lineup would be the best in the ALC with those additions and any type of moderate bounce back from Robert. Still payroll would be no more than $125M over the next couple years. By next year they could even let guys like Vaughn, Rojas, Slater, Tauchmann walk backfill with league min guys and use the proceeds to fill another hole all while keeping the team payroll at a well below league average number.

A waste of what? Jerry’s dollars? You’re worried about his money?

It really is sad. People contending that signing a guy projected to make $15M AAV or less is too expensive for a roster with a current payroll of $60M. wtf. Honestly, there is no reason the Sox couldn’t easily afford signing Kim, Alonso, and Santander. Not saying they’d be a contender if they did but they’d have an actual mlb lineup then and it would generate some actual excitement around the team unlike whatever this is. Payroll would still be less than $120M, well below league average.

And this here is why I want them to start signing quality free agents now. As usual, if they’re going to start the clock on all but one of their top 7 prospects in 2025, the window to start competing again just got pulled forward.

Exactly, they have nothing. So what’s the harm in adding quality major league players? With the new anti tanking rules it doesn’t help as much to lose 100+ games every year like the Orioles did for awhile.

Plug in Santander and Kim into your lineup and that starting 9 projects to around 16 fWAR. Tigers and Royals entire offense accounted for 19 and 20 fWAR in 2024, respectively. I doubt the Sox pitching will be as good as the Royals and Tigers were but it’s not hard to envision a 65-70 win team on the upswing with a couple meaningful additions to the lineup.

I’m not expecting them to go from 41 wins to 83 wins in one season. But at this point, 65-70 wins in 2025 would be real progress. Then you add more pieces while developing the kids and 83 wins is within striking distance by 2026.

How about pretend like they’re at least trying to be somewhat competitive? Sign Kim, Santander, and Hoffman. they’d still be rocking a lowly $100m payroll even if they kept Robert.

And the Cubs signed Suzuki after the 2021 season and then Bellinger and Swanson after the 2022 season. They were very much still rebuilding and more than 1 or 3 moves away from playoffs. They lost 91 games in 2021 and 88 games in 2022. But you know what? They’ve at least been competitive the last two seasons since signing those guys, playing meaningful baseball deep into the season. The bar is so low with the Sox right now that I’d be thrilled with an 83 win season and meaningful baseball in August/September.

Pot calling the kettle black, see ya

It appears Jerry has done a good job convincing Sox fans that a sub $60M payroll is acceptable for a major market team. It’s sad. It hasn’t amounted to much success yet but at least the Cubs are signing guys like Swanson and Bellinger during the early days of their rebuild to field a competitive team. Must be nice.